The Beltran grand slam was probably the biggest of his Mets career and yeah, that comeback shocked even me. Yesterday's loss was just horrible and showed once again why after this season the Mets just need to let Aaron Heilman go be a starter somewhere. Today, Pedro pitched well, Reyes got a key hit and hopefully we'll be back up 2 by the time the day is over.
Jerry Manuel said something to the effect that Aaron "deserved" the first chance to be the closer while Billy Wagner is on the DL. Well, obviously Manuel hasn't been paying too close attention to how awful Heilman's been this year, thus, any surprise that he almost blew it for us last night? Wagner with his 7 blown saves is having a bad enough season (how he made the All-Star team is beyond me), but any bullpen-by-committee while our closer is out should not include Aaron Heilman.
OK, things are looking really good after the whole Willie controversy, but let's not get carried away here because we're still 3.5 games out of first place have some problems that need to be worked out if we're seriously going to contend this year. First, the Mets need to show some guts and send Aaron Heilman down to the minors if they're not going to trade him. Heilman has been horrible all year, gives up way too many HR's and keeps costing us games. Secondly, the Mets have to be really careful with Ryan Church whose suffered two concussions of late and still isn't 100%--give the hot-hitting Fernando Tatis more playing time till Church is 110%. Lastly, there's Pedro Martinez, who I don't care how good he says he's feeling, seems to always end up injured. We need Pedro to win for sure, but the Mets have to be extra careful how they deal with him for the rest of the year. Personally, I wouldn't let him go any more than 5 innings from now on till the playoffs. In the meantime, Wright and Reyes are hitting, Carlos Beltran is getting clutch hits. the bullpen (except Heilman) looks great and the bench is making a name for themselves. Good.
Listen, I'll take 2-outta-3 anytime, especially against the hated Phillies, even if they didn't have their MVP for a couple of games. But Willie's gotta stop taking out these starting pitchers so early and quit acting like Aaron Heilman is Joba Chamberlain. Oh, and Angel Pagan? Godsend.
