In Game one of the day-night doubleheader on Friday, the Mets scored 15 runs.  All 15 were driven in by the middle of the order; the 3-4-5 hitters.  David Wright went 4-5 with 3 RBI, Carlos Beltran hit a home run and accounted for 3 more RBI, and Carlos Delgado had an entire season in one day.

  For one game, at least, Delgado looked like the Delgado of 2006.  The Delgado who terrorized American League pitchers in the late nineties.  He hit two home runs, including a grand slam, en route to a 9-RBI game - numbers that would rival any big game he ever had in his prime.  Let the speculation begin about Andy Phillips pushing Delgado. 

Jose Reyes (2) and Luis Castillo (5) scored a combined 7 runs, while getting on base a total of 8 times.

The top of the order was on base?  The RBI guys got RBIs?  What's up with that?  That's how a lineup is supposed to work.  Maybe now that it has been demonstrated, the Mets will figure out how to do that a little more often.

R.A. Dickey may very well be the single worst pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball.  And he shut out the Mets. 

Felix Hernandez never had an at bat in the major leagues before.  And he hit a grand slam off of a 94 mph fastball out of the strike zone (with his eyes closed - check the video).

Johan Santana has a 2.04 ERA in his last four starts.  And he's 0 and 4. 

Only the Mets. 

They are now 3-4 under Jerry Manuel.  Guess it wasn't the manager after all, huh?  Clearly, their chance to win it all was in 2006.  It's time to cut the dead weight (Delgado, Castillo, etc.) and rebuild around Reyes and Wright.

The rest of us get to live with the embarassment of being Mets fans.  But we're used to that, aren't we?

Despite all the rumors, the firing of Willie Randolph was still a shock.  It came immediately after a Mets win, a win that meant the team had won three of its last four.  It came after a weekend where Willie pushed all the right buttons - sometimes his team performed (see: Robinson Cancel), sometimes it didn't (see: the entire bullpen).  Willie made plenty of mistakes over the past three and a half years, mostly in his handling of the bullpen, but I have no reason to think that a change of managers is going to make Carlos Delgado younger, or all the players on the DL healthier.

One thing is encouraging, however.  In his press conference today, interim manager Jerry Manuel said he would stretch the starting pitchers out to 120 pitches, and assign defined roles for the relievers.  While I agree with Dallas Green when he said, "The reliever's role is to get outs," in this day and age, pitchers are used to a certain routine before they enter a game.  They need to know when they are coming in so they can stretch and warm up properly.  Yes, pitchers are divas, but there's really no getting around that now.  I really believe that assigning roles to the relievers will help.

But I don't believe it will be enough.  The Mets players have to step up.  Will they play for Manuel?  Playing for Willie's job didn't seem to be enough.  Will they be even less motivated now?

The Jerry Manuel era begins tonight, and we will find out if it's a change for the better, or simply more of the same.

The Mets are fighting momentum.  It's a big, fast, heavy train loaded full of irrelevance was headed right for them.  They held it off last night, after that train ran over Billy Wagner, but Carlos Beltran responded by driving a game-winning, two-run homer with enough force to slow the train down.

Today, the train plowed into Wagner again, but the Mets simply couldn't stop it anymore.  Now, they are officially unwilling passengers on the Train of Irrelevance, on their way to a meaningless purgatory of a season. 

Chances of slowing this train down and jumping off are getting slimmer by the moment.  Judging by this series with the Diamondbacks, the Mets are in for a long ride.

Remember 2006?  Way back when, when Billy Wagner, Carlos Delgado, and Paul Lo Duca joined an already strong lineup headed by Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran?  Remember the walk-off wins, grand slams, and automatic bullpen?  Remember the champagne, Lo Duca hosing off the fans, and Gary Cohen saying, "After running roughshod over the National League, the Mets are NL East Champions," as Cliff Floyd ran the final out in from lef field?  Remember the reunion of the 1986 Mets, and how that ceremony at Shea seemed like the passing of the torch to the new can't-miss champions from Queens?  I do.  And I miss those days.

It seems like so long ago.  Maybe because since then, the Mets were upset in the 2006 NLCS, have blown a seven-game lead with seventeen to go in 2007, endured the sudden, Titanic-like decline of Delgado, and are now struggling to tread water at the .500 mark like many other National League teams with half the Mets' payroll.

In 2006, they would have never lost two straight one-run games to the Padres while scoring a grand total of two runs.  They would have never let their momentum run out against a last-place team.  And they would have never been 5.5 games behind the Phillies in early June.

The time to blame Willie Randolph has passed - he can't do anything more for a team that is aging, injured, and inconsistent.  The scary chill running up your spine is the nagging notion that this team is simply past its prime, and can't win with its current roster.

Reyes and Wright are hitting, Beltran is streakier than a window cleaned with motor oil, but will probably get on a tear before all is said and done, but the supporting cast is clearly subpar. 

The Mets don't need an overhaul, just a tune up.  But it just doesn't seem that one new part here or there will get this jalopy firing on all cylinders again.  That means there is plenty of hope for 2010.  That also means there is little hope for 2009.