Archie Bunker's Army

Most night's the whipping boy can be the bullpen. Sure, they're overtaxed in some spots, simply incompetent for the job in others but by and large, the bullpen is the expert in being The Goat. Oh well, now that I think about it, sometimes it's the inexperienced or incapable starting pitching; the Unmechanical Maine , the Pitched-Well-In-Spots Pelfrey , the Oliver Perez who occasionally channels the Ghost of Zambrano . And yes, come to think of it, sometimes it's fielding buffoonery, sloppy baserunning, sometimes it's a lack of clutch hitting. In fact, the Mets seem capable of losing for just about any reason, under any set of circumstances. And if they're weren't enough excuses already, on the tail end of losing two in a row to the lowly Nats they will throw untested Phillip Humber on to the mound in the middle of a heated pennant race with a steadily dwindled NL Least lead at stake! Well when you think of it, why not Humber? After all, what did future ...

I fully expected to return home from yet another four or five day hiatus into the void catching up on all the stories of the Mets having risen to the challenge, the bullpen righting itself, the Phillies squashed and Willie setting up his postseason rotation. Instead I rub my hands together, turn on the computer and start reading one rotten story after another; Willie can't manage, the rotation is in shreds, the bullpen still sucks, and Reyes continues to be mired in a deep slump. The Phillies are not only NOT dead but sit on the precipice of knocking the Mets from the top of the NL East with another pair of crap Met performances. Shall I sit on my hands like Willie and talk about urgency and how the time is now? Of course this was cute a week ago, like a baby belching, this little swoon was charming in its own silly little way. Sure, the Mets were playing like mugs but the NL East had been a long competition of out-mediocre'ing each other all season long and a few more days o...

Well, one 8-4 victory over the hapless Nats and the world seems a little rosier. Happy days are here again, The skies above are clear again, So let's sing a song of cheer again, Happy days are here again. All together, shout it now! There's no one who can doubt it now. So let's tell the world about it now, Happy days are here again. Your cares and troubles are gone, There'll be no more from now on! ***** Just one Jorge Sosa relief performance that didn't mimic the last month's 6.75 ERA (worse even than Guillermo Mota's 6.35 ERA over the same period). Just one Mike Pelfrey victory, the man who looked like he'd never win in a Met's uniform this season on his way to an 0-7 start, gutting out an ugly performance with a little run support after the Mets had scored more than five runs only once in his 11 previous starts. Just one victory after 5 losses in a row, combined with the end to the Phillies winning streak and for one day anyway, all the derisive...

Hey, let's hear it for the Mets! They finally made it through 9 innings without an error! Ok, enough of the good news. Let's resume our death watch of the New York Mets, once the indominable force of the NL East now a patient etherised upon a table . So, did you hear the one about the Nats scoring scoring 8 earned runs and getting 11 hits in less than 5 innings against John Maine ? A real bloody knee-slapper, that one. Almost as funny as the one about those same Nats scoring 12 runs on 13 hits the night before that. Stop! You're making me piss myself with laughter! I mean let's be realistic, you're talking about a team that lost 83 out of 149 games they'd played up until they met the Mets. Not even the Phillies...well, nevermind. And Maine performed his characteristic Unmechanical Maine Meltdown in the 5th yet again for all his adoring fans; you can almost set your bloody watch by it by now, I give it a 75, Mr Clark , I like the lyrics but it is hard to ...

LOST : One baseball team, based out of Flushing, Queens and answers to the name of " NY Mets " Last seen on Wednesday, 12 September at Shea Stadium defeating their arch-rivals, the Atlanta Braves. If you live in the vicinty of Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens, PLEASE check your garage, shed or basement for my team. Ask your neighbors to do the same. They have a tendancy to disappear for several days at a time but are otherwise usually ruling the National League East. They love to explore new ways of losing, breaking hearts and get dirty. They are generally clad in blue and orange colors and come in all shapes, sizes and colours, some fast, some slow, some young, some auld. If you thought it was a stray team, and took them home, PLEASE bring them back. I cannot sleep thinking they are lost or hurt or afraid! Reward: The National League East title and a place in the post season.

