2 Out of 3 Ain't Bad - Perez Looks Lost as Nats Avoid Sweep

I keep telling myself that - 2 out of 3 ain't bad. But I really wanted the win and the sweep yesterday of the Nationals. However, after missing the Friday and Saturday games (each won by the Mets), I got psyched up to watch a nice Sunday afternoon ballgame fully expecting good things to happen.

Then bad Ollie showed up... again.

Instead it was the National's Jordan Zimmermann who shined as Washington humiliated the Mets to avoid the sweep, 8-1 for their first road win of the season. It was another lethargic loss for the Mets (8-10), who host first-place Florida for a three-game series beginning tonight at Citi Field. Leftfielder Daniel Murphy botched another line drive, David Wright went 0-4 with a run-scoring throwing error, and Carlos Beltran again forgot to slide on an attempted steal of second.

Adding insult to injury, the star of the game for the Nats was one-time-Met-property Jesus Flores who homered (his second of the series) and drove in three runs. The young catcher was snatched up by Washington when the Mets left him unprotected in the December 2006 winter meeting draft (Rule 5), a move that certainly appears to be a mistake.

Oliver Perez has now allowed 15 walks and 23 hits in 19 1/3 innings. His ERA is 9.31 and was booed off the field by a frustrated crowd of 40,023 (plus 1 Met fan trying to have a nice Sunday afternoon watching the game.)