For those regular readers, sorry for the lack of posts but I attended last night's game and had a quick turn around to work all day...

A few thoughts about last night's game...
I tried to temper my disappointment over the loss, after all they had won seven in a row and are in first place. However, with Johan on the mound and Chipper out of the line-up, I felt it was important for them to win.
For me, the most disappointing part of the loss was how they lost; poor fielding, lack of hitting, and poor management.
I've wanted Derek Lowe since the list of free agents came out, and the contract he received from Atlanta was never a deterrent. To see Lowe come in and out pitch Johan, in my opinion was mud in Omar's face, especially with Ollie somewhere in the minors using his knee as an excuse for being ineffective.
The Mets defense, especially from the core players, has been frustrating, I expect more from Wright and Reyes, even Beltran and Church have had some uncharacteristic plays. It's not only that All-Star/Gold Glove caliber players are making errors but they are making them at the most critical times in games.

Onto the seventh inning, now, if the group I sit with in the nose bleed section could figure out that Jerry Manuel was managing the seventh into a disaster, how couldn't he figure it out. There was mild criticism of pulling Johan, but when Parnell gets two outs with a man on second, everyone was screaming to leave him in, work carefully to McCann with an open base and if you can't get him, go after Diaz.

The entire section had more confidence in Parnell, then anyone not named Putz or Rodriguez. Bringing in Feliciano felt like over management and we would have been completely wrong if Reyes doesn't boot the ball, but there was absolutely no way you leave in Feliciano to pitch to a righty, even with Anderson ready to pinch hit.