The All-Star break is in full swing now, with the big game invading the Bronx tonight. The National League will be trying to finally break the A.L.’s 11-game unbeaten streak in the Summer Classic, as strong group of All-Stars takes the field.

The New York Mets will be starting one player, third baseman David Wright who was not voted in as a starter, but will get the opportunity due to the injury of Alfonso Soriano. This will be Wright’s third appearance in the all star (all three are consecutive). He looks to add phenomenal fielding prowess and a great bat to the potent National League team.

The lone Mets pitcher on the National League staff is veteran closer, Billy Wagner, who will be playing in his sixth All-Star game. Look for Wagner to get the call in the late innings and to perhaps get the save opportunity if the Mets are leading going into the ninth inning.

This is bound to be one of the great All-Star games in recent years. Look for both teams to give it their all as the National League looks take the crown away from the American League for the first time in over a decade.

If there’s one team that might have wanted to postpone the mid-season break, it’s the Mets, who are in the midst of a great run, winning nine in a row to really establish themselves among the best in the league. They are currently in second place in the division, but hot on the trails of the Phillies and only half-a-game back. Go out and get some Mets tickets and watch them as the crank up the second half of the season!

After winning the first two games of the series on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Mets closed out their mid-week series with a 7-3 victory over San Francisco in Shea Stadium on Thursday.

The story of the day was Fernando Tatis, who led the way with four RBI, including a homerun and two doubles to accompany John Maine’s two hit performance in which he gave up all three of the Giants runs. The Mets are now riding a six game winning streak - their longest run since 2006.

In addition to the break-out performance by Tatis, David Wright also contributed heavily with two doubles of his own, while scoring the go-ahead run in the bottom of the 7th inning. During the game, Mets ticket holders were persistently reminded by the team public-address announcers to text in their votes for Wright to earn the final N.L. spot on the All-Star roster.

Nevertheless, voting closed shortly after the conclusion of the game, and Milwaukee’s Corey Hart was added to the senior circuit ballot along with Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria for the American League.

Next up for the Mets is a three-game series in New York against the Colorado Rockies in a matchup of two teams who entered the season with very high expectations that have yet to pan out for either team. This series, leading in to the All-Star break, should be exciting, as the Rockies bring in their explosive offense into Shea Stadium.

Every now and then a game is played that keeps the fans, players, and even the sports reporters on the edge of their seats, and anyone with Mets tickets to last night’s game against the Phillies was able to see one of those games first hand - though for Mets fans, it probably wasn’t the type of game they would want to repeat too often.

After a very strong start, the Mets took a 10-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning, when Philadelphia began what was almost the biggest comeback of the season. Giving up homeruns to Pat Burrell, Ryan Howard, and Geoff Jenkins - in addition to an RBI double by Shane Victorino the Mets began to see the game slipping away as the Phillies eventually scored in the bottom of the 9th to come within a run at 10-9.

Despite giving up two runs with two outs in the 9th inning, Mets veteran closer, Billy Wagner limped out with his 20th save of the year, while barely preserving the win for the Mets.

Another notable event was that Phillies 2nd baseman, Chase Utley hit his 25th homerun of the year in the 4th inning. He leads the Majors in that category.

As the all-star break approaches, the NL East is one of the most exciting races in baseball. The Phillies lead the division at 48-42, with the Florida Marlins and Mets within 2.5 games.

Did you catch last nights Mets game? If you did, and you’re a Mets fan, you’re not feeling too celebratory ahead of this weekend’s holiday. While they did win Sunday’s game, Monday they were looking tired.

The New York Times described it this way:

“Shoddy fielding, a slumbering offense and poor pitching, stalwarts of the first 81 games, reappeared as the Mets opened the second half of their season with a 7-1 loss at Busch Stadium. With their lineup struggling as it is, their margin for error is minimal. Committing three errors and giving up runs in each of the first five innings, then, is no way to go ahead and ease the pressure.”

Interim Mets manager Jerry Manuel put it even more starkly: “We didn’t do too much defensively, we didn’t do too much offensively, we didn’t do too much in the manager’s seat, we didn’t do too much in the coaches’ seat, we didn’t do too much of anything tonight,” Manuel said. Pitcher Oliver Perez has proved to be on again, off again and this game it was off.

Defense was poor and the Mets lost to the Cardinals 7-1. Tomorrow is a new day: next up the Mets play the St. Louis Cardinals again at Busch Stadium.

Coming off of a very disappointing series against one of baseball’s most disappointing teams, it’s time for a little assessment. Larry Brooks of the New York Post had some hard reality for the New York Post yesterday:

“They are the residue of their historic collapse last September, a consequence of a flawed roster and a fragile rotation. They are a disappointment, no matter how much they wish to massage it, no matter how much they may detest their reflection in their own mirrors.”

Forget the fact that they mitigated the damage on Wednesday with an 8-2 win over the Mariners. It’s only a small consolation when you consider the all out drubbing they incurred the night before, losing 0-11.

Brooks says that this is the very definition of a mediocre team—to win a few, and then lose a few, as if they were ambling through life, without consideration of their actual performance.

The franchise would suggest that they’re taking their mediocrity very seriously, taking actions that demonstrate the repellent nature of said patchiness. I mean, why else did they fire Willie Randolph? Interim manager, Jerry Manuel suggested that it was time for tough decisions on Tuesday night after their embarrassing loss. What do you suppose he meant by that?

