Walk-Off Winners

If this continues, I'm going to die before I'm 30. The Mets won in walk-off fashion today by a score of 5-3 to take two out of three from one of the NL's worst teams in the Padres, but both wins were struggles because the pen blew leads.

In the first game, the Mets hung on to win by a score of 6-5 after it took three relievers to get three outs in the bottom of the ninth. The Mets came into the ninth with a 6-2 lead. The Pads won last night's game by a score of 4-2, and today's game was another game that the bullpen almost let get away.

Behind yet another solid performance by Johan Santana, the Mets entered the 8th with a 3-1 lead. After the Padres jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning thanks to a home run by Left Fielder Chase Headley, the Mets answered back in the bottom of the fourth when first Carlos Beltran doubled to lead off the inning, then Fernando Tatis walked, and then rookie first baseman Dan Murphy singled to score Beltran to tie the score at one.

Murphy's single also moved Tatis over to third, and a single by First Baseman Nick Evans scored Tatis to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. The Mets added the third run when Nick Evans hit a sacrifice fly to right that scored Murphy in the bottom of the 6th. Murphy led off the inning with a single, and then moved to third on a single by Catcher Robinson Cancel, who subbed for Ramon Castro, who left in the fifth inning because of a sore right ankle.

Now that you're caught up on how the score was 3-1 in the eighth, let's get to that eighth, and what happened there. To lead off the eighth, Shortstop Luis Rodriguez singled off of Johan Santana, as did the next batter Pitch Hitter Edgar Gonzalez.

After two hits, Manuel had seen enough, and removed Santana in favor of Duaner Sanchez. Here's where I get angry. You have your best pitcher on the mound. You're paying him $137 million dollars. Your closer is on the DL, and your relievers have been awful as of late. Logic says to leave Santana in. However, the Mets defy logic by pulling Santana in favor of Sanchez who throws only one pitch. That one pitch hits Scott Hairston to load the bases. After Sanchez exits, in comes Pedro Feliciano, who gets Pinch Hitter Brian Giles to ground out into a fielder's choice.

Next up, First Baseman Adrian Gonzalez. Gonzalez proceeds to single to left to bring in his brother Edgar to cut the deficit to 3-2. After the Gonzalez single, Joe Smith relives Feliciano, and gets Third Baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff to ground into a double play to end the inning. After a quiet bottom of the 8th by the Mets, it's onto the ninth, and a chance for Scott Schoeneweis to close it out.

Of course he couldn't. After getting Headley to fly out for the first out, Jody Gerut who killed the Mets this series, unloaded a game tying homer into right field. It was Gerut's third homer and fifth RBI of the series. After Schoeneweis blew the lead, Aaron Heilman got the final two outs of the inning to give the Mets a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth.

To lead off Endy Chavez, who came on in the top of the ninth for defensive purposes, singled. After that, Jose Reyes failed to get the bunt down, and popped out. Following him was Second Baseman Argenis Reyes. He lined out to left. After Reyes, up stepped David Wright, who was trying to make amends for his error that in part, cost the Mets the game last night.

Make amends is just what he did, as he took a 1-0 pitch from former Met Heath Bell, and homered over the left field wall for a two-out two-run walk off home run.

The Mets took two out of three from one of the NL's worst teams in the Padres like I said earlier. However, with the Marlins coming into Shea tomorrow night for a huge three game series, the bullpen continues to go in the wrong direction. Santana, who is just 9-7 in his first season with the Mets, continues to get burned by the pen. Today's start according to the Elias Sports Bureau was the sixth time in 24 starts this season that he came out with a lead and failed to win. In six of those, the collapse came in the ninth inning. He has seven no-decisions, and in six of those, allowed three runs or fewer.

The Mets only chance of acquiring a reliever is through the wavier wide, and that doesn't look like it's going to happen. The Mets have Eddie Kunz up who had 27 saves in the Eastern League before being called up. However, Jerry Manuel has said that he'd prefer to bring Kunz along slowly and get his feet wet with some success in New York before handing the pressure-packed closer's role to him in the big leagues.

Well, Jerry here's a newsflash for you. Your Closer is on the 15 day DL. Unless you want to fall completely out of the race, you must do two things. Since your bullpen is hideous, you must allow your starters to go at least eight innings if they can, and you must let Eddie Kunz close NOW. If you don't do these things, you and the Mets will be watching the playoffs and World Series on TV just like you were last year after the collapse. The choice is yours buddy.