After getting their road trip off to a promising start in San Francisco, the New York Mets have been swept by the LA Dodgers in a three game series. Below are video highlights courtesy of ESPN.com plus my written series recap.

Series Take-Aways:

• Bad Defense: The Mets committed a total of six errors in this three game series. The Mets defense has plagued them all season long and this concerns me because if your going to be a championship caliber team, defense is an important ingredient to success.
• Injuries: This team has been hit hard with injuries (Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Alex Cora) and are really playing short handed right now. I’m not going to make excuses for them, but I’m concerned about the health of this team. With a trip to Boston coming up, I’m worried about a long loosing streak that they may not be able to recover from.
• Mets Don’t Like Church: I’m now convinced that the Mets (or atleast Jerry Manuel) doesn’t like Ryan Church. Before all the recent injuries, it was hard for Church to crack the starting line-up on a consistent basis and I still don’t understand why Manuel didn’t come out and argue Monday night when Church missed third base. Manuel showed no desire to stick up for Church in that situation.

Who’s Hot and Who’s Not:

• Who’s Hot? How about David Wright? Wright continues to swing a hot bat and has a 12 game hitting streak.
• Who’s Not Hot? How about JJ Putz? I know Putz is dealing with an injury but he’s given up 3 ER in his last 5 IP. Not good for our set up guy.

Next Up For The Mets:

• The Mets now travel back across the country for a three game series against the Boston RedSox. I’m gonna brace myself for the series this weekend as a struggling and injured Mets team going up to Fenway Park is a recipe for disaster.

Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.