Weekly Recap: June 5-11

Good morning to all you in the States. It's about 5:00 over here in Ireland, and this is a first for me in many ways: the first overseas Midwestern Met post, as well as the first post of a weekly recap variety. Being five hours ahead of EDT, watching the game every night is basically impossible with all that's going on here. And frankly, the way things have been going this past week, I'm kind of glad I wasn't around to see it live. Here's what's happened on the week that's been in Mets baseball.

Team Record: 1-5 (32-29 overall)
June 5-7, Nationals Series: L, 1-2
June 8-10, Yankees Series: L, 0-3

The Bad Stuff:

• You wanna try everything? Whether it's been the offense, defense, starters, relievers, it all fell flat for the Amazin's this week.
• Five, count 'em, 5 errors in 2 games cost the Mets in Washington, including two at shortstop in the 10th by Jordany Valdespin that helped extend the first game. Two more Es helped the team blow a 3-0 lead in the final game of the Subway Series.
• I could go on, but frankly, it's just depressing. Let's get to the one redeeming quality of the week.

The Good Stuff:

• The Mets have their medic, one Robert Allen Dickey, who came in to stop the bleeding and salvage the final game of the Nationals series with 7.1 scoreless innings and 8 strikeouts. He has now surpassed his Win total from the entirety of last season and leads the league with 9 Ws to his name. Dickey has solidified himself as the Ace of the staff and is now on the shortlist of starters for the NL All-Star team.
• Yesterday (Monday) was a day off, so no Bad Stuff could happen.

Final Analysis:
After reaching a high last weekend with Johan Santana's no-hitter, New York fans hit the ground and bounced like a dead cat this week. The team is now just above .500 and 5 games out of first place in the NL East. While they're still a long way from last (the Phillies took a similar nosedive), the optimism of last weekend has all but dissipated.

What I see from this week is a team has a razor-thin margin of error. The Mets were winning when everything went right, and they tend to lose when a couple things blow up, especially with the gloves and the bullpen. If this team fires on all cylinders, they will win; they're good enough. But if something fails during the course of the game, something will have to give on the other side, a.k.a. the other team has to make a mistake.

That being said, things don't get any easier this week with series in Tampa Bay and hosting Cincinnati, so those cylinders are gonna have to start firing quickly.

MM

But that's not all!

Irish Pics of the Week:

The Rathmines neighborhood, just outside of Dublin, where I'm living and going to class.

Christchirst Cathedral in Dublin, where they film The Tudors

The Irish President's house in Phoenix Park...look familiar?

The Gravity Bar on top of the Guinness Factory, complete with an overview of all of Dublin. There's mountains back there, who knew?

Rody Bolands pub in Rathmines, everyone's getting set for the Ireland-Croatia EURO 2012 match. The Irish, much like the Mets this week, fell flat, losing 3-1.

Oh by the way, that above was the second floor of the pub. This is the first floor. Absolutely packed, a wonderful atmosphere.

So that's what I've been up to this week. Check back next Monday for another recap and more pictures.

LGM,

WD