Mets Lack Intensity, Desire, and Heart in Lackluster Loss to Cardinals

The Cardinals Joel Pineiro, he of the lifetime 4.54 ERA, stymied the Mets hitters again for over 8 innings with his new sinkerball as the lifeless Mets went down without a fight to a 5-2 loss against St. Louis.

Other than Carlos Beltran's 3 hits, there isn't a lot of nice things to say about this team, a team that in the early goings of this year seems to lack any kind of intensity, any desire to win, or worst of all, any heart at all after being faced with a deficit. In fact, if at ANY time during the game, the Mets are down, you can almost be certain the team's going to lose since no one has been able to perform in the clutch up to this point.

If we were to extrapolate RBIs for some of the key batters in the Mets lineup, the results are not pretty. David Wright is on pace for a 57 rbi season. Likewise, Jose Reyes is on a 69 RBI pace. As bad as that seems, take Ryan Church - who if he continues on the pace he's on, will have 23 RBI's at the end of the season. Wow... those are not good numbers.

But even more concerning is the health of John Maine, who struggled again by allowing 5 runs while taking his second loss of the season. We've been saying all along that Maine's injury last year was more significant than any one's letting on - so much so, that we wouldn't be surprised if he's NEVER the same pitcher he once was when he looked like the Mets biggest steal since the David Cone trade. Maine's a good guy. We like him. But Met fans better be concerned that his short stint as an above average pitcher is over.

The Mets have a solid number one pitcher in Johan Santana and a phenomenal closer in KRod. But questions are definitely starting to pop up regarding the rest of this team. Pop up... as in the result when a Met batter is up with a runner at third.