The Game

In the second game of this day-night doubleheader, the Mets took on Sidney Ponson, the most recent addition to the New York Yankees starting rotation. Somehow, the Mets let Ponson get away with walking four batters within the first three innings of the game, and never scored. That’s right, they never scored at all in this game. Watching this game was like watching Tim Couch beat the Jets in 2002; it simply should not have happened at any cost. The Mets disgustingly left the bases loaded in the second and third innings, and the Yankees never looked back, earning Ponson his first victory in his second go-around with the Yanks.

Pedro Martinez took the hill for the Mets last night, knowing that a doubleheader sweep of the New York Yankees would do wonders for the confidence of the team, as a win would propel the Amazin’s over .500 for the first time since June 5th. Instead, that jerk Pedro Martinez decided to give up six earned runs over 5.2 innings. Martinez never really pitched well after the third inning, and was no match for the excellent Yankees lineup. It wouldn’t have mattered if Martinez threw a perfect game, the Mets provided him with no offense against the seemingly flawless Sidney Ponson.

Ponson exited after six innings, and on came Kyle Farnsworth. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Milo, don’t even begin to tell me that the Mets didn’t score at least ONE run off of Kyle Farnsworth! Seriously, I’ll leave right now if that’s the case.” Well the Mets didn’t, as for the first time in his nine year career, Farnsworth worked a scoreless frame. After Farnsworth left in jubilation over his milestone achievement, Jose Veras came on just to further embarrass this harmless Mets team.

By the way, did anyone else have the same hallucination that Kei Igawa was still pitching with the Yankees, as recently as last night?

The very Mets fans who paid hundreds of dollars to watch this competitive match-up had to endure a dreadful game, with the offense showing no fight at all, and Pedro Martinez with Scott Schoeneweis giving the team no shot to win. I don’t care how bad the Philadelphia Phillies play until the All-Star break, the Mets cannot be considered a playoff caliber team until they put up a record above .500.

Also, if this game proved anything its that the Mets are still one big bat away from having a stellar lineup. Ramon Castro, Endy Chavez and Christopher Trotman Nixon (I just like typing that out) are nice role players, but a team doesn’t have enough pop if players like those need to be so heavily relied on. Ryan Church’s return will help immensely, but I’d still love to see a Jason Bay or an Xavier Nady added to this Mets team. To turn the 2008 Mets into a consistently above average offensive team, I think that Omar Minaya will have to bring in another right handed bat at the trading deadline.

On Saturday, two veteran lefties will duel, as Johan Santana will take on Andy Pettitte in the third of this four game series. The Mets are currently three games behind in the NL East, and need to win tomorrow to return to the .500 mark.

The Haiku

Sir Sidney is grand
Casts huge shadow over Shea
And eats Mets for lunch

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Milo Taibi
Haiku by Howard Megdal