Keith Hernandez said during Wednesday night's broadcast that the Mets have hit "rock bottom," as they lost their third straight in Atlanta, 11-4. Mike Pelfrey had good stuff, but his numbers were poor. The 6'7 righty threw hard for 4 innings and had good movement on his pitches, but still gave up 6 runs and 8 hits.

The Mets took a brief lead in the 3rd on a David Wright RBI single, but the Braves came right back and started punishing Pelfrey.

Jeff Francoeur was the hero of the day for the Braves, coming just a double short of the cycle. After Brian McCann's 2-RBI double made it 2-1, Francoeur tripled off the leftfield wall, scoring the All-Star catcher.

It remained 3-1 until the 5th. The red-hot Chipper Jones led off with a homerun, his 12th of the year. Mark Teixeira then doubled, and went to 3rd on Endy Chavez' first error since May 2005. Two batters later Francoeur singled in a run to make it 5-1, and Pelfrey was pulled. The game was pretty much over at that point, but the bullpen did not fare well either.

Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith, and Scott Shoeneweis combined to give up 5 runs over 3 innings. Billy Wagner almost gave up his first earned run of the season in the 9th, but he escaped a big jam. Wagner loaded the bases with nobody out, but he got Omar Infante to pop up, Mark Kotsay going down on strikes, and Ruben Gotay to ground out. Nonetheless, the Mets lost badly again, and fell down to .500, 44 games into the season.

Rizzi's Rant:

I was so disgusted with the Mets last night that I actually turned the game off at 6-1 and went to bed. I had watched pretty much every inning of the season up until last night, so that just shows how angry I am right now with our boys.

That being said, I feel bad for Willie Randolph. I have my beef with him myself, but everywhere I look I see people calling for his head. Whether it's AM New York, WFAN, ESPN, or any of the angry bloggers out there, Willie is under heavy fire and that has to be really tough.

One thing I will never accuse Willie of is not being passionate enough. I do think he puts his heart and soul into the Mets, and cares very deeply about winning and bringing a title to New York. Often times people question Willie's heart, but it is one thing I just don't think he's culpable of. However, the bottom line is a manager is most responsible for wins and losses, and the Mets have severely underachieved in that department.

AM New York is reporting Willie could get the axe in a week or so. I just don't think that would be smart. Randolph had two very good seasons as manager, and he deserves to get the rest of this year. If at the end of 2008 the Mets are out of the playoff picture and did not get the job done, then Willie should be out. But I think he has earned an entire year. I think if he gets canned the season is tanked anyway at that point. I mean, it seems like most of the players really like him, so I don't think they'll all of a sudden get motivated to play harder if he is shipped out.

The only good thing to come out of last night's performance other than Wagner holding onto his 0.00 ERA was Jose Reyes. Reyes looks like he might be getting hot, as he went 2-4 with a walk, stole 2 bases and scored a run. Considering the Mets are desperate for wins, a Reyes hot streak may be just what the doctor ordered.

Bad karma seems to be following us everywhere, and last night was another sign of this as another fan died at a Mets game. Earlier this season a man died at Shea falling off an escalator, and it happened again last night at Turner Field.

The mini sweep at Yankee Stadium feels like months ago after three horrendous losses to the Braves. We signed Johan Santana and gave him hundreds of millions of dollars because of night's like tonight. Everyone said with Santana in blue and orange there will be no sustained losing streaks; they said he's a "stopper." Well, he needs to stop the bleeding tonight. There is more than a losing streak on the line. It possibly means his manager's job as well.