We Want Ben-son! (Clap, Clap, Clap-Clap-Clap)!

(Note: Two posts today about last night's loss against Washington. The first, by A.F.O.M.G., appears here, while Sip's appears below. Enjoy.)

OK, the title to this post is a little unfair. After all, it wasn't all Jorge Julio's fault last night.

Indeed, the biggest goat of all had to be Billy Wagner, the shiny new closer I gushed over yesterday in much the same manner that a teenage girl might swoon over pictures of Corey, the broodingly handsome pin-up in the latest edition of Tiger Beat magazine.

But I'm sticking with this headline for a reason. Much like Sip mentions in his piece below, there was a lot to like about yesterday's ballgame. For the purposes of me keeping my sanity, let's start with the positives.

Brian Bannister looked OK to very OK in his major league debut. That may sound like an unduly low appraisal for a guy who no-hit a capable hitting team like the Nationals through the first 5 innings, but I think it's fair.

As stingy as Bannister was with allowing hits, he was behind in the count an awful lot last night, and I've heard Tom Seaver broadcast enough games to know that that's not traditionally a recipe for success. Bannister lost 4 of those batters to bases on balls, and he beaned another two, one of them, Alfonso Soriano, in the dome.

Soriano, meanwhile, got the shit booed out of him last night.

So Bannister gets a mixed review. Like he did against the Astros in spring training, Bannister put his team in a position to win even without his best stuff, so that's encouraging. He'll need greater command though if he's going to be successful.

Moving on, a common refrain bandied about whenever the issue of Jose Reyes' free-swingin' ways comes up is the saying familiar to all Caribbean ballplayers: "You can't walk off the island."

Watching Reyes last year, it was plain he had taken those words to heart. If last night is any indication, however, our old friend Mr. Glass has some new tricks this year.

Nationals starter John Patterson had to labor through 10 pitches against the first batter he faced before surrendering a hit to Reyes on a sharply hit line drive to left field.

Later in the game, Reyes took a walk in his tenth at-bat of the season. Last year I believe it took 114 at-bats for Reyes to finally take a free pass. So cheers, friend.

As for the rest of the lineup, Carlos Beltran showed admirable plate discipline, walking three times. It was good to see, but Beltran can no more walk off the boos than Reyes could have walked off the DR, so don't expect rousing applause tonight when his name is called.

Delgado smoked two balls, one for a home run, another for a single that failed to be extra bases only because it was hit too hard. The former gave the Mets a 4-0 lead, but it would only prove a tease.

Indeed, there was no bigger a tease the whole night than the stellar relief work exhibited in innings 7 and 8. Duaner Sanchez was lights out while Aaron Heilman was better than Monday.

And then things just went in the shitter. A large part of the issue with Wagner last night was that his slider seemed a bit erratic, at least from my vantage point on the third base line.

Wagner fell behind when he couldn't get his slider over for a strike, and so he had to rely on his heater. Everyone in the stadium knew that's what he had to come with on that 3-2 pitch. He couldn't walk the lead-off man and his slider wasn't reliable, it was time for some heat.

Only when the heat came, it wasn't quite where we're used to it being with Billy Wagner. His fastball climbed no higher than 93 on the gun at Shea Stadium, which plain sucks for a guy who generally throws 97-99.

Is it early-season rust? Was it the weather? Is he in decline? Who can say? We've really gotta hope it's not the latter; if it is, well, we're fucked. For what it's worth, I doubt Wagner fell of a cliff, and if there's one resounding positive from tonight's game, it's that there's a lot to like about Sanchez-Heilman-Wagner based on the early returns, assuming Wagner does round in to shape.

Anyway, after Wagner escaped without further damage in top of the 9th, the Mets loaded the bases but Paul Lo Duca couldn't channel any of Ramon Castro's late-inning-heroics-by-light-hitting-catcher mojo leftover from last season, and the game was headed for extra frames.

As I sat there with B.O.A.F.O.M.G., we went through the options of who might be brought into the game.

As we reeled off names like Darren Oliver and Chad Bradford, the purple elephant in the conversation was Jorge Julio, who trudged to the mound like a latter-day Armando Benitez or Mel Rojas.

At this point, you knew the game was lost. You just had a feeling, and it's a feeling that Mets fans probably know as well as any fans in the league.

So yeah, Julio got rocked. In fairness, his line would have looked a lot better if Lo Duca had handled that third strike or converted that easy double play. But still, relievers need to be able to limit the damage, and a 5-run inning speaks for itself.

As the boos rained down on Julio, somewhere nearby a group of slack-jawed gawkers broke in to a "We want Ben-son! (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)!" cheer, and I'm sure to very sure they were talking about Kris, not Anna.

The fact is that no trade Wheel and Deal executed this offseason looked more suspect when it happened than the Benson-for-Julio swap. And after Julio's starring role in last night's 9-5 loss, the microscope only tightened on a guy few fans ever wanted any part of to begin with.

A 9-5 loss in a game we had been winning 4-0 going into the 6th, and 4-3 going into the 9th. As me and B.O.A.F.O.M.G. drove home last night, dejected, all we could think about was how much it sucked losing a game like that, especially in a season like this when you just know losses like this are going to matter.

But you know what, I want to think positive. We won one on Monday that you could arguably say we deserved to lose, so if yesterday we lost one we should have won, I suppose things evened out rather quickly.

Still think last night sucked? So do I, but we've got two things going for us, Mets fans.

As I left the house this morning, one my roomies could be heard to say "You know, the Yankees lost last night, too." I hadn't known that. I smiled.

Then I thought that tonight I had tickets 10 rows behind home plate to watch Pedro pitch and I smiled ever more broadly.

Whether you've got a ticket or not, you've got Pedro, and if nothing else that's something to look forward to.

- A.F.O.M.G.