Feeling Full-Philled

Mets win their 3rd straight over the 'Phils today, 8-3. Carlos Beltran not only made one of the better catches I've ever seen, he also Bel(tran)ted 2 more home runs. This win feels really good after having to watch the Phils celebrate and cut up and just generally have an all around good time after they swept the Mets at Shea. So to quote The Cardinal Fan, "nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in doodoo...." Ah, immaturity feels good sometimes. Jorge Sosa was shaky at times giving up a mammoth shot to Ryan Howard, but hey, who hasn't given up a mammoth shot to him? Sosa seemed to getting under control when again (anyone remember Endy Chavez vs. these guys?) someone from the Phillie dugout shot him in the leg running out a double play in the 5th, ending his day and possibly earning him some time on the 15 day Eckstein. Speaking of great chatches, Aaron Rowand damn near made what could have been the best catch anyone has ever seen EVER. I guess the baseball gods were in the Mets corner this time (remember Rowand breaking his face on the fence while robbing X. Nady of a triple, if not a homerun?) as the ball popped into, then out of his glove and over the fence. Phils fall to 6 back, the Scareds (opposite of "brave". Get it? Nevermind.) win in Fla to keep pace at 4 games back.

Possibly disturbing news. With Sosa possibly headed for the DL, word has it that Jumping Bean Perez will miss his scheduled start with a strained lower back. ****Note to The Cardinal Fan: Not a word about how he hurt himself jumping over the damn line between innings, you hear??

When You Absolutely, Positively Have To Sweep Every Phillie In The Room, Accept No Substitutes

John Maine and El Duque did their best double-barreled shot-gun impression, blowing holes in the 'Phils plans of winning either game in the twin-bill. Delgado carried the boys in the first game doubling and powering a 2-run Molina in a 6-5 win. Mota continues to detox from the 'roids on the mound, making the game closer than it should have been. El Duque was strong, going 6 innings, allowing 3 hits, walking 2 and striking out 7 (he did give up 2 solo Molina's) thus saying GOODBYE (for now) to his EL DOOKIE moniker.

Game 2 was again Carlos' party, only this time, it was Beltran smacking 2 (and almost 3) homers. John Maine was absolutely brilliant all game, going 8 strong innings, only 4 hits given up, walking 0 and had 6 k's to out duel the Phillies "ace". Speaking of Colon Hamels, he sure made a stink about Loducca "styling" after a Molina he hit off of him the last time he faced them, all but coming out and saying he was going to throw at him. Paul might have gotten plunked had Hamels been able to find the strike zone. The "ace" walked 5 in 5 innings while throwing an astonishing 110 pitches. Oh well, maybe next time. Mets increase their lead to 5 games over the Cheese Steaks and 4 games over the Tomahawk Choppers. 2 rookies go in the next 2 games for Philly, while the Mets counter with Jorge Sosa and Oliver "Mexican Jumping Bean" Perez. On a side note, the Tards avoid another Izzy meltdown in the 9th to finally win a ball game.

Shorter Really Is Sweeter

Rain shortens the continued dominance the Mets have over the Tards this evening, winning in 6 innings, 2-0. These short games make it impossible for Willie to bring in Schoenewuss, Heilman, or Mota, keeping my Tums consumption to a manageable level. Glavine was sharp for the 2nd straight game, retiring the last 13 batters he faced and allowing only one hit. (Even in a rain shortened game, we can't get a no-hitter....). The 'Cards Reyes falls to an Anthony Young-like 0-10 for the year as Glavine wins number 297 in his career. Mets try and finish off the series and add to their one year too late revenge with Wainwrong on the mound.

Nice game Schoeneweis. Pick any previous post where I've mentioned him coming into a game, and insert it here. Valentin didn't help matters with his Tiger like defense, but he shouldn't have been put in a situation to have to make a play at all if Schoenewuss would have done his job. There has to be a point where Willie decides that this guy can't be trusted in any circumstance outside of an 11 run ballgame in either direction. Minaya needs to eat his mistake (and the 3 year contract he gave him) and just release this guy for his own safety. We are one more bad outing away from a crazed Shea fan running out of the stands and impaling him with debris from the new construction site. Schoeneweis blows the Mets 4 game winning streak, and any good vibes they were building from what has been a horrible month of June. Mets go out tomorrow and try to shake off tonights horrible loss.

