Thursday’s 2-0 defeat to Los Angeles dropped the Mets’ post-ASG mark to a putrid 1-7, and if they’ve not been shutout every game of the current West Coast trip, it just feels like it. While manager Jerry Manuel has received an inexplicable vote of confidence from GM Omar Minaya — presumably prevented from making any moves because the only player with less trade value than Jeff Francoeur is Ryan Church — there’s not been a peep about the job status of hitting coach Howard Johnson. On the matter of team morale and professionalism, however, SNY’s Bobby Ojeda was unsparing in his criticism of the club after Wednesday’s 14 inning, 4-3 loss to Arizona (“so far, everything Jerry’s done isn’t working”, and night owl Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News stayed up for the invective.
“This is when it hits home. This is when those men in the locker room realize this is for real, we’re awful,” Ojeda said. “We’re going through the motions. We face the worst bullpen in history and manage one hit.”
Ojeda, pounding out answers to inquires from a wide-eyed Gary Apple, even returned to Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the Diamondbacks.
“There were people laughing in the locker room,” Ojeda, in a disgusted tone, said. “Are you kidding? Laughing?”
“… Eleven walk-off losses? There’s no place for that,” Ojeda moaned. “And you’re not going to get past that. Unfortunately, it sets a tone that’s awful. What they do to overcome it? I don’t know.”
“After he (Pagan) clearly outplayed Jeff Francoeur he still wasn’t given a vote of confidence. That spreads throughout the ballclub,” Ojeda explained. “With the bullpen it has always been the hot hand goes. You turn cold on me, you’re buried.”