On the Mets beat

Have to say I didn't expect that to happen. Kudos to Long Beach's John Lannan, who held the Mets to one hit over seven innings, but this was no time for him to start building a Cy Young case. Hey, look at the bright side, with the division lead down to a half-game, at least the Mets have the wild card as a safety net.

Now you'll be staying up an hour later to catch the scores from the NL Central, where the Brewers are in the midst of their own epic collapse. RIP, Ned Yost. Now that's desperation. As hopeless as the Mets looked over their final 17 games last September, the Wilpons still spared Willie Randolph -- and even gave him another 2 1/2 months to prove himself. Seems like Yost must have been even less of a people-person than Randolph.

Here's a few other observations:

-- Jerry Manuel = NL Manager of the Year? If the Mets somehow hold on and make the playoffs, he has a better chance of winning that award than Carlos Delgado has of getting the MVP. Watching Manuel trying to win the division with this bullpen makes David Blaine's stunts look mundane by comparison. Hang upside down over Central Park? Big deal. See if Blaine can get three outs with Duaner Sanchez or Aaron Heilman.

-- I know the injury to Damion Easley, combined with the fact that all of you despise Luis Castillo, has the populace chanting for Daniel Murphy at second base. Calm down. Just for fun, I asked Jerry Manuel about maybe sticking Murphy there at some point down the stretch. The manager laughed. No offense to Murphy, but he is a project at second base, which is why he will continue to work at the position during the Fall League.

-- Pedro Martinez seemed more amused than anything last night when a reporter asked him about Jorge Posada's recent comments regarding the "finger-pointing" episode from the 2003 ALCS. I did find it strange, however, that Martinez made some remark about Posada "pretending" that he is American. Here's the passage from today's Mets notebook:

"He cursed my mom and I meant that I'll remember that," said Martinez, referring to his head-pointing gesture. "He knows he's Latin. As much as he pretends to be American, he's Latin, and he knows that cursing your mom in Latin America will get you into a fight."

OK, looks like that's settled. There's always a chance Pedro and Posada could be teammates next season -- hey, you never know -- so they might want to patch things up.

-- I highly doubt John Maine will be pitching by next week. But the thought of him helping the Mets out of the bullpen at some point, and maybe in the playoffs, would be a welcome addition, obviously. That was an absolutely brutal showing by Duaner Sanchez last night. Brutal. And Manuel was not pleased at all. It was interesting that Bobby Parnell got the call for the eighth inning last night and he looked promising. Given the tattered state of the relief corps, I'm betting Parnell gets another shot in a spot that counts next time.

Oh, and one more thing. If the Mets are unable to close this one out, you can't say this is a case of history repeating itself. Terribly disappointing, sure. But see if you agree with the point I made in today's story:

Technically, if the Mets fail to win the NL East title this season, it couldn't really be called a collapse. Their biggest lead this month has been 3 1/2 games, merely half the cushion they enjoyed a year ago over the Phillies.

Small consolation, I know.