Kuzul

For the first time in the history of the Subway Series I think to myself “Could the New York Yankees please put us out of our misery and sweep us?”

A sweep by the Yankees would go a long way towards putting the final nail in the coffin of the Omar Minaya era. Jerry Manuel can stay.

Will the Yankees help us? Can the Yankees actually hurt us by losing these games and leaving Omar’s job intact for the time being? That being said, the Yankees have already won this series before it even starts.

If the Mets sweep, we still lose because Omar will still be employed. If the Yankees sweep, we lose. If the Yankees win two out of three, we lose. I just don’t see any winning scenarios here.

Hopefully, this is the last time I have to say this to my fellow Mets fans: Root for the Yankees. Put the final nail in Omar’s coffin for us. This team needs a change of direction and only letting Omar go will change the direction of this team.

But are the Yankees up to helping us? They have injury problems of their own but they’re still the defending champs.

Please, Yankees… sweep us.

Show us the light at the end of the tunnel.

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I have to admit that I was shocked that Hisanori Takahashi had a great start, going 6 six innings. I never would have expected that out of him. He was really outstanding, especially considering that he got no run support.

Speaking of run support, the Mets had absolutely no offense again. Thursday’s 10 run outburst seems like a mirage. They only put together four hits as a team, and two of them were in the ninth inning when Jason Bay singled and Ike Davis doubled him in.

That was the offense. Don’t blink or you might miss it.

Alex Cora blew the game in the seventh inning for the Mets. His costly throwing error allowed an unearned run to score that would have made a difference in the game.

The Mets and Yankees will play two more on national TV this weekend.

Box score

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A lot of people feel that the series between the cross-town rivals New York Mets and New York Yankees has lost some of its luster over the years. After all, the Mets and the Yankees play each other six times during the regular season and have played a World Series against each other back in 2000.

Yet there is still something extra special when the Yankees and Mets take the field against each other. It’s about bragging rights. It’s about your buddy at work who you have talked sports with all year long and argued who’s better, and who you made a bet with resulting in whoever loses having to wear the other teams’ jersey to work the next Monday morning.

It’s the $10 wagers you made with that same buddy that doesn’t mean much to you, but just to see his face hand it over makes your year.

And for me it’s a little bit more than that. For me, it’s extra special. I am an identical twin, whose look-alike is a Yankees fan. Friday evening my brother and I will take our seats in separate rooms like we always do. One on the Yankees broadcast, one on the Mets broadcast.

The yelling and screaming will still be the same, but with a little more passion. We want to beat each other. For those three hours we are enemies. We give no strategies away and none of our baseball thoughts like we do every other night.

It’s the one series in the year that we both will watch all three games, and never forget what happens. It’s that series that we are extra pumped up for and always make up after. Yes fans…The Subway Series still does it for me!

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The mystery injury to John Maine last night leaves the Mets starting rotation in a bigger mess than we thought it was already. And it couldn’t come at a worse time for Jerry Manuel.

Many of us already have a death watch on his managerial career. Of course, injuries aren’t his fault but he needs some good things to happen soon.

R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi are already in the rotation. That’s something we never would have thought before the season. With Maine appearing to be out for some period of time, we might be looking at another call-up from Triple-A Buffalo.

Fortunately, Pat Misch and Dillon Gee have been pitching pretty well. But at this rate there won’t be anybody left in Buffalo.

To be left with Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey before the end of May is just a nightmare. I think with Jon Niese injured and Maine possibly hurt, we may need to re-visit the issue of the Mets medical and training staff.

It doesn’t seem possible that this many players could be hurt within two seasons. The Mets chose not to change the medical and training staff after the 2009 “season of the injury” and we may be headed down that road again.

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The Mets finally got some offense for a change, but the game started with a bizarre episode involving John Maine .

He threw five pitches to the first batter and got pulled from the game. His fastball was at 85 mph, and it looked like something was wrong.

He and Jerry Manuel argued in the dugout. Maine appeared to have wanted to stay in the game.

Raul Valdes was warming up right from the start of the game, so the Mets knew something was wrong with Maine. Valdes did an unbelievable job, going five innings and giving up three runs. You can’t ask for a better long relief job than Valdes did tonight. I was really impressed.

On offense the Mets put up 15 hits and only had three strikeouts. Talk about a turnaround! Jason Bay and Ike Davis both had three hits, and Rod Barajas had a home run, his 10th of the season. David Wright even got in on the act with a bases-clearing double in the first inning.

The Mets head home to face the Yankees this weekend.

