New York Yankees Rolling into Memorial Day

The Yankees are in hot pursuit of the Boston Red Sox with the second best record in Major League Baseball at 31-15. Now, the Bombers return home for a crucial home-stand against the Angels and Astros. I talk about the Yankees with Karen Vankat on this edition of the Open Mike Podcast.

NFL Decision on National Anthem Protest Enforces a Fiasco

The NFL and its owners unanimously approved a new National Anthem policy that will require all players to stand for the anthem when they are on the field or face a fine if they found kneeling.

As good as that sounds, the policy is chuck full of loopholes, and little detail on how the league intends to enforce the rule, meaning that Roger Goodell and crew made a rule built more on lip-service than actual reform.

By it's definition the policy says it "requires players to stand IF they are on the field during the performance," while giving teams and players an easy out, specifically the "option to remain in the locker room" during the National Anthem.

If any player is found kneeling during the Anthem, the franchise is subject to fines (we don't know how much), and teams will have the option to fine any players and personnel as it deems necessary.

First, when the hell did the National Anthem become optional? It's like saying you don't have to go to work if you don't want to, and not face any repercussions.

By making a policy it thinks will solve a problem, the NFL just creates more problems for itself.

Aside from the fact that they didn't outline how severe the fines will be for the anthem protest, giving players an easy out is only going to make the protest that much more of a distraction.

Just think about it, the camera's are scanning the sidelines during a Giants' game. Suddenly we notice that Odell Beckham and Eli Manning are not on the sideline but in the locker room. Does this mean they are protesting the Anthem? Are they getting treatment? Do they hate America this much? You know this will be analyzed by every commentator and couch-potato.

And, believe me with camera's on the field during the National Anthem, it will be more about who is NOT on the field than who is on the field. Remember when the Steelers decided to sit in the locker room as a team during the playing of the Anthem in Week 2 at Chicago? That didn't go over too well, especially when offensive lineman Alejandro Villanueva was the ONLY MAN STANDING for Pittsburgh.

If the NFL wants to enforce a rule, enforce it with no loopholes!

With loopholes, teams will try to take advantage of it. And one team already saying it has no problem bending the rule is the New York Jets. Jets owner, Chris Johnson said he will not discourage players from kneeling even if it results in the club being fined by the NFL, (Cimini, ESPN).

"I will support our players wherever we land as a team. Our focus is not on imposing any club rules, fines or restrictions."

In other words, expect the Jets and any other team that feels frisky with a loose rule to test the NFL by kneeling. In short, the problem is not going away.

Furthermore the NFL does not address the actual issue that players are bringing up. There are a bunch of players who feel there is "injustice" going on in the country when it comes to relations between police and minorities in inner cities. Shouldn't the NFL, it's owners and players come up with a more comprehensive plan to get involved in the community?  Shouldn't there be an effort to work with law enforcement to provide education to youths in at risk locations?  Forgotten in all of this is a $89 million "social justice" platform that the NFL finalized. What's in it?

If the NFL wanted to get this right, standing for the National Anthem should be MANDATORY with no loopholes for players to duck in and out of the locker room in order to protest the flag if they feel like it. Anyone who is not standing, or is not on the field during the anthem should be fined severely with the possibility of suspension, period. All the money collected from such behavior can then be turned into a good cause to support recreation programs for at risk youths.

Why is it so hard for the NFL to get it right?

Mets Signing of Jose Bautista Out of Desperation

There was a time, not too long ago that Jose Bautista, A.K.A. Joey Bats, was one of the most feared hitters in all of baseball.

After bouncing around from the Royals, Orioles, Mets (whom he never suited up for, initially) and the Pirates, Bautista finally found a home in Toronto with the Blue Jays where he would become a perennial All Star. In his second season in a Jays uniform, Bautista blasted 54 home runs and drove in 124, taking all of Major League Baseball by storm.

A year later, he duplicated the effort with 43 home runs in 2011.

Soon Bautista was a superstar. Best known for hitting long home runs and flipping his bat in celebration of a postseason homer against the Texas Rangers in 2015, Buatista had built the case for a potential Hall of Fame career. Then the bottom fell out. Bautista's production slipped drastically in 2016 and 2017. Once a 40-home run hitter, Bautista couldn't do better than blast 23 homers in 2017 as his skills quickly diminished.

