Sunday Bloody Sunday

I married a Mets fan.  A Mets fan with a full season ticket plan.  Before meeting my Gal For All Seasons, I was a Sunday plan holder at Shea Stadium and continued with the "Sunday-ish" plan at Citi Field (the one that gave you 10 of the 13 Sunday games, plus five weekday games).

I enjoyed going to these games, which, as long as ESPN didn't interfere, were always day games.  I was able to relax, have some comfort food, and watch the Mets do their best to send me home with a win.  That was then.  Now is another story.

Sunday for the Mets has turned into a bloodbath.

On June 3 (a Sunday), the Mets honored John Franco at Citi Field, inducting him into the team's Hall of Fame.  The celebration was topped off with a 6-1 victory over the defending World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, improving the team's record to a season-high eight games above .500 (31-23) and moving them into a tie for first place in the National League East.  The calendar now says we're a few days away from August.  The Mets are still searching for their next win on a Sunday.

Since that celebratory Sunday, the Mets have gone 17-30, falling from a first place tie to a 12½-game deficit in the division.  They are also 8½ games out of the final wild card spot.  Although they haven't played particularly well on most days, they have been exceedingly bad on Sundays.

The Mets have lost every Sunday game they have played since June 3, a total of seven games in all.  And it's not just that they've lost.  It's how they've lost.

Their first three Sunday games after June 3 were all close games.  But they were all losses.  On June 10, the Mets lost a heartbreaker to the Yankees, 5-4, in a game they led most of the way.  One week later, on June 17, they lost at home to the Reds, 3-1.  In that game, Chris Young was shutting out the Reds into the fifth inning and then - kablooey - the Reds scored all their runs off him in one game-changing frame.

On June 24, the Mets once again played the Yankees.  Twice they rallied from four-run deficits to eventually tie the game in the sixth.  But the recently-DFA'd Miguel Batista put an end to any hopes of a dramatic come-from-behind victory by allowing a run in the eighth, giving the Yankees the 6-5 win.

At least those games were close.  The Sunday games in July have been a different story.

Ike Davis has been great recently, but even he can't bear to watch the Mets on a Sunday.

In July, the Mets have played four games on a Sunday.  They have lost all four games by a minimum of five runs each.  On July 1, they lost to the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine, 8-3, preventing what would have been their first four-game sweep of the Dodgers in Los Angeles.  On July 8, in their final game before the All-Star Break, the Mets lost at home to the Cubs, 7-0.  That loss dropped the Mets out of the second wild card spot, a place they have not been anywhere near since then.  On July 15, the Mets were swept away by the Braves, losing the series finale, 6-1.  Finally, last Sunday (June 22), the Mets lost once again to the Dodgers, this time at Citi Field.  Their 8-3 loss capped a three-game sweep by Los Angeles and dropped the Mets below .500 for the first time in 2012.  The Mets have not seen the break-even point since then.

Since June 3, the Mets have lost seven consecutive Sunday games.  The first three were all close.  The next four were blowouts.  There's an old saying that goes, "you win some, you lose some".  For the Mets, that saying can be changed to "you win none, you lose some, then you lose some more", especially when referring to their recent efforts on Sundays.

I used to look forward to Sunday games.  Now I dread them.  It really has become Sunday Bloody Sunday for the Mets over the past two months.