Talk about a case of the Mondays

Could Monday have been any worse?

Turns out David Wright has a stress fracture in his back from making a diving tag almost a month ago. He's out a minimum of two weeks, possible more. The good news is that this type of injury, much like an oblique injury, isn't too serious but does require a lot of time and rest to heal.

So three regulars were out of the starting lineup for Monday's game against Josh Johnson and the Marlins, and yet the Mets still should have won. Johnson didn't have his best stuff but battled. Mike Pelfrey did have his best and had the lead in the seventh when Mike Stanton blasted a solo homer to center to tie the score.

In the ninth, Justin Turner reached second on a throwing error with none out but Jason Pridie failed to get the bunt down and struck out. Two intentional walks sandwiched a fielder's choice by F-Mart, and then Chin-lung Hu grounded out to end the threat.

Keith and Gary lamented Hu's bad luck, hitting it hard up the middle but right to Ramirez, but Hu just cannot hit. Not surprisingly, he was sent down after the game.

Then, first and second with one out in the tenth, and Turner hits a grounder to Ramirez, who boots it off his shoulder of all places, right to Omar Infante at second for the double play. Unreal.

Of course, the Marlins get the lead in the 11th on a two-out single by pitcher Burke Badenhop. Seriously. Dude's second career hit. Terry Collins admitted after the game he told Igarashi not to take Badenhop for granted, and maybe he should kept his mouth shut as a too-careful Igarashi fell behind early.

Jon Niese then hit a two-out triple in the bottom of the inning, but Jose Reyes — two hits, two steals, but no runs — struck out to end the game.

Crappy weather, Wright gets injured, and the opposing relief pitcher, who didn't even have his own bat or batting helmet, delivers the game-winning hit. Now that's a bad day.

Time will tell if we'll look back on May 16 as a turning point for the season, or even this franchise.

San Juan hangover continues

Let me get this straight: Major League Baseball thinks it's OK to schedule a three-game series in a minor-league ballpark in Puerto Rico where the field is a bandbox with artificial turf laid down on top of concrete, where game three is a night game, and then have both teams play the next night, basically praying that it doesn't rain in a tropical environment?

And that it's also cool to move a series between the Phillies and Blue Jays from Toronto to Philadelphia for security concerns related to the G20 summitt, giving the Phillies three more home games than anyone else in the league, instead of playing that series at a nuetral site or maybe reconfiguring the schedule in some other way that doesn't give one team such an advantage while screwing the other team?

OK, just wanted to clear that up. Is it any surprise the All-Star game determines the World Series home field advantage? This league is run by idiots (or at least one big idiot).

So the Mets got into Washington at 7 a.m. Thursday, played without Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan (mostly) and gave Jason Bay the night off — and we're surprised that they only scored one run against Livan Hernandez?

Of course, Johan Santana pitched, and he did pretty well shutting down the Nats for six innings before the tying run came across in the seventh. Sure, Jerry could have sent him out for another inning, but it didn't matter. The Mets bats were spent.

This is a serious stretch for the Mets, this week-plus before the All-Star game. They stumbled in San Juan and have four games in Washington, then right to Citi Field for three with the Reds before they finally get a day off before hosting the first-place Braves for three games leading to the break.

You could see the danger of this team, probably getting exhausted, going on a slide. You wonder if and when R.A. Dickey falls back to earth. Takahashi looks like he's already started. Pagan and now Reyes are banged up.

I'd be thrilled with a split in Washington, then get home and try and win two of three against the Reds with Pelfrey, Santana and Niese. Then a day off and try and do the same against the Braves with Dickey, Takahashi and Pelfrey. It's doable, but you're getting the sense that there isn't much left in the tank and that the break couldn't come fast enough.

Maybe that's just a perception left over from the awful series in the P.R. Next year, the Marlins can play someone else.

And can the Mets get three extra home games somehow? That would be cool.

Guess we can shake up that lineup now

Wednesday's night extra-inning loss to the Marlins was one of those weird games. You felt good that the Mets came back from a five-run deficit, until you realized that the Mets made up that gap without actually getting any RBI hits.

The Marlins did everything they could to give the Mets the win, including walking and balking in two runs to tie the score in the bottom of the eighth, after Ricky Nolasco dominated for six innings. But the Mets gave Florida a gift of its own when Fernando Tatis tried to score on a not-that-wild pitch with two outs, the bases loaded and David Wright at the plate. Not a smart play.

So the Mets look to win the series Thursday night with Jon Niese on the hill, and with lefty Nate Robertson starting for Florida, there is a pretty good chance that Mike Jacobs will be on the bench. Unless Jerry Manuel wants to break up all those righties!

Jacobs looked awful again for most of game two, striking out twice in three at-bats before singling in the eighth. Of course, he gets some credit for sliding hard into second base, perhaps affecting the wild throw by Dan Uggla that scored Wright. But otherwise, Jacobs has looked like the player we all know him to be -- a free swinger who rips at everything and strikes out a ton.

I other words, a black hole in the cleanup spot.

I'll be at the game, so I'm hoping to see Angel Pagan in center and leading off, with a 3-4-5-6 of Wright-Bay-Francoeur-Tatis. Line up those right-handed hitters, Jerry!

As for Jennry Mejia, Keith Hernandez made an excellent point, noting that in his day, he paid close attention to how the young players striving to prove themselves or win a roster spot pitched, adding that the veterans gave him nothing. Florida has seen Mejia pitching at his best, and seen him a lot thanks to the spring training schedule. So when it was time to play for reals, they know exactly how to attack him.

You like to see the 97 on the gun, and maybe it was debut-night jitters, but Mejia's performance did nothing to alter the opinion of those -- myself included -- who think that Majia is better off in the minors, working on developing as a starter.

Which, looking at the rotation now, may be a much bigger need this season than bullpen help.

John Maine, hopefully, just needs some time to get comfortable and back to where he was prior to 2009. The fastball just was not there. He needs it back.