Walk (Off) This Way

Shawn "I Likes The" Green (Sorry, Jew joke for my BFF The Cardinal Fan) rips a walk off homer in the 11th inning off of Jerry Springer, allowing him to pass "GO" and collect his $200 in Jew Gold. (Again, to ANY Jewish person reading this, I apologize, but my BFF REALLY likes the Jew jokes. I think your salt of the earth people. Really. I do.) Mets now have a 4 game winning streak overall and a 4 game winning streak over the Tards.....er, Cards. Red-bird reject Jorge Sosa pitched solid again tonight once again showing the overall dominance in genius that Peterson has over Duncan Donuts. The bullpen even pitched well tonight throwing 5 shut out innings not allowing Poop-Holes to inflict any damage. Mets offense was stagnant all night against yet ANOTHER soft-tossing lefty, (The place where they found "Pug" Maroth can be found here) managing only 3 basehits. Good to see this team scrap out a win after losing these types of games for a month. Game number 2 of the series tomorrow night.

The Brooms Are Back

Only this time, the Mets were on the good side of them. Don't look now folks, but the Mets have an actual winning streak now. 3 solid games from the pitchers; including Glavine, El Duque, and Maine equals 3 wins against a decent/good team. The sky is bluer, the Dr. Pepper's colder, the grass greener, the kids all behave better after a sweep. Needed some help from the Card's today to extend our lead over Philly, but it doesn't look good at this point. (5-1 Phils in the 9th). Speaking of the luckiest team of the last century, the Mets start a 4 game set with them tomorrow night.

The Braves have made news for all the wrong reasons this week. Bobby Cox tied the career whine record, getting ejected for the 131st career time. A lot is made of Cox winning a shit load of games, and that run of 1st place finishes. Some people go so far as to call him the greatest manager of our time. To those people, I say, WHAT?!?!?!?!? It's one thing to win when you have a Smoltz, Glavine, Avery, Maddux, Schmidt, Smith, Neagle, et al, in their PRIME!! Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones, Ryan Klesko, David Justice, Ron Gant, again, IN THEIR PRIME!! How can you NOT win? The test of a truly great manager to me, is what you get out of your team when the chips (or Chipper, more on that in a minute) are down. Not when you have the Yankees of the NL at your disposal. Starting last year into this year; age, injuries, trades, free agency, etc. have all taken their toll on the once mighty Braves. Things are starting to unravel. Chipper Jones and John Smoltz have been at each other IN PUBLIC THROUGH THE MEDIA!!! Is this the sign of a GREAT manager? No, it's not. Not to mention that through 14 straight playoff appearances, he managed to win only ONE!! World Series. Give him some of those 90-100 loss Mets teams from those 14 years, and see how he would have done. Same can be said for Joe Torre. All you need to be a great manager now a days is a rich owner and an agressive GM. The wheels are falling off in Braveville and it's a great day for The Lone Met Fan.

The Good New Is....(Part 2)

I'm not getting excited (yet). See yesterdays post.......

The Good New Is....

Hey, at least we didn't lose today!!

Son Of A $*#)$

The $%@!^&%$#@+@! Mets %$#$&#$ lose again. I'm sick and tired of this $@&&$^$! Wake the $&#^#^$ up and start $^#%&$@ hitting the @##%#$^@% ball. $&#^$**#&!!


On the other hand.......^#%#&$& $&$#*@@^ !!%@#^#&! and then to go out and #$^@&#!! just really tops it all off. Don't ya think?

I Give Up

Not even thru a full 5 innings and it's 9-0 Twins. Again, some momentum built winning last night's game shot down the drain. I realize going against Santana is a tall order, but once again one of our starters fails to step up and at least keep the Mets in the game. Re-read the other nights Yankees/Mets post only insert Aaron Sele in for Schoenwies. Thanks to Sosa I can flush tonights game along with his effort, down the toilet.

Still Too Many Ducks On The Pond

Mets win a big game tonight, taking the 1st of three from the Twins 8-1. Instead of rejoicing with a friend in the win, The Lone Met Fan is venting his frustrations. Frustrations on the fact that on 15 hits, the Mets only scored 8 runs, leaving 11(!) men on base. The clutch seems to be sticking in Beltran, although he did get an RBI double (then looked like a tool standing there watching Wrights drive go off the wall and not running) late in the game to help break it open. John Maine pitched well, going 7.1 innings allowing only 4 hits and the 1 run (Thanks Feliciano). Delgado looked good at the plate tonight as did most of the Met batters. The hitting with men on base has got to get better. It's exposed this team badly over the last 15 days. I'm surprised pitchers aren't walking the 1st two batters of every inning to get the puking down the leg started. It's a win, and I'll take it. There hasn't been enough of these in June so I will enjoy this one for at least 24 hours before Santana takes the mound tomorrow night.

