5-5 Trip

If you were told the Mets would go 5-5 on the long road trip just completed, you would take it. It was against three of the best home teams.

Omir Santos shocked everyone with a go-ahead two-run homerun in the 9th inning off Jonathan Papelbon on Saturday. After issuing a leadoff walk, Papelbon had struck out David Wright and Jeremy Reed. It was over. He was blowing everyone away. Santos saw that he was throwing nothing but dead-red, looked for it and nailed it.

J.J. Putz can thank his defense for his second save of the season. Every ball was hit hard. We need a few outings of dominant J.J. before we can restore our faith in him.

Ramon Martinez had the game of his life defensively. He still has no arm and needs to replaced at shortstop ASAP.

Mike Pelfrey settled down and was on cruise control after a rough first inning. No case of the yips in this one.

Papelbon blows his first save of the season, and over in the Bronx, Brad Lidge blows one for the Phillies. The Mets and Yankees really helped each other out on Saturday. However, there was still a part of me that was disgusted the Yanks came back with a dramatic 9th inning victory. I can't help it, no matter what the standings say. It's May, for crying out loud. I know, I know, but what if we lose by a game in the standings...

Sunday was a different story. Tim Redding looked like the Steve Trachsel he initially reminded me of in that first inning in L.A. Failing to get the final out in the 5th, he handed the ball to Sean Green, who in one pitch managed to blow a Met lead.

Brian Stokes has come back to earth. 1.1 innings, 6 hits and 5 runs. Yikes. Hey, the ERA is still a respectable 2.89.

Ramon Castro hit a pop up to left field that was a homerun. Only in Fenway park.

David Ortiz is on the interstate with a .195 batting average. Amazing. OK, now it's time for Big Papi to heat up.

Comedy of Errors

You gotta love DVR. Why kill yourself staying awake if you have to get up the next morning, when you can simply just record the game and wake up a little earlier and watch it the next morning over breakfast, Japan-opener style. I called it a night after an inning last night. The headline was going to be "Welcome back Steve Trachsel". That's who Tim Redding reminded me of in his first Met start.

Redding gave up two runs and made that first inning last what seemed like an hour, and included not one but two consecutive fake-to-third-throw-to-first moves. However what we saw was not the case at all the rest of the way. He settled down quite nicely and the game flowed along.

The story was the five errors the Mets committed. Where do you start with this one? It did not look promising just looking at the lineup. Angel Pagan was leading off and playing left field. Ramon Martinez, our down-the-stretch 2008 second baseman started at short. Martinez made two of those errors. Carlos Beltran was charged with one, but Pagan insisted to catch the ball after the center fielder in charge called him off ten times. Sean Green throws one away. To cap it off, outfielder Jeremy Reed, playing only a handful of innings at first has a ball find him in a key spot leading to the game-losing error, a throw intended for home that got away.

Then there's Ryan Church. A go-ahead run in the 11th was erased when an appeal play at third called him out. Church had missed third base on his way to scoring from second. Here's my take on Church. The guy is mentally screwed up and it's not his fault. With fifty outfielders on the roster, Jerry Manual had no choice but to get other guys in the lineup and pulled Church during his hottest stretch of the season. It's been downhill ever since. Never mind that the guy is one of the only pure outfielders on the team, aside from Beltran and Reed, who's playing first base instead. But it's clear from postgame reaction that Church will probably continue to be the odd man out. What's wrong with this picture?

Who's fault is it that we had an aging Carlos Delgado with hip trouble and no backup pure first baseman? Who's fault is it that the roster continues to get an influx of outfielders when the problem is in the infield? Ramon Martinez? Look I know you did not expect Alex Cora to get injured with Jose Reyes out, but Martinez with his second base arm is the best we can do as a third-string shortstop? Speaking of Reyes, I asked last week for a one-game benching, not a week with a mysterious calf-injury. It's obvious they need him back in the lineup soon, dumb mistakes aside. You only hope he learns from them, but it's been more than a few years now.