Perez Invisible While Mets Loss Just Another Walk in the Park

Oliver Perez knew he was pitching to keep his start in the rotation. He knew the Phillies are a pretty good team (he tends to pitch well against good teams). He also knew the Mets needed a good outing from him for the team to inch closer to the .500 mark. Despite all that, Perez didn't make it out of the third inning in an atrocious 5-hit, 4 run, 6 walk performance in a game eventually won by the Phillies 6-5 in 10 innings. Perez was relieved by 40-year-old Ken Takahashi who became the first player to make his MLB debut after the age of 40 since Diomedes Olivo for the Pirates on Sept. 5, 1960.

Whoo Hoo! The story gets worse. Consecutive homers by Daniel Murphy and Ramon Castro off Jamie Moyer in the sixth was the only thing that saved Bad Ollie from the loss (too bad Johan Santana doesn't have luck like that). But immediately after actually taking the lead, Pedro Feliciano gave it right back by allowing a dinger to Met-killer Raul Ibanez, earning Feliciano a dreaded "blown hold".

That set the stage for the bottom of the tenth, when Sean Green came into the game to walk in the game winning run. Talk about a walk-off win and a brutal way to lose. Now the Mets need to think about what to do with the $36 million dollar Perez and his 9.97 ERA. Perez says he feels embarrassed and Jerry Manuel says his confidence is shot.

Why don't these problems ever surface is the last year of a player's contract?