Duex-Que

El Dookie once again Mr. Hanky'd himself on the mound, giving up 6 runs in 6 innings. He and Glavine must be sharing kool-aid because they both have a horrible case of pitching diarrhea. At 9:03 pm Oklahoma time, the score is 6-0 Skanks, and The Lone Met Fan has run out of hope. Why, you ask? Because Willie told me too, that's why. Any time he trots out Schoenweis, that's Willie's way of saying, "Game over, boys". "Appreciate the lack of effort, so fudge you, we're bringing in the mops." Bill Parcell's always said that you are what your record says you are. 99% of the time he is right, but the records show the Mets as a 1st place ball club, which just is not true right now. I haven't seen a collective pounding like this since Marcellus Wallace fell into a pawn shop chasing Butch. As the Mets continue to let Chen Ming Wang Chung Shi-Shek Bai Ling look like Dizzy Dean, The Lone Met Fan signs off for tonight, along with hope of a victory, because Willie told me so.

Glavine Would Look Great In a Zephyrs Uniform

Tom Glavine once again killed all momentum (however small) the Mets had built during their 1 game winning streak. Instead of putting the Hiroshima-like beating he took against the Tigers behind him, he came out and laid another egg. As per his M.O., the offense gave him a lead and Tom gave it right back serving up a gopher ball to Adulta-Rod to end his day. For those of you scoring at home, here was his line for today: 4 innings, 8 hits, 7 runs, 7 earned, 3 walks, 0 k's, and 2 bombs. Not a bad day if your name is Kip Wells or Adam Wainwright. When your name is Tom Glavine, and your closing in on 300 career wins, this kind of shit doesn't fly. The way he is pitching now, Glavine's 300th win is projected to be sometime in 2021, just before his 71st birthday.

Knockout

Mets take another one on the chin, listlessly going down 9-1 to the Dodgers to complete another broom job. Mets, 1-9 in their last 10 games are showing no signs of life. I'm not ready to pronounce them clinically dead yet, but the paddles are charging at their highest setting. Chances are good the Dr.'s may call time of death if the Mets don't respond to one more shock.

I have questioned before; and over, the course of this season, various aspects of this ball club. Their starting pitching, in one way too old, in another, too inexperienced. Same questions about their bullpen. The outfield with an aging Shawn Green and a Moist Alou roaming the spacious caverns of Shea. Would LoDucca hold up another season behind the plate at his age? There is one thing I NEVER questioned with this team, and that is their manhood. Until now that is. Forget the sweep to the Dodgers. Losing streaks happen to the best of teams. Slumps claim the best hitter's confidence. A mistimed grandslam will make the best of pitchers shakey. What I don't and CAN'T understand is how a pitcher who hadn't hit a home run presumably since Pee-Wee ball, can turn on a pitch, nail it, and THROW HIS BAT like he's Barry Bonds as he stands there admiring the shot. John Maine saw it. You KNOW LoDucca saw it. The whole damn ballpark saw it replayed over and over. LoDucca is one of the fiestiest players in baseball. I sat there with a smug grin on my face knowing that Maine was gonna ear hole Kuo in his next at bat. Finally!! Some signs of life! Uh....not so much. Not even a hanging curve ball near his head next at bat. Unbelievable. And pathetic. Where's the fire? Where's the urgency? Where's the sac? Someone needs to have a wall-eyed hissy fit and break and throw shit in the clubhouse. Take a page out of Barret's book and have LoDucca start a fight with Heilman in the dugout. Something to show some spark. It's a little too Art Howe'ish in the dugout for my blood.

Mets get a day off then start up with the suddenly (no surprise)RED HOT Yankees. I can see the sweep coming now. Joe Morgan proclaiming the Yankees all the way back where they belong as THE team in New York.

Stay tuned for more. For now, I'm going to go chase 11 Xanex with a bottle of Captain Morgan's.

El Dookie

Another day, another loss for the once mighty Mets. El Duque continued the Mets pitching slump, pitching like El Dookie for 5.2 innings. Nice effort by the bullpen, but this losing streak we're on has taken all the posititves out of me. The Baseball Gods re-instated the Mets offensive ban after roughing up Randy Wolfe for 3 early runs, getting exactly squat after the 6th innning.

