SEASON OVER

I know it's only the end of June. I know there's still plenty of time to turn it around.

I also know that I may be late in realizing this - but the Mets are not winners. They're going nowhere this season.

They have the wrong people making the decisions, they're making the wrong decisions, and the way they are currently constituted, they are going nowhere this season.

The exclamation point on this realization came Monday night when the Mets got their hats handed to them by the Seattle Mariners - the worst team in baseball - on their home field.

The Mariners coming to town should be an automatic sweep. They're 3,000 miles from home. They're awful. If anyone has gone through more turmoil than the Mets this year, it's the Mariners, who lost both their manager and general manager in a matter of weeks. If you're the Mets, you're thinking, "Jeez, we have it pretty bad, but here comes Seattle. Those poor Mariners. We're low, but they're lower." But then you have to go out there and murder them. Kick them while they're down.

What do the Mets do? With their best pitcher on the mound, they lose. Their best player makes a key error, extending the second inning, with the bases loaded, for the opposing pitcher. Who proceeds to hit a grand slam. And then that pitcher (the Mariners' best) gets hurt in the fifth inning, meaning the Mets have four innings to get to the bullpen of the worst team in baseball, and they can't score more than a run.

That's a disaster.

You want to fire people? You don't wait until the middle of the night after a win across the country. You wait until you lose two straight to the worst team in baseball on your own field. Then you start firing people. Break up the team....I'm sick of these guys.

OUT OF CONTROL

Phillies 5, Mets 2 (PHI: 2-6, NYM: 5-3)

Sometimes Oliver Perez is wild. Wednesday night, Oliver Perez was wild. 7 walks. In 2-AND-TWO-THIRDS INNINGS!! He threw 73 pitches, and just 32 were strikes. Wow. He left having only given up 3 runs, and I'm looking at the play-by-play right now, and it's amazing. After getting two outs in the third, Perez went: single, walk, walk, bases-loaded walk, bases-loaded walk, bases-loaded hit by pitch. Then he was lifted, and Aaron Sele got the Mets out of the jam.

The Mets were able to draw to within 3-2, but couldn't get over the hump. Too bad. Perez had such a nice first outing, he needed to build up some consistency. Now his third outing is that much more important.

I didn't see this game, because I was at a school outing where we watched the Red Sox play the Mariners (can't begin a season much better than Felix Hernandez - a one-hitter Wednesday night, with 6 more K's, following up his 12 K opener). I made it home to see the very end of the Mets. The only other notable happening was David Wright singling in the 9th inning (the only baserunner against Tom Gordon) to extend his hitting streak to 20 games.

SOUTHERN BUREAU JOHNNYMETS.BLOGSPOT.COM PLAYER OF THE GAME: Aaron Sele. I know it's an odd choice, a Met in a losing effort, but it was a big outing for Sele. He seemed to tire when his pitch count got up near 60, but this was his first necessary work of the season. The Mets lost a lot when they lost Darren Oliver, and Sele showed Wednesday night that the Mets have the type of guy who, when they need to go to the bullpen too early, can keep them in the game and give them a chance to come back and win. Sele's numbers: 4-and-a-third innings pitched, 4 hits, 2 walks, 2 earned runs, 2 K's. It was a good outing.

BEAT THE STREAK: Man, I'm having some trouble getting a streak going. Moises Alou pulled an 0-for-4. Though he struggles against the Red Sox, I'll turn to Ichiro on Thursday (since he's in Boston I can keep a close eye on him, that's the rationale) to get me going.

WHAT A DAY!

I love Opening Day...even if it falls on the in-between day for the Mets, when they don't have a game. I love watching all of the different games....even if I am at school for most of them, and don't get to watch the afternoon games. I love looking at the scoreboard pages of the website, and seeing full boxscores of games that count.

One day does not a season make, but these were things that stood out to me on Opening Day:

-The Royals beat the Red Sox - pretty convincingly. A lot of people in the national media are pretty down on the Sox. And I've mentioned I think the Royals will surprise some people...maybe they're even better than I thought?

-Brad Lidge - slowly but surely, he's becoming less effective. He just blew a save for the Astros against the Pirates by giving up a homer to Xavier Nady with 2 out in the ninth.

-Dominant Pitching Performances - The headliner here is Felix Hernandez of Seattle - 8 innings of 3-hit, 12-strikeout ball. Ben Sheets went 9 innings for the Brewers, giving up just 2 hits and one run. And Gil Meche of the aforementioned Royals went 6-and-a-third, giving up just one run on six hits, and striking out 6.

-The Yankees Lineup - Sure, you can say they were just playing the Devil Rays, but they can hit. They took a lead, then fell behind, and then outscored Tampa the rest of the way. Scott Kazmir, incidentally, was touched up for 5 runs in 5 innings.

I'm just sitting here trying to think of other notables, and I'm realizing that I don't think anyone in baseball is opening a new stadium this year. That's worth noting these days.

RUBBING IT IN?: Tuesday night before the Mets-Cardinals game, the Cardinals will hand out their championship rings. This, in front of the Mets, who had to sit through the banner-raising ceremony Sunday night. The Cardinals say it's not to rub it in - they just didn't want to overload Sunday night with ceremonies. I don't care, to be honest. I'd rather the Cardinals tick the Mets off, show them what they could have had...give them more fire in their bellies for this year. Orlando Hernandez pitches for the Mets against Kip Wells on Tuesday.

ESPN PICKS: Forgot to mention this on Sunday night, but I caught the end of 'Baseball Tonight' before the Mets-Cardinals game, and the crew made their picks. Peter Gammons picked the Mets over the Red Sox in 7 games in the World Series (with Pedro* going against the Sox), Tim Kurkjian took the Yankees over the Mets, and Karl Ravech took the Red Sox over the Mets. Just FYI.

A THOUGHT ON THE NUMBER 2 SPOT: So Paul Lo Duca showed that he's fine hitting second. I had mentioned that I'd love to see David Wright hitting there, to get some more at-bats in games. The difference between Lo Duca and Wright, though, is that Wright strikes out a lot. Lo Duca does not, so he's probably better suited for the 2 spot for now because he puts the ball in play, giving him a chance to move Jose Reyes around the bases, if not drive him in.

MEDIA GUIDE: I think I mentioned that my dad got a mini ticket plan, where he gets the home Tuesday and Friday games. Along with the purchase of those tickets, the Mets sent him a media guide...which was forwarded to me today. Fantastic. I'll never want for stats again (until 2008, I guess). I'll put it to good use.

BEAT THE STREAK: Chase Utley gave me a 2-gamer on this early season. I will go with Mike Piazza of the Oakland A's against Jarrod Washburn on Tuesday.