Ladies And Gentlemen, That Loud, Horrifying Noise You Heard...

...emanating late yesterday evening from Flushing Meadows, New York, was NOT, in fact, Hurricane Dolly having taken an unexpected turn; it was, in fact, the sound of the New York Mets' bullpen collapsing into itself with as hard a thud and as much thunder as the implosion of Shea Stadium, were there to be one.

That's right, folks; the Mets, going into the top of the ninth leading the Phillies by three runs, the score being 5 - 2, and without the availability of Billy Wagner due to off-and-on "shoulder spasms," blew the game courtesy of the bullpen, or more particularly, Duaner Sanchez, who just can't seem to get it right this year; Joe Smith, who really did his job, but Reyes didn't do his, and Pedro Feliciano, who just can't seem to get it right this year, either. Did I leave anyone out? And even if I did, what's the difference? The bullpen promptly coughed up six runs, and the Mets made a weak attempt to come back in the bottom of the ninth, scoring one run, but ultimately falling two runs short.

They were probably in SHOCK, much like the entire nation of Mets fans.

And again, a very good Santana start turns out like crap, and I'm thinking to myself, man, this phucking sucks.

This really hurts, this loss. We finally manage to pull ourselves out of the NL gutter and claim a share of first place, and again, we seem to be playing one up, one down baseball. After the All-Star break, the team, particularly the pitching, just looked dazed and confused, which seems to be continuing, without abatement. Monday, I asked - is the honeymoon with Jerry Manuel over? I don't know, but I see signs of the team going back to its .500 ways, and finding new and inventive and not-so-inventive ways to lose games.

It really galls me, too, to lose to the Phillies, especially when Jimmy Rollins has a big hand in handing us the loss.

Talk about demoralizing... I'm going to very curious to see what happens the rest of this series.

And I'm starting to think -- does somebody have it in for Santana? And as Joe Janish at Mets Today said, why couldn't Santana pitch the ninth inning, especially since Wagner was unavailable... the answers to these and other burning questions, I do not know, but what I do know is I'll be right back in front of the television tonight, hoping for a share of redemption....