Game #54 - Back to .500

I'm having trouble finding the words for tonight's game.  So much inside the game tonight that affirms everything that is wrong with this team.  A few quick notes, Cerrone-style.

• I have trouble remembering a player undergo a regression on par with David Wright.  In Wright's second full season, 2006, he hit .321 against righties.  It wasn't just an Ichiro .321 either - he accompanied that with a .929 OPS.  After tonight, he sits at .221 this year against righties, and the OPS hovers right around .700.  He's struck out a whopping 41 percent of the time against righties.  He looks completely helpless against them - and it's not just a small sample size.  His OPS is down for the 4th year in a row against righties, and what's worse is that he's not striking out on good pitches - he's constantly chasing balls out of the zone against righties, and any breaking stuff that ends up in the dirt with two strikes is a SUREFIRE way to strike him out.  At this point, he's a rally killer against righties rather than a weapon.  Truly sad.
• Jerry continues to boggle my mind.  What the hell is Valdes doing in the game in the 11th inning??? The guy couldn't even get a single out two nights ago, and is CLEARLY off in his mechanics, or injured.  It was clear from his first batter tonight that he was still a mess, and yet Jerry left him out there to lose the game.  Wonderful.  At least he recorded an out this time (albeit on a sac bunt), bringing his ERA down to 216.00 for the series.  Sweet.
• How long until Johan demands a trade?  I feel bad for the guy.  Here was a player clearly on the road to a Hall of Fame career and he's been completely derailed from that by coming to the Mets.  Had he been traded to the Yankees or the Red Sox, he'd probably have an additional 15 wins in the past 2 years and 2 months.  Sucks for him I guess.
• Heath Bell really must love giving the giant middle finger to the Mets, huh?  At least Omar got Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins for him.  Seems like a solid deal.  
• I like Ike as much as the next guy, but it's REALLY sad that this is the Mets cleanup hitter.  He's hitting .225 over his last 31 games and while he's done a decent job getting on base at around a .350 clip, he's just not a strong enough hitter at this stage in his career to be locked in at the 4 hole.

It's really sad that the Mets can get blown out in one game against a team as offensively inept as the Padres, and then 2 nights later lose a pitching duel to the same team.  

I'm looking forward to getting some sleep, so I can wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and say "FUCK, being a Met fan sucks."