Month in Review is MetsGeek’s monthly state of the Mets address, examining every aspect of the team’s performance over the last thirty days. You may find our previous installments from this season here: April and May.

The Mets had an extremely impressive May, going 19-9 and shutting down nearly every team who stood in their way. But as soon as the calendar turned, so did the Mets’ fortunes. The Mets performed terribly in June, going just 12-15, saved only by a string of victories at the end of the month against the Athletics, Cardinals, and Phillies. It was a difficult month competition-wise, as they caught six of the seven other teams who appeared in the 2006 postseason, plus other difficult opponents like the Diamondbacks and Phillies.

Team-by-team splits:

Team               W     L    RS    RA
Arizona            1     2     9    10
Detroit            1     2    17    23
Los Angeles        0     3     5    18
Minnesota          1     2    10    16
New York           1     2    12    19
Oakland            3     0    20     3
Philadelphia       3     3    26    24
St. Louis          2     1     7     6

Home/road:

Split         W     L    RS    RA
Home          7     8    53    49
Away          5     7    53    70

In terms of wins and losses, there wasn’t much of a difference, but the Mets outscored their opponents at Shea this month, but were outscored significantly on the road. Run differential splits:

Split           W     L
1 run           3     1
2-3 runs        4     8
4-5 runs        1     2
6+ runs         4     4

Strangely, the results were skewed toward 2-3 run games and blowouts. And while you might have expected that the Mets got blown out often, they trounced their opponents just as often.

Comings: Ricky Ledee
Goings: Chan Ho Park (released), David Newhan, Ben Johnson

Injuries: Endy Chavez

Stat                            May     June
Runs Scored:                    127      106
Runs Allowed:                   112      119
Team OBA:                      .341     .308
Team SLG:                      .411     .409
Team BA with RISP:             .279     .236
Opponents’ OBA:                .294     .314
Opponents’ SLG:                .386     .402
Opponents’ BA with RISP:       .230     .254
Starters’ ERA:                 3.60     3.98
Starters’ K/9:                  6.0      6.0
Starters’ BB/9:                 3.2      3.0
Starters’ HR/9:                1.04     0.98
Relievers’ ERA:                4.02     4.68
Relievers’ K/9:                 7.7      7.9
Relievers’ BB/9:                3.2      3.0
Relievers’ HR/9:               1.38     1.02

The offense really let the team down in June. The pitching actually wasn’t much worse than in May when they went 19-9, particularly when you look closely at peripherals. Homers and walks allowed were down, and strikeouts slightly up. But the team’s OBA fell a whopping 33 points and the team didn’t do well with runners on base. As a result, they scored 21 fewer runs than in May.

Longest Winning Streak: 4 (twice: 6/22-6/25; 6/27-6/30)

Longest Losing Streak: 5 (6/9-6/13)

I’d imagine it’s difficult to have a losing month when you have two winning streaks of four games. Hey, when it rains, it pours.

Pitchers “Beaten”: (Not necessarily the pitcher who took the loss) Livan Hernandez, Chad Durbin, Roger Clemens, Carlos Silva, Lenny DiNardo, Joe Blanton, Joe Kennedy, Mike Maroth, Anthony Reyes, J.D. Durbin, Cole Hamels, J.A. Happ

Pitchers “Beaten by”: (Again, not necessarily the pitcher who got the win) Brandon Webb, Doug Davis, Jamie Moyer, Adam Eaton, Cole Hamels, Jeremy Bonderman, Andrew Miller, Randy Wolf, Hong-Chih Kuo, Brad Penny, Tyler Clippard, Chien-Ming Wang, Johan Santana, Scott Baker, Todd Wellemeyer

There are some very good pitchers in that second list. It wasn’t an easy month at all.

