Nieve Goes Down and so do the Mets

Another injury, and another bad Met effort. Fernando Nieve went down with a strained right quad while running to 1st base in the 2nd inning and left the game. Then the Mets went down and lost 7-1 to the Braves, while losing three out of four in Atlanta over the weekend.

While the Mets injury woes keep creeping up like they did in the first half, Tim Redding's performance did not change from before the break. That's because he pitched poorly again, giving up 5 runs, only 2 earned, in three innings of work. Redding failed to give the Mets innings after Nieve went down, and he left the game with the bases loaded in the 5th with no one out. Elmer Dessens came on in relief and gave up a two run double to Yunel Escobar, who also singled in a run in the 4th and went deep in the 2nd.

Something else that did not help Redding was shoddy defense by the Mets once again. Jeff Francoeur bobbled a Garret Anderson double in the 4th which enabled him to get to 3rd. Then in the 5th, Alex Cora dropped a throw at second base from Brian Schneider.The defense in this game, and the injury to Nieve is a microcosm of the Mets season thus far.

The Mets scored their lone run on a Francoeur RBI single in the third inning. While he may be undisciplined at times, he also has shown a knack to turn bad pitches out of the strike zone into hits. On his RBI single, he went the other way on a pitch that was low and outside.

If this series is any indication of how the Mets will perform in the second half, then their fans should start getting excited for football. New York was absolutely dreadful again today. Sure, it didn't help that Nieve went down with a quad injury, but the offense was lifeless again and the defense continues to make costly errors. Right now the Mets just do not have the depth on their roster to win enough games to overcome a nine game deficit in the division, and they just cannot establish a level of consistency in any facet of the game. What also hurts is that the Phillies are playing their best ball of the season, having won eight in a row.

Tidbits: The Mets are 9-15 in their last 24 games, which is when Beltran went on the DL with a kneecap injury.

New York has scored 76 runs in that span, and they have been held to one run or fewer in ten of those games.

Next stop on this ten game road trip is in Washington, who the Mets are 7-2 against this year. The Nats were just swept by Chicago in their first few games under interim manager Jim Riggleman.

(AP Photos/John Amis)