About Last Night: The bullpen was not productive late

In last night's 6-5 loss to the Marlins, the Mets bullpen combined to allow three runs, two earned in three innings of relief of Johan Santana.

'It's just one of those nights where we just didn't pitch late in the game, which we've been doing very well lately, 'Terry Collins said after the game. '[The Marlins] have a good team. It was just one of those games.'

Frank Francisco entered with a one-run lead in the ninth inning, but allowed two earned runs in only 2/3 of inning to blow his second save of the season and fall to 1-2 with a 6.59 ERA in 15 appearances.

'That's baseball,' Francisco told reporters after the game. 'That's going to happen. Hopefully it's the last time. I can't put that in my mind because I know how baseball goes. I don't feel bad. I feel bad because we lost. But, personally, I know I was fighting out there. I leave everything I have out there for my team. We lost. But I don't feel bad.'

Francisco has allowed 25 base-runners with 15 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings so far this season.

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Michael Baron: Simply put, it has not been a good year for Francisco so far. His stuff has been inconsistent as has his approach, and in the end, he has had trouble executing and closing out games. Last night, the Marlins hit some ropes against him and, considering Terry Collins has pulled Francisco in such situations before, I was hoping for the same once it was apparent he did not have it in the ninth inning. But, he is the closer and despite the mess he pitched himself into, it's his job to seal the deal and he just didn't do it last night. The scary part is this ineffectiveness has been a recurring theme, especially lately.

One thing I like about Francisco is he's a standup guy, and has been honest about his season to this point. Last night was a tough loss to digest considering they appeared to be headed to their 12th come-from-behind win, and Francisco's comments and reflection about last night can be taken a number of ways. However, he's simply putting the poor performance behind him and trying to turn the page, which is what everyone in that clubhouse needs to do in order to not come out flat and uninspired today.