Not Atlanta

So Atlanta comes to town and promptly takes the first game of the series against the Mets. On the positive side, the Mets can actually lose all three and they will still be in first place when the Braves leave town. After that, the Mets have an easier schedule than the Braves.

Now for the frustrating part. With the exception of last year, the Atlanta Braves have owned the Mets. The Mets have been able to do little with them over the past decade, as well as this year (now 3-7 against the Braves this year) and as a Met fan, it is frustrating. Certainly the Mets match up better than this, yet they cannot handle the Braves.

Oliver Perez did not have it last night and he is the only Met pitcher to beat the Braves this year. We got the weakest pitcher they are throwing at us yesterday. Now we have to face Smoltz and Hudson. I am not looking forward to the next couple of games.

As far as the Mets offense, they started to come back. After Atlanta took a 6-0 lead, the Mets did something right; they did not try to get all of them back in one inning, a run here, two there, and the deficit was cut in half. The problem was they needed to keep going and they could not do it.

Hopefully the Mets can come back tonight. Hopefully they finish in first. Still, and I hate to say this, while the Mets are the first place team, do they really deserve to be there if they are being man-handled by the Braves. Yes, there are more games to go. Yes, you technically can lose all the games in a season you play against another team and still finish in first. As far as I am concerned though, it is cheap.

This was one of the major faults I had with Bobby Valentine. He was not able to fire up the team when they played the Braves. Last year it appeared Willie Randolph did that, he had the Mets fired up to play Atlanta. Now they look lack-luster again. I do not know what Willie has to do, but he needs to get them fired up to play the Braves, and for the rest of the season. Hopefully he can!

Let’s Go Mets!


PS Look, a Bonds-free post.