Michael Baron, MetsBlog.com:

At this point, it’s fair to wonder what Santana has left in the tank. He has lost complete command of his entire game, and it’s painful to watch one of the best pitchers in this era struggle like this. This run since the no-hitter is very reminiscent of the run David Cone went on after he threw his perfect game in 1999 in that Cone more or less lost it after that. I truly hope that’s not the case, but things just aren’t looking good at this stage for Santana.

On a lighter note, Scott Hairston continues to crush left-handed pitching. He had three doubles against the lefty Detwiler tonight. He’s had an outstanding season for the Mets.

It was nice to see a Met catcher hit for some power tonight. Shoppach’s home run is the first by a Met catcher since Mike Nickeas hit a grand slam against San Diego on May 26. That’s pretty unbelievable. Obviously, the Mets need to revamp their catching corps heading into next season – hopefully Shoppach can distinguish himself as an option. It would be one less issue for the Mets this winter if he succeeds in doing so.

All-in-all, this sucks. It really does. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. I hate seeing this team become more and more irrelevant and fade away like this. It’s happened so often over the last few years. It’s time for the losing to end, and for some progress to begin…