You Never Know Which Team is Gonna Show Up

When the Mets played the Yankees this past weekend, they blew them out in Friday's day portion of the double header 15-6. In the nightcap, they lost 9-0. On Saturday, they lost 3-2. On Sunday, they won 3-1.

Heading into the Cardinal series Monday night, even though several Mets had awesome numbers against Kyle Lohse, they did nothing. Lohse allowed just five hits while striking out four and walking two, en route to a 7-1 victory.

Carlos Beltran, who was 15-for-29 with four homers and 11 RBIs entering the game against Lohse, had a single and walk Monday night. Carlos Delgado, who was 7-for-13 with three homers, went 0-for-2 with a hit by pitch and a rare double-play ball in the sixth, with third baseman Troy Glaus handling the relay in an over shifted defense. David Wright and Ryan Church both had been 4-for-8, while Brian Schneider was 3-for-8 as was Jose Reyes against Lohse. Together, those six hitters went just 2-16 Monday night.

John Maine, who fell to 8-6 on the season, lasted only four innings to match his season worst for the Mets. The Mets also made a season-matching high 3 errors in the field, which prompted Manager Jerry Manuel to say: We didn't do too much of anything right, we didn't do too much defensively, we didn't do much offensively."

Last night, it was a completely different story, as Tony Armas Jr. made his debut for the Mets. (Newly acquired Andy Phillips was sent down to make room.) Armas picked up the win 7-4, and pitched six strong innings while giving up 4 runs and 8 hits, while striking out three and walking one, to make a case that he should be a candidate for a pitching spot on the roster for the foreseeable future.

Backup Catcher Ramon Castro had a big night offensively as he dove in 3 of the 7 Met runs, going 2-4 with a single and a double. David Wright hit his 16th homer and lacked a triple for the cycle, and Carlos Delgado went 3-for-3 with two doubles, ending a 1-for-13 slump. Ryan Church, who made his return from the DL Sunday against the Yankees also chipped in, and had two hits and an RBI in an offense that had 14 hits after mustering just six runs while dropping three of the previous four games.

To quote Mrs. Gump in Forrest Gump, the Mets are "a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."