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.