I didn't see any of this game so I won't pretend that I did. Judging by the boxscore and the game thread it appears to have been more of the same, but I'll leave it up to you guys to fill in the blanks. Or Cabbage Head.

Big winners: David Wright, +43.4% WPA, Joe Smith, +34.7% WPA
Big losers: Scott Schoeneweis, -27.1% WPA, Argenis Reyes, -19.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Wright the hero, +43.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Effing Gerut, -34.6% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +13.8%
Total batter WPA: +36.2%

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by LOUtheMETfan; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

Fact: the Mets bullpen has fallen apart over the past week or so, hemorrhaging runs like a wound that just won't clot, regardless of how much dirt you rub in it or makeshift bandages you fashion out of paper bags and slug guts. A lot of theories have been floated that purport to explain the recent underwhelming play of the relief corps, from fatigue to poor supporting defense just regular crappiness. I just wanted to take a quick look at the state of the bullpen to see if they've really been overworked, or whether it's something else.

Dan Scotto made his case for improving the infield defense, particularly the right side, where Carlos Delgado has lead boots and Damion Easley doesn't quite move around like he used to. Anecdotally speaking, David Wright and Jose Reyes haven't been spectacular this year, but they've been at least decent and, well, they're not going anywhere. There's a little room for negotation at first and second, especially in the late innings, where maybe a run or two could be saved here and there. As Dan points out, the Mets' bullpen is chock full of groundball pitchers, which are an asset when your fielders are adept and less so when they're sluggardly oafs.

The idea that the Mets' starting rotation hasn't gone deep into games as an explanation for the bullpen's malaise has been bandied about quite a bit, but I don't know how much validity there is to it, really. We've all heard how Bob Gibson used to throw 93 complete games every year and how Cy Young would pitch nine days a week, but running the numbers shows that the Mets' bullpen hasn't been especially overworked relative to the rest of the league. Here are the average innings pitched per game start (IP/GS) for NL teams:

The Mets rank fifth in the National League in starting pitcher longevity, their rotation tossing more innings on average than all but four NL teams. That shouldn't be too surprising if you actually sit down and think about the construction of the Mets' starting staff. Sure, Pedro Martinez has been a crapshoot as has the fifth starter spot in general, but aside from that you've got four young-ish guys in John Maine, Oliver Perez, Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey. Not too many years or innings on any of those arms, so it shouldn't be so much to ask them to buck up for six innings at a shot.

So the starters have been pulling their weight, what else? At first I thought that maybe the Mets had played a ton of long extra-inning games, so even if the rotation was going deep the bullpen could still be screwed if the Mets were constantly playing more than nine innings. Well, turns out that's not really the case, either:

The Mets are right about where they should be in terms of innings thrown by their relievers en masse. Their starters are fifth in most innings thrown and their bullpen is sixth in fewest innings per game. So, overall the Mets' relievers haven't been especially taxed.

What about individually? Well, Aaron Heilman has been abused. He has thrown 60 innings to this point, which actually only ranks him sixth in the NL. Still, that's an awful lot of innings through 111 games, so Heilman has probably been overworked a bit.

As for the rest of the bullpen, the next most-used Mets relievers are Billy Wagner and Duaner Sanchez at 47 innings apiece, tied for 40th in the NL. It may seem like a lot of innings for Wagner to throw as a closer, but fellow closers Salomon Torres, Kevin Gregg, Jose Valverde, Francisco Cordero and Brad Lidge have all thrown more. Sanchez, on the other hand, is a concern.

After having not thrown a pitch in a big league game since July 28, 2006, Sanchez has been one of the most oft-used relievers on the Mets this year. I'm not sure who's to blame for that, but I'm sure if you asked the Mets collectively at the beginning of the season whether they expected Sanchez to be so active by the first week of August I don't think many would have been on board with that plan. Even well-seasoned relievers wear down in the dog days of summer, so for someone who was basically out of baseball for 18 months it's probably too much to expect Sanchez to hold up under such circumstances.