In 2016, at age 35, he batted only .234 with 22 homers and 69 RBI. Last year, his batting average slipped to .203 with a .308 on base percentage in 157 games for Toronto. Needing to get younger, the Blue Jays let Bautista go after the season.

He hooked on the Atlanta Barves for a short time this year, as Atlanta was hoping he could fill third base until prospect Austin Riley was ready to contribute. But a .143 batting average in 12 games was too much for the Barves to live with any longer, and they cut Bautista. By the way, Riley is still down on the farm for Atlanta.

So why would the Mets, knowing Bautista's recent history want anything to do with him? One word: Desperation.

The Mets lost Juan Lagares for the season with a broken toe, while Yoenis Cespedes is still nursing a quad injury on the disabled list. They felt they needed a veteran bat badly enough that they went out and signed Bautista for the veteran's minimum of about $545,000.

But, the problem is Bautista's signing does not help the Mets now or in the future. At 37-years old, he is just another fading All-Star to go along with a collection of former All-Stars in Jose Reyes, Adrian Gonzalez, Todd Fraizer, etc.

 The Mets have a couple of young guys like Matt DenDekker and Bryce Brentz who have put up decent numbers in Triple-A thus far. Why not call one of them up? What the Bautista signing signals is the Mets do not believe in their farm system, a farm system that has become bereft of talent. Perhaps the Mets saw enough of DenDekker and Brentz in Spring Training to know that neither could be a major contributor for them right now.

As a result the Mets have self-imposed a narrow window of opportunity on themselves. How did this happen so fast? The Mets once had a promising system, but they have failed to restock the shelves after the likes of Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Jeryus Familia came up to the  big leagues in the last few years.

If Bautista fails, while it won't hurt financially, the signing will have accomplished absolutely nothing.

Furthermore, should Bautista do enough to stick around, and Cespedes returns from the DL, what are the Mets going to do with a log-jam in the outfield? They already have Jay Bruce, Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo out there. Bautista would have to play some infield, which will be an adventure itself.

So at the end of the day, while the teams around the Mets get younger, they get older. This is not good, not good at all.

Christian Hackenberg Traded to the Raiders

Former Jets draft bust, Christian Hackenberg is on his way to Camp Chucky!

The Jets shipped Hackenberg to the Oakland Raiders for a conditional seventh round pick, ending one of the most bizarre and failed quarterback marriages in franchise history. And that is saying something.

Hackenberg never saw the field in his two years with the Jets. For a team that won a grand total of 10 games since 2016, Head Coach Todd Bowles preferred rolling out the likes of Josh McCown, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bryce Petty, and even Geno Smith over Hackenberg. It was clear from the jump that the coaching staff never believed in the former Penn State quarterback's ability.

Hackenberg must have been so bad in practices that the coaching staff didn't want to throw him out to the wolves in realtime. That is a huge indictment of Hackenberg's ability.

It is ironic that the trade went down just hours after the quarterback blasted the Jets coaching staff for failing to give him "information to fix" his mechanical problems. As it stands, Hackenberg sought professional help during the offseason to change his throwing motion.

Now Hackenberg can take his new throwing motion with him to Oakland where he will have to compete with E.J. Manuel and Connor Cook for a roster spot. The Raiders already have a franchise quarterback in Derek Carr.

With Hackenberg now out of the picture, the Jets can fully turn their focus to developing Sam Darnold behind Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater. If all goes according to plan, McCown will be the Jets opening Day starter in Detroit on September 10, leaving Darnold to learn via the bench until he is completely ready to take over the starting role.

This is a golden opportunity for Bowles and Jets coaching staff to get it right this time. They have to, because a lot is invested in the success of Sam Darnold as the 'face' of Jets football going forward.

Michael Conforto Wakes Up with 4-Hit Effort

METS 3 - D'BACKS 1

Michael Conforto’s bat came to life Friday night in a big way as the Mets defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-1 at Citi Field to open up a 3-game weekend series.

For a young player who has done so much, Conforto has taken a lot of criticism this year for his slow start to the year. Fans and media alike have pointed to his lack of power, fearing that the Mets brought him back too soon in his recovery from shoulder surgery.

