Five. Five Error. Five Error Night Loss.

The Mets loss last night went back and forth in likeness between a Wes Craven movie and Wes Anderson flick. Tim Redding was serviceable providing a quality start while receiving the usual team welcoming gift - a lack of run support. This can't be completely blamed on the offense though. Normally when I hear a player say in the post game "the ball just seemed to find the other team's gloves," I think bull. Not the case last night. The Dodgers seemed to have more than seven defenders behind Randy Wolf the entire game. But this post isn't about the offense or the Dodgers defense.

This post is about something pointed out in this blog post by Mackie post-game Sunday:
"This latest mental miscue by a Mets player is somewhat symptomatic of a general tendency for embarrassing ineptitude, which I've blogged about before, leaving the team ever-vulnerable to meltdowns of all sorts. Make no mistake, folks, the Phillies will not be bested if this persists."

The Dodger's were lacking their big bopper in Manny Ramirez and we were lacking ours in Carlos Delgado. Granted we were also missing Jose Reyes, but this was a game that could have been had by playing good defense and sound fundamentals. Despite 3 errors this team somehow hung in there to play some free baseball. And then it happened.

I've never seen a player miss the bag rounding 3rd base. Never. Neither had Jerry Manuel apparently. At that point the black cloud came out. If you were watching you saw it. It was hovering over you and the visitors dugout at 1000 Elysian Park Avenue. There was no chance in hell this game was going to go in our favor. What ensued was just par for the course.

With all of these mental gaffes in the field ("yo la tengo!") and on the base paths, this roster needs to be brought into question. If Reyes is to miss significant time and Cora is to have surgery, what is to be done with the SS position - a platoon of Ramon Martinez (2 errors last night) and Fernando Tatis? How about the game of musical chairs that is First Base until after the All Star Break (and that's a generous diagnosis)? What about "keeping guys fresh" with the occasional day off for David and the mandatory days off Castillo needs? That's just the infield!

There just seems to be way too much in flux for anyone to get comfortable, especially those guys playing out of position. I'm not necessarily pushing the panic button yet, but if you compound the mental errors with the fabric of this roster (less the "core") and we could be looking at trouble. After a torrid start to this road trip, we have subsequently dropped two games that could have been won had we avoided errors. Where are those Phillies right now?