Joe Smith could also be wearing down a bit, though he's young and has a couple of years of professional ball under his belt at this point. Pedro Feliciano, too, has shown signs of wear, and though he has appeared in just one fewer game than Heilman (58 to 57) he has thrown more than 20 fewer innings because he has been used far more selectively (i.e. often just against lefties and with runners on base). Feliciano has also been dreadful against righties this season, getting knocked around to the tune of .333/.416/.538 (!) in 90 plate appearances. That's like every righty who hits against him is Manny Ramirez. Feliciano has historically been at least decent against righties, but right now it's just an invitation to an ass-whooping to leave him out there against anything but lefties. The blame goes to the manager for not recognizing his utter ineffectiveness against the platoon advantage.

Aside from the relief appearances themselves, another thing to look at is the relative stress of those appearances. All appearances aren't created equal; I don't doubt that high pressure situations are more draining -- both physically and mentally -- than lower pressure spots. One easy way to compare relative duress is by using pLI, an indicator of mean leverage via the leverage index, an invention of Tom Tango. Thanks to the awesomeness of FanGraphs.com, we can easily compare the average pLI of all NL relievers. For the purpose of this exercise I've only included those pitchers who have compiled at least 40 innings pitched in relief.

The king of pLI has been the Giants' Brian Wilson, who has pitched in an average leverage situation of 2.35. Anything higher than 1.00 is considered high-leverage, though that scale is skewed somewhat for relievers since they tend to pitch in many more high-leverage situations than starters (late-game at-bats are typically more meaningful than early-game ones because of the reduced likelihood of coming back with so few innings remaining). Of the 62 pitchers who qualified for the above criteria, five are Mets. We can reasonably expect every team to have around four pitchers on the list (62 divided by 16 teams), so the Mets have one extra guy on there. Wagner is the highest at 14th overall (1.71 pLI). The next Met is Sanchez at 29th (1.34 pLI), then Heilman at 33rd (1.22 pLI), Joe Smith at 44th (1.05 pLI) and Scott Schoeneweis at 51st (0.88 pLI). I guess the good news is that the Mets' best reliever (Wagner) has been pitching in the most important situations. The bad news, at least in terms of figuring out what the problem is, is that the Mets' relievers don't seem especially taxed relative to the rest of the league. No clues here.

I guess fatigue seems like the most likely culprit at this point, though for different reasons for different pitchers. Wagner has actually been mostly terrific this season, though his last couple weeks have been particularly bad and that may be more due to injury than anything else. So, to summarize a bit:

Wagner: good, now hurt
Heilman: overused
Sanchez: too much, too soon
Smith: overexposed, maybe
Feliciano: something, ineffective against righties?

Wagner may be headed for the disabled list one way or another, and if the Mets can find an excuse to put Sanchez there to give him a breather it'd probably be for the best. Heilman could benefit from not pitching every day, and the Mets could consider calling up one (or both) of Jon Niese or Robert Parnell to get some work out of the bullpen if/when the aforementioned duo goes on the DL. Eddie Kunz will be a help, though he's not going to be used more than a couple of times a week, I wouldn't think.

So that's what I've got. Any other theories out there?

I didn't really think the bullpen was a big problem, and it's usually not good practice to make snap judgments after a single game, but the Mets' relief pitching tonight was just brutal, and with Aaron Heilman given the night off and Billy Wagner unusable except in save situations, everyone coming out of that bullpen right now just looks wretched.

A bigger concern right now is John Maine, who left the game with a stiff right shoulder and whose prognosis and timetable for return is unknown. I'll have more on the Mets' starting pitching situation tomorrow morning, but things look considerably worse than they did a week or two ago (or a day ago, I guess).

Big winners: Fernando Tatis, +22.1% WPA, John Maine, +13.2% WPA
Big losers: Joe Smith, -35.9% WPA, Scott Schoeneweis, -31.1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Tatis RBI-triple, +14.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Uggla RBI-single in 8th, -18.9% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -50.6%
Total batter WPA: +0.6%

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by BobbyV_Incognito; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

The trade deadline is fast approaching and the list of available players is growing shorter. At the same time, the Mets continue to pitch and hit effectively and areas of greatest need are not as considerable as they were as little as a month ago. Then again, winning cures all ills and great play can often mask shortcomings.

