It’s been a few days since Carlos Beltran showed some of the leadership qualities he has always been criticized for lacking, when he spoke about his disappointment in the Mets getting swept by the Pirates.
Here’s how it all started
We have to find a way to play better, there’s no doubt. Overall. I’m not pointing fingers at anybody. Offense, defense, pitching — we have to find a way to play better. The reality of this is, coming here to Pittsburgh and being swept — personally, I feel embarrassed.
I don’t think it’s fun. We have to find a way to play better and to focus better and focus more on what we need to accomplish.
We have to play better. There’s no doubt we have to play better. We have to take this personal, because this can’t happen. It can’t happen for us to come here and lose three games just like that. It can’t happen.
I know they’re a big-league ballclub, but we’re better than them,” he said. “We’re better than them. We know we’re better than them, but we have to do something about it.
McLouth wasn’t there and they still come out and score how many runs? Eleven? Eleven runs, so we have to play better.
Rightfully so, Adam “the Roach” LaRoche fired back at Beltran with,
I think it shows zero class and zero professionalism, when somebody says that, they know what they’re saying, and they know it’s going to get out. He knows we’re not going to be real happy about it. If you go and say that to your buddies, it’s one thing. If you go to the media and make that public for us to hear? Yeah, that’s no class.
Beltran then countered saying
What I said was as a team we should all feel embarrassed, because, being honest, I don’t care what he said. I believe we’re a better team than them. I don’t care what he said. I know that we could have won the first game and there’s no excuse why we would have lost that one. If we would have won that one, I tell you we would have won one or two more. There’s no doubt.
I said in a post after the Pirates series, that the Mets got outplayed by Pittsburgh in every aspect of the game. Apparently, Carlos agreed with me. Everyone knows the Mets were not at full strength, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re expected to go out and beat Pittsburgh. It’s nice to know that someone other than the fans think so.
I understand why LaRoche felt the need to respond to Beltran’s comments. I know if someone made comments like that about my team, I’d expect someone to respond; be it with a statement, or a pitch at the chin. This is not the first time Carlos Beltran has stepped up and made a comment about the state of his team, although it does not happen nearly enough. I think what he said was less about insulting the Pirates, and more about lighting a fire under the asses of his teammates. It’s hard to tell if it actually worked. Sure they took two out of three in their next series, but that was against the equally bad Washington Nationals. The real test will come starting tomorrow.
What are your predictions for the next series against the Phillies?
