Mets continue to unravel

7/5/09
carlos beltran
By Pete Catapano

Mets continue to unravel

Photo credit: Game Face

Mets catcher Omir Santos, front, watches Philadelphia Phillies' Paul Bako scores on a single by Shane Victorino on Saturday. (AP photo)

By Pete Catapano

It may be only the halfway point of the season, but Mets fans are fully frustrated.

The team entered the season with a shiny new ballpark and great expectations, but the Mets are coming apart with eight losses in the last 10 games, including a sweep to the rival Phillies over the weekend in which they Amazin’s scored just three runs.

How to save the season is anyone’s guess.

“They’re playing like a minor league team,” Luis Manuel Ortiz, 27, a Met fan from Harlem said after the team’s disheartening 2-0 loss to the Phillies yesterday.

And things probably won’t get easier soon for the Mets. Now a season-high three games below .500 at 39-42, the Mets start a three-game series with the league-best Dodgers tomorrow.

One person was so fed up yesterday he proposed on the team’s official message board that fans boycott a game at Citi Field by not entering the stadium until the third inning and wearing signs that say “enough” in blue letters.“We need to figure things out and get going,” said the Mets’ All-Star third baseman, David Wright, who went 0-for-11 in the series against the Phillies.

While the team has been decimated by injuries to its star players, it had stayed in contention with grit, some good pitching and the fortunes of being in a mediocre division.

However, the team has unraveled in recent weeks with embarrassingly bad defense and other head-scratching moments.

In fact, ESPN radio host and Yankees broadcaster, Michael Kay, said that manager Jerry Manuel’s decision to throw a pitch to Derek Jeter instead of walking him immediately with a pitcher on deck during the Mets’ recent series against their crosstown rival was a “fireable offense.” Kay, however, insisted that he didn’t say Manuel should be fired, according to the Daily News.

Manuel now has been at the helm of the team for just over a year, taking over last June, after the Mets wobbled through the first half of the season under manager Willie Randolph. While questions have been raised about how effective Manuel has been, there has not been the same outcry for his dismissal that lead to Randolph’s firing.

“I cannot blame Jerry Manuel for what’s happened, because he’s not playing with a full roster,” said John Strubel, writer for Mets online magazine Flushing9.com.

As far as the errors go, it’s hard to find an explanation for the on field miscues.

“They can’t make the most fundamental plays on a day-to-day basis,” Strubel said.

But fans aren’t ready to give up with their team just four games out of first place.

“We’re halfway through the season. I’m hoping we don’t lose, but I’m not expecting much,” said fan Nes Martinez, 21, of midtown.

Anastasia Economides contributed to this story.
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carlos beltran

Mets continue to unravel

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