All things considered........

Never mind. I can't do it. I'm not in a real positive frame of mind right now to say anything good about this team. Right now, I'm scared of a 4 game set with the Royals, let alone how we are gonna deal with the Dodgers.

Rock Bottom

OK. So a 3 game sweep at the hands of one of your division rivals ISN'T hitting rock bottom. My mistake. And to prove that theory, Tom Glavine went out and sharted himself on the mound today, turning in one of his worst performances EVER. (Women and children may want to leave the room before reading the next line.) 4.1 innings, 11 hits, 9 runs, 9 earned, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, and 1 homerun that hasn't come down yet. So, hopefully, having your ace pounded like a young catholic boy after Sunday Mass, is hitting rock bottom. I suppose Glavine can't complain anymore about the Mets not scoring any runs for him, once again putting 7 across. I mentioned this about Heilman the other day, about him being a professional, buckling down, knowing they are in a MUST win situation. Did not think that would be a problem for Tommy. Who is more "professional" than Glavine? Maybe no one. So to go out there and lay a humpty sized egg on the mound today, ESPECIALLY after Wright drilled a 3 run homer in the first, is pathetic.

Joe Smith went from having the hiccups, to having the full blown shits. His line was not much better than Glavines today, Willie just showed him some mercy and pulled him after an inning of work. We can't afford to have one of our better relievers get the yips right now.

Mets get back to work with 3 against a very good Dodgers team. Maybe a trip to the west coast with blond babes and big breastessessess will help the team out.

Good News, Bad News

Good news and bad news today, which do you want first? The good new? OK then. The good news is the Mets scored more than 3 runs today, putting 7 across the plate. More good news is that David Wright hit another homer extending his hitting streak to 12 games.

Bad news is, even though the Mets plated 7, the Tigers pushed across 8. Oliver Perez was not so good today getting the Mets in an early 3-0 hole. The boys mounted a strong comeback, but came up just short. I will gladly swallow this loss if it means the offense has woken up and will start scoring some runs. If we don't figure this thing out soon, I'm gonna have to see Lucy to help my mental health. On the bright side of things, at least we are not as bad as the Cardinals are right now.

Potentially bothersome news:

The Mets bullpen (supposedly their strength) is starting to concern me. Heilman's struggles this year have been well documented (mostly by me). Schoenweis is walking at least one batter everytime he comes in. I hate to be insensitive, but severed leg tendon or not, he has to get some command of his pitches. Joe Smith has been a bright spot early, but he's had the hiccups the last few outings. We thought we were getting some help in getting Mota back, but he's been horrible as well. Willie can't keep trotting out Feliciano, Smith, and then Wagner every night unless he's a master seamstress and can sew the arms back on each of them when they've fallen off. Minaya is a shrewd dude and will handle the situations as they arise, but I'll be a nervous wreck until then.

Got to get the win tomorrow to salvage the series. Glavine has gotten no run support in his last 4 starts. He needs to take a page out of Sosa's book and just pitch 8 shutout innings and give the ball to Wagner.

It's Niiiiice!

Very nice to be back in the win column tonight. Willie finally found a way to keep the ball out of the hands Heilman, et al. Just have your starter go 8, give the ball to Country Time in the 9th and there you have it; a nice, neat, and efficient 3-0 scrubbing of the Tigers. Jorge Sosa was freaking masterful tonight. 8 innings, 4 hits, 2 walks, and 5 k's. Wagner with the bounce back save showing no mental damage from last night. The offense still not blowing anyone away, but the cavalry is coming. Green should be back Sunday and Valentin, sans porn 'stache is already back. Still no word on Alou. Shouldn't milk cartons be out by now with his face plastered all over them? Where the hell is this guy? Who goes on the 15-day DL for 36 days? Was he eaten? Did he miss his hands and pee on the wrong guy and get murdered? Someone needs to be looking into this.

Braves go down again thanks to 3 dingers by Soriano. Phillies are losing to the Royals?? Sweep the best team in the NL, lose to the Royals.........sigh.

Perez and Bonderman tomorrow as the Mets look to get an actual winning streak going.

