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.