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Meet the Mets
The Mets are bad again, you guys. The offense decided to spend Father's day puttering around the backyard and the Mets were swept by the visiting Red Stockings. I think it's time to panic again. But make sure you get all your panicking in today, because after the Mets sweep the Orioles, you are going to look kind of silly. R.A. Dickey (RAmen) takes the mound for the Mets tonight. Funny how the Mets don't seem to do as well without R.A. or Johan on the bump.
Jason Bay spent the weekend resting as well, but will be examined by doctors today as they try to determine the extent of his concussion.
SNY's All-Time Mets team special will run Thursday Night, but Mike Vaccaro reviews the selections ahead of the broadcast. And yes, I am as shocked as you are that a writer at the Post is mounting a strong defense of Carlos Beltran.
I am generally loathe to link Mike Harrington, because he's kind of a cranky old biddy, but I also have a soft sport for Collin McHugh. So here's a piece on the newly minted Bison. And McHugh himself just wrote about how annoying the "When are you going to get promoted?" question is for a prospect. He makes his first AAA start tonight against the Norfolk Tides.
The Cyclones kick off their season tonight against the Staten Island Yanks. 2011 draft picks Brandon Nimmo and Phil Evans will be spending their summer on Coney Island, as will supplemental 1st round pick Kevin Plawecki.
And at Faith and Fear in Flushing, Jason Fry reflects on a Father's Day at Citi Field.
Around the NL East
Fortunately for the Mets, the rest of the NL East all had lost weekends of their own. The Phillies were swept by the Blue Jays in a game featuring Jonathan Papelbon protecting a four-run deficit after he wasn't used in an extra inning game Saturday (that not coincidentally, the Phillies also lost).
The Nationals were also swept, as Ivan Nova shut down Washington's offense over a strong 7+ innings of work.
The Braves? Well, not swept, but they have lost 6 of 7 with Sunday's loss to the Orioles. More bad news for the Barves as Brandon Beachy was placed on the DL with elbow soreness. Well, that usually goes away on its own, right?
And the Marlins were shut out by Alex Cobb and the Tampa Bay Rays.
Around MLB
The Dodgers keep on trucking, coming from behind to win against the AL Central-leading White Sox. We may not have gotten that Sale/Kershaw pitcher's duel, but Capuano/Quintana was pretty good. I understand why the Mets didn't resign him, but man, Capuano would be a nice fifth starter to have right about now. He might even end up making the NL All-Star team.
Kansas City won a wild one over their cross-state rivals. How wild? Yuniesky Betancourt hit a game-winning home run. Yep. That wild. Before all that, though, Billy Butler did this on an 0-2 pitch with two outs in the ninth. Sick.
Felix Hernandez pitched great and didn't get the win. Moving on...
Pedro Alvarez had another crazy day with the bat. It's almost enough to make you forget his OBP is like .270. There's a prospect I completely missed on.
If the Mets are interested in adding another unreliable reliever to their pen, Brad Lidge is available!
And finally, the Giants are planning on keeping Tim Lincecum in the rotation even after another rough outing Saturday. Just gonna point out that Yusmeiro Petit is posting a 3.06 ERA in the PCL for Fresno right now and has struck out 75 and walked only 20. I'll show myself out now.