Game #17: Astros 6, Mets 1

I believe it was the Pretenders who sang, "Back on the Chain Gang." Such is the case for those M-E-T-S Mets.

Key fielding mistakes, plus a balk, led to multiple Houston runs and Wandy Rodriguez tied the New York offense up in knots all night long, giving the Astros a 6-1 victory in front of 27,032 Mets faithful.

The Bad Stuff:
Where to even begin?
The previously winless Wandy Rodriguez, whose ERA before this one was 7.31, somehow managed to hold us to 1 run and 3 hits in 7 innings of work. NY managed to get one more in the 9th, but by then it was a cause more lost than Lost. No Mets regulars are batting .300 at this point, and our supposed "star," David Wright, is barely over the Mendoza Line (.239).
This was supposed to be a matchup of the cellar-dwellers of the National League, so how did the score end up so lopsided? Three words: Hot Potato Bullpen. Jon Niese had a halfway-decent outing: 2 runs in 6 innings (the 5 walks were something to be worried about, but it didn't hurt too much). A run came in on a Scott Hariston fielding error in the 7th. Then the certain brown stuff hit the certain rotating device. Ryota Igarashi loaded the bases and then Bobby Parnell balked in a run, with two more coming in on the same at-bat when Angel Sanchez singled.

The Good Stuff:
Carlos Beltran managed a solo home run in the 7th to knock Rodriguez out of the game.
As bad as the offense is, it's probably not gonna be as bad as Seattle's historically inept team from last year.

Final Analysis:
If there was any kind of momentum from Sunday's win in Atlanta, that got sucked out like a vacuum the instant the Astros arrived at Citi Field. Now there's no questioning it: the Mets are the worst team in the National League. They have the record, and now they have an embarrassing performance against a pitcher who even after this outing has an ERA over 5.

It's getting to almost be Casey Stengal time: "Can't anybody here play this game?" Of course, that came from the Amazin's first year, 1962. That team went 40-120, the worst modern day record ever. At least that team had a Hall of Famer (Richie Ashburn). What do we got?

MM