Mets beaten by Phillies again, not panicking...again

There wasn't much worth watching about the performance of Oliver Perez and the Mets in their home opener. Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Also in the Daily Scoop...
• A key reason for the Tigers terrible start.
• A top prospect gets busted for HGH.
• A former goat is forgiven.

NEW YORK -- With the beautiful new bricks of Citi Field and the promise of a better tomorrow rising over dreary, dingy, ready-for-the-wrecking-ball Shea Stadium, this year's Mets team continues to look a lot like last year's Mets team.

The prospect of a new era must be exciting for them. Yet, the immediate future became even more uncertain after a dreadful home Opening Day included several more setbacks, not one of which seemed to get the Mets down.

Actually, the 5-2 defeat to the rival Phillies Tuesday afternoon was the least of the Mets' worries. In a troubling trifecta, aged pitcher Orlando Hernandez was said to have suffered a recurrence of foot pain, aging second baseman Luis Castillo left the game with recurring knee pain and newcomer reliever Matt Wise had to go on the disabled list with what was termed a forearm injury.

But what's most worrisome is that to date it's nearly impossible to discern the demeanor of the late 2007 Mets from the early 2008 Mets. If ever a team needed to turn the page, this was it. So it's a shame they look and act the same so far.

Just like the '07 club that imploded in one of the great collapses in modern baseball history, the '08 team is marked by misplays at bad times, inconsistent relief pitching and an unnerving ability to remain calm while everything is disintegrating.

Manager Willie Randolph and his team exude a similarly consistent placidity that may help in the long run, but it didn't down the stretch last year, when the Mets blew a seven-game lead with 17 to play and finished second to the Phils in the NL East.

Randolph, who rightly or wrongly never adopted the win-every-day George Steinbrenner mentality during his many years in the Bronx, said he sees no carryover effect from last season and remains unconcerned about the Phillies' dominance over his team (Tuesday's win made it nine straight victories for Philadelphia against the Mets).

Several of the Mets' players on their graying roster already are nicked up or beaten up. What might be refreshing is if someone shows they're fed up.

Whether the Mets clubhouse is filled with naturally laid-back personalities or the manager and players are simply trying to send a message that it's too early to panic isn't known.

While the Mets themselves aren't sweating anything, their bosses showed tremendous and unfounded faith in airlines when they approved a flight plan that had reliever Pedro Feliciano returning on a 6 a.m. flight from Puerto Rico, where he was attending to a family matter, for Tuesday's 1:10 start. When the flight was canceled, Feliciano, the top lefty in the bullpen, didn't arrive until the seventh inning, the very inning where Scott Schoeneweis was already in the process of losing the game and earning the brunt of Mets' fans frustrations.

Publicly at least, Mets bosses acted like it wasn't a major factor that their top lefty was unavailable to face Chase Utley and Ryan Howard late in the game. But of course, it was.

Although, Schoeneweis might have survived, anyway. Had Carlos Delgado turned Howard's bases-loaded, no-out grounder into a simple forecourt rather than rushing the throw to second and nailing a cagey Utley on the back, he would have.

Delgado's error was the central play in an inning where the Phillies turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead. Said Delgado, "Winning teams have to make plays.''

Just like the end of last year, the now 2-4 Mets played nervously yet acted eerily calm afterward. There's 156 games to go and Randolph pointed out that 18 of them are against Philadelphia. That could give the Mets an opportunity to even the score. But given the way things have gone so far, it could also bury them.

1 of 2