Nationals 5, Mets 3

At least the Mets have been consistently inconsistent.  24 hours after picking up a very nice win, Aaron Heilman and the Mets lose a tough one on Wednesday.  It’s been the same storyline for the Mets in their losses: good outing from the starting pitcher, bullpen blows it and the lineup pulls a disappearing act.

Let’s get to Aaron Heilman first.  Scott was blasting Willie for even using Heilman in this spot, and I know Captain Randolph will take a lot of heat but I think wrongfully so.  He hasn’t used Heilman in a tight spot in a long, long time.  Aaron has looked a lot better lately, and frankly if the Mets are going to get where they want to go this season, they need Aaron Heilman to be successful.  When is there going to be a better time to bring him in and build his confidence than against the bottom of a last-place lineup in the 7th inning? 

I blame Heilman for not getting the job done.  He’s been absolutely terrible in tie games.  I mean even a bad pitcher should get out of it 60-70% of the time, but he’s at about 20-30% right now.  And it’s almost always with two outs.  He gave up four runs with two outs on Wednesday.  He can’t even stop the bleeding.  Ugh, what a mess!

On the bright side, how about Claudio Vargas.  Like I wrote last night, I was really excited to see what he’s got and he looks like he could be a very solid piece at the end of the rotation.  He throws in the low 90’s, decent offspeed stuff and is a big guy.  I was upset about the loss of Nelson Figueroa, but there’s no reason to believe Vargas is much of a dropoff.

Joe Smith also looked awesome in the 7th and 8th innings.  His stuff is looking better than it did at the beginning of last season.  Duaner Sanchez has been hot and cold…don’t be surprised if Smith becomes the 8th-inning guy in the near future. 

Now, the bad stuff again.  What is going on with this offense.  They’ve had some nice games since Moises Alou returned, but they’re still ridiculously inconsistent.  Once again, they made journeyman Tim Redding look like his former teammate Roy Oswalt.  They couldn’t do anything against Redding. 

It’s a shame they couldn’t take advantage of a four-game set against the Nats.  Now the best the Mets can hope for is a split and going 4-3 on this homestand.  That means a lot of pressure is on Mike Pelfrey to get the job done Thursday night.

I really don’t think Willie deserves as much blame as he’s getting, which means they shouldnt fire him.  But I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if the Mets got rid of him if they don’t pick it up within the next two weeks…especially if they stink up the joint against the Yankees this weekend. 

Make sure to check out tomorrow night’s show with the Star Ledger’s Dan Graziano.  Nobody has even sent in a question yet…come on people!!  You’re as silent as the Mets bats were tonight.