The good news? This site will be free of bad jokes referencing bad Danny Glover movies for the rest of the year.  The bad news, its because Angel Pagan has opted for the season ending surgery on his shoulder. Pagan will return next season.

Pagan was hitting .275 while with the team, but hasn’t played since May 12th.

Sad news indeed, as we here at the Foot had a full dozen Angels in the Outfield references all lined up for his return. With Alou, Nixon, and Pagan all on the Do Not Open Till Spring Training list, its probably safe to assume Omar will continue his outfielder shopping, even with it starting to look like Church will return in August.

Billy Wagner returned, and this time the Mets won. Hooray. Wagner induced three outs from three batters for his 25th save.  Show and Smith split the 8th, Show giving up a walk, but otherwise keeping the bullpen worry free for the evening. John Maine gets the win, he went a full seven. He gave up two homeruns in the second, but seems to have recovered from whatever has been ailing him lately. He did strike out five. We missed you John Maine.

Not letting the Phils have all the homerun fun, Jose Reyes knocked one of his own. With the game tied at three in the sixth, Easley singled as did Schneider . Reyes drove them home two batters later and promptly taught the Phils how pointing towards low flying aircraft from nearby LaGaurdia is done.

Nice bounce back win, though there has to be some concern. Myers was not at his best, and the Mets still really didn’t do much off of him. Ten hits for the night total, half of which were Easley and Schneider. But they did what they needed to for the win, and the pitching staff as a whole was fantastic tonight. Now lets take the series.

If you had told me this morning that Robinson Cancel would be a key factor in today’s win, I’d have thought you were joking. If you had told me he’d have his first extra base hit since the 90s, well then I’d just fall down laughing.  Jokes on me. Well, me and the Reds.

Robinson Cancel hit a double in the tenth, advanced on a Reyes bunt single, then scored when Argenis Reyes hit what was almost a double play.  Instead, Edwin Encarnacion threw the ball into the outfield, allowing Cancel to score, Reyes to make it to third, and A Reyes to reach safely.

Ramon Castro also contributed to the Mets Day of Back Up Catching, hitting a two run homerun in the third. If only for one day, carrying three catchers makes sense. Delgado was 3 for 4, his sac in the tenth added an insurance run, scoring Jose Reyes. Jose by the way, was 4 for 6 with his 11th triple of the season. It gives him sole possession of the Mets career triple record.

Pelf had…not one of his best starts, giving up five runs, but thats not terrible for Great American Ballpark. He did still manage to go a full seven, and earned a no decision. He gave up 3 HRs, in a ballpark where you can almost bunt a homerun. He did manage to keep the walks down (1) and only gave up six hits. Dirty takes the win with two scoreless innings, and Billy gets a save, striking out all three batters.

Too many left on base again, 14, but they managed to win it, so I’ll take it. This will probably the only time we win a game thanks to Robinson Cancel, so I hope he enjoys his time in the sun. Its mind boggling, and only proves really weird things happen in Ohio.

Back when SNY was created, it was great news for those of us in the further corners of the state. Places like the Western and Northern corners of NY finally had a place guaranteed to carry Met games. After all, they weren’t traditional Met strong holds.  Allegiances this far from NYC could be odd. Often, the bandwagon won, Yankees. Havens to minor league ball, there were strong bases to the Twins and Indians. There are also those to the somewhat geographically closer teams, such as the Blue Jays in Western NY (with Toronto a mere few hours away) or the Red Sox up in the Northern Tier. SNY finally gave those of us who bucked the bandwagon, the closer choice, or the local hometown sponsor a chance to watch the blue and orange.

Except of course, on Sundays.

For reasons Time Warner has never been able to explain, CW games tend to fall into the mist. Often, the local affiliates choose to broadcast the Yankee game. While its annoying, at least one can see the ratings standpoint here. With a greater number of Yankee fans, it means more viewers. And when its a Yankee/Blue Jays game, well even more so. This close to the border, yet still in NY. Its sure to draw more viewers than a Mets game. But then there’s the rest of the time. Today for instance. The first half the game was replaced with local programming. Repeats of a Canadian sci fi drama I’d never heard of. With no explanation in the seventh, the game came on.

If this was a first offense, it’d be one thing. But its repeated. Sometimes its the third inning, other times just the bottom of the first. Sometimes its on the hour. Game time 1:20? Game will come on at 2. Just as soon as that episode of The Game finishes. I’ve even tried contacting the cable company, which apparently, doesn’t care. Which is a shocker, since cable companies always seem to have the customers best interest and all.

