Mike Pelfrey didn't have it tonight, getting battered around for five runs on eight hits including five for extra bases (three doubles, two triples). Really, he had one terrible inning.

Carlos Muniz and Duaner Sanchez relieved Pelfrey and tossed three scoreless innings (!), allowing Damion Easley to bring the Mets to within a run. Joe Smith made sure that didn't last long, as he coughed up a two-run Ugg-bomb that effectively put the game out of reach in the eighth.

Tonight's sign that the apocalypse is upon us: Marlon Anderson, 3-for-4. Anyone else feel dirty?

Big winners: Damion Easley, +17.8% WPA, Marlon Anderson, +5.9% WPA
Big losers: Mike Pelfrey, -29.5% WPA, David Wright, -15.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Easley three-run bomb, +17.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ross two-run triple, -22.4% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -32.4%
Total batter WPA: -17.6%

Game Thread Roll Call

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

One lousy single from Brad Hawpe is all that separated the Mets from the franchise's first no-hitter. I don't really care so much that the Mets have never had one. I'll take the Mets' two World Series over however many no-nos the Astros have had since 1962. Don't get me wrong: it'd be nice to get one, and it'll be really exciting and I'll scream like a schoolgirl, but I don't really lament the fact that there's never been one. The Mets have had a zillion one-hitters, and with just a tiny bit of luck they'd probably have three or four no-hitters by now. But they don't, and they didn't get one on Saturday either.

Tangibly speaking, what they got was just as good: a win, pushing their current streak to eight straight victories and moving them to within a half-game of the Phillies for first place in the NL East. I don't want to say that this seemed unfathomable a week ago, because a week ago the we were in the middle of watching the series with the Phillies and imagining how great it would be to win the last three games and wind up 2.5 games out. But that's just what happened, and then five more wins after that. The Phillies are sputtering a bit and the Cardinals aren't playing so hot, so the Mets are actually just 1.5 games back of the Wild Card. All of this is heady talk when we're only 94 games into the season, but if it was fathomable a week ago it was certainly unfathomable a couple of weeks ago.

Whatever happens tomorrow, the Mets can finish the scheduled first half of the season no worse than a game and a half out of first, and could conceivably head into the All-Star break in first place (!). It's easy to get wrapped up in all of the winning, but you're never really as good as you look when you're on a hot streak and never quite as bad as when you're on a cold streak. The Mets are awesome right now: the starting pitching has been great, the bullpen has been great, the situational hitting has been great, the role players have been great. Is Fernando Tatis going to hit like this all year? Has Mike Pelfrey figured it all out? Is Aaron Heilman back to normal?

Hey, when everybody's playing great there isn't a lot to complain about. The gripers stay away and we're all happy. I'm not going to say the Mets are doing it all with smoke and mirrors, because they are legitimately playing terrific baseball. They've won some squeakers and maybe had some good luck along the way, but great hitting, pitching and unembarrassing fielding is a rock solid formula for moving up in the standings. Moises Alou is probably done for the year, but we really weren't counting on him to contribute much anyway. Ryan Church may be back sooner rather than later, as his recent dizzy spells have been attributed to migraines and not post-concussion issues. Hell, Orlando Hernandez and Angel Pagan are both making rehab starts with St. Lucie. Neither would have a tremendous impact on this team, but both could be useful parts down the stretch.

It could all fall apart tomorrow, but right now it's a lot of fun to watch the Mets play ball, and I guess that's all I really wanted to be able to say. Go out there and win tomorrow and we end the half on a high note.

Big winners: Pedro Martinez, +21.8% WPA, Carlos Muniz, +13.8% WPA
Big losers: Nick Evans, -6.7% WPA, Argenis Reyes, -4.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Iannetta double-play in 4th, +10.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Evans strikeout with bases loaded in 4th, -6.7% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +48.7%
Total batter WPA: +1.3%

Game Thread Roll Call

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

What the hell was that crap about? I don't know why I bother sometimes, because staying up late to watch this team give it up like that as often as they do really takes a lot out of me. This loss was such a wretched, phenomenal failure, but none of us can say that we didn't expect the game to end poorly, at least a little bit. This team seems to be a magnet for suffering, and if there's a reasonable way to lose a game they can usually find it.

Pedro was terrible, then it rained, and then he was much better. Overall, still terrible, but he showed signs of putting things together after giving up four runs in the first. I don't know if he's still tipping his pitches or disguising them well but executing them poorly, but last night's poll still stands as a big question mark for the remainder of the season.

This loss really hurts. The Mets haven't won a single game this season during which they've trailed by more than two runs at any point. Last night they were down by four runs and they charged all the way back to take a two-run lead in the seventh. They'll kick themselves because they had a couple of chances to pad that lead: first in the seventh when Jose Reyes lined out to center to end the inning with two runners on base, and again when David Wright hit a one-out triple in the eighth, only to be stranded when Carlos Beltran struck out looking and Ryan Church grounded out to second. The Beltran-haters will come back out of the woodwork to pillory him for failing to get the runner home from third with less than two outs, but the guy has come through in that situation something like 65% of the time (per the on-screen display SNY flashed right before the whiff).

An extra insurance run or two would have made a big difference, obviously, as Pedro Feliciano promptly gave up the lead in the bottom of the eighth when this fucklick hit a two-run homerun to tie the game. Chris Duncan is generally as bad at hitting southpaws as Brett Myers is good at hitting his wife, and Feliciano has been murder on lefties this season (and in general), but those two facts blatantly disregarded each other and conspired to screw the Mets and left me with no choice but to pathetically cry myself to sleep. Again.

The real hero last night was Jerry Manual, who deftly displayed the same lack of managerial ingenuity that made Willie Randolph the target of much fan ire. With the game tied at seven in the bottom of the ninth, the Cardinals were set to bring up the meat of their order: Pujols, Ankiel and Glaus. Fine, tie game, other team's best hitters coming up, rollercoaster of a game possibly hanging in the balance. What to do? If you're Jerry Manuel, you bring in the worst pitcher in your bullpen and a dude who sauntered around the field before the game wearing a Hello Kitty backpack (that, of course, has nothing to do with his crappiness). Billy Wagner is twiddling his thumbs in the bullpen, and he's the best pitcher you've got, and I don't care that it isn't a save situation or that you might have a save situation next inning or the inning after. If you don't get through their team's best hitters RIGHT NOW then there won't be a game to save later. I've basically accepted the fact that a manager will never bring in his best reliever to pitch to the heart of the order in the seventh or eighth inning, even though it may be the highest leverage inning of the game. It's the right thing to do, but it doesn't happen and it might never happen because closers like to pitch the ninth inning. But this *was* the ninth inning, AND it was the highest leverage situation of the game, and Manual still made the absolute wrong decision and the Mets lost the game because of it. There were other things the Mets screwed up, and even if Muniz (or Wagner) came in to shut down Pujols, Ankiel and Glaus, there's no guarantee that the Mets would have won the game anyway. But you've gotta give them a chance, Jerry.

Of course Carlos Muniz retired Pujols and Ankiel, and of course Glaus hit his second homerun of the game. Of course the Mets lost, and of course I'm moving on.

Big winners: David Wright, +22.5% WPA, Damion Easley, +18.5% WPA
Big losers: Carlos Muniz, -35.8% WPA, Pedro Martinez, -25.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Damion Easley two-run double, +14.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: You know what, -46.3% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -80.9%
Total batter WPA: +30.9%

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by JoshNY; his effort in last night's game thread embiggens us all.