And The Hits Just Keep On (Not) Coming

Mets, actually; Schoenweis, waste back-to-back-to-back homers from Delgado, Wright, and LoDucca throwing the game away (again) in extra's (again) to lose to the Phils (again!) 6-3. Good news is the Mets actually scored more than 2 runs. Bad news is, as of 10:17 pm Oklahoma time, Armando Heilman and Scott Shoen-Wuss are still Mets. Hard to blame Wagner for this, even after giving up the tying home run in the 9th. He's been rock solid all year, so it's tough to see him let down like he did tonight. Unlike Heilman and Shoen-Wuss, Wagner usually bounces back the next night.

Not a lot to add, the best thing about this series is that it's over. Good series by the Phils, and if you take anything away from this series as a Mets fan, remember this: It took 2 extra inning games, 3/4's of our rotation in the outfield being hurt, AND Armando Heilman and cousin Scott Benitez giving away games for this sweep to take place. Still feel real good about this team and the direction they are headed. Seem to have a few housekeeping issues to resolve and some way to get the bats heated up, but this team will be fine.

Gotta wipe away the Phils series and go get 2 of 3 from the Tigers starting tomorrow.

Something Stinks

Aaron Heilman made the mess tonight, and once again the Met offense couldn't break the 2 run mark to clean it up for him, losing once again to the Phils, 4-2. El Duque was masterful, shutting down the Phillies offense for 6 solid innings. Well, The Lone Met Fan then got his wish to see Heilman in the 7th inning instead of the 8th. Different inning, same result from Heilman who will now be referred to from now on as Armando Heilman. His effort tonight was simply pathetic. Here is a major league pitcher, who knows his offense is in one hell of a rut right now. One would think he would buckle down, concentrate just a little bit harder on bailing his slumping offense out. Instead, he shit himself on the mound, and on El Duque's performance tonight. As I mentioned yesterday, it's a long season, teams go through ups and downs. Pitching and hitting are bound to struggle at points throughout the season. It's at those points that one or the other step up and bail the other out. When Delgado was slumping horribly, Shawn Green picked up a lot of the slack. Wright struggled out of the gate, Reyes, LoDucca, and Alou (anyone remember what Alou looks like?) stepped up and got the clutch hit. Now that the offense as a whole is depleted AND slumping, the Mets needed Heilman to step it up a notch, and all they got was more of the same. Hopefully he has some trade value left for Minaya to get some middle relief with. Speaking of another piss poor effort, Scott Schoenweis pitched again tonight. And again gave up a run. It just feels like Willie is waving the white flag whenever he puts him in to pitch, and maybe he was tonight. A one run deficit right now is like being down 10-0.

In even worse news, Endy Chavez appeared to have suffered a pretty serious hamstring injury running out a grounder to first base. Mets outfield is in serious trouble if he has to spend time on the 15-day Pavano. Alou apparently is never coming back, Green still out, Beltran is at about 80%, and now Chavez may be down. An outfield of Beltran, Gomez, and Newhan is not gonna scare anybody. Neither is the trio of pitching that Willie trotted out their tonight. Mets have some work to do, definite must win tomorrow, although a sweep seems likely with ace Cole Hamels going for the Phils. Mets counter with John Maine. Let's hope he proves to be a better teammate than Heilman, Schoenwies, and Mota.

Jobu Is Fired

The Mets finally treated Glavine to an "explosion" of offense, giving him a 2 run lead early. As Glavine often does when he gets a lead, he gives it back up the next 1/2 inning. No change tonight as he got 2 quick outs then got drilled for 4 straight hits tying the game at 2. Met offense held a secret team meeting to tell Glavine to go screw, we finally score you some runs, we're tired of you giving them back up! Mets held fast to the "no offense" stance racking up absolutely 0 more runs. Reyes even went so far as to commit a little league base running gaffe so as not to score any un-necessary runs. They tried so hard not to score for Glavine, that by the time ol' reliable Feliciano came in (and came in off his game for the first time this year) the Mets couldn't get the bats going fast enough to overcome a 4-2 xtra innings loss.

Mets need to find the issue with the bats. If Jobu needs more rum, then fill er' up. If a live chicken needs to be sacrificed, then get someone's ass down to KFC and get a chicken. If bats need hats to keep bats warm, I'll spring for some bat hats. I think we're at the point that they need to tell Jobu, "Fudge you!! I'll do it myself!!

Every team hits slides like this in a long year. Still 14 games over .500 and still in 1st place by 3.5 games. The pitching is gonna falter at times as well, but the bats need to be able to offset that or it could turn into a losing streak.