For one night anyway, Conforto was the star of the show. A 4-for-4 evening with two RBI in a game the Mets had to win to stay above .500 against a quality team in the Diamondbacks, who have been atop the NL West since they said ‘play-ball’ on March 29.

Conforto started his big night in earnest when he caught a hanging knuckler from Zach Godley and stroked it in to left-center, scoring Asdrubal Cabrera to make it 2-0 Mets. It was the first time the Mets had scored multiple runs in the first inning since May 6, a 3-2 loss to the Rockies.

Conforto would keep the good feeling going two innings later when he lined a single over the head of third baseman Jacob Lamb for this second hit of the night. Then, in the fifth he pounded a base hit to right, driving home Wilmer Flores with the final run of the night, giving the Mets a 3-0 advantage.

The three runs was more than enough for Mets starter Jacob deGrom. Last weekend deGrom couldn’t last more than one inning against the Philadelphia Phillies. On Friday night against Arizona, Mets fans saw the deGrom they have grown accustomed to seeing on a regular basis.

He wheeled and dealed for seven inning, allowing only one run, a Jacob Lamb RBI single in the sixth inning, while tying a career high with 13 strikeouts.

It was a truly dominant performance. Five of the Diamondback’s hitters deGrom struck out multiple times, including K’ing MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt four times, and Lamb three times.

Perhaps deGrom’s biggest inning came in the seventh. After giving up a lead-off double to Danny Descalso, deGrom came back to retire the next three hitters, including striking out Alex Avila and jamming Jared Dyson on a lazy infield popup.

With the win, deGrom improved his record to 4-0 with a 1.75 ERA. For a team that many have given up on in the month of May, deGrom is giving the Mets a chance to win every time he toes the rubber.  That should be enough to garner serious All Star Game consideration in about a month or so.

Friday’s 3-1 win wasn’t the only good news for New York. The Marlins defeated the Braves 2-0, bringing the Mets a game closer at 3-1/2 games out of first. 

Open Mike Podcast: Mets sinking Fast?

On this edition of the Open Mike Program, I welcome in Rick Laughland of 24/7Sports to get his take on the struggling New York Mets.

Coming into their game on Friday, the Mets stood a game over .500 at 20-19. Can they turn it around?

Dave Eliand Rips Apart Hype Surrounding Noah Syndergaard

Is Noah Syndergaard the next Mets startingpitcher on the hot seat? 

With Matt Harvey no longer a member of the New York Mets, pitching coach Dave Eiland gave a cryptic description of Noah Syndergaard’s performance this year during the Mets off-day telling reporters:

“I just don’t know where all the expectations came from,” Eiland said. “He spent 2-1/2 half years in the big leagues? So, I don’t know where all the expectations came from, I wasn’t here for all of that, but he has yet to do a whole lot at the major league level.”

The stinging criticism of Syndergaard comes hours before he toes the rubber for the Mets against his old team, the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night. While Eiland’s comments are extremely hard, there is some merit. Syndergaard has not been as dominant as the Mets had hoped coming into the season.

Keep in mind, Syndergaard made only seven starts last season after missing a huge chunk of the season due to a partially torn lat muscle in his pitching arm. So there are definitely concerns moving forward, and Eiland knows it.

In eight starts, Syndergaard is 2-1 with an ERA of 3.09 and a WHIP of 1.20, both numbers are higher than his career averages in both categories. Syndergaard’s biggest problem this year has been pitch count, managing to go beyond seven innings only once this year.

In six of his eight starts, Syndergaard has thrown 95 pitches or more after six innings or less. In fact, he registered 92 pitches in 4 innings on April 4 against the Phillies, and 101 pitches after 5-1/3 innings against the Brewers, May 15. 

After a rough start against the Colorado Rockies on May 6, where he walked four and gave up a mammoth home run to Ian Desmond in a 3-2 loss, Syndergaard told reporters that he is “getting the mediocre starts out of the way so (he) can dominate in September.”

If those comments didn’t rankle the feathers of Eiland and manager Mickey Callaway, it’s hard to imagine what would.

Eiland is trying to go the tough love route with Syndergaard by irritating him with public criticism, hoping that it brings the best out of him. Call it the Bill Parcells strategy. The former Giants and Jets coach was notorious for ribbing his players, telling them they weren’t good enough only to get the very best out of them on Sunday.