Area of need: corner outfield

For instance, Fernando Tatis is hitting .318/.370/.520. Fernando. Tatis. Career .263/.345/.443 hitter. Much worse than that since 2000. He's hitting lefties and righties equally well, and he hasn't completely embarrassed himself in the field. We're only talking 160-some-odd plate appearances, though, and small sample size red flags abound. He's been a great story and a huge lift for the Mets with Moises Alou out for the season and Ryan Church still out as he recovers from the effects of his second concussion this season. Church may be back soon, but neither that nor his long-term status are guaranteed.

Even if Tatis were somehow able to sustain anything resembling his current level of production, Endy Chavez continues to be an offensive sinkhole in right field. Sure, the defense is great and the .272 batting average is decent, but the .316 on-base percentage is 13th among 17 National League right-fielders with at least 250 plate appearances. His .329 slugging percentage is 16th of 17, besting only Washington's Austin Kearns. Endy's .644 OPS is likewise 16th of 17. I don't know which is more astonishing: that Endy is so bad at hitting or that he's managed to accrue 250 plate appearances while being so bad at hitting. That's a poll for another day, I guess. Regardless, Endy's defense is probably good enough to justify carrying his anemic bat as a fourth or fifth outfielder, but as a starting corner outfielder he is pitifully feckless.

Area of need: relief pitching

Billy Wagner's propensity for eating it hard in big games notwithstanding, he's the Mets' best relief pitcher and still one of the best closers in the National League. Aaron Heilman has been a lot better of late and is probably the Mets' number two, which is far preferable to just plain number two, which was Heilman's nom de fan for the first two months of the season.

Duaner Sanchez is a mystery right now. He was effective if unspectacular for the season's first three months, but has been mostly horrible for a couple of weeks now and is suffering a loss in velocity and deterioration of confidence. After missing a year and a half there's no telling what shape his shoulder is in or whether his arm can hold up for an entire season. Maybe it's just a matter of fatigue and he needs a little time off. At all events, he's a definite question mark moving forward.

Pedro Feliciano is still murder on lefties, but unlike the past two seasons, this year he has been downright awful against righties, who have rocked him to the tune of .342/.419/.553. There's nothing wrong with having a lefty specialist in the bullpen, but the Mets already have one guy -- Scott Schoeneweis -- who can't get righties out, and despite his dramatic platoon splits this season I'm pretty sure Jerry Manuel still thinks that Feliciano is a quality guy to throw out there against all comers. Then again, two full years of competence is more meaningful than one half-year of ineptitude, but you still have to assign greater weight to the recent performance, and that's not good news for Feliciano or the Mets.

Joe Smith is the opposite of Feliciano: he dominates righties and has a tough time with the southpaws. Righties have hit just .190/.271/.302 while lefties have gone .293/.408/.415. If only he and Feliciano could play the field I might be inclined to pull Tatis in the late innings and alternate lefty-righty with Smith and Feliciano for an inning or two. It all comes down to how Manuel decides to use them, so let's hope that his inquisitive mind and nerd glasses mean he knows a thing or two about platoon splits.

Area of need: first base?

A month ago this would have been an obvious need, but with Carlos Delgado swinging a mighty big stick I'm not so sure any more. Given how precipitously he declined last year and how quickly he has resurged, you really have to wonder if those nagging injuries were bothering him more than he let on. The elbow in particular caused him a lot of trouble the last year and a half, and if he is finally out from under those problems then maybe it shouldn't be so surprising that he's back to mashing the ball. He's not going to OPS 1.200 the rest of the way as he has during July, but he has finally pushed his OPS over the league average for a first baseman and there's reason for optimism that he might keep it there.

Mark Teixeira and Adam Dunn will cost an arm and a leg to acquire for the remainder of this season and both will be free agents at season's end. They'll both be on the Mets's radar come November, but I think they'll stand pat this summer and hope that Delgado's resurrection is for real.

