Crushed

12-2 loss to Angels hits new lows.

It took one can of Ishii and another can of Bartolo Colon but the two combined to earn the Mets their third straight loss and open the final series of their 12 game homestand with an ugly loss.

Ishii tired quickly by surrendering five of the six runs the Angels scored in the sixth to turn a tight game into a 12-2 blowout.

By contrast to his wretched finish, he started off by shutting down the Angels on two singles and a walk for five innings, striking out eight. He threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of the batters he faced in the first five innings. He had a 2-0 lead when he threw his first pitch in the sixth and well, we all felt comfortable to dream for several innings. But in the end, Ishii was beaten for the third time in four starts, proving with Zambrano to be the weakest links in the Mets starting rotation.

Colon held the Mets to two runs on seven hits over six innings earning his 8th win of the season against 3 losses and the fact that the Mets mustered nary a hit and certainly not a run against the little-used Joel Peralta nor the traditionally ineffective Esteban Yan, tells it in a nutshell, the losing end of the story.

Reliever Mike DeJean had another deleterious appearance, allowing two runs, four hits and throwing a wild pitch in a mere inning of work and joining in on the self-destructive part of the show, Manny Aybar returned to work a ninth inning littered with 5 earned runs three walks and two hits, one of which was a homerun, just to make sure the Mets wouldn't want to bother rising up in the bottom half of the 9th for a gallant sort of rally.

*****

Even though we've lost three straight, we allow ourselves a glimmer of hope as the traditional neck savers, Benson and Pedro, will take the mound the next two games in what one hopes is a final winning pair to close out their 12 game homestand.