Box score

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The Mets got a quality start from knuckleballer R.A. Dickey who went six innings and gave up two earned runs. He did pretty well for himself throwing 96 pitches, and he looked like he could have gone further in the game. The bullpen couldn’t hold on with Raul Valdes and the tired Fernando Nieve giving up three runs between them.

The offense was pretty weak again with the Mets only getting five hits as a team. One was an inside the park home run by Angel Pagan .

Pagan seems to be one of the only guys going out to make plays on a daily basis. He also started a triple play in the fifth. It was partially due to some poor work by the umpires. They were slow to make a call on whether Pagan caught a shoestring catch and that left the base runners hanging.

The Mets look pretty lifeless and feels more and more like watching the 2009 Mets.

Box score

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New York Mets (19-21) at Washington Nationals (20-20)  7:05 p.m.

R.A. Dickey (0-0, -.–) vs Livan Hernandez (4-2, 1.46)

TV : SNY   Radio : WFAN

What to watch : Dickey makes his big league season debut after pitching really well at Buffalo. He was 4-2 with a 2.23 ERA including two complete games and a 1.04 WHIP. You can’t do much better than that.

Hernandez is pitching better than we’ve seen from him in years. He beat the Mets on April 11, throwing seven shutout innings.

Don’t forget to visit The Mets Report Facebook page during the game to chat with other Mets fans! Connect with The Mets Report on Twitter too.

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The Mets lost two of their starting pitchers in Florida, Jon Niese due to a hamstring injury, and Oliver Perez due to being dreadful.

Hisanori Takahashi will start in Jon Niese’s place on Friday night, while R.A. Dickey will start in Perez’s place tonight against the Washington Nationals.

Takahashi has seemed to relish in the long man role, a la Darren Oliver in 2006 for the Mets, and he should be kept there as he’s been extremely valuable in that spot. R.A. Dickey, who started 14 games in 2008 for the Seattle Mariners, went 5-8 with a 5.21 ERA.

Assuming Niese can make his next start, you only need to fill one hole in this rotation for the long-term. Roy Oswalt is on the trading block, but the price would be semi-outrageous, both financially and talent-wise.

AAA pitcher Dillon Gee might get a call to the big leagues soon, as he’s been impressive in Buffalo, going 4-1 with a 4.21 ERA, with 40 strikeouts in 47 innings.

All signs point to Jenrry Mejia going back down to the minors when R.A. Dickey is called up on Wednesday, to become a starter (again). Hopefully, Mejia will be ready to start in Queens by mid-June

Perez doesn’t seem to be an option whatsoever at this point, so Gee/Mejia seem to be the most likely to take over his spot in the long run, but the short-term answer, after Dickey’s start on Wednesday, is blurry.

Leave your comments and thoughts on what the Mets should/will do with the rotation in the comment box below.

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The Mets got a great start from Johan Santana , as usual, going 7 IP and giving up 2 ER on a homer by Troy Glaus in the third inning. Santana seemed to get stronger as the game went on. Pedro Feliciano took over in the eighth and started the ninth out by giving up a hit to McCann that would eventually be the winning run.

The Mets had only five total hits in the game. The two runs were solo homers, both in the fifth inning by Ike Davis and Jeff Francoeur .

The Mets lost on a horrible bottom of the ninth. Jenry Mejia relieved Feliciano and looked scared. He fell on the mound after a pitch and walked Escobar when he was trying to bunt with a man on base.

The game was lost when Melky Cabrera chopped a ball to third, David Wright picked it up and threw wide of first, allowing the runner on second to score. It wasn’t a terrible throw and looked like Davis could have come off the base to get it.

Wright’s wild throw capped off a terrible night for him going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. It’s a rough way to lose a game.

The Mets split the two-game series in Atlanta and head to Washington for two games.

Box score

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New York Mets (19-20) at Atlanta Braves (18-20) 

7:10 pm

Johan Santana (3-2 3.88) vs Kris Medlen (1-1 2.35)

TV : SNY   Radio : WFAN

What to Watch : The Mets go for the sweep behind Santana, whose last start was excellent in a 2-1 loss in Florida. He went seven innings and gave up one unearned run.

Medlen has been pitching out of the bullpen mostly, only making one start this year. But he’s been pitching really well. I wouldn’t expect him to last long, though. The Mets should get into the Braves bullpen pretty quickly.

Don’t forget to visit The Mets Report Facebook page during the game to chat with other Mets fans! Connect with The Mets Report on Twitter too.

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