Battingpractista Strikes Again Applesauce: Miguel Batista Is Who We Thought He Was, Johan Is Disabled, Not Even Dickey Can Save Mets' Bullpen

Meet the Mets

Miguel Batista did plenty of Miguel Batista things during Saturday's 8-5 defeat at the hands of the Dodgers. These Miguel Batista things include gratuitous amounts of pitches out of the strikezone, walks by the bushel, straight 91 MPH fastballs and one of the most recent developments: smacktalk. Batista found himself somewhere in the vicinity of "terrible" during his laborious 3 inning, 81 pitch affair that led to four Dodgers ultimately crossing the plate. After the game, Batista once more spoke of how the Mets are better than the first place Nationals. That may or may not be true but all signs point to the fact that the team seems to be much worse off with Batista chewing up important innings as often as he has. Batista may be a great guy, a renaissance man and a baseball lifer but there just does not seem to be any logical reason for him to be throwing meaningful innings for the 2012 Mets.

Meanwhile, the offense did its best to dig itself out of Batista's early hole. After scoring two runs in the bottom of the eighth, the Mets had cut the Dodgers' lead to just 6-5 but it wouldn't stay that way for long. Our hero R.A. Dickey came on in relief to throw the ninth inning. As Terry Collins explained before the game, the Mets planned to use Dickey on Saturday because it was his throw day and the Mets' bullpen has been...well, you know. Things did not go as planned, though, as Dickey surrendered a two-run home run to Juan Uribe (really) and that put things out of reach, despite Kenley Jansen putting two guys on and doing his best to give the Mets one last hope in the bottom of the ninth.

Choose Your Recap: MLB.com, ESPN NY, Daily News, New York Times, Associated Press, Star-Ledger, Bergen Record

The Mets look to salvage the final game of their series with the Dodgers, as Jon Niese takes the hill against Nathan Eovaldi. Game time is at 1:10 PM and you can catch the action locally on WPIX or nationally on TBS.

Johan Santana was placed on the DL on Saturday with a sprained ankle, a move that will give the lefty some time to recover after three disastrous starts. The competitive lefty made it known that he doesn't feel he needs the time off but considering how much he's struggled this month, it's probably all for the best.

The Mets announced that Elvin Ramirez will be recalled from Buffalo but they have yet to announce who the casualty will be. Personally, I'd wager either Batista or Kirk Nieuwenhuis.

Sandy Alderson told the media that he still considers the Mets to be buyers, though the next week will be critical to whether they decide to go forward with the plan to add players.

With all of the injuries in the starting rotation, Matt Harvey's name may be called relatively soon but his start last night for Buffalo likely did not quell any fears with regards to his readiness. Harvey was thrashed for six runs on seven hits over five innings as the Bisons were shut out 11-0 by Charlotte.

Around the NL East

The Braves and Nationals split a doubleheader on Saturday. The Braves won game one 4-0 behind Ben Sheets' second dominant outing, while the Nationals won game two 5-2 in John Lannan's return to the big leagues. In game one, Bryce Harper fouled a ball off his ankle and was forced to leave the game. Tests afterward only revealed a contusion. The Giants defeated the Phillies 6-5, as Cole Hamels and Matt Cain homered off of each other in the same inning. And then there's the Marlins, who fell to the Pirates 5-1 as former Marlin A.J. Burnett shut down his old team.

Around the Majors

in trade news, the Astros made another deal, sending closer Brett Myers to the White Sox in exchange for two pitching prospects and a player to be named later.

A number of teams are eying Rays' righty James Shields, who is under team control in 2013 with a reasonable $9 million option.

The Dodgers are suddenly unlikely to deal for Cubs' righty Ryan Dempster, as they'd rather not deal top prospects for a rental. They've shifted their focus to fellow Cubs' starter Matt Garza but Garza left his start with a triceps injury.

Roberto Hernandez, the pitcher once known as Fausto Carmona, has received a US Visa and will serve a three-week suspension as he returns to the majors.