Mets Morning News: Mets get Mom some flowers but no bats

Meet the Mets

Yesterday was Mother's Day, so to all you mothers out there, why in the world were you watching another horrible Mets loss? Harvey Day did not go exactly to plan, as a bad inning from the Mets ace, coupled with the usual suspects, an anemic offense and a shaky bullpen, conspired to send the Mets to their third straight defeat against the Pirates. Things don't looke to get much better for the Metropolitans, as they head out to St. Louis for the first of four with the Central-leading Cardinals. For the social media blow-by-blow, check out the always depressing and amusing twitter recap at The Daily Stache.

The biggest at-bat of the game came in the eighth. With runners on the corners and one out, Ike Davis strode to the plate, having been returned to the four-hole in the MEts line-up. It didn't go so well. In a possibly related note, Wilmer Flores played his first game of 2013 at first base in Vegas yesterday. Could have just been a scheduled day off for Josh Satin, who's cooled off a bit, but Vegas has Lutz and Campbell available to play first as well. Makes you say "hmmm."

It wasn't all awful though, Juan Lagares made this sweet catch. I have to say, Lagares has impressed me in centerfield so far. Too bad he looks completely lost at the plate. It seems to be going around.

One of the few Mets who is hitting is Whitestone's own Mike Baxter. Howard Megdal wonders why he isn't starting more often. Yes, he's more a fourth outfielder/long side platoon man than everyday gplayer, but as I've grown fond of saying: In the land of fifth outfielders, the fourth outfielder is King.

I'm kind of tired about talking about the Jordany Valdespin show, but I really enjoyed Jon Bernhardt's piece at Sports on Earth about the plunking of JV1.

As you may have noticed, the Mets aren't playing so well lately. Rising Apple doesn't think it is time to panic though. But that's what we do best! Also, I'm starting to worry a little bit about the Faith and Fear fellas. Granted, they've both seen darker days than me, but I still worry sometimes.

Oh hey, remember Frank Francisco? Yeah, he's hurt again. In the words of Billy Wagner, "[expletive deleted] shocker."

Yesterday at AA

Yesterday was the anniversary of Carlos Beltran going nuts at Coors. Brock Mahan reminds us all who's to #blame. I will once again lobby for a two-year deal for Beltran this offseason. He's certainly better than the current alternatives.

And Chris McShane noted that the Mets have put Jeurys Familia on the disabled list with an elbow issue and recalled Greg Burke. If we count Familia as a prospect still, he joins Michael Fulmer, Cory Mazzoni, Hansel Robles, Luis Mateo, Domingo Tapia, Jenrry Mejia, and Tyler Pill as young Mets arms that have missed time in 2013.

Around the NL East

The Phillies, behind another strong outing from Kyle Kendrick, took care of the Grissionbacks yesterday. Looks like another week of being trolled about Kendrick by my one Phillies fan friend.

The rest of the NL East didn't fare so well on Sunday. The Braves offense sputtered against the Giants, the Nats lost the rubber game of their series with the Cubbies, and the Marlins continued to Marlin.

Around MLB

Here's the rest of Sunday's action in one handy-dandy scoreboard.

I spent most of the past few days in Rochester, where the Yankees radio stations come in much better than WFAN, so I got to hear way too much of Vernon Wells being good at baseball. This is very confusing to me. Fortunately, The Hardball Times is on the case.

The Cubs locked up Anthony Rizzo to a seven-year deal with a couple of team options. Love those pre-arb extensions, even if Rizzo might not have been the first candidate to jump to mind.

Don't you mean Martin Pra-bro?

Finally, the Astros continue their massacre of former Mets prosects, as Phil Humber joins Fernando Martinez on the DFA line.