The Game

After compiling a five game winning streak last week, the New York Mets have now lost five of their last six games as they dropped a 6-3 decision to the Atlanta Braves at a depressing Shea Stadium on Friday night.

This one was just too frustrating for words so it’ll be brief. The New York offense looked like a group of guys suffering from jet lag after traveling through four cities in five days. The Mets could only manage two hits, I’ll repeat, two hits against Atlanta’s 22 year-old rookie Jair Jurrjens. After falling behind 1-0 in the first, the Mets managed to score three third inning runs against Jurrjens on a series of sharply hit line drives and towering home runs that got the home crowd rocking.*

*Ok, I made that up, but the Mets did score three third inning runs on, wait for it, three consecutive bases loaded walks by Jurrjens. After throwing 45 pitches in the third inning, it was only a matter of time before the Mets offense would knock him out of the game and take advantage of a struggling Atlanta bullpen. But, alas, these are the 2008 Mets. The New York offense wouldn’t be heard from again as they would be held hitless over the final six frames by Jurrjens (whom the Mets somehow allowed to get through six innings) and four relievers.

After battling through a tough first inning while only allowing one run, Mike Pelfrey took the hill in the top of the fourth with a two run lead. That lead was trimmed to one on a Kelly Johnson sac fly in the fourth. That lead disappeared in the fifth thanks to a Jeff Francoeur two out game tying double. And, in the sixth, Pelfrey put the Mets behind for good thanks to Jair Jurrjens first major league hit and Kelly Johnson’s two run homer. Johnson added an RBI single in the seventh and ended the game with the same amount of hits and one more RBI than the entire Mets team had on the night.

There is plenty of blame to be passed around. For the second straight night, a Met pitcher failed to get through six innings after being staked to a lead. The Big 3 in the Met lineup each went hitless. Jose Reyes is now batting .247 on the year, Carlos Beltran is batting .221, and David Wright is now down to .284 after putting together a hitless week.

In short, this Mets team looks lost. They look like a team that is clearly still feeling the ill effects of last September’s collapse. They are not getting clutch hitting, quality pitching, or solid defense (Reyes committed his third error of the week on Friday). But, on the bright side, the captain of the sinking ship remains positive, if not in complete denial. “I don’t think it’s a slump at all. Sometime you sputter as a group,” Mets manager Willie Randolph said. “We’ve got to kind of pick each other up and find a way to put the total game together so we can get rolling a little bit. We will. We will get going.” Sounds an awful lot like the Randolph of September ‘07. Thankfully the champagne is gonna taste that much sweeter when the Mets and John Maine beat the Braves’ Tim Hudson on Saturday afternoon at Shea.

The Haiku

Bases loaded walks
are nice; so are timely hits
and a few home runs

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Chuck Buono
Haiku by Howard Megdal