I have all I can stands and I can stands no more. I am sick and tired of watching Mets home games where the story of the game becomes “Hey, listen to Mets fans boo (so-and-so).” This has become an on-going storyline in 2008, and I’m tired of it. As a Mets fan, I am becoming embarrassed by our home crowds. They are booing good players, they are booing bad players, there are stories as to which players “deserve” booing (as if any home player truly deserves to be booed unless they are showing a noticeable lack of effort). I’m tired of it - it needs to stop.

Every time a Mets fan boos a Mets player heavily, you know what they are really doing? They are crying over the failures of 2006 and 2007. Well, get over it! Yes, a vastly superior Mets team lost to the Cardinals in the NLCS. Yes, the 2007 Mets suffered the worst regular season collapse in the history of baseball. You know what, though? That’s in the past; it’s now 2008, and while this year’s Mets team is far from off to a sizzling start, it’s not like they are tanking, either. They are treading water in a competitive division; you know, exactly what a lot of people expected from this year’s team, and they are treading water having played without some key players in the lineup and the rotation.

I’m not defending Aaron Heilman’s performance, either tonight or this season. No question, it has been dreadful. But what good is accomplished by heavily booing Heilman every time he takes the mound? Do you think he is unaware that he has been pitching poorly? Do you think he’s not showing a strong effort? No, he’s just not pitching well; blame the manager for putting him in tough spots when he has not proven to be a good tough spot pitcher in the past, having allowed 6 of 8 inherited runners to score. By contrast, Joe Smith has allowed 1 of 17 runners to score. Joe Smith is the “inherited runners” guy, not Aaron Heilman. Pedro Feliciano has allowed only 1 of 12 inherited runners to score. That was a bad job by the manager not knowing who to use there.

Still, what does booing Heilman accomplish? How exactly does making it so Aaron Heilman doesn’t want to pitch before his home crowd achieve anything? What about booing Johan Santana because of one poor performance? Or David Wright for a mini-slump that will be forgotten by the end of the year? Or the ridiculous Carlos Delgado nonsense over the curtain call? Why do any of these things matter? Why are Mets fans looking for reasons to hate their own team? What happened to the positivity that highlighted every single good Mets season anybody can ever remember?

With every boo, you’re letting the rest of baseball know that we’re still not over the last two years.  Why give other teams that satisfaction?  Why give other fans that satisfaction?  It’s time to move on, time to let other fans know that we’re over what’s happened in the past and ready to move on - with a better team, to boot.  This booing business…it just seems so whiny to me.  It actually makes me ashamed to be a Mets fan, moreso than anything this team has ever done, and that includes “Timo Perez, starting center fielder,” or “Mark Clark, team ace.”   We are better than this, people.
I’m just sick of the negativity. Yes, this team is underachieving. Yes, many Mets fans had higher expectations than what has been achieved. You know what? It’s May. Remember last May, when the Phillies were far from first place? Remember how the Rockies were an afterthought in the NL West race? Remember when the Brewers were 7 games up on the Cubs last May? Things have a way of turning around. The Mets are currently two games behind the Marlins, who are going to fall off (their pitching has been horrible). The Phillies and Braves aren’t wowing anybody either. Meanwhile, the Mets are still in third place, still over .500, still very much capable of putting together a 5-7 game winning streak behind this pitching and hitting…yet, Mets fans seem incapable of enjoying this season.

Well, I have had enough. I don’t want to criticize all Mets fans, but judging by tonight’s game, it seems to be a growing majority of fans who won’t let the past be the past and worry about the here and the now. Last year sucked. The end of 2006 sucked. We’re not even a quarter of the way through 2008 yet; let’s hold off assuming this year will suck, too. Hopefully, the manager will start to settle into better bullpen roles as the players who can contribute are identified and those that aren’t are pushed into the background or released (Jorge Sosa being DFA’d was a nice first step here). In the meantime, can we at least try to enjoy 2008? Can we make an effort to enjoy this year and positively motivate our Mets? Is that too much to ask? Because I still see a LOT to be excited about on this team, and I’d like to share my excitement with others if possible.

So let’s get real. Today’s 12-1 bludgeoning of the Dodgers notwithstanding, this Mets team stinks. How many leads have dissipated over the past month? How many runners have been left on base? How few comebacks have there been? I can’t seem to remember any exciting, come from behind walk-off wins. Why? Because this team stinks. Let’s look around the field and I’ll show you.

