Why Ollie Lost? Let me count the ways..

Here is a terse recap from ESPN TMI Blog (insider only) with some interesting numbers from last night

Why Mets starter Oliver Perez lost:
- Couldn't finish off hitters. Florida batters got two hits and drew three walks when Perez already had two strikes on them. Previous opponents hit only .125 in two-strike counts.
- Left too many pitches in the strike zone. On Friday, 53.4 pct hit the zone, and Florida hitters went 9-for-17 against them.

- Left the ball up in the zone. More than a third of his pitches were high, and the Marlins went 5-for-9 including two homers against those.

We will see what the Mets choose to do with Oliver Perez today, if he will accept a minor league assignment (he can refuse), if they make up an injury (but that will be difficult because after the game he proclaimed he is fully healthy), or if they try to skip his turn in the rotation and hide him in the bullpen (which will just tax the other arms even more).

Takahashi has earned the spot start IF he has the ability to throw five + innings, but his longest outing was April 27th and that was 3 1/3. More recently he had worked in four games in five days (May 8, 10, 11 and 12th).

RA Dickey could be called up as an insurance policy to eat innings in case Takahashi tires quickly. Don't expect miracles out of Dickey even though his AAA stats are great; his major league career ERA is upwards of 5.5. Even though he isn't on the 40-man roster currently, the Mets have one or two open spots (assuming they transfer K Escobar to the 60-day DL).