There have been some truly ugly moments in this season for the Mets so far. Several of them have already come against the Phillies in series' past. But Sunday's loss included not only ANOTHER sweep of the Mets by the Phillies but certainly one of the ugliest games the Mets have played all season. Good-bye, Blue Skies... Being truthful, surrendering 11 walks and making SIX errors in what is arguably your biggest game of the season to date is not just ugly, it stinks of choke . The Phillies didn't really beat the Mets on Sunday, the Mets beat themselves. The Mets beat themselves so hard they may have knocked themselves into a coma. And what was once a very, very comfortable lead is now three games smaller and the Phillies, having swept two series' in a row, home and away from the Mets, might finally have their vindication for all the mockery they withstood earlier this season for claiming to be the team to beat in the East. And you might just begin to believe that perh...

"You don't want this carrying over," --Marlon Anderson. the 2nd Met ejected in 2 games, on the string of losses to the Phillies. All sorts of evil theories could spring up following Saturday's brutal 5-3 loss to the Phillies, the 7th loss in a row for the Mets against their closest rivals. The primary one, that The Bullpen Sucks was never in more evidence than Saturday: well, perhaps that's a bit hyperbolic - so many nights the bullpen has seemed ineffective that the competition for the more demoralising or worst example is simply too numerous to narrow down. In Philly they're getting so cocky they're calling us The NY Pets . The normally steady Pedro Feliciano allowed a leadoff double and an unearned run in the seventh inning, and he gave up a leadoff home run to Aaron Rowand in the eighth that tied the score. Striking out the side the inning before was exciting but one wonders what Willie was thinking leaving Feliciano out there for an unusual second...

For all the feigned bravado, for all the innings of seemingly unhittable Tom Glavine pitching, for all the momentum and anger and pride, the Mets didn't, by the 10th inning look any more like the favourites to win the NL East. They looked like a team that can't beat their closest competitors. That's five straight losses to the Phillies and say what you like, five straight losses to the Phillies is an ugly thing. Perhaps not as ugly as five straight losses to the Braves but these Phillies look like they may well be replacing the Braves as the proverbial thorn in the side of the Mets. Alou and Mets Can't Avoid The Unrelenting Phillies What else could explain losing a game with your number one fully healthy pitcher on the mound, with a lead held from the 1st inning, with homefield advantage with more than a half dozen games of success under your belt following the last humiliating sweep by the Phillies? Well for one, having your backup catcher in the 10th inning drop what...

The Mets looked to be cruising again going into the 8th before some of the auld familiar bullpen ugliness reared it's collective head. See If You Can Guess Which One Is Guillermo Mota... Yes, Aaron Heilman , going into the game with 8 consecutive scoreless appearances having allowed only one earned run over his last 14 1/3 innings, after getting the 1st and 2nd outs of the inning without a struggle, suddenly lost the plot, allowing a walk and a single. Inexplicable as it was unacceptable as we shutter now when thinking of the post-season. Then Jose Feliciano , brought in specifically to face the lefty Brian McCann with lefties hitting only .169 against him, brought it and to get one teeny, tiny little out and what? He failed, walking McCann on 5 pitches. But now to compound matters, ohhh, here came Guillermo Mota to the House of Boos , bases "juiced" and you know, just know with a gut-wretching certainty what's going to happen next. And sure enough, Mota comes thr...

He has faced the Braves four times this season and three of those starts have resulted in victories. Bring Me Some Post Season Braves... In those 3 victories, Oliver Perez has thrown a total of 23 innings, allowed 8 hits and 5 earned runs, a 1.95 ERA. He has also walked only 2 whilst striking out 22. But you know all this perhaps as well as you know in that one loss, he sucked, a mirage, a once-in-a-lifetime blip wherein 10 hits and 6 earned runs were allowed in a mere 5 innings. Precedent set however, Oliver continued with the trends and once again, the Braves were left gasping, this time in a 3-2 loss that further cemented their DEMISE. And yes, this means in all likelihood and probability, both mathematical and philosophical not only that the Braves Suck but that they won't win the NL East for the second year running ! Of course don't tell that to Gary Cohen . He and Darling and Keef were up to their usual chicanery by the top of the 3rd waxing nostalgic about White Cast...