• Carlos Delgado: Do I really need to justify this? He has all of 25 hits despite the fact that he’s played in all but one game. ‘Nuff said.

• Luis Castillo: My dislike of Castillo is well-documented on this website, and with good cause. The man just doesn’t hit. Just a couple years ago, he was one of the premier speedsters in the game; now, he hardly gets on base, as his .353 OBP demonstrates. More than that though, the man doesn’t know how to smile. He doesn’t look like he even wants to be on this team. I can deal with a slump, but I won’t root for a guy who doesn’t seem like he cares.

• Jose Reyes: His 10 steals is indicative of one thing: he’s not getting on base! He has a .324 OPB, which is among the worst of all the NL leadoff hitters. He has 32 hits and just 14 walks, which are numbers that show that maybe we’re all “blinded by speed.”

• David Wright: His defense has been great (we can attribute his 6 errors to a combination of crappy score-keepers, bad luck, and a less-than-strong arm), but that’s it. He started off hot and has dropped his average pretty consistently every week of the season. His 24 strikeouts are scary considering that he was once among the hardest players to whiff in the game. But what really bothers me about Wright is his hesitation to become the leader. We all know that it’s just a matter of time before he becomes the captain, and it seems like until then he’s planning on keeping quiet. The man needs to step it up and become the clubhouse leader; if he does that, I’ll forgive his declining numbers and write them off as a slump.

• Carlos Beltran: He’s playing like a nervous rookie. He’s timid, he’s light-hitting, and he’s looking like he’d be sent down to AA if that were an option. But like Wright, I can deal with the poor numbers if he acts like he’s trying, like he cares. I know that we don’t see what happens behind the scenes, but I’ve not read one article, seen one interview, or heard one report about Wright or Beltran getting on teammates for not hustling or trying to get guys pumped up. We’d hear something from some source if any of that were happening.

I love Ryan Church because he looks like he’s having a blast, and that’s the type of player I want to watch. Billy Wager has been lights out, but that doesn’t matter; what matters is that HE CARES. He got angry and had his well-documented tirade about Oliver Perez and the slacker attitude that he has seen in the clubhouse. I LOVE that he cares. Moises Alou and Brian Schneider haven’t played enough to judge them, so I’ll withhold analysis for now.

The point of this is that the guys just don’t look like they are concerned, and that worries me. My brother, a Phillies fan, calls me every time the Phillies have a come-from-behind rally—he seems to call me every damn day! I want that sort of passion on the Mets. I want to be able to have confidence that, when they’re down by a few runs, the game isn’t over yet. I hate believing that they wave the white flag as soon as they fall behind. That’s just not fun to watch at all.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (though I hope I don’t have to): I won’t root for a team that doesn’t care.

Dear Carlos,

Coming in to today’s game, you were hitting .195.  You had all of two home runs and eleven RBI’s.  You were not contributing offensively at all, and your defense is below average at best.  You are coming off the worst season of your pro-career, and you have publically admitted as much on numerous occasions.  You were benched yesterday. Despite all of this, you are making $16,000,000.

I’m quite sure that if you were to examine your own stats without knowing that they were your own stats, you would surly think that the player should be sent to AAA.  To be among the highest paid players in the game, one would think you should at least be an “average” offensive player.

Carlos Delgado, you are NOT an average player.  The paycheck that you earn and the expectations that are thrust upon you ensure that you have superstar status, even if you no longer have superstar ability.

Today, you hit two home runs.  Today, you looked like you could actually earn your paycheck.  And today, the fans cheered for you like you were a triumphant emperor being carried home after a victory in a bloody foreign war.  And today, you told the fans to kiss your ass.

We wanted a curtain call, and you gave us the finger.  We wanted to cheer for you, and you had sex with our sister.  We wanted nothing short of a few seconds to embrace you, and you completely and utterly ignored us.

Sure, you’ve been booed.  Sure, you’ve been given a hard time. But quite frankly, you don’t even rank on the list of disappointing players who have felt the wrath of Mets fans.  Ask Bobby Bonilla, Vince Coleman, Braden Looper, Roberto Alomar, George Foster, Armando Benetiz, et.  They have a right to be bitter to the Shea fans.  YOU, Carlos, you do not.

