Repeatedly Punched in the Balls Applesauce

Meet the Mets

Sure it was just one bad week out of season of twenty-five or so, but it was a really bad week. It culmunated in a sloppy, ugly sweep at the hands of the Mets crosstown rivals. But hey, if you need to be cheered up, spend some of your heard-earned money on No-Han swag. Remember when Johan Santana threw a no-hitter, you guys? It really happened.

And of course, after a cross town sweep and a 1-6 week, the Mets beat reporters can't jump off the banwagon fast enough, surprise surprise. Granted, as the numbers bear out, it wasn't a particularly pretty series for the Mets, but in the end it was just one series. The Mets have today off, and start a three game series in Tampa tomorrow. You can watch Jeurys Familia toe the rubber for the Buffalo Bisons on SNY tonight. Familia has looked better in his last couple starts, though his mechanics are still kind of a mess right now.

Plenty of blame to go around for the Mets loss yesterday, Omar Quintanilla and David Wright made a pair of ugly errors.And Jon Rauch gave up another big home run, this one a walk-off to Russell Martin. Obviously reliever W-L record means very little, but having six losses by June 10th, not so good.

Greg Prince sums up the weird mixture of horror and disappointment that so often accompanies being a Mets fan.

Toby Hyde writes about Matt den Dekker's blistering season for the Binghamton Mets.

Still haven't watched or read Game of Thrones, but I assume this is funny.

Around the NL East

The Nationals used a go-ahead double in the ninth from Roger Bernadina to help complete a sweep of the Red Sox in Fenway. All of a sudden the Nats have a little breathing room in the NL East.

The Marlins' June struggles continue with another loss to their crossstate rivals. Not even some bullpen phone chicanery could derail the Rays this weekend.

At least Phily keeps finding ways to lose. This time, it was a walk-off double from Matt Weiters. Shockingly, the Phils lost in extras without using Jonathan Papelbon. That never happens.

The Braves stuggles continue as well as Livan Hernandez helped turn a 4-1 lead into a 12-4 loss. So yeah, it looks like everybody knows the troubles we've seen. Also, MLB.com, we need to talk about those headlines.

Around MLB

CONTROVERSY! Jose Valverde may or may not have thrown a spitball yesterday. Hardball Talk has the Zapruder film of the incident. Of course, this is the kind of cheating that gets old sportswriters all moist inside, since it doesn't taking PEDs and not being Andy Pettite. Valverde got the save after the Tigers rallied against the suddenly mortal Reds bullpen.

The Astors beat the White Sox in a wild one in Chicago. Hey, remember when we were all making jokes on twitter about how we shouldn't have traded Phil Humber after he pitched his perfect game? About that...

The Twins are close to signing #2 overall pick Byron Buxton. Curious to see how close to slot his deal ends up.

Finally, Long Island's own Stony Brook University advanced to the College World Series by pulling off two straight wins over heavily favored LSU. Go Seawolves!