Area of need: bench

Marlon Anderson is terrible, and needs to be jettisoned as quickly as possible. I like to think that if the Mets could find anyone else worth plugging into that prestigious 25th spot on the roster that they would have already done so, but right now the dried up husks of Lenny Harris and Matt Franco both look like better options. The rest of the bench is serviceable, with Damion Easley and Argenis Reyes both providing decent production. Nick Evans and Robinson Cancel are nothing special, but the Mets seem inclined to give Evans a few looks at the big league level, and as far as Cancel is concerned, well, they would otherwise just be throwing away the rest of the post-game buffet.

Area of need: catcher?

This one's a trick, because the Mets don't actually need to acquire a new catcher; they just need to play their best catcher more often. That means more time on the pine for Brian Schneider and more cracks at the starting lineup for Ramon Castro. Here is my entire argument:

Ramon Castro: .290/.365/.538
Brian Schneider: .247/.337/.300

So, as long as Jerry Manuel continues to read this blog I think the Mets will be fine at catcher. Or, at least, have the RSS feed in his Google Reader. Either or.

In summation and in conclusion: improve the corner outfield and bench if doing so would come at minimal cost to the farm system. A solid reliever would be nice, but given the going rate of solid relievers I would be more inclined to go with what we've got or, possibly, promote from within. Perhaps Eddie Camacho, Eude Brito or Eddie Kunz -- all currently with Binghamton -- could be given a shot. They can't be much worse than Carlos Muniz has been. Stay the course at first base and catcher, giving more playing time to Castro at the latter.

I'm not really the type to say things like "a month ago the Mets would have never come back to win this game", but, frankly, a month ago the Mets would have never come back to win this game. Three guys made this game: Wright, Tatis and Delgado. They drove in all ten runs and went 8-for-13 with three homeruns, a double and a couple of walks. Johan Santana didn't have it tonight and was yanked after just four innings. The bullpen wasn't great, but they were good enough to keep the game close, and when the game is close and the ballpark is pint-sized anything can happen and usually does. That's especially true when you're on a big winning streak and things just find a way to go right for you.

The WPA was fascinating for this game. For starters, check out the rollercoaster graph; I think I puked at turn three. As a refresher, each team starts with a win probability of 50%. This isn't exactly accurate since home teams tend to win more games than road teams, but for the sake of simplicity all games start at 50/50. That means the game is essentially a battle for the other team's 50%. Once a team hits 100% win probability the game is over and that team has won.

Mets' pitchers contributed -60% WPA, which means they blew all of the Mets' starting pot of 50% and then some. That's not a good thing. When your pitching staff digs you into a hole like that you don't usually climb out of it. It's not possible for a team to lose more than 50% of WPA in a game, so when the pitchers lose 60% the hitters have to make up the difference, and in most cases it would be a +10% to the hitters to make an even -50% and a big fat loss. Not tonight, because the Mets' had their hitting shoes on and contributed a mind-boggling +110% WPA, which is enough to win two games and have a little left over for the third. Wow, we all say, but it gets even better. The aforementioned Delgado, Wright and Tatis combined to contribute +125.4% WPA, which means the rest of the offense contributed approximately -15.4%. Throw those three guys out and the rest of the Mets were at -75.4% WPA; keep 'em in the game and it's a Mets victory.

First place, people. How does it taste?

Big winners: David Wright, +42.8% WPA, Fernando Tatis, +42.3% WPA, Carlos Delgado, +40.3% WPA
Big losers: Scott Schoeneweis, -44.6% WPA, Johan Santana, -36.1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Nine-game winning streak not enough for Wright, +35.1%
Teh sux0rest play: Show blows, -46.4% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -60.0%
Total batter WPA: +110.0%

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by itsmetsforme; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

Everybody else is doing it, so why can't we? Forty-one-ish games into the season and the Mets have had an up-and-down three months to say the least. Things could be a whole lot worse, though, even if the Mets have fallen well short of expectations to this point. That's what these mid-season report cards often come down to: how did Player X perform relative to what could have been reasonably expected of him? So with that as our lead-in, here are my first-half grades.

