…and not in the J.L. King sense of the word, either.

Padres 2, Mets 1


(Geoff Blum, unaccustomed to winning big games without Steve Perry waiting for him in the clubhouse)

Thursday’s 8th inning aside, the Mets’ offense has gone on vacation this week, a 4th inning solo shot by Carlos Delgado being the only production they were able to muster over the course of 14 innings last night.

Given the spacious confines of Petco and how many fly balls were going to die out there (not unlike the millions of dogs and cats mistreated by Petco), perhaps it wouldn’t have been totally foolish to have Delgado bunting in the 11th with Paul Lo Duca on first. Yet again, the Mets are baffled by the opposing pitching staff and there’s nothing happening besides New York hitters continuing to hack away ; 2 walks in 14 innings is either a tribute to the Padres or an indictment of the Mets’ lack of selectivity, depending on how you look at it.

WFAN’s Kevin Burkhardt is slightly up in arms over Chad Bradford being asked to pitch a 3rd inning of scoreless ball, asking “if Jorge Julio can’t be used in a 14 inning game, why is he even on the roster?” Fair enough, but Burkhardt has also suggested the only reason Carlos Beltran isn’t going on the DL right away is that the team is “terrified” Lastings Milledge (above) will tear things up when he hits The Show….and then, “what do you do with Beltran?”

The team might be reluctant to put Beltran on the disabled list….because they’re playing him $119 million to play ball and he might not be so badly injured. I know, crazy theory.

(in the interests of providing both sides of this crucial story at 2:10am central time, Milledge is hitting .400, with an on base percentage of .530 after two weeks of action at Norfolk).

Burkhardt has also indulged a caller who opined that if it weren’t for the Victor Zambrano trade, “Scott Kazmir could be our ace right now.” Yeah, I can totally see Pedro and Tom Glavine as the no.2 and 3 starters behind Scott Kazmir and his 14-13 career record.

The Zambrano-for-Kazmir trade, by the way, was characterized by Burkhardt as “one of the worst trades in sports history.” Neil Allen, Larry Anderson, Danny Cater and Heathcliff Slocumb would surely like to thank the FAN’s overnight host for his unique point of view.