That of course is a different sport, and a totally different generation. We won’t know if Eiland’s criticism will have a positive impact on Syndergaard’s game until he takes the mound tonight.

Eiland and Callaway are not going to treat their pitchers with kid gloves, the way Terry Collins and Dan Warthen did for years. The Mets shipped Matt Harvey out of town because of his unwillingness to follow the program. Now the attention turns to Syndergaard, who like Harvey, is named after a comic book character, and has a cocky attitude.

The Mets need Syndergaard to find himself and get back on track, or this once vaunted Mets staff that boasted some of this generations ‘best arms’ will quickly go the way of Generation K, which, in case you don’t know, was the trio of young arms the Mets had back in 1995: Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson. That trio didn’t last long.

Yankees storm back to blast Red Sox, Jump into First Place

YANKEES 9 - RED SOX 6 

Woah!

The Yankees have done it again. A team that continues to define and re-define the term "never-say-die," the Yankees stormed back to beat the Red Sox 9-6 at the Stadium to capture their second straight win in the series, and 17th victory in its last 18 games. The Yankees, who now boast a MLB best 26-10 record have leapfrogged the Red Sox for first place the AL East.

There is something special about this club. Not only do the Yankees have a bunch of great, young players, they a team that fights tooth and nail every single night. There is winning, and then there is hating to lose. This team hates losing. The detest it so much that they find and invent news ways to win ballgames on a  regular basis. And every night a new hero rises to the occasion.

On Wednesday it was two of the elder statesmen of this ball club: Neil Walker and Brett Gardner who  led the way for the Bronx Bombers.

There the Red Sox were leading 6-5 in the bottom of the eighth inning, and you could feel the game was lost for Boston as soon as Walker doubled to lead off the inning. After Matt Barnes walked Gleyber Torres on five pitches, Boston manager Alex Cora went to his closer Craig Kimbrel to try to get five outs. Those five outs would never come for Boston.

As he has throughout his career, Brett Gardner worked an epic at bat, jumping ahead 3-0, before fouling a couple of pitches before driving the ball to the center field wall for a two-run triple to give the Yankees a 7-6 lead. So much for that low batting average. Gardner was 3-for-5 with three runs scored and two RBI on Wednesday. It was a pleasure to see the veteran deliver again.

Finally, it was time to rise as Aaron Judge put the exclamation point on the evening when he launched a Kimbrel fastball over the center field wall for a two-run blast to push the Yankees lead to 9-6. Game over. Good night Boston, drive home safe.

The resiliency of this Yankee team is tremendous. Every time Boston scored, the Yankees found a way to comeback. Mitch Moreland's two-run homer in the second gave Boston a 2-1 lead. That was quickly erased when Giancarlo Stanton, who has had a brilliant series, drove in both Gardner and Judge on a double to right to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead.

When Andrew Benintendi homered for Boston to cut the Yankee lead to 4-3, the Bombers answered with a sac fly RBI by Gary Sanchez. And of course after Hanley Ramirez's homer gave Boston the lead back at 6-5, the Yankees staged that late inning rally.

You don't need to be a fan of the Yankees to not be at awe at what they are doing. The Yankees are winning games at a historic pace. They have won 11 straight home games, something that hasn't been done by a Yankee team since the legendary 1998 ball club. The comparisons to the '98 Yankees won't stop. That Yankee team was 27-9 at this point in the year. This year's club is just one game off that pace.

While the '98 team was clearly better, this team has an opportunity to chase history. They have the ability to do it, now they have to sustain it and remain consistent.

Don't look now, but this is turning into a very, very special season for Yankees baseball.

Mets Season Sinking into Oblivion after 2-1 loss to Reds

REDS 2, METS 1 - 10 Innings 

The 2018 New York Mets season is fading into oblivion. A team that once started out with so much promise after an 11-1 start is now a game over .500 after a 2-1 loss to the worst team in baseball, the Cincinnati Reds, Wednesday afternoon.

What a disgrace.

To make matters worse the Mets opened the game batting out of order, a mistake that can only be pinned to manager Mickey Callaway. The lineup card that Callaway handed to the umpires had Asdrubal Cabrera batting second and Wilmer Flores batting third, but the card sent out to the press box and posted on the dugout wall had the two hitters switched.