So Carlos, today, when you chose to ignore the fans that wanted a curtain call, you may have stuck your foot in the door and served notice that someday very soon you will be on that list above, that list of players who will never be embraced by the fans. And for that, I say:

F%*# You, Carlos Delgado, F%*# You.

The reason?  Johan Santana.  He can make a lot of problems go away.  He helped put an end to a losing streak with a performance that may have stopped short of dominating, but was still very good; 7 hits (only one extra base hit, inexplicably hit by pitcher Tim Redding) and one walk, striking out four.  He kept the ball in the park, which is key for a good Santana start, and even chipped in with two nice looking doubles.

Most importantly, the Mets scored first, which as I discussed yesterday, is so important in baseball.  Not only did they score first, but after two dink hits and a double made the score 2-1 Nats, they came back the very next half-inning to tie the game, then took the lead for good one inning later.  See?  Heart.  It’s funny how a bad game can make you forget the good things a team is capable of accomplishing.  After two rough games in Chicago, all of a sudden here come the Mets with a good game.

It’s important to note that the Mets won this game despite a combined 0 for 9 from Reyes and Wright, the two young stars of the offense.  Wright has had a bad stretch the last few games, but I’m confident he can come out of it because he’s played well for most of this year; he was bound to cool off.  Reyes worries me a little, though.  In 2006 and 2007, he showed great strides in being patient at the plate, taking walks and looking for good pitches to hit.  This year, he seems to have regressed to his pre-2006 self, not taking pitches, not looking to get on base.  The Mets need him getting on base; right now, he has the 2nd lowest on base percentage of anybody in the starting lineup, even lower than perennial MiracleMets.net whipping goat Luis Castillo.  It’s all coming from walks; he has only four, lowest of all Mets starters.  They need Reyes to start taking pitches again, looking for good pitches to hit, and if pitchers don’t want to give him any, settle for walking and wreaking havoc on the bases with his speed.  I think Reyes is more fixable than Carlos Delgado, who just doesn’t have the bat speed he used to have; Reyes just needs some tweaking to his approach, and he’ll be fine.

Other than that, great Mets win.  It’s nice to see some things go the Mets’ way, like the three runs the Mets scored in the 6th; the only ball the Mets hit out of the infield was Carlos Beltran’s leadoff single.  They got some help from bad Nationals defense, but they also took advantage of good baserunning to push across three runs.  Beltran scored from first on an errant throw to first base by Ray King, with Ryan Church advancing to third.  After Church scored on a ground ball by Angel Pagan (Pagan beat out a throw to first, although King botched the throw, he would have been safe anyway), Pagan then stole 2nd and 3rd and scored on a groundout by Brian Schneider.  So while the runs weren’t impressive from a hitting standpoint, the Mets still played good baseball in putting themselves in position to score, and then getting the runs home.

The Mets will look to sweep this 2 game series and put themselves over .500 for the series tomorrow in Washington, with a 7:10 start at Nationals Park.  Shawn Hill will start against Oliver Perez, with the game appearing on all the regular outlets (SNY, WFAN, Extra Innings).

It’s less than a full month into the season and normally I’m the first person to say, “it’s too early to panic.”  Seriously, I am.  But this is an exception.  IT IS TIME TO PANIC.

And here’s why:

After today’s sorry loss to the Cubs (8-1), the Mets have now lost nine games.  Of those nine games, the Mets have fallen behind early and failed to score more than 1 run five times.  That is ugly.  The simple fact is this: when this team gets down, they give up.  Don’t believe me? Take a look.

APRIL 6 @ ATLANTA: The offense is shut down by John Smoltz.  No big deal, right? Smoltz is still a great pitcher, a true ace, and losing to him is not a big deal.  But Smoltz only pitches 5 innings, and Mets fail to do anything productive off of the less-than-impressive Braves bullpen.  They squeak out a single run in the 9^th but that’s only because David Write is great.  Final score: 3-1, Braves.

