Painful Game of Chutes and Ladders

As a father of three young boys, my house possesses the torturous game that is Chutes & Ladders. It's the game that never ends. Just when you think you're close to winning, an unlucky spin forces you to fall farther than you thought was possible.

That is what the 2011 Mets are doing to us as fans.

They have carried us up ladders with the hope that this new plateau would become a path to further heights only to drop us down chutes that sink us back to the brink of obscurity. The Mets now sit 3 games under .500 and have erased everything great that happened on this road trip. Just a week ago the Mets had the opportunity to sweep Atlanta, go over .500 and head home against sub .500 American League clubs to build on their momentum.

That blown save and balk-off loss may have been the turning point. The devastation of that loss has turned into a spiral downward capped off by last night's loss. Gee has been terrific, but was horrible last night walking 6 batters and giving up 4 earned runs. Even with that performance the Mets had plenty of opportunities as they loaded the bases on 2 separate occasions but were unable to get a hit in either case.

The only good news is that Jason Bay finally got an extra base hit after 90 plate appearances. He even got 2! Just in time Jason. Another chute is about to open and send to meaningless games in July.