Stop Teasing Me, Part Two

After tonight's 5-4 loss to the Mets, I have a serious question. When comes the implosion? That's right, not explosion, but implosion.

See, against the NL East leading Mets, the Pirates once again resembled an actual MLB team. (An aside for a note of personal bias: I like Ian Snell as a baseball player. I like his passion, emotion, and the fact that he actually seems to care. I like that he wears his heart on his sleeve, and on the pitching end, I love his stuff.) Snell got hit, but he pitched seven innings and gave up 3 runs to a Mets' team that is not, cough, exactly offensively challenged. Whether it was luck or skill, he got out of jams (aside from the unfortunate third run in an inning that still could have ended in an even ickier situation). And despite stranding runners like crazy at the start of the game, the Pirates somehow were hanging with the Mets.

Until, you see, the laws of talent kicked in, and the Mets' hitters managed to score runs off the best pitchers the Pirates bullpen had to offer. (Seriously, who else would have gone into the game? Grabow?) And then, unfortunately, the game ended with the Pirates' best three healthy hitters: Sanchez, Laroche, and Bay--none of whom could hit Billy Wagner despite trying.

The Mets won because they had more talent. Because even though Sanchez got hits early in the game, even though Snell never walked a Met through seven innings of work, because the Mets had the talent to be able to deal with their leadoff hitter's off night at the plate whereas the Pirates couldn't deal with Jason Bay's off night at the plate--and where the hitters in the bottom of the New York order still got on base when the Pittsburgh hitters couldn't even get manufacture a RBI with the bases loaded.

So, whence comes the implosion? When does the Bucco team quit teasing me by hanging close--so close, yet so far--from the division lead and full-of-.300 hitters Mets lineup?

Pretty easy: As soon as the starting pitching is less than stellar. Which should happen, hmm, when? Because the sad truth is, even with excellent starting pitching, the Pittsburgh lineup isn't good enough to beat the lineup of a division leading team.