Just Mets

The Mets were blown out by the Cardinals on Saturday night by the score of 12-2 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Here are my takeaways from the loss…

A throw away game.

There isn’t much to say about Colon’s performance tonight. He simply had absolutely nothing and got shelled by the Cardinals for the second time this season.

He gave up four runs in the first inning, and that pretty much sealed the deal for St. Louis who just kept beating Colon and the rest of the Mets pitching staff down. He lacked command of his fastball, couldn’t throw his slider for strikes either, and he got absolutely mauled.

He almost got knocked out of this game in the first inning, as Terry Collins had Carlos Torres warming up almost immediately. It’s an indication Collins will not afford anyone on the staff the slightest margin, and for good reason since the offense continues to be a joke on a daily basis. Colon did pitch into the fifth inning before the Cardinals finally knocked him out for seven runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Speaking of the offense…

It was non-existent again tonight short of Michael Cuddyer’s solo home run in the sixth inning with the team already down by eight runs.

That’s not entirely fair. The Mets did have 12 hits against John Lackey. However, that home run by Cuddyer and Ruben Tejada’s eighth inning RBI double were the only extra-base hits for the Mets tonight.

It’s the same old song for this club. And it’s not changing unless the people change.

Not a good start to a critical stretch.

The Mets have been out-pitched, outhit, and just outplayed in these first two games against the Cardinals, the clear cut better team on the field right now. In tonight’s case, it wasn’t just the offense that failed them – it was their pitching which they’re banking on down the stretch of the season, whether they acquire somebody to hit or not.

Colon’s performance was unacceptable tonight. And, the performances of both Alex Torres and Carlos Torres were similarly subpar. These non-competitive games simply cannot happen, especially as the games grow more critical by the day. Of course, knowing is different than executing, and until the front office improves the offense, if it happens at all, the pitching and defense simply needs to be stellar in every inning of every game.

Otherwise, this is going to happen, and knock the Mets right out of the 2015 season…

Other notes from Saturday:

The 12 runs the Mets allowed are a season-high – the previous season high was 10, also against St. Louis back in New York in May.

After his performance on Saturday, Colon’s ERA rose to 4.86 for the year. He allowed 15 earned runs in only 8 2/3 innings against St. Louis this season.

Along with his solo home run, Cuddyer had two singles to raise his batting average to .250 for the season.

Wilmer Flores is 0-for-his-last-12, 1-for-his-last-16, and has not homered since June 12.

Lucas Duda singled in five at-bats, but is now hitting just .163 with three home runs in his last 39 games.

Jason Heyward went 5-for-5 and has seven hits in this series, although he left the eighth inning after appearing to pull his left hamstring.

17 of the last 18 runs the Mets have scored have come via the home run, dating back to July 8 in San Francisco.

The Mets fell to 13-39 when scoring three runs or less.