Rotation - C: The starting rotation appeared to be a strength heading into the season, and I guess relative to the offense it *has* been pretty good, but again we're talking about expectations and in that regard the Mets' starters have disappointed as a whole. Mets starters are eighth in the league in ERA and ninth in WHIP, which is fine for a middling team with a small-town payroll, but these are the Ny Effing Mets with more money committed to player salaries than any other team in the National League, so middle of the pack isn't going to cut it. Pedro has been either awful or injured and, while I think he'll pull out of it alright, he's giving the Mets nothing right now. Santana has been fine; unspectacular, but still very good. Oliver Perez, save his most recent outstanding start against the Yankees, has been equal parts terrible and inconsistent. Maine has been pretty good, though not last night.

Rock stars: Mike Pelfrey, I guess

Boxcar hobos: Pedro Martinez, Oliver Perez

Bullpen - B-: This grade could be a bit higher because most of the bullpen principals have been quite good. Billy Wagner, with the exception of that execrable stretch of three games at the beginning of June, has been awesome. Scott Schoeneweis's low-three ERA seems unsustainable give his 12-to-12 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but he's been solid despite any smoke and/or mirrors he keeps stashed in his locker. Joe Smith has been inconsistent, but his numbers are pretty good across the board. Feliciano continues to walk a lot of guys, but his ERA and strikeout rates are very strong again. Duaner Sanchez was said to be the key to this relief corps heading into the season, and he's been decent. Like Smith, his numbers are mostly solid, though his ERA is nigh four and his strikeout rate is unspectacular. Aaron Heilman was horrendous in April and May but ungodly in June, so there may be hope for him yet.

Rock stars: Billy Wagner, Pedro Feliciano

Boxcar hobos: Matt Wise, Jorge Sosa

Offense - C-: I'm a little torn on this grade because I'm not sure how much blame to assign to the players and how much should be heaped on the front office and ownership. The offense has not been very good, but a lot of the guys who haven't been very good were known before they even took a swing to not be very good. Marlon Anderson, Endy Chavez, Fernando Tatis: these are not good players. I hate them because they suck, but I don't blame them so much because even their respective mothers could have told us they were terrible. I'll go back to my favorite analogy to these bums: I don't blame a spoon for being unable to to cut my steak; it's a tool ill fit for the job, much like Tatis playing baseball. After a slow start, Jose Reyes has been terrific, and is at or around the top ten players in baseball in VORP. His power is much improved over last season and his walk rate has crept back up to the rate he established last season. Wright has been a little underwhelming, but I still feel like he could break out at any moment. Beltran has been his typical emotionally-subdued but otherwise extremely productive self. Delgado drove in nine runs the other day, so he's good for zippo over the next six weeks now. Church has been mostly terrific and partially injured, but his on-field performance has exceeded any expectations I had of him.

Rock stars: Ryan Church, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran (yes, Carlos Beltran)

Boxcar hobos: Carlos Delgado, Luis Castillo, Brian Schneider

Manager(s) - C: I don't really know how to evaluate managers, and I don't know if I ever will. Willie Randolph seemed like a nice enough guy, though he had awkward bullpen usage and often relied too heavily on established, ineffective veterans in all facets of play (bullpen, offense, defense). I didn't always care for his lineup construction, and rumors trickled in after his ouster that he had lost his clubhouse. All of this paints a pretty crummy picture of him as a manager, but even considering all of that I still don't know that he cost the Mets any more than a few games over the course of a season relative to a "great" manager, whomever that might be. Jerry Manual took over and has shown a bit more fire and a little less reliance on "his guys".

Front office - D-: Omar Minaya brought in Johan Santana for a truckload of money and a mixed bag of prospects, and despite his best efforts the Lastings Milledge deal has sorta worked out for the Mets so far (though perhaps not in the long run). However, his biggest failing (stop me if you've heard this one before) was his inability to provide reasonable contingency plans for injuries to Moises Alou and continued ineptitude from Carlos Delgado. That the first line of support has been the likes of Tatis, Anderson and Chavez is as big an indictment of Minaya's shortcomings as a GM as anything you could hold against Randolph as a manager. There are some important decisions to be made in the next three weeks about the viability of this team as a legitimate playoff contender, but despite assurances from ownership that his job is safe, Minaya has to feel that this could be a watershed season in his career as Mets GM. The NL East seems weak enough that a small bump could put the Mets over the top, but will Minaya trade away what few chips remain in the farm system for a shot at the postseason? Unfortunately, his short-term outlook and the Mets' long-term success may be diametrically opposed come July 31.

