Not Again!

So... the Mets blew it again this afternoon, losing another close game to the Phillies. This time the final score was 11-10, and Billy Wagner the main scapegoat. Both starters fell apart early, and after an Aaron Sele implosion, the Mets trailed 8-5 after 7 innings. Fortunately, Antonio Alfonseca took the hill for Philly, so it was only a matter of time before the Mets scored 5 runs to take a 10-8 lead heading into Philly's half of the 8th. That's when everything got a little crazy.

I have to agree with Willie's decision to bring in Wagner to pitch the 8th. After all, it was the heart of the Philly order. Billy allowed a Burrell home run between strikeouts of Utley and Howard. Not great, but okay. The real argument is whether Willie should have let Wagner continue into the 9th or not. Despite the home run, the strikeouts seemed to show that he had his stuff, but they were lefty hitters who Billy has a natural advantage over. This is critical, because in the 9th, Billy's weakness was his failure to finish hitters. He got ahead of Werth only to allow a single. After Ruiz flied out, Wagner let Werth steal 2nd base. That hurt. I knew it was over when Werth stole 3rd. Talk about a team losing focus in a big moment. Lo Duca (who came on in the 8th after DiFelice was pinch hit for during the rally), and Wagner have to keep that runner as far from home as possible. Anyway, Iguchi fell behind, but singled anyway, stole 2nd (that's 3 STOLEN BASES IN ONE INNING VS A LEFTY) and scored after a Rollins intentional BB and an Utley single.

Mets good: ND Chavez (2/5 2 R, 2 RBI), D Wright (3/4, 2 R)
Mets bad: Wagner, Sele, El Duque were just awful

Phillies good: Burrell (2 HR), Howard (3/5, HR, 2 RBI), Werth (2/4, 2 SB)
Phillies bad: Lohse, Alfonseca were atrocious

Cause of loss: the Mets' bullpen continues to let them down again and again. It's worth noting that Schoenweis and Feliciano combined for a scoreless 2 and 1/3 innings, but such decency is worthless if the closer chokes, and that's exactly what happened here. Should Heilman have pitched the 9th? Tough to say, but it's hard to imagine this one finishing differently no matter who was pitching. The bullpen is just extremely soft right now. Obviously, El Duque and Sele contributed to this loss as well, but the terrible performances by Lohse and Alfonseca balanced it out, leaving Wagner seemingly responsible.

Meanwhile, the Yanks continue to pound out wins despite the annoying "rules" surrounding their stud soon-to-be starter Joba Chamberlain. You have to think that when things start to get really tight, Joba will be unleashed, but what about right now? After all, these games do count just as much as later ones, and I don't know how much more Kyle Farnsworth my Yankee fan friends can take. If they keep winning, it's not an issue, but as soon as an inferior middle reliever blows a game, it's going to get ugly.

In other news, Nintendo is going to have a great quarter thanks to the recent release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and the upcoming releases of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Although MP3 has already been unofficially crowned best game on Wii, the title may only last a couple of months. That's based on the impressions I've read on Super Mario Galaxy. It's really an exciting time to be a Nintendo fan. And that's without the year's most anticipated (IMHO) Wii title: Super Smash Bros. Brawl (the 3rd Smash game). Nintendo updates the site every weekday, and the game looks better and better every day.

That's it for tonight. Next time: the Mets visit Atlanta, and college football begins

The 2nd Blog Begins

I have a new rule for my life. Every time my favorite baseball team humiliates themselves 3 nights in a row in Philadelphia, I have to start the blog again.

Just don't worry about me. I've already got the regular instant messages. Dad already sent me the "I'm crying myself to sleep" message and annoying Philly fan number 553,224 sent me the "phillies won!!!1" message (yes there really was the "1" there. how good?).

Really, I'm over it. The bad guys are still 3 games up and The Duke is pitching again Philly's secret weapon Kyle Lohse. I'm perfectly okay with the fact that we lost because Marlon Anderson slid into Tad Iguchi too hard. It's fine. Really.

The part that PISSES ME OFF is Jose Reyes getting picked off TWICE in the same game. He cost us at least one run, and probably two. Finally Sosa gets some strikes across and we can't score any runs. FANTASTIC.

Recap
Mets good: Wright (2/3 and a homer), Sosa (2.0IP, 1H, 1K)
Mets bad: Castillo (0/4), Reyes (AARRRRGH!!!)

Phillies good: Rollins (2/4 and a homer), Moyer (6.0IP, 4K)
Phillies bad: Rowand (golden sombrero!), Myers (could've, should've, would've blown the save)

ONE MORE THING: Oliver struck out 10, but his 5 walks (one to Moyer!) and 2 HR killed the Mets. 10 Ks are great, but not when the K/BB rate is a pedestrian 2.

On a brighter note, I picked up Metroid Prime 3 on Tuesday. Pretty much every legit gaming publication (read: IGN and Nintendo Power) say it's the best game on Wii. If that doesn't get you excited... well you're probably not as nerdy as I am.

Anyway, I haven't got around to playing it yet, but I'm sure it will be a blast and a half.

So it's almost 2 am now. Next time (no idea when), it will be more Mets, more Phillies, something about those wonderful Joba Rules, and Nintendo's killer (to my GPA) fall lineup.