Orioles 5 Mets 4

Not even Frankie Rodriguez is immune to the failure disease permeating the New York Mets.

Given a one-run lead to hold, K-Rod allowed two hits, walked two batters, and allowed two runs to hand the victory to the Baltimore Orioles in the bottom of the ninth.

The tying run scored on a bases-loaded walk, and the winning run scampered home on an Aubrey Huff line drive single to right field.

K-Rod’s second blown save of the week wasted a brilliant outing by Livan Hernandez, who had thrown 7 solid innings of two-run ball.

Notes

I’ve decided to view Mets games in the same way I do college basketball — which is, don’t bother watching until the final minutes, when the game is ultimately decided.

Was it me, or was Carlos Beltran loafing on a ground ball to shortstop before Robert Andino threw the ball away, allowing Beltran to proceed to second base? I could swear he let up about halfway down the line. But, I nitpick. Beltran WAS running hard on his two stolen bases, after all.

David Wright went 0 for 4, snapping an 11-game hitting streak. He was taking some very big swings and producing a lot of cool breezes.

Alex Cora was 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base out of the leadoff spot. His OBP is now .387. His career OBP in 11 years of MLB service is .315, which begs the question: is this a fluke, or is he simply a really, really late bloomer?

Aubrey Huff was 3-for-5 with a run and the game-winning RBI in his final audition for Omar Minaya. However, his glovework at 1B was less than mediocre.

Pedro Feliciano was brought in to face the lefties in the 8th. He got a groundout from Nick Markakis but Huff ripped a double off of him. Huff eventually scored with Sean Green on the mound.

Next Mets Game

The Mets come home to host the Tampa Bay No Longer Devilish Rays. Flamethrower Fernando Nieve faces Andy Sonnanstine in his Flushing hideaway on Friday. First pitch is at 7:10 PM.

For the second time in as many weeks, Jerry Manuel publicly stated that the goal for his team is to “play .500 ball” until the key Mets — Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado — come off the disabled list. We addressed this concept less than a week ago, but since Manuel brought it up again, we’ll examine it again.

According to Dan Warthen — by way of Adam Rubin and other media outlets — Johan Santana had a very good bullpen session, during which he addressed and fixed an issue with his pitching motion.

From Rubin’s blog:

Pitching coach Dan Warthen feels Johan Santana adequately addressed the mechanical flaw in his delivery during a between-starts bullpen session Wednesday at Camden Yards. To get Santana’s fastball to stop cutting unintentionally, they worked to get the ace’s left hand out of his glove quicker, so Santana’s arm acts less like a “catapult” during his motion.

From David Lennon:

“He was catapulting the ball instead of throwing it,” said Warthen, who demonstrated what he meant with a more overhand delivery. “He’s didn’t have that same deception he usually has.”

Neither Warthen nor Santana knows exactly why the Mets’ ace developed that subtle change, but they feel confident it was corrected today. Warthen said he could tell that Santana was throwing with more velocity and his location with the fastball was significantly better.

That is great news, assuming he can carry over the adjustment into a game — which is easier said than done.

And as MetsBlog pointed out, someone here at MetsToday had a theory about Johan’s pitching motion.

In case you forgot, after the Yankees series we stated this in “What’s Wrong with Johan Santana?”

Johan Santana’s velocity is down, as is his command. One thing I notice is his arm dragging behind slightly — it’s out of sync with his hips, and as a result the hips and legs are driving forward a hair too early, and therefore not helping to power the ball. The question is, why is his arm behind? Is it a timing issue, or is there something physically keeping him from firing his hand forward at its usual speed? For example, does he suffer from a mild shoulder injury?