10 Thoughts On New York Mets vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (Game 63)

Boxscore

For the record, I wasn’t panicking still even after the sweep at the hands of the Padres. It’s not good, but two of the losses were acceptable losses. Wagner’s going to blow a save here and there and, well, Petco Park sucks. That said, I was really hoping for at least 4-2 in these next 6 games. If that doesn’t happen, it might be time to panic.

The Mets are 30-32. They are 7.5 games behind the Phillies and 6.5 behind the Cardinals. Today’s game is the first of three against the Diamondbacks.

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1) If I have to look at a guy to stop the bleeding after a loss, I’d pick Maine. They mentioned his stats after Met losses at the top of the broadcast but they went away before I could get to them. Needless to say, they were good. I guess it doesn’t hurt that he’s still our 2nd best starter, too.

2) In semi-good news, Moises Alou has decided to make another brief stop on the Abled List. Nice of him. I hope we can get 15 days out of him. That’d be keen.

3) In actual good news, the Mets finally decided to put Ryan Church on the DL. If you had to pick a stretch to do it, this is a good one. Presuming the move is retroactive to Friday, Church will miss the D-Backs (struggling), Rangers (overachieving), Angels (tough), and Colorado (ugh). Two weeks of rest should be enough to have him ready to go by the time the Mets face Seattle. They should have done this two weeks ago.

4) And The Stache’s new campaign is for the league to create a Concussion Rule. The MLBPA should be 100% behind this, too. Concussion = DL trip. No questions.

5) Of course, I make fun of Moises Alou and the first pitch he sees is good for two RBI. This should be of no surprise as he is the charter member of the Ex-Expos ZupairZtahs. The line-up is so absurdly better with him in it that I almost feel stupid goofing on him.

6) I don’t know what happened to Maine that he suddenly turned in to a 20 pitch/inning pitcher. Even though it took him a ton of pitches to get through five innings, I’m relieved to see him return to his old absurd K/IP rate. Now if we can find out what poison he and Ollie are ingesting to make them walk a billion people we’d have a good couple starters again.

7) And, naturally, the offense is hitting on all cylinders so the bullpen finds the need to squander a two run lead. This team is frustrating beyond belief. Could all parts of the team work well one day? Just one?

8) There’s nothing quite as cool as the precursor to your standard Northeast, end-of-heatwave, Wrath of God (2WW) type thunderstorm. Papers are blowing across the field practically broadcasting the end of the world storm on the way to Shea. In fact, I’ve never seen the umpires delay the game before the rain actually starts. Turns out they do. They suspend the game 5-5 at the end of six. They couldn’t have done this at the end of five? Bastards. Silver lining: I can watch the NBA Finals.

9) After a 61-minute delay Joe Smith decides to further waste Maine’s decent start by giving up his first home run of the season. This team is honestly getting harder and harder to watch. No lead is safe and watching late innings is like watching a horror movie. You know that someone’s probably going to die… you’re just waiting for it to happen. It’s reaching the point that when the bullpen squanders the lead I have no emotion at all.

10) Aaaand the 2-run shot given up by Sanchez pretty much made me give up on this game for the night. Like an Alzheimer’s sufferer, however, I went back to watch the bottom of the ninth and managed to get excited at Reyes’s lead-off double only to watch the 2/3/4 hitters go silently into that good night. Awful.

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I have managed to maintain a positive outlook on the season thus far. I can even spin a four-game sweep in San Diego. The problem is if you’re going to start dumping games to Micah Owings when you have Brandon Webb and Dan Haren on the way… you might have some problems.

Terrible game… just another one on the long list of losses that a $140 million payroll team should not be making. Squandering leads, sloppy pitching, multiple walks, and giving up home runs in what shouldn’t be a home run hitter’s park.

The Mets — as a team — need to decide in the next few days whether it’s going to be a fun summer or a long one.