APRIL 8 vs. PHILADELPHIA: The boys in blue and orange lead 2-0 on a solo HR by Delgado (this was his last positive contribution to the team) and a fielder’s choice by Ryan Church.  But that’s it.  After Church’s RBI (which is an RBI on paper, but the dribbler was barely touched by his bat) the Mets scored nothing after the 4^th inning.  The could not scratch out a run off of an ancient Jamie Moyer or the “terrible” Philly bullpen (Gordon, Romero, and Chad Durbin). What’s worse is that they left runners in scoring position in the 5^th, 7^th, and 8^th innings!  Once again, they simply gave up on trying to score. Final score: 5-2, Phillies.

APRIL 12 vs. MILWAUKEE: Again, the Mets scored 2 early (both in the first inning) but then they failed to score more than a single run the rest of the game.  This was Santana’s homecoming, and, while he wasn’t light’s out, he was still good enough to win.  But the Mets couldn’t score anything against Ben Sheets, despite being very hittable.  They left runners in scoring position in the 1^st and 2^nd innings, and then proceeded to do nothing the rest of the way.  Final score: 5-3, Brewers.

APRIL 21 vs. CHICAGO: The Cubs jump out and go head by 2 in the 4^th inning, and once they’re behind, the Mets just stop.  The offense is anemic, scoring just one lone run.  Reyes led off the game with a single, and if I had known that this would be the high point of the game, I would have stopped watching right then.  Final score: 7-1, Cubs.

APRIL 22 vs. CHICAGO: This was a repeat performance of the game on the 21^st.  The Mets fall behind by 3 after the 4^th inning, and again manage only 1 single run.  That’s it.  This, just like the day before, was a winnable game; the underwhelming Mets bullpen gave up runs late and put the game out of reach, but had the offense found a way to get something—anything—done earlier, it would have been an entirely different ballgame.  Final score: 8-1, Cubs.

So what’s the point to all of this?  Simple: The Mets seem to be lacking a sense of caring.  The heart just isn’t there.  It’s what was missing last year and it seems to be missing already now this year.  People will tell you that the bullpen blew it for them in September of last year; others will say it was the manager’s fault; I say it was a lack of heart.  I didn’t like the team that lost those games, but not because I’m not loyal or because they were losing or because I’m a fair-weather fan.  I didn’t like that team because they just looked like they gave up.  The Phillies deserved to win last year because they never gave up: they came from behind a ridiculous number of times last year because they had heart.  This team, the 2008 incarnation of the New York Mets, so far, has no heart.  And if this keeps up, it’s only going to get harder and harder to root for them.

I say this to my students all the time (I’m a teacher): I will work as hard for you as you will for yourself, but I won’t work harder.  The same thing applies: I refuse to care more about the Mets wins and loses than the players on the team. They need to show that they actually care or they’re in danger of another disappointing season.

For a guy who just signed a $25 million deal, Luis Castillo sure doesn’t sound like he’s all that enthusiastic about playing all that often. 

Castillo commented to the NY Post yesterday that “Sometimes I do [need  a rest].  When I play three or four games in a row, maybe I can get a day off.  I’m going to talk to Willie about it.” 

In case you missed that last paragraph, let me say it again: Castillo needs a rest after play for “three or four games.”  Three or four games.  Three.  Or Four. 

It would have been understandable if he were suffering from some temporary injury, one that was causing him to tire easily or be more vulnerable to injury or fatigue.  But there is no injury that I know of. He had surgery on his knee over the off-season, but it’s supposed to be fine by now.  Plus, there is not indication that his request for time off is a temporary thing.  The implication in his statement is that he will need that break for the rest of his career. 

Let’s do some math here.  He is signed for three full seasons after this one.  There are 148 games remaining in this season, and then 486 to go from 2009-2011. That’s a total of 634 games he has, games for which he is guaranteed pay.  If he is going to take a day off every 3.5 days, that means he’s bound to miss 181 games, which is more than an entire season.  All of these numbers are, of course, excluding playoff games and spring training games. 

I want to like this guy.  He’s a Met, the Mets are my team, and when I do the math, that means I should like him.  But the way he plays, combined with the slump he’s in to start his season and the huge contract he undeservedly signed, just make my liking him impossible. 

I’m officially starting the countdown:  only 634 more games until Luis Castillo’s contract is off the books.