Best Hitter:In a dreadful month for the Mets’ offense, David Wright had the best month by far. He hit .323/.411/.583 with six homers, sixteen RBI, and seven stolen bases. Jose Reyes also had a nice month, hitting .330/.405/.425 with ten steals. May winner: Paul Lo Duca

Worst Hitter: Terrible. Awful. Hideous. Atrocious. These are words that can be used to describe the months Carloses Delgado and Beltran had during June. However, Shawn Green’s was worse. Green put up a miserable .182/.229/.318 over 67 at bats. While it’s certainly understandable given his injury, it doesn’t negate the fact that it happened.May winner: Carlos Delgado

Best Pitcher: John Maine takes the prize for the second time this year. Maine went 3-2 with a 2.66 ERA. His strikeouts fell a little, and his homers allowed rose, but most importantly he walked just four batters over 40.6 June innings, providing a bright spot for the Mets’ pitching staff.May winner: Oliver Perez

Worst Pitcher: Tom Glavine. Mr. 297 didn’t have a spectacular month in June, going 2-2 with a 5.83 ERA over 29.3 innings. He struck out just 3.68 guys per nine innings, while walking 3.07. While those peripherals aren’t too out of character for Glavine, he did allow four homers over that same span, which is a tad too many. He actually had three good starts in there, but there were two abysmal starts also, and no one else really stood out. May winner: Scott Schoeneweis

Best Pitching Performance: For such a terrible month, the Mets had a number of fine pitching performances, particularly games from Jorge Sosa, Tom Glavine, and John Maine. In the end, I’ll pick Sosa’s June 8th start against the Tigers, though it was a tight call over John Maine’s last start of the month. Sosa threw eight shutout innings, allowing just three singles and a double to Placido Polanco. He struck out five and walked two. Considering the competition, it was an excellent start. May winner: Oliver Perez

Best Defensive Play: Carlos Gomez has won over many with his speed in the outfield, and he made a number of outstanding plays in left and right fields in June. The best came against the Cardinals on the 27th. The ball was hit to the left field corner, and Gomez actually outran the ball a little, but recovered by leaping up and back toward the fence to make the play. A tremendous example of how natural ability and instinct can come together. May winner: Jose Reyes

Biggest Surprise: I have to admit, I’m taken with Gomez. While we all knew Gomez was fast and could play defense, I was quite surprised with how well he played in June. I was skeptical about Gomez’s chances at succeeding this quickly on the big league roster due to the fact that he had yet to put up a big performance at any minor league level for longer than a couple months at a time. However, in June he hit .299/.351/.403 with seven steals while providing solid outfield defense. It’s not great for a corner outfielder, but it’s more than I thought he’d do. May winner: Oliver Perez

Biggest Disappointment: Joe Smith. I think it says a lot about the job Joe Smith did over the first two months of the season that he’d classify as the biggest disappointment of June. He was just terrible over the month, walking more than he struck out. And he struck out 7.39 batters per nine innings. The good news for Smith is that we’re all entitled to a bad eight innings here and there, and he didn’t allow a homerun. May winner: Carlos Beltran

Luckiest Player: Tom Glavine, who got the Mets’ first complete game and first shutout of the season despite pitching only six innings. Complete game shutouts don’t come much easier than that. May winner: Aaron Heilman

Unluckiest Player: Billy Wagner has quietly had a tremendous season, and he had another great month in June. However he got just three saves to show for his trouble, as there were very few save opportunities due to the Mets’ propensity for winning only when they blow the other team out. May winner: Jose Reyes

What’s in Store for July: The Mets started off July by finishing up their four-game series with the Phillies. They continued their road trip with a three-game set in Denver, followed by four with the Houston Astros. The All-Star Game follows, but play resumes on the 12th with four games against the Reds at Shea Stadium before the Mets hit the West Coast again with seven games against San Diego and Los Angeles. The Mets return home on the 24th to host the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals. A doubleheader against the latter is scheduled for the 28th. The Mets close out the month with a trip to Milwaukee.

One July event that’s always interesting is the trade deadline. The Mets will be linked to almost everyone imaginable, but don’t expect Minaya to do too much. There aren’t a lot of attractive options out there at the moment, particularly with regards to the Mets’ most glaring problem, offense. Excepting injury, the Mets don’t really need a starter, especially with Pedro Martinez due to return in August. Expect a deal for a bullpen arm or maybe some bench depth but little else.

References:
Stats are courtesy of David Pinto’s Day-by-Day Database and the Hardball Times, as always.

You can see Gomez’s catch at Mets.com’s Top Plays archive.