Three out of four

Friday:
Livan Hernandez was awful early and the Mets were trailing reigning Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum by a score of 5-1. It did not look good. You were surprised to see him bat in the bottom of the 6th after he gave up a couple in the top half. I guess the Giants did not want to go to their bullpen and were they ever right. The Mets eventually got to Lincecum in the 7th, knocked him out and pounded on the relief core, highlighted by a three-run double by David Wright. Does anyone notice Brian Stokes has an ERA of 0.56? The Giants closer, the funny looking guy with the strange haircut was touched up for some winning runs in the 9th for the second straight night.

Saturday:
The Big Unit is done. There's a first time for everything and on Saturday, Randy Johnson gave up four hits to the first four batters in a game for the first time ever. Eventually something like that is going to happen if you keep pitching when you're pushing 50. Johan was not his usual-self, which of course was going to happen in a game where he got plenty of run support. Can Eric Karros kiss the Mets ass anymore than he did on that Fox telecast? At least the Giants had their hometown guy, Jon Miller, doing the game on Sunday night, the ESPN sportsync radio special (I did not get a chance to use the handy sync radio for the Fox game as I did not watch live and had to settle for DVR- at least a familiar voice in Kenny Albert was doing the play-by-play).

Sunday:
Mike Pelfrey committed three balks. You only hope this is not the start of Chuck Knoblauch/Rick Ankiel-like mental problems. If it is, we're in trouble. Matt Cain was walking the country early in the game and the Mets did not take advantage. Add Alex Cora to the list of injuries, forcing Fernando Tatis to play shortstop for the first time in a very long time. I cannot recommend the sportsync radio enough to avoid listening to Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips. All I hear the next day is people bitching about having to listen to that broadcast. Fix it.

Walk- Phillies 6, Mets 5

August 30, 2008 and May 2, 2009, Aaron Heilman or Sean Green, the result the same. The Mets lose on a walkoff walk.

Awful performances by the pitching staff at the start and finish overshadowed what was an impressive effort in the middle by the bullpen, with the exception of a Pedro Feliciano pitch to Raul Ibanez. It was the second straight night our lefty specialist gave up a homerun to a lefty. Oliver Perez was a disaster again. Ken Takahashi was great as a long, going 2.2 scoreless. He could be making the next Perez-scheduled start on Thursday. Bobby Parnell and JJ Putz pitched three scoreless. Green was awful, loading the bases, then walking in the winning run in the 10th and that was it.

Just when it looked like the Mets were going to go another game without solving Jamie Moyer, Daniel Murphy and Ramon Castro hit back to back homeruns to tie the game in the 6th.

Jose Reyes is mired in a deep slump. After Alex Cora led off the 10th with a single, Reyes could not even get a bunt down. How long before we see Cora spot Reyes a game at short?

Luis Castillo made his return to the lineup and was removed in a double-switch in the 6th. If he keeps sliding like he slid into home in the 3rd, we're going to see a lot less of him. That was a tumble that looked like nothing but hurt for the 33-year old who looks like he's 43.

The Sportsync radio worked like a charm today. Fox's HD-feed was 8 seconds slower than the radio call, just enough to delay the handy radio to the max 8 seconds and be able to watch while listening to Howie on the Fan.