The Mets' West Coast road trip gone south.

Getting swept sucks.

Getting swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers sucks beyond belief. And the fact that it's happened twice in 3 years now at Dodger Stadium (2007 and 2009)? The ignominy of getting swept by a ballclub that has the world's worst and most classless repugnant fans makes it all the more miserable.

The New York Mets started this road trip by beating the San Francisco Giants in AT&T Park 3 out of 4 games, and the loss on Sunday was at least a good game. They accomplished all that without the help of stars Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado, who is now going to be out until late July at the earliest. They scored 24 runs in those 3 wins, and none of the runs were on homers. The last time the Mets had a homerun,

Things turned really bad when the team got to Los Angeles. Alex Cora was placed on the 15-day DL when he injured this thumb sliding into second base the night before in San Francisco. Ramon Martinez, an emergency call-up whose natural position is 2B and not SS, was part of the error parade on Monday night. And more problematic, Martinez has been dreadful at the plate so far in his 3 games, going 0 for 12 with 1 RBI and 3 Ks to start off.

First, concentrating on the final game of the 3-game series...
Like Monday night, this was another unexpected pitcher's duel between Livan Hernandez and Jeff Weaver. Hernandez has been brilliant against NL East rivals Atlanta and Florida so far, and pretty bad against everyone else. Tonight, Hernandez was brilliant, going 7 IP, scattering 7 hits, walking 1 and striking out 2.

Livan continues to prove to be 2008 version of Oliver Perez by either being fantastic or dreadful, with little in-between, and no real explanation as to why. Hernandez had a shaky 1st inning, as the Dodgers scored in the 1st inning in all 3 games against New York.

Juan Pierre led off the inning with a swinging bunt that Hernandez fielded and threw to first but Pierre just beat it out. Rafael Furcal singled to rightfield. Orlando Hudson grounded out to 1B Daniel Murphy, moving the runners over to 2nd and 3rd. Andre Ethier hit a sac fly to RF Ryan Church which scored Pierre from 3rd and Furcal took 3rd base safely on the play. The inning ended when Russell Martin flied out to rightfield.

And after that, Hernandez was pretty damn good. Any time he got into trouble over the course of the game, he got out of it with ease.

The problem is that Jeff Weaver was just as stingy. While he only went 5 innings due to him being used primarily as a long reliever this season, the Mets were only able to score once off him in the 2nd inning when Carlos Beltran doubled in Luis Castillo from 1st base.

After Jose Reyes grounded deep out into the 2B hole to lead off the 3rd inning, he re-injured his right calf which has caused him to be on the bench during most of the road trip. Word is that now Reyes is going back to NY to get looked at, and won't play against Boston over the weekend. With Reyes having calf problems and Alex Cora on the DL, the Mets are in deep shit when it comes to having someone competent play shortstop, which has been one of my biggest fears over the last 4 seasons, as there was never a truly suitable backup for Jose Reyes. And this year now that they have one in Alex Cora, he's hurt too.

In any case, the Dodgers bullpen shut the Mets down for the rest of the game. Ramon Troncoso pitched the 6th and 7th innings without incident. Ronald Belsiario walked Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran to lead off the 8th inning. David Wright flied out to deep center which allowed both runners to tag up. At this point, Joe Torre went to lefthanded rookie Brent "No relation to Terry" Leach. With the infield in and Daniel Murphy up in a big spot, he grounded out to 1B James Loney, who promptly stepped on first for the 2nd out, and the runners could not advance.

At this point, Fernando Tatis was put in to pinch-hit for Ryan Church, who doesn't have strong numbers against lefty hitters. Sadly, Tatis grounded out to SS Rafael Furcal to end the top half of the frame.

In the bottom of the 8th, J,J, Putz was brought in a 1-1 game to keep it that way. But he failed.

Putz started the inning by getting Rafael Furcal to strike out swinging, but then gave up a single to Orlando Hudson, a walk to the slumping Andre Ethier, and a single to Russell Martin that scored Hudson from 2nd. David Wright intercepted the throw home from LF Jeremy Reed and threw out Andre Ethier trying to take 3rd base. Ramon Martinez, who was covering 3rd, made the tag on Ethier.

Putz then intentionally walked James Loney and then struck out pinch-hitter Mark Loretta to end the 8th, but the damage was already done.

Big Jonathan Broxton came in to close out the 9th, and as luck would have it again, like the night before, he was facing the bottom of the Mets order which was hardly going to be a formidable opponent for Broxton. Angel Pagan did manage a base hit with 1 out, but Jeremy Reed foul popped out to 1B James Loney, Angel Pagan took 2nd base uncontested, and then Ramon Martinez grounded out to Casey Blake to end the game.

Some Met fans will question why manager Jerry Manuel didn't pinch-hit for Ramon Martinez in this spot with either Gary Sheffield or backup catcher Omir Santos. But Manuel could not make that move because someone needed to still play shortstop in the bottom of the 9th inning had the Mets been able to tie the game. Even a double-switch of positions was not possible since Reyes had gone down with injury and Fernando Tatis had been used as a pinch-hitter in the 8th inning. It was Ramon Martinez or bust, and well, he's a bust with the bat.

So that was the ballgame, and the series. The Dodgers completed their 3-game sweep of the Mets, and what began as an encouraging road trip in San Francisco, has turned 180 degrees with the Mets now 3-4 on this trip, and another 3 games against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park to go. Like the Dodgers, Boston doesn't lose at home (15-4).

So now what?

Good news:
The Daniel Murphy at 1B experiment has begun! While he failed twice tonight at the plate in big spots with RISP, he looked perfectly fine at first base, making a couple of nice plays and no mistakes nor errors. Granted, it's only one game, so we'll have to see how things progress. If he's going to become any sort of legitimate fill-in for the injured Carlos Delgado, he's going to need to find his swing again, even if he doesn't hit for power.

Livan Hernandez pitched his best start as a Met, but I already went over that.

Johan Santana pitches against Daisuke Matsuzaka on Friday, so at least the Mets have a fighting chance against the Sawx behind Santana. But if this offense continues to struggle in Boston like they did against the Dodgers.. yikes.

The team is still 21-19, two games above .500 and 1 game behind Philadelphia. No need to panic.

Bad news:
With Jose Reyes hurting again and Cora still injured, WE'S GOT A PROBLEM! Ramon Martinez is a natural 2B, not a SS. So the team is either going to have to use Fernando Tatis at SS for a while, which is not his best position by a longshot, or find someone in the minors at Buffalo or Binghamton to promote in the meanwhile. But there isn't anyone on either of those teams good enough to fill in. Martinez also can't hit, which isn't helping matters, so they may be stuck with him for a bit.

The Mets are back to their old problems hitting with RISP, going 0 for 10 tonight, and 3 for 27 (.111 team BA) in the 3-game series.

No Delgado, no Reyes, no Cora, no Schneider. Only Beltran and Wright are hitting with any consistency now but neither are doing it with the longball.

The Dodgers are now 17-3 through 20 home games, which ties a modern MLB mark set by the 1998 Yankees, also managed by Joe Torre. With the Angels coming in for interleague play Friday-Sunday, and I'm an Angels fan in addition to being a Mets fan, I'm not thrilled with the prospects of watching the Dodgers win even more games while I'm at Dodger Stadium (aka: The Unhappiest Place on Earth) this weekend.