This Brave Series Determines the Season

And so the Mets are back to .500. Man, good feelings fade so fast in this town. The road for the Mets has a fork smack in the middle of it. To the left, is the road to another late summer/early fall trip to baseball obscurity. On the right is a road of somewhat relevance and interest.

But in the middle are the Atlanta Braves.

This weekend series with the Braves will send the Mets on one of those two paths. A sweep of Braves (insert laughter here) would put the Mets back in the hunt and excite the fan base again before the next 4 game losing streak. Being swept by the Braves or losing 2 out of 3, places the Mets firmly outside of the baseball relevancy picture.

What if they win 2 out of 3. Eh, doesn't do much of anything. Moving one game up in the standings at this point doesn't have much of a long term impact, but it might extend hope for a few more days.

The good news for the Mets is no Mike Pelfrey in this series. The bad news is Tim Hudson kicks things off tonight.

It's Time Santana Took Some Blame

Johan Santana has been an exceptional pitcher. He doesn't get the run support he deserves for most of his time with the Mets. Some might argue that's been the case this year as well and you probably have a point, but for the last two starts Santana has been a let down in some key spots.

In what has been heralded by everyone as the biggest series of the year (myself included) who else would you want on the mound than your #1 guy, your big game pitcher, Johan Santana. And what does Santana do? He strikes out 11 batters. He's pitching out of jams. Oh yeah, but he forgot one thing: how to get out of the first inning.

There is nothing worse for the psyche of a ball club than being down early in a pivotal game. You're then forced to press situations the whole night. Yes, Hudson was good tonight as he has been against the Mets for most of his time with the Braves, but you see Hudson didn't put his team in a hole that they would have to spend 8 innings digging out of.

The Mets bats are awful right now. I won't argue that, but Santana was a huge letdown tonight. He got beat by two pitchers on Monday: Tim Hudson and Rick Ankiel. A loss on Tuesday and we'll start talking about 2011.