Yes, we know, it wasn't his first start back from rehab. But whose not excited by now, back-to-back starts, the second more fluid and seemingly flawless than the first? Five innings pitched, the count up to 92 and counting...well tomorrow, or the day after will be the test, as it will be for every start Pedro takes for the rest of the season still, impressive, even against the likes of the lowly Astros. Even at the plate, following a double, Pedro is miraculous... But rejoice for a minute anyway! Pedro's second victory in as many starts bodes well for the Mets postseason hopes, especially on the heels of Tom Glavine's nearly perfect start on Saturday, shutting them down for seven innings, another victory over the hopeless Astros, a sweep completed. 5 shutout innings and this wasn't some Single A debut, this was a Major League team after all, even if was only the Astros. How many did those Astros leave on base against Pedro? Every time they seemed ready to rally, the...

It was a reasonably close game prior to the insertion of reliever Dave Borkowski . Well, reasonably being a relative term - the Astros had started off gaining entry to a 2-0 lead, had threatened to explode with the bases loaded in the top of the 2nd until Reyes booted the double play straight into Castillo's hands and Mike Pelfrey was winning few hearts and minds with his mound performance, like hitting his 8th batter of the season, either a headhunter or, as Keith coined it, effectively wild . In fact, Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez was not much better. The man who had tossed a 9-inning, 8 strikeout out, 4 hit shutout in his last go against the Mets essentially gifted the game away with 4 walks and 6 hits in less than 5 innings of work. His walking of 2 batters in the bottom of the 3rd created a near-certainty that the Mets would make him pay. The 24-46 record on the road the Astros have makes that almost fact before it happens. The Face of The Man Striking Out An Astro Wi...

Ok, not Asleep at the Wheel thinking about the Astros but yes indeed, the Sunday through Thursday stretch was missed and with it, some Best News of The Week , ranked thusly: 1. The Return of Pedro The Toe : Oh how long we waited for this. Well, not just us, certainly his teammates as well and quite probably, the baseball world generally. It was less than a brilliant beginning, to be sure. Months of rust, the creaking Pedro Mothership, a rubbish rolling single for Josh Hamilton , Gonzalez' double over Alou's head misplayed in left field, Junior coming to the plate and things looking like they could go horribly pear-shaped quicker than the months of waiting expectation. Are happy days here again for Mr and Mrs Franchise? But Junior flew out to Beltran and Beltran quite nearly completed a great double play by throwing Hamilton out at the plate and after yet another base hit, the cleanest of the game, by Brandon Phillips , the damage was limited to the two runs. Of course...

We shant belabour the point for long. After all, Manager Willie told everyone who was still willing to listen that the Ship Is Steady and maybe we should have listened. Panic is slowly receding. But c'mon. Two in a row against the Braves? A 12-2 aggragate margin? Coming after four straight humiliations in Philly? What's next, David Newhan hitting for the cycle? Game's low point another DUMB UMP blown call that cost the Mets a run but fortunately not the game... All season long they've said that Mike Pelfrey's primary problem was lack of run support from his teammates in New York and frankly, I have never really bought that argument for a guy with an ERA that is STILL 5.33 after this miraculous outing. Not unless he was expected a dozen runs in support every outing. Yes, the 2.78 runs per game was the worst support of any NL pitcher but oddly enough it would have been more than enough to see Pelfrey through. Because Saturday, brill. Pelfrey had some extr...

Dear Jesus H Christ, Many thanks for the rollercoaster ride. Yes, getting swept 4 straight by the Arkadelphia Swillies whilst I was away at an indisclosable location south of Zagreb , north of Split , east of Ljubliana and west of free hugs in Kiev , was indeed a funny joke - an optical illusion, almost. If you thought I was going to panic, you were mistaken. Croatian birds are the fittest on Earth and not even four straight losses against The Team To Beat is enough of a distraction. OR Aye, a tough choice but....not. So thanks for getting all those losses out of the way so I could enjoy something delicious like The Mets crushing their archrival, Hillybilly Scumbags of the Universe by a decidedly lopsided 6-run margin ... Yes, victory is sweet, especially over the Braves.... What this means in the larger scheme of things of course is uncertain. Was that really John Maine out there getting through his first pitching performance in a month that didn't involve a scatter-brained me...