Overall - C-: The Mets are still just three (or so) games out in the NL East, but clearly they have failed to meet expectations in almost every area of their play. There's still a half-season to turn things around, but it'll get late early (Yogi!) if they keep losing every other game.

Agree or disagree, leave your grades in the comments. Or, go one step further and make some prognostications about the next 41 81 (or 40 80, now) games.

Pedro's return from a two-month stint on the disabled list went about as well as we could have hoped. Or, in the words of itsmetsforme from last night's game thread:

i got everything i wanted
pedro makes it off the field under his own power
pedro has a fair outing
pedro wins
pedro breaks 90 mph
no midgets die

The overall numbers were unspectacular: 6ip, 7h, 3r, 3bb, 3k. His control was not especially sharp, but he stuck it out for 109 pitches and handed a big lead to the bullpen. Try as he might, Scott Schoeneweis didn't hang around long enough to blow a 9-3 lead, and you swag contest-ers who predicted a Billy Wagner appearance were the beneficiaries of Show's hasty regression to the junk heap.

The big lead that was came courtesy of an eight-run fifth inning for the Mets' offense and incomparable suckiness by Barry Zito. Zito's fastball has averaged 83.8 mph, which is absurdly slow. Not Jamie Moyer slow (80.7 mph) or Tom Glavine slow (82.3 mph), but Zito lacks the effective off-speed pitches of those other two crusty veterans. The Mets put together their biggest offensive inning of the season, thanks in no small part to San Francisco's porous defense. Whatever, we'll all take it at this point after Oliver Perez's splendiferous bed-crapping from Monday night. The Mets send John Maine to the mound looking for the series win against Matt Cain on Wednesday afternoon.

3,000 miles way, Joba Chamberlain was making his inauspicious debut as a starting pitcher for the Yankees, showing some opening night jitters before getting pulled in the third inning with a 2-1 lead. Chamberlain walked four and struck out three in throwing 62 pitches over two-and-a-third. Fortunately for Yankee-haters, the void left by Chamberlain's departure from the bullpen has been filled by a grab bag of suck, which they gladly illustrated by allowing seven runs in the first four innings following Chamberlain's early exit.

While the general consensus is that a great starter is more valuable than a great reliever, there are plenty of folks who have questioned the Yankees' decision to move Chamberlain to the rotation. It was clearly the plan all along, but there's some merit to the argument that a borderline-impenetrable 8th-9th inning combination is one of the keys to postseason success. If we look back at those great Yankee teams in the late-nineties, aside from a dominant Mariano Rivera, those teams generally had terrific bullpens. The Jeff Nelsons and Mike Stantons, not to mention Rivera in a setup role in 1996. The luxury of having a Chamberlain providing tat 8th-inning bridge to Rivera is even more pronounced when juxtaposed with his immediate replacement, human gasoline fire Kyle Farnsworth. I think Chamberlain will be a fine starter, but the transition from reliever to starter probably won't be quite as seamless as the Yanks and their fans had hoped.

Though it had no bearing on my availability to watch the Mets game, Kim and I were at the movies again last night and, as they did the first two times we went, the Mets won again. We saw the new Indiana Jones film, which echoed the mixed-bag-edness of the Mets' first two games in San Francisco. Fans of the franchise will find plenty to like: The action scenes are solid, the chase scenes were very reminiscent of earlier Jones installments, and the adventure-ness of the whole thing was definitely enjoyable. I'm about to "spoil" the movie here, so if you haven't yet seen it and want to be surprised, maybe skip ahead a bit.

