The Mets squandered two leads en route to a 7-2 loss to the Reds tonight at Great American Ballpark. Josh Fogg got the win for the Reds, and Oliver Perez suffered his first loss in his last four starts.

Perez was ok, but at times went away from what Dan Warthen had taught him and what he had applied in his last three starts. Tonight, Perez was changing his arm slot, and even slowed down his motion for one pitch against Brandon Phillips. Very, very confusing.

The Mets got the scoring going in the 1st when 1B Joey Votto made a throwing error that allowed David Wright to score from third to put the Mets up 1-0.  Wright also smashed a solo homer off Fogg to put the Mets up 2-1.

With the game tied at two apiece, Perez allowed an rbi single to Dave Ross, who had been 1-22 (including two strikeouts his first two ABs) against Perez in his career. Yeah, that about sums up the Mets night.

The Mets had chances in the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings, leaving men on base in every inning.

Pedro Feliciano and Aaron Heilman combined to allow four runs in an inning together to break the game wide open.

Tomorrow, the Mets look for the split. The red hot Mike Pelfrey will take on Cy Young frontrunner Edinson Volquez.

I don’t know about anyone else, but tomorrow is a pretty big game for me. The Phillies have Cole Hamels going and if we were to lose and they were to win we’d be two back heading into the series.