First of all, I just wanted to apologize for not getting daily recaps for the games up this weekend.  As you can tell, we’re having some problems with the site and updating it hasn’t been easy for me.  I’m going to work with the domain people to try to figure out what the problem is and how we can resolve it, but for now, updates may come at strange hours.  I apologize for the inconvenience.

That said, I did watch all three games of the Brewers series, and I think that it could be summed up in three ways:  the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Let’s talk about the good first, Nelson Figueroa’s good start on Friday.  I missed most of his time in the game thanks to a Tivo malfunction (seriously, NOTHING is working for me right now), but he dominated a pretty good Brewers’ lineup, not getting into trouble until he gassed out late in the game.  With some distance from the game, I think we can ascertain that this Brewers team is a really good right-handed hitting lineup that works over lefties but struggles against righties, but still, that’s a good performance by Figueroa, and if you had told me that the Mets would get a great pitching performance out of Figueroa and still lose 2 of 3 to the Brewers…well, I would have assumed that the bullpen blew Friday night’s game.

Saturday was Johan Santana’s first start at Shea Stadium, and…well, it didn’t go well.  He was victimized by the long ball, allowing three home runs, including one to new Mets killer Gabe Kapler that chased him from the game.  There were good signs, including 7 Ks in 6.2 innings, but unfortunately, he couldn’t keep the ball in the park.  That will happen with Santana now and then; he’s going to have games where he is dominant, and games where a few too many balls get hit over the fence.  The good news is, because Santana generally won’t allow too many baserunners otherwise, most of those home runs will not be 2-3 run shots, and on the days where he is keeping the ball in play…man, he will be dominant.  But Saturday just wasn’t one of those days.

Also on Saturday, it did feel like the Mets’ hitters let one get away.  After hitting Ben Sheets hard early to start the game, they had the bases loaded with two outs in the 2nd and couldn’t punch another one across.  After that, Sheets became dominant, retiring 18 straight batters in one stretch that lasted until the 8th, when David Wright hit one out to narrow the gap to 5-3.  Unfortunately, the Mets would not come any closer, and that was that.  It was a disappointing start to the Johan Santana Era at Shea Stadium, but there will be better days ahead.

That brings us to yesterday’s dog of a game.  Oliver Perez and Jeff Suppan pitched like two guys who did not want to win.  Perez’s modest streak of not allowing earned runs ended two batters into the game, when Gabe Kapler hit an absolute bomb off of him.  Seriously, the Mets were killed by the 2007 manager of the Greenville Drive yesterday.  That sounds more like the name of a street in a residential neighborhood than a baseball team, and their manager last year kept hitting extra base hits off of the nominal #1 and #2 starters of the Mets rotation.  It might have been cute at first, but after a while, it was tiring.

The Mets’ bats were up to the challenge, though, dominating Jeff Suppan in a “winning the battle after the war had been lost” type of way.  Seriously, why couldn’t they hit Suppan this hard in 2006?  Then again, he was hanging curveballs all over the place yesterday that he wasn’t doing in 2006, when he suddenly turned into Bob Gibson.  Not that I’m bitter.  But the Mets went up 6-2 in the 3rd, and were poised to do more damage before leaving the bases loaded.  Ollie then let the Brewers right back into the game with four runs allowed in the 4th, and when the Mets started to challenge in their half of the fourth, the Brewers got Carlos Beltran to line into an inning-ending double play, the first of five that the Brewers would force against the Mets in the game.

And that became the new story of the game; the Mets would get the leadoff hitter on base, only to erase him one batter later with a double play.  Even in the 8th, against Guillermo Mota (who, quite frankly, owed us this game), with runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, where it would seemingly be impossible to hit into another double play, the Mets still somehow found a way when Luis Castillo hit a fast grounder to first, which Fielder took for the force, then threw home immediately, where Brady Clark was out by a mile.  Poor baserunning by Clark led to that double play, and I seriously have to question why he’s even with the team, when he doesn’t appear to do anything particularly well.

Still, even with two outs, this was Guillermo Mota on the mound, so he made things interesting by walking David Wright and Carlos Beltran.  Carlos Delgado was at the plate, and Mota has stunk against lefties the past two years, but the Brewers didn’t have another left-handed pitcher to rely on after using Brian Shouse in the 7th.  This looked like every big Mota spot from 2007 revisited, only this time it was in the Mets’ favor.  Two outs, platoon advantage, Mota being left in a tight game for seemingly no reason…I have to think Willie Randolph felt a little wistful, perhaps even jealous of Ned Yost, particularly when Carlos Delgado popped out.  Willie had been waiting for just such an event to happen last year, and it never worked out for him, no matter how many times he went back to Mota.  This time, it worked out for Yost, and now Mets fans just have more reasons to hate Mota.