So boys, sacrifice those virgins, or chickens, or whatever and let's get some hits out of em...

Not a Bad Off Day

Turns out the off-day for the Mets (and The Lone Met Fan) didn't turn out too bad. Braves go down to the Marlins, and as a bonus, The Yanks go down the Sox tonight (White). Gotta love gaining a 1/2 game in the standings when you don't even play.

Good news here.

Even better news here.

Mets Piss Mediocrity

You can run your usual outfield lineup with just Alou missing. You can run your usual outfield lineup with just Beltran missing. Hell, you can even run your usual outfield lineup with just Shawn Green missing. What you can't do, is run your outfield lineup with Alou, Beltran, AND Green missing for any kind of a stretch of games. The offensive power outage continued today being held in check by Doug Davis. This dude looked like he was throwing wads of tissue paper up to the plate. Jamie Moyer thinks that Doug Davis throws slow. He has a worse mound delivery and worse stuff than Ed Harris of this Cleveland Indians team. Willie should have had the umps check the ball for Gyne-Lotrimin or the snot from a vienna sausages can. Mets had some opportunities as they usually do, but with Delgado and Ben Johnson wiffing on 58 mph fastballs, they couldn't take advantage of having runners on base. Arizona's closer is rapidly advancing up the Lone Met Fan's hate ladder. Tell me he doesn't look like this guy on the far right. As of right now, the Braves are down 9-0 to the psychotic Cubs so barring a Cub meltdown (what? that's already happened twice this week?) it looks like the Mets keep their 3.5 game advantage. Good news ahead, Beltran should be ready to go by Tuesday. I thought Alou was out with a quad injury, but as long as he's taking to come back, the Mets should just release that he had hip-replacement surgery done, and is on the 60-day Carpenter.

Observations:

Oliver Perez had his 2nd just OK outing in a row. He did keep the Mets in the game giving up only the 3 runs. I'm still trying to figure how he walked 3 batters with the strike zone that the umpire had back there today.

Speaking of the hate ladder, Heilman managed to move up another rung today. I know he didn't commit the throwing error that led to the run, but bad shit happens when he's in the game and in the big picture of the ball game, his unearned run meant very little. It just seems like whenever he comes in, no matter what kind of stuff he has for the day, the opposing team is gonna figure out a way to score a run. Call it jinxed or bad karma, but this is what he's turning me into whenever he pitches.

Mets get a day off to try and heal then start up 3 with the Phils.

The Mets Piss Excellence

Mets slight upgrade from the C-Squad last night beat down the Diamond backs 7-1 today behind Jorge Sosa's pitching and Ruben Gotay's 3-run blast. How much of a genius is Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson? Sosa is a Braves reject that even the "great" Leo Mazzone couldn't get straightened out. After he was dumped, the Cardinal's own (self-proclaimed) genius Tonya LaRussa and, Mr. Nepotism himself, Dave Duncan, failed to brainwash him, then sold him for a box of twinkies. Mets take a flyer on him (I've always wanted to use that phrase) and besides one bad game against the Braves (I guess he didn't want to appear to be TOO re-habbed, lest the Braves try and get him back) he's been as steady as this guy. A certain hitter (superstition again) continues to rake and the outfield trio of Newhan, Johnson, and Chavez win a game the Mets probably had no business winning.

On a side note, as both of my readers know, I have absolutely NO love for the Yankees or Doug Mankevichkrzyescshkigluskiwicz, but after this, I do hope that he's OK enough for me to continue hating real soon.

Perez and Davis on the hill as Mets try and continue pissing excellence in winning series.

AAA

The New Orleans Zephyrs/Mets go down 5-1 tonight against Arizona and Brandon Webb. No Alou, Green, Beltran, or Wright tonight. What we had was Ben Johnson, David Newhan, and old reliable Endy Chavez in the outfield and Pops (Julio Franco) at 3rd. When the Mets fell behind 2-0 Gary Cohen said it best, "It might as well be 13-0." Alas, the Diamondbacks showed no class in piling on a troupe of minor leaguers running up the score with a 3 run homer off of Mota late in the game to win going away 5-1. (If the sarcasm is literally dripping from your computer on to your desk, my apologies.) Maine pitched well enough, minus one pitch. Mota needs to get back on the 'roids to be effective. Braves win, Mets lead down to 3.5 games.

Jorge Sosa and El Duque's brother on the bump tomorrow.