Subway Series: Mets Can't Fight the Power

The world didn't end last night, so the Yankees moving into first place by beating the Mets will have to do. The Yankees got only seven hits, but four of them were homers, leading some to suggest that the Yankees are an all or nothing team.

But I wish the Mets had such problems. Brett Gardner has more homers than last night's cleanup hitter, Jason Bay. And while Bay clearly doesn't belong in that spot, nobody else on the active roster does either.

So the current Mets lineup goes only as far as their pitching takes them, and last night Chris Capuano didn't take them very far. Capuano had been pitching well as of late, allowing only two earned runs in each of his last three starts, but that only got his ERA down to 4.78, and it's now 5.36 after last night's homer barrage. And it's not as if he's that much better at home - his Citi Field ERA is 5.04.

Today's rubber game will be a good test for the Mets' pitching staff. Mike Pelfrey has a 5.11 ERA and 1.54 WHIP for the season, but after a disastrous start, his May ERA is 2.11 and his WHIP is 0.98.

But when Pelfrey pitched against the Yankees at the Stadium last June, he allowed homers to Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson. Not a good omen when Granderson is doing so well and Teixeira already has a homer in each game of this series (and a homer in the Baltimore game before that).

So Squawker Lisa, I hope I'm wrong about my prediction that the Mets would take just one of three, but it looks to be an uphill battle for the erratic Pelfrey and the Mets' makeshift lineup.

Lisa and I want to send our best wishes to Gary Carter and his family, and we are hoping and praying for a good outcome.

Mets Opening Day: It Could Have Been Worse

I was skeptical of Terry Collins batting Willie Harris second on Opening Day, but it turned out to be the right move. Too bad the main thing it achieved was breaking up a no-hitter in the seventh inning.

There's no shame in being shut down by Josh Johnson, one of the best pitchers in baseball and a longtime Met killer, but a no-hitter on Opening Day would have been a disastrous way to start the year. Even before the game, when Collins wrote in Friday's letter to Met fans, "I stack our lineup against anyone else's in the league," I had to wonder what league he was talking about.

As for Mike Pelfrey, I'm a fan - I even got a Pelfrey T-shirt last year, (which coincided with him going into his midseason slump). At the time, Pelfrey, the ninth overall pick in the 2005 amateur draft, looked headed for the All-Star game. Pelfrey has the potential to be an ace.

But I'm tired of hearing all the talk of how he's now an ace and what an honor and responsibility it is to start on Opening Day. And how he has to face all the other aces going forward, as if there's no such thing as off days and rainouts. Pelfrey did not earn this position, but was given it because of Johan Santana's injury.

We haven't heard much about Brad Emaus being the starting second baseman because he didn't earn that role in spring training, but won it by being the least bad alternative. Or, more likely, being a Rule 5 who would have to be returned to Toronto if he didn't stay on the roster. And the fact that J.P. Ricciardi drafted him in Toronto didn't hurt, either.

Expectations are low with Emaus, so anything he does will be a plus. And he has the opposite situation as the player who follows a superstar - as I wrote yesterday, Emaus has the advantage of following Luis Castillo.

Even if the Mets concede Pelfrey is not an ace, Friday's game was still disappointing - Pelfrey couldn't get out of the fifth inning. But it's still just one game. And it's still good to have baseball back.

Forget A-Rod's 600 - Mets achieve their own milestone: .500

Last night, the New York Mets became proud members of the .500 club. The Mets Hall of Fame asked for a game ball, but when Jose Reyes tried to toss one into the dugout, it ended up in the stands. David Wright then sidearmed a game ball toward the dugout, but it went down the line.

The Mets are currently negotiating with a Braves' security guard who ended up with the ball used to make the final out. They have offered him the bat held by Jeff Francoeur when he took a four-pitch walk Tuesday night, an autographed picture of Carlos Beltran's knee brace and lunch with Oliver Perez.

The Mets actually got to .500 on Monday night, but before they could properly commemorate the occasion, Francoeur went and spoiled everything with a dramatic game-winning homer off of ex-Met Billy Wagner that gave the team false hope that they could get back in the race.

But they say that momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher, and Mike Pelfrey was able to set things right with another disastrous outing.

Well aware of what was at stake, the Mets did their best to make it a historic night. When was the last time that every member of the Mets' usually sure-handed infield made an error EXCEPT for Luis Castillo?

Pelfrey brought his "A" game, the one where A stands for "atrocious." For the fifth time in his last seven starts, Pelfrey failed to make it past the fifth inning.

But it was Jerry Manuel who most rose to the occasion. The Braves had runners on first and third and two out in the fifth inning with Brian McCann coming up. It was still a tight game - the Mets only trailed by 3-2.

The conventional move would have been to walk McCann, who already had two extra-base hits in the game, including a homer his last time up. For the season, McCann was now 5-for-9 against Pelfrey, a .555 batting average. For his career, McCann was 17-for-36 against Pelfrey, a batting average of .472.

Behind McCann was Eric Hinske, who had not had a hit in August and, after last night's game, is hitting .220 since the All-Star break.

Oh, and Hinske, unlike McCann, is not an All-Star.

At Sunday's Mets Hall of Fame ceremony, Davey Johnson was praised for being one of the first managers to pay attention to the numbers. But what chance do numbers have against Jerry Manuel's gut? And Manuel's gut said to pitch to McCann, who promptly delivered his third extra-base hit of the night - a run-scoring double. The game was out of reach soon after that.

McCann's double raised his career BA against Pelfrey to .486 and his 2010 BA against Pelfrey to .600. Take that, A-Rod - you weren't the only one to reach 600 yesterday.

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Exactly one year ago today, a Met team decimated by injuries trailed the wild-card leading Giants by 8 1/2 games.

Today, the much-healthier Mets trail the wild-card leading Giants by 8 games.

The Pelfrey Shirt

When I bought my Mike Pelfrey shirt to wear to the Subway Series game at Yankee Stadium, Big Pelf was 9-1 with an ERA of 2.39.

Since I got my shirt, Pelfrey is 1-4 with a 9.11 ERA.

Maybe I need to bury the shirt underneath the new Yankee Stadium, where it all began.

Or maybe I can bury it with the Mets' playoff chances, which are rapidly diminishing.

I love it how people who have been demanding that the Mets add a pitcher when the rotation was doing well only increase the demand when things start to fall apart. As if trading for a Jake Westbrook is going to make up for Pelfrey's collapse.

The Mets' primary pitching need is to figure out what is wrong with Pelfrey.

Other organizations have pitching gurus at the major league level as well as in the minors. The Tigers sent down Max Scherzer, Armando Galarraga and Rick Porcello. All have returned with improved results.

Dan Warthen must be doing something right, considering how good the starting pitching has been much of the year, but he doesn't seem to have the answers when things go wrong.

Unless Pelfrey has an injury, which we'll never knew for sure the way Jerry Manuel continues to be in denial on injuries.

Last night, Pelfrey gave up six runs in just 1 2/3 innings. Here's how bad he was - that was a worse start than any of Oliver Perez' this year.

On Sunday, I wrote that Ruben Tejada had done the impossible - make Luis Castillo look like an upgrade, at least at the plate.

I hope Pelfrey never makes Ollie look like an upgrade, but he has done something almost as impossible - make a potential Ollie start less scary. Ollie can't do any worse than last night's debacle. At least I hope not.