Too many games like this

If this was a rarity, you'd just chalk it up as 'one of those games'. But, the Mets seem to play one of these per week - at least.

Seeing as the injuries to Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez were always going to happen, it is pretty clear the Mets were short on starting pitching from Opening Day. For the first few starts, Nelson Figueroa was a fine fill-in, but it seems like his time is done. He had a couple of really good starts at Shea, but he's now reverted to what, really, we should have been expecting all along.

The problem is not just Figueroa, but the fact that the Mets' starters - other than Maine - regularly go fewer than 7 innings. And, that includes Santana, who should be able to go 8 in the NL.

And that leads to another big problem for the Mets - that Jorge Sosa is simply not that good, but the rest of the bullpen is not able or not used for longer stings. In a game like last night's the Mets needed Sosa to come in and shut the Nationals down for 2 innings. Didn't happen, but worse is that it pretty much never happens.

Another lost night

*****

I would love to see a chart examining the relationship between temperature and Mets' performance. I really think this team doesn't like the weather cool or cold and last night it was cold. Those old bones ...

I know there is a lot of dissatisfaction with Wayne Hagin among those who comment at Metsblog, but he's not as bad as many of those people say. He had me laughing in the 8th when Howie used the word juxtapose with regards to the 'who to send down' issue when Matt Wise returns. Wayne said that Smith's performance was his way of telling Howie to "juxtapose this".

During the 9th Howie said the crowd looked like a crowd from mid-summer 1979. I guess it was pretty empty because back then Shea was a ghost town.

Not sure what was going on with last night's broadcast, but the sound kept fading in and out. I hope it was only a blip (maybe due to the cold weather?).