The miscommunication created a ton of confusion for the Mets who couldn't figure out where their own hitters belonged. Flores batted second and struck out, then Cabrera doubled. The umpires finally realized what was going on and called Cabrera out because he batted out of order. Cabrera's nullified double was then credited to Jay Bruce who didn't even realize he was out of turn until the top of the second inning.

Considering how things have been going lately for the Mets, it was fitting that the team that can't shoot straight, couldn't even do the simplest of things like send out the right lineup.

Callaway's horrible gaff cost the Mets a chance to win this game, and he even admitted as much afterwards.

Beyond the mistake, the Mets gave absolutely no effort against a Reds team that won only eight games coming into the series. In fact, this was the first series win of the entire year for Cincinnati.

New York managed only four hits, and were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. With Yoenis Cespedes and Todd Fraizer out with injuries the Mets lineup had no thump whatsoever, and it showed on Wednesday afternoon. Wilmer Flores who has done nothing this year was hitless. Jay Bruce, who is batting .233 this year was ... you guessed it ... hitless. Devin Mesoraco? Forget it. Michael Conforto? Why ask.

This lineup, this team has been putrid for weeks now. The Mets are 23rd in baseball in team batting average, and it is probably even worse since the team has gone 7-16 in its last 23 games.

The Mets inability to hit wasted a solid start for Zach Wheeler, who held the Reds to just a run over six innings of work. While his ERA is over five, Wheeler has had moments of brilliance this year, and it seems that overtime he's pitched well, the Mets fail to produce any runs for him. What a shame.

This season is quickly unraveling for the New York Mets.

Mets trade Harvey to Reds for Devin Mesoraco

The Mets have rid themselves of Matt Harvey, and in so doing may have addressed their longstanding catching problem.

In a trade between two teams trying to get rid of problems, the Mets sent Harvey to the Cincinnati Reds for catcher Devin Mesoraco.

While Harvey's issues have been well documented, the Mets are getting a catcher in Mesoraco who has spent a better part of the past four seasons on the disabled list. Since putting together an All Star campaign in 2014, Mesoraco has not lived up to the billing since. He has played in only 133 games since 2015, with the most games he has played in a season during that stretch of 56 back in 2017.

Injuries have been a problem for him. Inconsistency another. Mesoraco is a lifetime .233 hitter, and is a mediocre defensive catcher. Still, this is a guy who has a lot of power in his bat. At his best, Mesoraco hit 25 home runs and drove in 80 in 2014, making him the first Reds catcher to do so since Johnny Bench back in the 70's.

If the Mets can keep Mesoraco healthy, and if they can get anything out of him they will be more than grateful.

As for Harvey, the Reds are hoping that he can reclaim some of his old self so they can package him in a deal come July. The Reds are 9-27, they are baseball's worst team and want prospects in return. Although it is hard to imagine they will get the best out of Harvey. He wanted to go to a contending team, and the Reds are not that. New York did him no favors by sending him to a disaster in Cincy. Since the Mets are playing the Reds this week, Harvey won't pitch against his old team, but will reportedly join the Reds when they head to L.A. Have fun Cincy.

Mesoraco did bat for the Mets on Tuesday night and struck out and is in the lineup on Wednesday for the finale of a three-game series. The Mets and Reds won't see each other again until the beginning of August at Citi Field. Chances are Harvey won't be a Red by that point, if he pitches himself into another trade.

Torres Heroics Keep Yankees Rolling past Tribe

The red hot New York Yankees won again Sunday, and they did again in dramatic fashion.

After watching Aaron Boone remove Domingo German from a no-hitter, only to watch the Cleveland Indians tee off the Yankee bullpen, it looked like Boone was in store for two days of second guessing before the Yankees open up a series with the Red Sox.

Instead, the Yankees comeback, and rookie Gleyber Torres played the role of the hero, saving both the Yankees and Boone from the wrath of talk radio junkies everywhere.

Torres three-run blast in the bottom of the ninth gave the Yankees a stunning 7-4 victory over the Indians, completing a three game sweep of a team many expect to win the AL Central. The Yankees are now 15-1 in their last 16 games, having swept the Twins, Angels and Indians. New York also took three-of-four from the Astros last week.

It has been fun times for the Yankees of late, as they have channeled their inner 2017-selves to make 2018 as good as many expected. A team that was once seven games back with a record of 9-9, the Yankees are now 24-10, a half-game back of the Red Sox for first place.