*** Begin Spoiler ***

A spaceship? Or, as Samuel Jackson might say, "A mother!@#$ing spaceship?" We waited nineteen years since the last Indy film for this? Jones & Co. travel the world looking for the crystal skull and, once found, travel the world again in search of the golden city. They battle Russians and killer ants, rapids and rabid natives, and the denouement two decades in the making involves crystal-skeleton-ed aliens, a portal to another dimension, and a spaceship. If the last three Star Wars episodes weren't evidence enough, it should be clear as gravy that George Lucas has officially run out of ideas.

*** End Spoiler ***

So the ending was prepoculous, and basically ruined what was an otherwise decent action flick. I had a few other gripes (really? swinging from vines? really; really? iron-lined refrigerator? really), but it's pretty incredible that certain aspects of the film -- again, the ending in particular -- ever got greenlit. Harrison Ford, despite pronouncing "nuclear" as "nucular" in one scene, was believable as the aging archeologist-hero. Karen Allen's return was nostalgic but unnecessary, as her character had little to do and served little purpose aside from the aforementioned nostalgia.

We saw the movie for free, so I can't really complain. It was a summer blockbuster-type movie, so I guess it succeeded in that role. I don't know that I can recommend spending $20 for a pair of tickets, but it's worth a rent when it comes out on your favorite shiny, digital disc format.

It's pretty amazing that we can go from "We're screwed!" to "Suck it, Philly!" in less than two days. Following the Tuesday night debacle there were some alarmist Mets fans who were ready to hit the panic button. Now the Mets are 4-4 and find themselves a game up on the Phillies and a game-and-a-half behind the soon-to-be-fourth-place-or-maybe-even-fifth-place Marlins. Even though the Phillies practically handed the Mets the win on Wednesday and the bats were mostly anemic on Thursday, I still feel 1000% better than I did two days ago. With apologies to Dinah Washington...

What a difference two days make
Forty-eight little hours
Though there's still not much power
Mmmm... things do seem right again

Through Tuesday was lame, boys
Now nothing's the same, boys
The Mets have some game, boys
Now not so much pain

John Maine allowed only one run in six innings, but he didn't really pitch very well. He was behind in the count all night, walked five batters and recorded just one strikeout. I suppose he could be commended for toughing this one out despite not having his best stuff, but even though the result was good I can't say I was terribly encouraged by the ride.

On the bright side, the bullpen was astounding, with the exception of Aaron Heilman who stunk. Again. The rest of the 'pen combined to throw five scoreless innings, allowing just two hits (though three walks) and striking out six. Even Shea Stadium pariah Scott Schoeneweis received a lukewarm round of applause after inducing a groundball double-play of Chase Utley to end a Philly thread in the 11th inning. Show was booed robustly on Tuesday night so it was nice to see him redeem himself last night. He's a fellow member of the tribe and we have to support our own.

David Wright managed to coax two walks out of Phillies pitching, but he otherwise looked inept at the plate against off-speed pitches of any variety. I guess we should be happy that he is OPS-ing .845 despite hitting just .233. Behind Wright, Carlos Beltran reached base two more times but struck out in big situations in the 8th and 10th innings. Ahead of Wright, Angel Pagan picked up three more hits -- including the game-winner -- and is hitting .370/.457/.519. Carlos Delgado had an off night, collecting just a lone walk in five plate appearances.

Has anyone else noticed the utter dearth of homerun power on this team so far? If you don't already know the answer, how many homeruns would you say the Mets have hit this season? If you've watched all of the games to this point, just think back and try to remember when a Met has homered. Ryan Church hit one against the Marlins; that's one. David Wright also hit one against the Marlins; that's two. Delgado hit one in the home opener; that's three. Umm... Oh, Carlos Beltran hit one in Florida, but the umps took it away; that's still three. Err... Yea, that's it folks. Through eight games the Mets have mashed a whopping three homeruns. Twenty-one players have at least three homeruns this season; so do the Mets. The D'Backs' Mark Reynolds has five homeruns all by himself! Frank Thomas is hitting .182 and *he* has three homeruns. I know that steroids are gauche and all, but hit the weight room, fellas, eh?

