Oh The Pain

The Mets lost to the Dodgers in L.A. 3-2 in 11 innings. Long time suffering Met fan Joe Benigno was at Dodger Stadium tonight for his very first time, no doubt moaning, "Oh the pain" while witnessing the most disgraceful Met lost of the season. The Mets defense played as if they thought Santana was pitching for them. Although another more likely reason could be all those defensive players playing out of position. However, this does not excuse Beltran's drop in the 11th.

Carlos Beltran is so afraid of outfield collisions that he just gets mental jitters during in-between outfield hits. There's no way he should have dropped that ball today. Pagan was calling for it so either let him catch it or Beltran should have caught it.

And Ryan Church. How do you forget to touch third base? Pagan's drive with two outs was hit so far that Church could have just jogged home.

Going through the post-game quotes by the Mets, I didn't get the sense that any player took any responsibility for their mental mistakes. Beltran blamed his drop on Pagan, and Church thought that he nicked the side of the bag. What a bunch of bull.

"I called for the ball like six times," Beltran said. "But Pagan stood in the middle and I couldn't put my glove on the ball. On a ball like that, I have priority. If Pagan would have called for that ball, my job is to get out of the way. He's been in center field before, so he knows that when the center fielder calls for the ball, everyone has to get out of the way." [WFAN]

Church thought he touched the side of the bag.

"I felt like I nicked something, and that's why I kept going," he said. "I was walking back to the dugout and I heard the crowd scream, so I turned around. I mean, what can you do? When they call you out, they call you out. They're not going to reverse it." [WFAN]

“That’s unbelievable,” Jerry Manuel said about Church missing third base. “I can’t explain why or how or anything. He actually missed the base. … It’s just hard to miss third base. I’ve noticed guys have missed first because they’re looking for the ball, that type of thing and a misstep. But I have rarely — I don’t know I remember a guy ever missing third base in a situation like that. I don’t have any explanation.” [WFAN]