Overall, this can only be termed as a disappointing series.  While the Nelson Figueroa start was a nice story, nothing else went the Mets’ way.  David Wright is hitting with power with two homers in the series, so that was nice; he now has 60% of the Mets’ total home runs this year to date.  However, Carlos Beltran continues not to hit at home; while it’s important to note that he’s getting on base at a .444 clip at Shea, he just doesn’t hit the ball well here.  That makes me think that Shea is just not a place designed for his swing.  Hopefully, Citi Field will be a bit better for him.

The other encouraging sign was the bullpen, which only allowed two earned runs the entire series.  Granted, that was the go-ahead runs in the Sunday game thanks to Jorge Sosa allowing a bomb to Rickie Weeks, but still, any time the Mets bullpen can go 2-3 games without allowing a run, you have to take that as a good sign.  At this point, it’s encouraging just when they don’t melt down.  It would still be nice to get a timely hit or two at the end of a ballgame, but…I mean, at any given moment, most major league hitters have about a 24-36% chance of getting a hit in any situation.  Sometimes they will come late, and sometimes they won’t.  We are unlikely to notice as much when a hitter does come through with a big hit late in a game, but more likely to lament when the late hits aren’t coming.  This natural negativity is just what makes us Mets fans.

The Mets will have today off before coming back to play tomorrow night back at Shea for Game 10, where the Mets will look to get back to .500 against former Mets Lastings Milledge, Paul Lo Duca, and the Washington Nationals.  Nominal Nationals ace Odalis Perez will take the mound against Mike Pelfrey.  The Mets should get to Perez early, but Pelfrey will have to keep them in this one with another good start against a decent Nats lineup.  Game time is 7:10 on SNY.

Last night looked like another sequel in a movie we’ve seen too often.  Mets take an early lead; bullpen blows the lead, Phillies tie.  Shaky Mets reliever puts a runner in scoring position to take their first lead of the game late with one of the Phillies’ bit hitters at bat…and here’s where we went off script, because Scott Schoeneweis got Chase Utley to ground into a double play with the Phillies poised to take the lead in the top of the 11th.  Then, in what was really an event off-script, Jose Reyes hit a two-out double, and scored the winning run on a single by Angel Pagan, and the Mets escaped Shea with a 4-3 win in 12 innings, drawing first blood in the Mets/Phillies rivalry.

I’ll be honest, though - I think the Mets may have received a gift tonight.  Replays at the plate show that Reyes may have been out, and because the game was in the 12th inning, I think umpires will be more likely to give a call like that to the home team because at that point, they just want to go home.  Still, it was close enough to where I don’t believe it was a grievous error to call him safe, and hey, at this point no Met should ever refuse a win against the Phillies.  After the home opener went so poorly, the Mets really needed to take the next two games, and it’s a great pick me up to finally win a close and late one like this.

I didn’t see the early parts of the game, so I can’t comment on how John Maine looked, but I can comment on how his stat line looked, and that’s not particularly good.  Five hits and five walks with only one strikeout in 6+ innings means he was getting bailed out a lot.  This is a patient team, a really capable hitting ballclub, so that can explain the walks, but it still seems that something may be off with Maine since the season started, because he hasn’t resembled the pitcher we saw in spring yet.  It is worth pointing out that through six innings, he had only allowed three singles, a double, and the five walks, and then he got hit hard to start the 7th with a home run by Pedro Feliz and a double by Chris Coste chased him for Pedro Feliciano, and that none of that damage before the 6th allowed a run.  Still, he can’t keep pitching in and out of trouble, because eventually, the runners are going to score.