The April scoreboard for the Swag Contest has been updated, and anonymous has an eleven point edge through the first eight games. The scoreboard is updated shortly after every game.

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The list of things that went wrong for the Mets on Saturday against the Braves is lengthy and wide-ranging:

The hitting wasn't very clutch

Clutch hitters may not actually exist, but clutch hitting happens every day. Or, at least opportunities to do so happen every day. David Wright, so dominant against the Marlins earlier in the week, took an 0-for-4 and personally left four runners on base. Luis Castillo went 0-for-5 and likewise left four ducks on the pond in his wake. Though their official LOB tally was just six, the Mets collectively left 18 runners on base following outs (the former only counts runners left on base at the end of an inning; the latter counts baserunners multiple times if they are left on by multiple batters in an inning). The Mets are still hitting -- they picked up another ten-spot on Saturday -- but they just couldn't get the big hit when they needed it, and unfortunately they left the fate of this game in the hands of those tasked with preventing runs from scoring. Which brings us to:

The pitching stunk up the joint something fierce

The crummy pitching began with John Maine, who made his first start in a week and looked a bit rusty in doing so. The FOX radar gun had him throwing 96-97 early on, which is a solid 2-3 ticks faster than I had ever seen him clocked. It's possible that their gun was a tad on the high side, but we often hear pitching coaches and managers talk about their pitchers being "too strong" after a long respite and that may have been Maine's biggest problem. He threw 96 pitches over just four innings, striking out five and walking three. He also allowed eight hits, so he was probably leaving the ball up a bit and also found his way to the bad side of the BABIP fairy, a locale that has been historically unfamiliar territory for Maine.

Joe Smith relieved Maine and retired four of the five batters he faced, allowing a lone single to erstwhile and should-be Met Ruben Gotay. Gotay advanced to second on a Yunel Escobar sacrifice bunt, at which point Smith gave way to Scott Schoeneweis and "keeping the game close" gave way to "hemorrhaging runs like shit from a donkey". Attempting to disprove the myth that only righties can knock him around, Schoeneweis allowed a single to lefty-hitting Mark Kotsay that scored Gotay from second. Carlos Delgado made a nice play on the throw home by Ryan Church, whirling to throw out Kotsay trying to stretch the hit into a double.

Jorge Sosa relieved Schoeneweis to begin the seventh inning and things quickly got out of hand. The first five batters went strikeout, double, single, strikeout, walk, the result of which left the bases loaded with two outs and no runs in (yet!). Bobby Cox sent the left-handed Kelly Johnson up to pinch-hit for Peter Moylan and Willie Randolph countered by doing absolutely nothing. For his career, lefties have hit .297/.385/.505 against Sosa. To get an idea of what that's like, try to imagine Sosa pitching a full game in which every lefty he faced was Willie McCovey (career .270/.374/.515 hitter). Of course Johnson hit a grand slam, and of course the Mets scored two runs in the next inning that would have otherwise tied the game. Should we blame Sosa? It's not his fault. I don't blame a spoon for not being able to cut my steak; it's a utensil ill fit for the job, just like Sosa facing lefties. So who is to blame? Let me see here.

Willie Randolph let another one get away

I don't have nearly as much vitriol for Randolph as some, but he clearly screwed the pooch on Saturday. The game was still within reach when he made the non-decision to leave Sosa in to face Johnson even though he had a well-rested arm in his bullpen who is absolute murder on lefties. Pedro Feliciano -- he of one lone mop-up inning of relief so far this year -- has held lefties to an anemic .216/.294/.281 composite batting line for his career. The Mets have another off-day on Monday, so even if Feliciano had to pitch on Saturday and Sunday he would have been assured of some rest before the Mets head to Shea to take on the Phillies on Tuesday. That never happened, Johnson launched the four-run bomb to right, and Randolph added another star to his "Bungler of All Things Bullpen" tote board.

Add up all of the suckitude and the Mets drop another game at the Ted. Johan Santana and John Smoltz toe the rubber tomorrow, and we can only hope for better things from the Mets in all areas.