Wagner blows four run lead in Ninth

Starter: Today is the reason Pedro Martinez is Pedro Martinez. Martinez was once again masterful, and in his seven innings today he allowed only five base runners, four via hits. Pedro followed up his back to back 10 strikeout games with an eight strikeout game today, while lowering his era to 2.82 in the process. However, Martinez did not move to 6-0 on the season, as Wagner blew a four run lead in the ninth inning. The outing by Wagner was the second time this season that the closer has deprived Pedro of a win. Last year it was the inabillity to score Pedro an adequate amount of runs every game, and this year it's not being able to close out his wins. I thought this was one of the reasons we overpaid for Wagner.
Bullpen: After the Mets used a combination of Aaron Heilman and Darren Oliver to pitch five innings last night the Mets bullpen was a bit depleted. Anderson Garcia was now a fresh arm in the pen, although he was not used. Duaner Sanchez, however, was used and in his one inning of work he allowed a hit, a double play ball, and no runs. Sanchez breezed through his one inning of work, throwing merely 10 pitches. Sanchez's easy outing begs the question of whether or not he should of stayed in to finish the game. Wagner came in for the ninth, and was expected to send down the Yankees 1-2-3, much less finish the innings, and Wagner did neither. In his .1 inning of work Wagner allowed four runs on two hits, an incredible three walks, and one hit batter. The closer's era ballooned from 1.80 to 3.54. Talk about a bad outing. Personally, I would of done the same thing as Willie in pitching Wagner. Wagner has been well rested, and too well rested if you ask me. Willie should try to get him into a better rhythm no matter the score of the games. In addition, Wagner had strucken out the side in his last three outings. Feliciano came in behind Wagner with the bases loaded and got a ground ball to Reyes, who nearly turned a game winning double play, however Johnny Damon was running. Damon is fast, and barely beat out the relay throw by Matsui. Bradford then came in to get the final out of the ninth. Jorge Julio pitched the next two innings, and in the eleventh he allowed an Andy Phillips rbi single, however Julio was not terrible in today's outing, and certainly does not deserve the blame for the loss.
Offense: The Met offense was solid today, against a good and hot pitcher in Mike Mussina. Jose Reyes was 0-5, however he did reach base twice on two of the four Yankee errors, and scored once. Beltran went 1-5 with an rbi single, while Carlos Delgado hit an impressive opposite field home run. Wright also had an rbi, despite striking out three times in the game, and Cliff Floyd hit a home run over the right field fence. Xavier Nady combined for 0-9 and amased six strikeouts. In all the Mets struck out 14 times in today's loss.