Then there’s Aaron Heilman doing his best Guillermo Mota impersonation in the 8th, allowing a solo homer to Ryan Howard to start the inning (why not leave Feliciano to pitch to Howard before bringing Heilman in?) and then allowed the tying run to score.  I don’t want to make excuses for Heilman, because he hasn’t pitched well at all, but I also think Willie is overusing him.  He’s already pitched in five of the Mets’ eight games for a total of 6 IP.  He’s also getting crushed by left-handed hitting, which makes Willie’s using him against Howard even more suspect.  I wish they’d get away from 7th and 8th inning roles all together, because I feel it’s not always the best use of the Mets’ best relievers, but they really might need to consider giving Heilman a few days off and trying other pitchers for the 8th.  I also have a strong feeling that Duaner Sanchez can’t come back soon enough.

Carlos Beltran continues to struggle at Shea Stadium, and while he drove in a run and scored, he also had two prime opportunities to send everybody home today late in the game and couldn’t pull the trigger.  For whatever reason, Beltran hits significantly worse at Shea than he does on the road; I guess Shea just isn’t designed for his swing, for whatever reason.  Hopefully, Citi Field will be more to his liking.  David Wright also had an 0 for 3, and he’s cooled off considerably since starting off hot against the AAA pitching of the Florida Marlins.  He did draw two walks and steal two bases, putting himself in position to score an insurance run and a game-winning run in the 8th and 10th (Jose Reyes was on third, as they both stole as part of a double steal) but Beltran and Delgado couldn’t get them home.  At least these instances didn’t come back to haunt the Mets, as they so often do.

The Mets and their bullpen will get no day off, as Opening Week continues at Shea tonight against the 6-3 Milwaukee Brewers.  Nelson Figueroa will get his first start for the Mets, opposite Manny Parra.  I don’t think the Mets were hoping to have a tired bullpen going into this game with the Brewers, as Figueroa is untested, to say the least, but at least they should get some time off on Saturday, with Johan Santana starting. Tomorrow’s game starts at 7:10 on SNY and WFAN 660 if you’re in the car.

Show of hands - how many people watching this game still never felt safe with a six run lead?  Granted, I can’t see you if you’re raising your hand or not, but after the last nine games where the Phillies have made the Mets their collective bitches, and doing so in every possible way, I never ever felt safe watching this game.  Isn’t that a shame?  The Mets offense scores bushels of runs early on, and I still never felt like the Phillies couldn’t make a comeback.  The game ended with the Mets winning 8-2, but even in victory, the scars of 2007 remain.

Another show of hands - how many people reading this would have ever guessed that the Mets would score eight runs in a game where Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran were a combined 0 for 12?   How strange is that?  Granted, they all reached base thanks to walks and errors (the story of the game for the Phillies), and in truth, the Mets only had five hits, and no Met had more than one.  But still, those are the guys who are supposed to be the driving forces behind this offense, and when the Mets score eight runs, you assume it’s because one or more of them had a big day at the plate to lead the charge, but that didn’t happen today.

In truth, while Mets fans and the Mets themselves will surely take this win, they also got a lot of help from the Phillies.  Kyle Kendrick looked absolutely awful in 2.1 innings, walking six and allowing four hits.  He allowed more baserunners than outs, and, well, it’s hard to win in that situation.  Even then, the Mets gave him some help when they managed to load the bases in the first and second innings thanks mostly to walks, and only managed a lone run on the situation.  It wasn’t until the Phillies defense fell apart 2007 Marlins style in the third where the runs started scoring for the Mets, 6 in all.  Despite all of the baserunners, and despite the seven runs that scored on his watch, Kyle Kendrick was only charged with one earned run, which to me, speaks of the folly of “earned” and “unearned” runs more than anything, but still…not a game Kyle Kendrick will remember fondly.

On the other hand, Big Pelf had a nice little game today.  Two earned runs (and truthfully, the Mets should have turned a double play in the second that would have kept one of those runs from scoring, but instead Jose Reyes committed an error that would aid in scoring a run for the Phillies), five hits, two walks, and three K’s.  It looked like Pelf lost some steam as the game went on, and while he only walked two, he did have a few long at-bats in the later innings that drove his pitch count up and lead to him leaving the game early.  It wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was a nice start for Pelfrey, especially considering he hasn’t pitched in a game since spring training ended a week and a half ago.  Here’s hoping this is the start of a nice comeback year that helps raise Pelfrey’s star again in 2008.

