NL East

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The starting pitching had to let down at some point this season. It’s virtually impossible to keep up the pace.

Mike Pelfrey got the fun started, giving up six runs in the fourth inning on Saturday en route to a 10-0 loss, the first loss for the Mets in eight games.

Things only got worst on Sunday when Johan Santana put up his worst effort in his time with the Mets, as he gave up 10 runs in less than four innings pitched.

New York Mets (14-10)  at Philadelphia Phillies (13-10), 8:05 pm

Each month The Nats Blog will announce our Nationals Player of the Month as voted upon by our writers. This award will be determined on quality of performance as well as the impact of that performance.

The Washington Nationals attempt at four-straight wins, and a tie for first place in the division, was stymied by Chris Volstad and the Florida Marlins lineup.

Combining for only five base runners on the night, the Nationals had no chance to match the seven runs the Marlins put up on the board, and fell to 13-11 in a 7-1 Saturday night.

Apart from Volstad imposing his 6' 8" self on the Nationals lineup, Washington fans found themselves disappointed as the Nationals club seemed to take a step backward on the night, allowing six earned runs and committing two errors.

The Mets beat writers all had posts about Daniel Murphy recovering from his strained knee ligament in Florida, then going to Triple-A Buffalo when he comes off the disabled list. The plan is for Muphy to play first base immediately just to get some at-bats.

The Phillies took this one in a laugher as the Mets became one of the many victims of Roy Halladay’s greatness. Halladay was the star of the game throwing a complete game, the 52nd of his career. He only gave up 3 hits and 1 walk against 6 strikeouts. This game was the 17th shutout of Halladay’s 13-year career.

It looks like we have an answer to the question I asked yesterday , at least a temporary one. According to Brian Costa of the Newark Star-Ledger , the Mets will send Daniel Murphy to Triple-A Buffalo once he is healthy enough to return.

Here’s more from Costa:

So far the Mets have not been bitten by the injury bug nearly as badly as they were last season, but they are dealing with their share of injuries.

Just about everything went right for the Mets last night as their offense carried them for nine runs and starter Jon Niese was brilliant during a seven inning performance that kept the Mets atop first place.

The Mets jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning when David Wright hit a two-run home run and two batters later Jeff Francoeur hit a solo shot. Rod Barajas hit his first homer of the season to put the Mets up 4-1 in the fifth. The Mets then broke it open with a four-run seventh where they seemingly got contributions from everybody.