Mets 10 Nationals 8

This is supposed to be the easy part of the schedule.

The Mets gave starter Oliver Perez a 2-0 lead, he blew it, then they gave him a 5-2 lead, and he blew that too. In fact, Ollie blew, period, allowing seven runs on eight hits and two walks in only three and a third. Nelson Figueroa did not help matters, allowing both inherited runners to score, swelling Ollie’s ERA. Olympian Brandon Knight gave up a run in his only inning, but Joe Smith was able to escape the sixth and part of the seventh without seeing someone score.

But the offense kept on going, exploding for ten runs, highlighted by solo blasts off the bats of Carlos Delgado and Ryan Church in the third. Delgado struck again by putting a dent into the AZEK “K” scoreboard in the sixth, following Carlos Beltran’s hugely clutch two-run bomb that put the Mets ahead 9-8.

The always-reliable Mets bullpen took it from there, shutting out the Nationals through the last four innings. Who needs Billy Wagner, anyway?

Notes

Luis Ayala earned his sixth save of the season, and Joe Smith earned the win.

Delgado was 3-for-3 with 3 runs and 3 RBI. Each of the first four batters in the lineup collected two hits apiece.

We had a sparse but fun group on MetsChat.com during the game … we’ll keep it going and hope to have more of you join in for tomorrow night’s game.

Next Game

The Mets and Nationals do it again at 7:10 pm on Wednesday. Mike Pelfrey goes against Odalis “Don’t Call Me Oliver” Perez.

From the view from the Hudson River, the rain has been on and off all day and therefore not sure if there will be a Mets game tonight.

If there is, be sure to head on over to Mets Chat to “twitter” about the game. Your MetsToday login and password should work, but if not, register again over there and/or email me. We worked out most of the kinks this weekend, and it seems to be working pretty well.

If the game is canceled or delayed, you may fulfill your need for baseball watching by going to the Playing For Peanuts site, where another new episode is available for viewing. It includes commentary and insight from the producer John Fitzgerald. Good stuff.

If you haven’t heard, Ambiorix Burgos was arrested for beating his girlfriend at a hotel near Shea Stadium on Monday night.

Since he was in the area, it’s assumed that Burgos was healthy enough to join the Mets sometime this month and audition for the 2009 closer’s role. After all, if he’s anywhere near the triple-digit MPH on his fastball — he hit 100 with ease before Tommy John surgery — you’d have to think he’d be among the top internal candidates to replace Billy Wagner next season.

However, the arrest — coupled with the graphic description provided by the Daily News — will not sit well with the squeaky-clean image the Wilpons try to set for their ballclub. If the front office was unhappy with Paul LoDuca’s chasing after teeny boppers, they must be fuming over this incident. And well they should — a 6’3″, 244-lb. professional athlete should be keeping his paws (and teeth) off the opposite sex.

The wrong thing to do, however, would be to release or trade Burgos. The right thing would be for the Mets to foot the bill for counseling and an anger-management program. Getting Burgos to publicly apologize is an obvious move, and should be coupled with “strongly suggesting” that Burgos make a significant donation to an organization for battered women. These are the bare minimum of actions to take place before Burgos can consider playing for the Mets again.

Hopefully, Burgos can get his personal issues straightened out. If the Mets and their fans can forgive Guillermo Mota for taking PEDs and Paul LoDuca for cheating on his wife, perhaps they can also, eventually, welcome back Burgos. But he has a long road ahead of him before that can happen. Even if it turns out — when we get the whole story — that he is in some way not guilty, the damage has been done. The court of public opinion is much more influential in cases like this, and affects a person for a much longer term — just ask Wally Backman.