Maybe one day I’ll get to enjoy a full Sunday CW game. See Gary and Keith in their snazzy CW polos. Maybe one day the Commissioner’s office will uncover the dark truth, that Time Warner and their Brave’s leanings purposely cut us off from Met games. Till then, I guess I’ll just watch in a bar. Its a sacrifice, but its one I must make.

All good things must come to an end, otherwise Mookie Wilson would be leading us to yet another 100+ win season as we speak. And as such, the Mets were unable to make it to 11 as the Reds had a four run 5th inning to avenge Marge Schottt or something.

The woes of John Maine continue, as he issued five walks, five hits, five runs in just shy of five innings. Five. His walk of Ken Griffey Jr. allowed the first of the four runs to score and by the time the dust settled he had hit Edwin Encarnation with a pitch to let the fourth across the plate. His inefficiency continued as well, as he took 102 pitches to make it not quite through five.

On a more bright side, the bullpen limited to the Reds to just one hit in 3 and a third inning, though they managed to add 4 more walks.

Bronson Arroyo continued his dominance of all things Mets, limiting the Mets to four hits over eight innings, during which time he used less pitches than Maine. Carlos Beltran was the sole offensive star Metwise, with two hits including a RBI double and a nonRBI triple. The triple was his fourth of the season.  Jose Reyes continued to feel the curse of the spider tattoo, going 0-4.

As I said pregame, this would all come down to John Maine. His struggles, especially in the fifth, doomed this game. Too many bad pitches, too many walks. This wasn’t a Reds slugfest filled with extra base hits and the longball. It was two runs that crossed the plate on free bases. Hopefully now they can just put this behind them and go win another ten in a row.

The Mets face off against the Red Menace once again tonight, in hopes to take this streak to 11. Just like my speakers. John Maine will face Bronson Arroyo, for a full list of lineups, hit up John Delcos’ Blog over at the Journal News .

Your Hot Foot keys to the game:

John Maine remembers he’s The Man: After a strong kick off this season, Maine seemed to run out of gas by the All Star break. Barely making it through five lately, he hasn’t had a victory in awhile. The Reds might not be the best team for this job, since in his two starts against them he has a 10 ERA. His ERA for the month so far is 5.33, over a point more than his ERA for the season.

Keep the offense train rolling: they’ve been fighting back, regaining leads, coming from behind, sweeping the leg. They’ve refound the long ball and put together some nice little rallys. Just like it says they can on paper. Remember Mets, you’re facing Bronson Arroyo tonight, and his 5.97 ERA. As long as you don’t let him perform any of his musical talents, you should be good.

Game time is 7:10, and as always can be found on SNY and WFAN. Feel free to join us here in the Hot Foot Bleachers, where we’ll be discussing the game, Mets baseball, and the Mets longest winning streak since 1991.

We’ve heard by now all the basics, the players are having fun. The fans are excited. There’s a spark in the air once more. But we’re not going to talk about any of that right now.

I found myself, like most Sunday afternoons, in the liquor store. Whether there be a long winning streak to celebrate, or a losing one to mourn, one must be prepared. As I walked down the aisle, I passed the area they keep the somewhat novelty wine, not paying much attention. But something caught my eye. Sometime in the last few weeks they added something to the mix. The Met wines.

For those who like me, had forgotten all about them, months ago they announced there would be three Met wines for charity, part of a project that includes players from both the Yankees and the Sox. As the team’s loses piled up, the product never quite appeared up here in the western tundra’s of the state. But with the sudden 180 of the offense and defense, there they were: CaberReyes. Schardonay. Santana Wine.

I have not bought a bottle yet. I was hoping to consult Hot Foot Alcohol Expert IMFM on which is the best. Hopefully its just a start of a bright future in which I can purchase many mlb authorized licensed food product.

The eight participants of this year’s Homerun Derby have been finalized. On the AL side, the participants will be Twins Morneau , Indian’s Sizemore , Ray’s Longaria , and Rangers Hamilton .

Across the way, will be the Phil’s Utley , Marlin’s Uggla , Brewer’s Braun , and Astro Berkman .

Utley is currently leading the majors with 25 HRs, Uggla has 23 and Berkman 22.  So its looking good if you’re rooting for a NL guy to win.

The Derby will be Monday night at 8, for those who dig the long ball.

Robinson Cancel has once again rejoined the Mets, he’ll replace Chris Aguila on the roster. Aguila has been DFA’d. A career .280 hitter, Aguila has two hits in twelve at bats so far this season.

One would assume that the team wishes to use Castro as a pinch hitter more, with Schneider behind the plate. Especially since Castro has done well as of late, with three multihit games so far in July. Castro is hitting .333 for the month, .348 in day games, and .379 against lefties.