Good Vibe Gone As Fast As It Arrived With Another Loss

A day after the Mets were back on the winning track, after they'd become the first team to shut the defending AL Champ Tigers out all season, they were back glumly in the loss column following a miserable 8-7 loss, their 5th in 6 games.

On the bright side, perhaps even as they continue to await the return of Shawn Green and Moises Alou, the offense scored more than 3 runs for the first time in a week. But those injuries have been a convenient excuse for the Mets' first real rocky streak this season. The truth is, had the bullpen maintained its stature over the last week, they'd still have won more games than lost.

As it was, for a rare change, it was the starting pitching of Oliver Perez that conspired to keep the Mets out of this game.


Pitching like a shot-putter for a day...

Just a half inning after Jose Reyes' well-timed two-out, two-run single that tied the game in the 5th inning, Perez gave the Tigers a two-run lead after only three batters. Perez finished by allowing more runs than any Mets starter had allowed in any number of innings in 15 games since May 22.

They say the Tigers pound lefties and apparently, they weren't kidding.

Worse still perhaps, Guillermo Mota, pitching legally, continued to struggle to find his drug-adled harmony on the mound and an inning later, had allowed the Tigers to expand that lead to five runs.

That isn't to say that the renewed batting order didn't fight back.

Trailing 8-3 going into the 7th, they managed not only three runs again what was perhaps an equally inept Tiger bullpen, but had the bases loaded for Carlos Delgado.

Delgado's ground out to second, the anti-climax to an otherwise exciting game, spellt the end of hope for this game with two innings to go.

Yes they did score again in the 8th and yes, one did believe they were only one tiny break from breaking the game but I'm not so sure that Willie was right in saying that "We just ran out of innings."

You had the standard, 9 bloody innings, mate. You didn't do it. Your favourite man out of the pen last season, Mota has an 8.10 ERA since his "clean" return although would you find it encouraging that Heilman had a spotless two inning stint?

A loss is a loss is a loss. The Braves and the Phillies both won, making paranoia all the creepinger.