Time will tell. Let’s hope that those interested in buying Mets tickets in the coming months are able to stay patient.

Fred Wilpon is getting defensive about the decision to let Willie Randolph go. He insists that it was very simply a numbers a game—not enough wins.

An article today in the New York Post by Mark Hale paraphrases Wilpon saying, “the former manager was well aware of what the winning standard was going to be when he was hired.” Wilpon suggests that although Randolph did a good job, when they looked at the numbers, he wasn’t meeting their winning expectation.

Apparently Wilpon was also very defensive of General Manager, Omar Minaya, suggesting that he’s “done a great job.” He outlines how the firing transpired. Minaya called Wilpon on the 15th saying that he wanted to have a meeting the next day, that he wanted to fire Randolph and two coaches, that he wanted to do it quickly and in person. He also said that he wanted to sleep on it. Which he did. The meeting was then held the next morning at 9 am where the decision was finally made.

What still isn’t answered is why the Minaya disregarded his own resolve and made the move through an email in the middle of the night.

This will no doubt be a famous moment for Mets fans to relieve for years—the night Willie Randolph got the axe by email. Maybe if the Mets can turn around a mediocre season, it will be a decision that one sort of smirks at, rather than disgusts in.

Omar Minaya, the Mets GM who issued the infamous canning, claims that he warned Willie Randolph several days before that the firing was on its way. Randolph claims that he got a totally different message, thinking that he was speaking of coaches that were going to be let go.

Additionally, Randolph feels that his ousting happened to early. He felt like he had a team that he could work with, a team that would find it’s groove this season and end strong.

It seems agreed in the press that Randolph’s middle of the night email firing was done in bad form. But now that it’s been done, what is in the future for Mr. Randolph?

In the New York Post today they quote Randolph as saying:

“Once you get a taste of managing, it’s pretty cool, and I want to get back into it. Depending on who is calling, I want to do it again. I’m not ready to retire. I’m going to enjoy myself for now. But if the phone rings, I’m going to answer.”

With Randolph gone, do Mets ticket holders have something exciting to look forward to in the coming months? There’s no question that the Mets have talent. Will the new Interim Manager Jerry Manuel, save this season? Time will tell.

Imagine being a manager for an organization where you read about getting fired in the newspaper ever day. Imagine how difficult that would be. You now capture a glimpse of the pressure that Willie Randolph is under.

Managers get let go all of the time. it happens in every organization. Sometimes the blame falls squarely on the manager. But often, in most cases, the blame is both the organization’s and the manager’s.

Every manager is forced to deal with the cards that have been given to him or her. No one likes to fail. But sometimes situations are un-winnable. So is Randolph to blame for his now imminent demise?

Sam Borden of the blog LoHud.com suggests that Randolph is somewhat to blame:

“A major-league manager’s job has less to do with tactical and in-game decisions than it does with perpetually motivating a group of egotistical, highly paid athletes to perform up to their given talents. Anyone who has watched the frequently lackadaisical efforts the Mets have offered recently knows that Randolph has failed on that count.”

But blame has got fall on other individuals as well.  There may be other firings needed.  There are going to be big changes needed to turn around this team that keeps disappointing Mets ticket holders.

On Tuesday night, at Shea Stadium, you could find the bullpen doing their part to contribute. They helped the grounds crew cover the field when a thunderstorm delayed the game for 61 minutes. Go Mets pitchers.

Did I mention that they gave up six runs in four innings against the Diamondbacks, giving up a 9-5 loss?

The Mets gave up four home runs. Three of those were given up by the bullpen in the last two innings. Talk about blowing it.

This is the fifth straight loss for the struggling New York Mets. For a while there it seemed that Willie Randolph was finding some really great successes to make the case for him to keep his job. But with this losing streak firmly in place, it’s not looking pretty for the beleaguered manager.

Even Randolph’s hope for getting Moises Alou back on the field, a player which he calls an “RBI machine” fell flat.  He didn’t return after the rain delay because his calf got stiff. This was just an additional disappointment adding up to 5 games of disappointment. What started as a really promising season is getting ever frustrating.

Maybe if pitching doesn’t work for the bullpen, they can get jobs on the grounds crew. Maybe Randolph is eying a maintenance job too.

It’s heartbreaking to see a great performance by a pitcher go unmatched by the hitters. But that’s exactly what happened to Mike Pelfrey and the Mets Thursday night.

Pelfrey only allowed one run in six innings. But the Mets only managed five hits and one run the entire game, allowing the Padres a 2-1 win. This was their third loss in 10 games, an improvement on the rest of the season, but disappointing nonetheless.

In spite of the loss, Randolph seems to be thinking positively about his team that performed well defensively. He felt good about keeping Pelfrey in his place in the line-up. And he kept him in even when things looked bad, pushing Pelfrey to be able to get through the ups and downs of a long pitching stretch, hoping he’ll be able to get to 120 pitches in a game at some point.

Randolph also had great praise for shortstop Reyes who performed well on Thursday, insisting in the Daily News: “He’s still an excellent shortstop. He’s going to win a Gold Glove someday.”

Even though these are great signs of a team with great potential, Willie Randolph cannot allow his ball club to lose games like this. You can’t keep a team to 2 runs and still lose the game. Mets fans demand more than this.