It's becoming such an every day occurance you'd think it was almost fashionable for the Mets to build a lead for their starting pitcher only to see him exit and the bullpen to enter and the lead to be lost. Last night it was Brian Lawrence's turn. Not simply sufficient for the elder statesman to pitch 5 reasonably solid innings as the number 5 starter - four runs and four walks but at the plate, two hits on his own and two runs driven in. When he left the game for a pinch hitter in the 6th with a 7-4 lead. Of course to get there, they had to squander a 5 run lead for the third time in two nights. Of course, David Wright had to have an inopportune time for the yips, throwing away what should have been an inning-ending out and extending the miserable 8th inning beyond its shelf life. Once again, Willie's favourite play thing, the incomparable Guillermo Mota , was summoned from the pen to make the game exciting. Mota, in one inning nearly managed to give the lead back t...

In the first and last innings the Mets managed to score 10 runs. Between those innings virtually nothing happened between their bats and the balls thrown by Pirates pitching. And despite all that scoring it wasn't until Billy Wagner struck out Xavier Nady to finally shut the door once and for all on the evening, that the Mets could relax with another stressful victory over one of the laughingstocks of the league. (The displeasure of listening to the FSN Pittsburgh affiliates Greg Brown and Bob Walk drone on in mournful, depressing, utterly unexciting voices as though instead of a baseball game they were broadcasting a funeral - and all this despite playing in what by all sights appears to be a beautiful stadium...) Flawless but for the fatal first... You could perhaps be encouraged by John Maine's performance. After two consecutive appearances involved Maine Meltdowns one could be excused for feeling uncomfortable in the 2nd inning when he looked potentially to be in th...

How many games in a row can Jorge Sosa pitch? So far, four. And the last two have earned him victories, for himself and for the Mets. More victories in four games than he would have had in a month of starting. A total of 6 2/3 innings tossed, 8 hits and two earned runs. He's nearly obtained Aaron Heilman status when it comes to decisions by a relief pitcher. Call me crazy but is it a wise move to have your senior citizen starter like El Duque throw 130 pitches so late in the season against a team like the Pirates? Is the bullpen getting that dodgy? Something funny's going on - why else would Scott Schoeneweis be out there trying to give up the lead in the 8th inning? The rest of the pen was suffering from botulism? Or was he the only one available who could give up a long out to the warning track that Lastings Milledge could almost misjudge and then make an athletic diving catch to redeem himself? Is Willie trying hard to give us all a little excitement in our victor...

Didn't think you'd have to say this against the Marlins did you, but, good news, the Mets avoided a sweep. And making up for 2 consecutive blown saves the bullpen tossed 4 scoreless innings to hold the Marlins whilst power sources like Moises Alou (7 homers all season, 3 multi-homer games...) and Carlos Delgado (who was not robbed today for a change...) helped push the Mets up to 10 runs on the day allowing everyone to breath a sigh of relief. So for the moment everyone can put away their bulleye's and their scorecards and let those laments about the bullpen being their great undoing die mid-sentence. For a night, all is back to normal. Jose Reyes had a nice comeback on his own as well, one day after wrongly being called out at home plate he managed to kick the Marlins catcher "unintentionally" in the face, watch the ball squirt loose and avoided another fatal cock-up by the home plate umpire. All in all a redeeming day which almost made up for the long gaps ...

Oh, sure. We could go ahead and add Alfonso Marquez to the Blind Umpires of America Federation . But we already spent that loss, that pitiful John Maine meltdown in Chicago last weekend blaming an ump for the demise of the Mets and after awhile, the story just isn't going to be very credible. Yes, Marquez bleeeeeeeew a call at home, calling Jose Reyes out when he was clearly safe and cutting short a rally, stopping the Mets from taking the lead, emptying the Mets ballon of Momentum as if he'd just popped it with a pin and stuck a wad of Marlin 50 dollar bills in his back pocket. But more troubling still was the fact that for the second night in a row the bullpen failed to hold a lead, failed to secure a victory. You pick your poison: Guillermo Mota or Aaron Heilman . Willington send's Mota's lame offering to the bank Personally, I thought Mota's the more predictable and Heilman's 30 or 40 pitch screed the more antagonising. I was climbing the walls by th...