Mets Sacrificial Goats, Glavine Pounded

Hey, can you blame him?

I mean how many games in a row has Tom Glavine, in his quest for 300, pitched almost immaculately only to see a lack of run support by his team lead to another painful loss?

So Glavine let loose a long and loud fart of a pitching performance in protest. A sort of throw your hands up, there's no dog in the room to blame, open all the windows, run for the hills sort of stinker that reminds us all how much very excellent starting pitching has been wasted in this recent tailspin stretch.


Glavine clears the dugout with a stink bomb

In this 15-9 beating, Glavine allowed nine runs and 11 hits against him whilst recording just 13 outs of his own.

But hey, let's all look on the bright side.

The Mets scored lots of runs again.

Must be the hitting slump is over. Replaced by the starting pitching slump, the inevitable flounder, early-summer swoon after so many weeks of blessed starting pitching. This is where the real test of the bullpen will take place.

Yes, Detroit leads the majors with 374 runs, an average of just over six per game, but hell, that isn't 15, is it?

"I'm getting tired of talking about the whole 300 win thing," Glavine pointed out with gnawing fatigue. "Everybody thinks that's all I'm thinking about and it's not."

On the bright side, a few seasons ago, the way Glavine was pitching for the Mets, 300 wins seemed as far away as 400 so count your blessings...

And hey, here's a shocker: Andrew Miller, only a year after being drafted sixth overall, made his second start in the majors. Let's see, starting pitcher with one previous ML start? Sounds like a shutout against the Mets. Well, the Mets did actually do something in the beginning, allowing David Wright's massive three-run homer in the first inning that made us all think, wow, the Mets aren't fooling around today.

But Miller finished with only one more run allowed, giving up five hits and three walks over 5 1-3 innings.

Of course, when your own starting pitcher, your ace, is giving up well, the most runs ever in his Hall of Fame career, (not EVER but close) you aren't going to have much a chance to win.

Then again, it wasn't all Glavine's fault. More worrying was that the bullpen stunk as much as well. Aaron Sele (two runs in 2 2/3 innings) and Joe Smith (four in the eighth) continued a steady lack of bullpen production. Worrying. Starting pitching and bullpen collapsing at the same time. Or is it just the Tigers?

Wright has homers in four straight games, one short of the franchise record. Carlos Gomez also hit a three-run homer, his first homer as a Met. How often do you hit TWO three-run homers and still lose the game?

*****

Next up, Shawn Green will be back so perhaps we can add defensive woes to the growing list of aches and pains during this extended tumble.

And the Mets travel to LA to play the Dodgers. I can hardly wait to see what The little Dodger tart has to say about us.