Heilman's Star Falls Again, Mets Lose 9-2

Well, it didn't take long for that bubble to burst, did it?

One start following a magnificent, if entirely unexpected one hit shutout at home against the Marlins, Mets starter Aaron Heilman looked more like himself facing the same Marlins in the Dolphins football stadium, giving up seven runs on 11 hits in a mere four innings, taxing the bullpen and taking a 9-2 loss on the chin.

It appears that the reason he's exasperated us all once again was because he abandoned his off-speed pitches and fed fastballs to a team that feasts on them. Pitching coach Rick Peterson, said: "His last outing was a recipe for success. But if you overuse one ingredient, it doesn't come out the same way. This is not the instructional league. It's the big leagues. His thought process tonight was not right."

Let me get this straight. You suck in virtually every major league outing, let's say something like a career record of 4-11 and a record of 1-6 on the road with some 7.00 plus sort of bloated ERA. You have one night of magical success which finally matches some of the expectations of your talent and what do you do? Do you follow the same recipe you used looking like an all-star or do you revert back to the recipe that puts you on the motorway to the minors?

How can his thought process not be right? What is there to think about? Catcher calls the pitches, you throw them, right? Is Heilman audibling on the mound? How can he "abandon" his off-speed pitches? Some monkey is telling him what to throw, aren't they? Peterson to Piazza to Heilman, right?

And even if he was calling his own pitches, he's had plenty of time off in between starts to concentrate, so how can his thought process not be right?

Over here, from A Bunker's favourite chair, we call it reverting back to form.

There's no mystery in Heilman's disasterous pitching performance, that is his modus operandi. The only mystery was how in the world he managed to toss a one-hitter against these Marlins, who have now won four straight and co-hold first place in the NL East with the Nats, in the first place. THAT is where we should send out Leonard Nimoy and his in search of crew. The galactic mystery of the Aaron Heilman promise.

Other than Heilman's return to the mediocrity of the Aaron Heilman world, there really wasn't much to tell about this game. When you fall behind 9-0 to the Marlins with Josh Beckett on the mound, the game is virtually over before it starts. It wasn't interesting, not even when they managed to squirt out 2 runs in the fifth and piss Beckett off even more when Victor Diaz tripled to score David Wright with none out and thinking the shot to the deepest part of the ballpark was gone, Diaz reacted at the plate as if he had homered. Beckett took exception to that.

"I wasn't real pleased with the way he reacted," Beckett said. "My opinion is if you have less home runs than I have career wins, you can't do that." Ooof.

All told, Beckett (3-1) allowed four hits and two runs in seven innings. His ERA rose to 1.00, and Florida's team ERA climbed to 1.88, still best in the major leagues.

The Marlins' awakening offense has coincided with a lineup shuffle made by manager Jack McKeon on Sunday in New York. He promoted Encarnacion from the seventh hole to the fifth spot in the order. Since then, the Marlins have scored 29 runs, while Encarnacion has gone 8 for 17 with six runs and eight RBI.

Tonight, Pedro will take the mound with a growing need to save the day again. Earn his money. Once again he will face Al Leiter and this time he will be doing so on his regular four day rest.

*****

To give you an idea of how liberal the 2005 All Star ballot is, Piazza, arguably the worst defensive catcher in baseball and David Wright, both of them hitting .234 so far this season and Cryin Mike Cameron, who still hasn't played a game, join Hamstring Jose, Carlos Beltran and Cliff Floyd 2005 Major League All-Star Game.

So vote often and vote hard on the official online ballot