The Mets will look to take the rubber game of this three game series tomorrow night at Shea Stadium, with John Maine taking the mound for the Mets against Adam Eaton.  I’d like to think that on paper, the Mets have a nice sized advantage here, but whenever I’ve thought that over the last year against the Phillies, they’ve proven me wrong.  Hopefully today was the start of reversing that trend.  Game time is 7:10, with the game appearing on SNY.

I swear I’ve seen this game before.  Mets take a small early game lead.  Willie Randolph makes some questionable bullpen decisions.  Phillies come roaring back to take the lead.  Mets bats die in the later innings and the Mets lose to the Phillies again.  Nine straight times, the Phillies have defeated the Mets when the two teams have played each other.  In seven of those games, the Mets had leads of two runs or more only to allow the Phillies back in the game, usually by way of the bullpen.  I have to say, as a Mets fan, watching this game unfold the way it did today made me sick, especially since it was this script that allowed the Phillies to win the division last year, and now the Mets open Shea Stadium’s last year the same exact way.  It’s getting to be almost too much to take.

Once again, it was the bullpen that wears the villain’s hat.  Scott Schoeneweis and Aaron Heilman both heard some boos during their pre-game introductions, and then did nothing to absolve themselves of future boos.  Myself, I had to be wondering why Schoeneweis was even brought into the game.  Pedro Feliciano has no platoon split; he can pitch to lefties and righties and is equally effective at getting both out.  Yet he never even warmed up to enter the game.  Now, if it turns out Feliciano is injured, and was not available to pitch, that’s one thing.  But if he was available and Willie simply chose not to use him, then bringing Schoeneweis in to start the 7th was just stupid.

The problem with bringing in Schoeneweis to replace Joe Smith in that situation is that, while Smith is also essentially a right handed specialist, taking him out after one batter to bring in a lefty specialist, when everybody in the ballpark knew that Charlie Manuel would then bring in a right hander to take the advantage away from the Mets, is stupid.  It’s especially stupid because the Phillies had Jimmy Rollins, the (sigh) 2007 National League MVP and a switch hitter, batting behind him, followed by another switch hitter in Shane Victorino.  Leaving a specialist in the game to face two switch hitters is poor strategy; while Aaron Heilman is considered to be the “8th inning man,” that situation screams for the Mets to use their best available reliever, which would be either Heilman or Feliciano (assuming that the Mets would never think of moving Billy Wagner out of the closers role).

It’s just poor, unimaginative strategy to wait until the 8th to use Heilman when strategy dictates that he would be better in that spot.  The best move, of course, would be to go to Feliciano, but he may not have been available, and hey, Heilman didn’t pitch great today either.  But at least if you bring in your best guy in the toughest spot and lose, you lost because your guy wasn’t good enough; in this case, they lost because they made the wrong move at the wrong time.  This is why people wanted Willie to be fired last year; his in-game strategy and roster utilization is highly suspect.  He may be able to run a good clubhouse, but on the field, he is a terrible manager, and he costs this team wins.

It’s a shame, because while Oliver Perez wasn’t quite as sharp as he was last week, he still had a damned good game; 5.2 innings,  3 hits, 3 BBs, but no runs.  Once again, he avoided the extra base hit, which is huge against a team like the Phillies.  Carlos Delgado is still swinging a hot bat, although it was his error on a double play ball by Ryan Howard which allowed the Phillies to tie the game, hitting a towering solo home run in the second to give the Mets the lead.  David Wright and Carlos Beltran each hit nice doubles, and Beltran may have had a second if Shane Victorino hadn’t made a nice catch on a well hit ball to center.  But once again, the Mets’ bats went cold against a lousy Phillies bullpen, which only seems to pitch well against the Mets.  But overall, it was just a real disappointing way to open the last season at Shea Stadium, and perhaps a sign that the ghosts of 2007 haven’t been completely eradicated.

The Mets will try to end the Phillies’ streak against the Mets tomorrow back at Shea, with Mike Pelfrey taking the mound against Kyle Kendrick.  If there was ever a time for Mike Pelfrey to step up and become a strong major league starter, it will be tomorrow, as he tries to end the Mets’ 3 game losing streak and the Phillies’ 9 game winning streak against the Mets.  Game time is 7:10 with the game airing on SNY and ESPN2 if you are outside of the greater New York metropolitan area.