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Lose Some

The Mets got plenty of runners on base last night, but had a little difficulty getting them around to score in losing 5-4 to the Phillies on a walk-off homerun by the newest NL All-Star Bobby Abreu. The loss drops the Mets two games back of Philly in the NL East, tied with the Braves for second place.

Matt Ginter did nothing to solidify his fading grasp on the fifth spot in the rotation. While not awful, he allowed three earned runs in five innings of work, and actually left on the long side of the game, leading 4-3 on Mike Cameron's two-run homerun. The bullpen proceeded to lose the game, as Ricky Bottalico gave up a run in the seventh and Franco allowed Abreu's game-winner.

It should be noted that Mike Stanton actually did a pretty good job last night. He came into the game with no outs in the seventh, inheriting runners on first and second from Bottalico. He gave up a run-scoring single to Abreu, leaving runners on first and third. He then proceeded to strike out Jim Thome, and induce pop-ups to David Bell and Mike Lieberthal to end the threat. He did allow yet-another inherited runner to score, but he did well to limit the damage.

While I mildly praise Stanton, I have to call out Art Howe on a bad move he made that ultimately cost the Mets the game. Phillie's manager Larry Bowa, despite being in a tie game, brought in his best reliever, closer Billy Wagner, to set down the Mets in the ninth. Howe, on the other hand, saw fit to leave his best reliever unused, as John Franco gave the game away.

Joe Torre made this same mistake last weekend, as he allowed the Mets to win Saturday's game in the bottom of the ninth facing Tanyon Sturtze instead of Mariano Rivera. Art Howe has used Looper previously this season in tie ballgames, but didn't see fit to use him last night in a game that would have given the Mets a share of first place.