Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Most Painful of Mets Series

In a post on Friday, I referred the Mets weekend series as one of the more interesting series of this early season. I was wrong. It wasn't interesting. It was downright painful.

Friday night's surprise gem by Oliver Perez imploded in grand fashion with a grand slam and then an almost but not enough close to the game. Saturday night's marathon was legendary in the annals of baseball, but as a Mets fan it was one of the more excruciating games to watch as Mets batter after Mets batter was left clueless at the plate even with shortstops and third basemans on the mound. The eventual win was more of a relief than a win to celebrate as a loss would have been beyond devastating.

And then Sunday's game was yet another downturn in the hopeful career of John Maine who threw more pitches in four innings than the Mets did in the last 8 innings on Saturday, and again the Mets were dreadful at the plate.

The best news of the day on Sunday was that Mike Jacobs was pretty much fired and there's a chance Ike Davis might be making an appearance.

The Mets bats are probably tired, but it's no excuse for the utter lack of discipline at the plate. Reyes is swinging at any pitch that ends in "ball." Jason Bay can't find a hit if he was digging through a barrell of Beatles albums. David Wright has made striking out an art form. And Gary Matthews, Jr. should not be on a major league baseball field.

It's yet another chapter in this mystery that is the Mets. When we say the pitching stinks, the pitching comes out and shines, but then the bats enter a deep freeze.

Jerry Manuel is probably going to be fired by the end of the week, but it's honestly not his fault at this point. Reyes should be given a few days off and told to calm down. Bay will eventually find his stroke as he pulled the same early slump in Boston last year. But can the pitching hold up while the bats find their way? Not likely.

1 comment:

Brad said...

Truer words have never been spoken. Or spammed.