The Mets/Braves game was washed out on Friday, which turned out to be the highlight of the weekend for the New Yorkers.
Saturday's game started out fairly well, with the Mets tying the game at 1-1 in the second on an Angel "Godless" Pagan fielder's choice. The game proceeded squarely downhill after that, and never recovered. John Maine nearly wriggled out of a jam in the 3rd, but then gave up a two-out two-run single to Matt Diaz. He yielded another two-out RBI hit in the 4th, this time to Mark Teixeira, to make it 4-1.
The Mets briefly made a comeback, getting to within one run at 4-3 on a RBI single by Reyes and a run-scoring groundout by Castillo. Maine gave way to Joe Smith, who along with Scott Schoeneweis gave up another run in the 6th to make it 5-3. It looked like the Mets might do some damage off reliever Pete Moylan when Brian Schneider and pinch-hitter Endy Chavez both reached base in the 7th, but the top of the order fizzled out the rally, and Jorge Sosa came in to pitch the bottom of the 7th.
Since Sosa had a nice outing last time, I was pretty much prepared for the worst this time, and the worst pretty much occurred. It wasn't all Sosa's fault, only mostly. Brian McCann hit a double up the gap with one out, and then Jeff Francoeur popped up to short right for what should have been out number two. Reyes went back on it, Pagan came in, and Pagan failed to call off Reyes, who turned his back to the field and completely lost the ball. It fell in for a single, moving McCann to third. Fill-in second basemen Martin Prado drew an unconscionable walk, and was followed by pinch-hitter Kelly Johnson, the real second baseman. Johnson showed why he is the regular, hitting a pinch-hit grand slam deep into the right field stands, effectively ending the game. It did for me, anyway, as I turned it off and got on with my life. The Mets added a couple of runs off of Royce Ring, and the Braves followed with a couple off of Nelson Figueroa to make the final 11-5.
Sunday's game matched aces John Smoltz and Johan Santana. The two pitchers posted zeroes until the bottom of the third, when Yunel Escobar doubled in Mark Kotsay to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Smoltz was finished after 5 shutout innings, and once again I had some hopes that the Mets could have some fun with the Braves bullpen, but it wasn't to be. Blaine Boyer, Pete Moylan, and Will Ohman, not exactly names to be feared, held the Mets scoreless for three innings. Meanwhile, Aaron Heilman relieved a valiant Santana and gave up a two-run bomb to Teixeira in the 8th to put the game out of reach. Braves closer Rafael Soriano allowed a meaningless two-out run in the 9th for the 3-1 final. Luckily, I missed the ending because I attended a San Antonio Missions game with another owner in my Strat league who, moved here last year. They also lost, but I would recommend picking up Dexter Fowler from the Rockies' organization in your next draft.
The losses dropped the Mets to 2-3, a half-game back of the Braves and Marlins. The Phillies did not distinguish themselves over the weekend either, losing two of three to Cincinnati. We get the Phils at home tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday after an off-day today. Mike Pelfrey gets the Tuesday start, and thank goodness it's not at Citizen's Bank Park. ESPN has Figueroa starting against Milwaukee on Friday night. Wow, this is not looking very pleasant. I'm starting to resign myself to a .500 season if Pedro stays on the DL or is as ineffective as he was for the three-plus innings he did pitch. And I'm also thinking that .500 might be good enough to make the playoffs in this very poor division.
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