A MUCH NEEDED OFF DAY

Despite the Mets scoring first on Wednesday night, again, the Mets lost, again. This is becoming a problem. Friday begins a three-game series with the Yankees. If the Mets don't get it together for that series, then I'm not so sure this season will be the championship season I was so confident about for so long.

When the Mets and Yankees last met, May 18-20, the Mets took 2 out of three. Since that last game, when the Mets were 28-15, and the Yankees were 19-23, the Yankees have been scorching, and the Mets have not. Here's a look at the records since then:

Mets: 8-13 (including 5 losses in a row, and 9 in their last 10)
Yankees: 14-8 (including 9 wins in a row)

I'm sure there's better breakdowns, which will be all over the place, especially comparing their last 10 games each, but I'm not going to do that. I'm guessing that the Yankees' hitting numbers are going to easily dwarf the Mets', because the Mets scored just 5 runs in their 3-game series against the Dodgers. They didn't have trouble scoring in Detroit - their pitching failed them there.

Bottom line - the Mets need to stop messing around and win some ballgames, and all the better with the Yankees coming up Friday through Sunday.

MURRAY FIRED: The Dodgers fired hitting coach Eddie Murray on Thursday. Apparently this has been a long time coming, but you'd think they wouldn't mess around after the hitting the Dodgers just threw at the Mets these past three games. Murray will be replaced by Bill Mueller, a player I always liked. It was uncomfortable the way Mueller would try to squeeze his good Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into every post-game interview after mundane mid-season games...usually they save thanking the Good Lord until after the World Series. Not Bill. It was also odd how sudden he stopped mentioning Jesus in the interviews - someone either told him to stop, or he had a sudden anti-God thing going (a "Come from Jesus", if you will).

I also have very little sympathy for Eddie Murray. He was a contributing factor in some miserable early-90's Mets teams, and I'm convinced he swayed some young players to be bad people because he was that much of a bad clubhouse influence. That's what I heard years ago, and that stuck with me. I say this despite Murray's role in ending Anthony Young's losing streak...and his co-induction into the Hall of Fame alongside my hero Gary Carter.

One more piece about the Dodgers' offense against the Mets - among the disasters was that in Tuesday's game, with the Mets leading 1-0, John Maine gave up back-to-back-to-back homers to the 7, 8, and 9 hitters, with the 9 hitter being a pitcher by the name of Hong-Chih Kuo. If that's poor offense, I'd hate to see what a new hitting coach can do.

SOX APPEAL: The Red Sox and their television station, NESN, are putting on a new show called "Sox Appeal". It's sort of a reality dating show that takes place during Red Sox games. Apparently they've started shooting the show, and dates are taking place on this current homestand. I guess contestants have a couple of innings to impress their dates - I'm not exactly sure how this works. What I do know is that NESN tried to plug the show during Thursday night's Red Sox-Rockies game, and Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy were very funny describing the date. The poor guy was obviously striking out - the woman looked very disinterested. This led to Jerry and Don bashing the guy's body language, and obvious nervousness. It was entertaining television. That's what the show should be - forget about reality dating. How about reality dating commentary?