It isn’t so much that they lost to the Phillies, but it’s that the way they lost is how I fear they’ll lose a small boatload of games this season.
Mike Pelfrey somehow danced his way through six innings, giving up eight hits and walking two and only striking out two batters. And yet, he only gave up one run. Whenever the Mets give away a game where Pelfrey doesn’t gnaw off his own fingers, it’s just criminal. And it was the two general weaknesses the Mets had going into the season: defense and relief pitching. The relievers, between Ramon Ramirez, Manny Acosta, and Miguel Batista didn’t get it done in the seventh and eighth. And I’m all about pitchers sucking it up when their defense fails them, and they didn’t get it done.
But Lucas Duda misjudging a Jimmy Rollins fly ball single which should have been the second out led to the go ahead runs by Philly in the seventh. Ironically, Duda was only in the lineup because Jason Bay, wanting to be like the cool kids, jammed his finger on first base. So indirectly, the Mets lost because of Bay, and he wasn’t even in the lineup. David Wright breaks his finger and then comes back to lead the Mets to a win. Bay does the same thing and causes all sorts of chaos. Must be that little rain cloud that follows him around. Wonder what else I can unfairly blame on him. Like there’s not enough to fairly blame on him.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that will be the last time Lucas Duda’s defense costs the Mets a game. The Mets can only hope that his offense can win more games than his defense loses, and his offense hasn’t been too great lately either.
Then in the eighth, a Ruben Tejada throwing error led to five more Philly runs in the eighth, and between the two misplays and the relief corps not being able to make up for them, that spelled doom. The Mets not only lost to the Phillies with a chance to sweep, they lost to Cole Hamels. There’s always a little extra sadness losing to Mr. Choke Artist. And yet the sadness is worse losing to a team whose best offensive performances came from the last Met to run over a catcher, and Juan Pierre. When Juan Pierre gets three hits off your team, it’s not their day. And it’s not yours either.
I don’t know what the solution for the Mets is, but your solution for the Juan Pierre blues could be to win a chance to sit in the V.I.P section for the new movie Knuckleball, and win a movie poster autographed by R.A. Dickey, among others. Winnin’ is easy. Just click here for details. And cheer up … so I don’t have to.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
