Carlos Beltran got the night off again, presumably for weather-related reasons (ed. note: he's afraid of the rain). In a striking display of solidarity in support of their terrified centerfielder, the rest of the Mets' offense took the night off, too. I guess that's not entirely fair; they managed nine hits including seven off Cole Hamels, but they plated just one run in the first eight innings. In the ninth, Omir Santos led off with a double and Jeremy Reed's pinch-hit single sent Santos to third. Cory Sullivan then grounded into a rally-killing double play, chasing home Santos with the second run but also providing the Phillies with two important outs. Angel Pagan grounded out to second to end the game.

The loss was the Mets' fourth in a row and seventh in their last ten and it moved them to the precipice of mathematical playoff elimination. They were unofficially eliminated a couple of months ago, but we do like our statistical numbers here and those tell us it's almost officially time to move on.

The Mets' latest stretch of unwatchable futility has vaulted them over the A's, Padres, and Reds into seventh place overall, just a half-game behind sixth-place Arizona and a game-and-a-half behind fifth-place Cleveland. The real dregs of the league are at least another few games behind that, but a top-five overall pick would be a silver lining in this lost season.

Mike Pelfrey takes on Jamie Moyer at 4:05pm Saturday on FOX.

Haiku by Howard Megdal

Phils are struggling
But Mets can't take advantage
Oh what might have been

Swag Contest

Swag contest results can be found here and the next game's swag form already available. You can read more about the swag contest here.

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* The Good Phight Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Jeremy Reed, +9.2% WPA, Jeff Francoeur, +7.9% WPA
Big losers: Fernando Tatis, -15.6% WPA, David Wright, -15.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Sullivan single in seventh, +9.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Sullivan GIDP in ninth, -16.0% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -6.6% WPA
Total batter WPA: -43.4% WPA
GWRBI!: Carlos Ruiz

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by sj10689; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.