The never-say-die Yankees struck in the bottom of the eighth when Brett Gardner singled to right to bring in Neil Walker, who opened the inning with a walk. From there, reliever Cody Allen couldn't shut the door. On a 2-2 count, Aaron Judge ripped a two-run double to right, slicing the Cleveland lead to 4-3.

After Chasen Shreve made quick work of the Indians in the top of the ninth, the Yankees pounded the Indians closer in the bottom of the inning. Aaron Hicks led off with a double, and quickly scored the tying run when Walker doubled to right.

With Allen clearly out of it, Indians manager Terry Francona pulled him and inserted Dan Otero out of desperation more than anything else. The Yankees wouldn't stop coming though. For whatever reason Francona decided to intentionally walk Giancarlo Stanton in order to match up Otero with Torres. Big mistake. Torres crushed a 3-2 fastball down broadway for the winning homer, sending all of Yankees Stadium into a tizzy.

Since joining the club, Torres is hitting .327 with two home runs and 11 RBI. The kid has been ridiculous. So have the Yankees.

Slumping Mets Complete 0-6 Homestand

0-6.

That is the Mets record coming out of a six-game home-stand as they were swept away by the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies, two teams that looked light-years ahead of where the Mets want to be at this point in the season.

All the good feeling that New York built up during an 11-1 start is now gone. The Mets are now just two games over .500 at 17-15, and look more and more like a team in complete free-fall.

New York’s problems go well beyond Matt Harvey, who was designated for assignment on Friday. The Mets problems are manifold. They can’t hit, they fail at situational baseball, their starting pitching is erratic, the bullpen is stretched out way too thin, and injuries are stacking up.

Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Rockies was more of the same for the Mets. Even when things appeared to be going right, they went terribly wrong. A 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning became overshadowed by Yoenis Cespedes’ apparent hip injury.

 Cespedes clarified a sore quadricep was the reason for his exit, but still, the news is not welcome news for the Mets. Not on the same day the Mets placed Jacob deGrom on the 10-day DL as a precaution after the ace suffered a hyperextended right elbow last week against Atlanta.

Thing went from bad to worse when Noah Syndergaard, once again, labored through another start for the Mets. Syndergaard, who is the last man standing in this once vaunted rotation, lasted only six innings, allowing two runs on six hits. He walked four (a season high) and strikeout only five. It was the seventh time this year that Syndergaard was well over 90 pitches after six innings of work – a clear indication that he is trying too hard to strike people out, and is not pitching to contact.

When he did pitch to contact, Ian Desmond launched a Syndergaard fastball over the left field wall to bring the Rockies closer at 2-1 in the second inning.

In the top of the third, Syndergaard lost complete command, surrendering singles to Charlie Blackman and David Dahl, and walking Nolan Arenado to load the bases. Later, Syndergaard lost Gerardo Parra to a four-pitch walk to drive in Blackman with the tying run.

There was nothing Syndergaard and the Mets could do but just shake their head and move on.

Unfortunately for Thor there was no run support coming. After scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning, the Mets never scored again, managing only two hits for the rest of the afternoon. New York was 1-for-4 with RISP, stranded six men on base and struck out 13 times as a team.

That kind of production would actually be a good day for the Mets offense of late. Since the calendar flipped to May, the Mets are hitting .192 (38-for-197) as a team with a .243 on base percentage. Only three players have hit home runs this month, and the Mets have combined to score only 11 runs during the six game losing streak.

They just aren’t getting it done. Jay Bruce, Amed Rosario, Todd Fraizer, and Adrian Gonzalez are all scuffling right now with the bats. Michael Conforto is a man on his own island. Conforto is batting .128 in his last 39 at bats dating back to April 19. Mickey Callaway gave him the past two games off, but asked him to pinch hit on Sunday, only to strikeout swinging with nobody on in a tied game.

In many ways it was fitting that the game would be decided on Desmond’s second homer of the day, this time off Hansel Robels, the man the Mets recalled after dumping Harvey.

As the slumping Mets hit the road for Cincinnati on Monday night, they do so knowing they are behind both the Braves and Phillies in the NL East, with the Nationals hot on their heels to knock them back down to fourth place.

It just seems to be going from bad to worse everyday lately.