Last night’s game was an 11-0 shellacking. Where have we seen that before? Oh yeah, against Washington (10-5), Pittsburgh (13-1), Atlanta (11-4), San Francisco (10-2) and so on. These types of games happen, but if you want to be a playoff contender, you can’t get blown out that many times.

The Mets had won three series in a row―not with any big winning streak but just by methodically winning two out of three. And now they’ve already lost the series to Seattle. They just don’t play well with any kind of consistency. Whenever they seem like they’re about to get on a roll they turn around and have games like the last two. Their longest winning streak of the season is only five, and that was back in April.

All aspects of the team have been up and down all year. The bullpen was great for a couple of months then turned into a disaster, and lately it’s been doing its job again (not counting last night’s performance by Claudio Vargas, who was sent back down to the minors after the game). Billy Wagner epitomizes the roller coaster ride of the pen. He had only let in one run all season, then completely fell apart, and now is back to racking up saves. As for the rotation, nobody is having a great year. Johan Santana and John Maine have been good but certainly could be better. Mike Pelfrey’s been terrible and then great. Oliver Perez is a disaster. And Pedro Martinez has been injured and inconsistent.

The Mets offense is just plain offensive. They don’t hit with runners in scoring position (11^th in the NL with a .250 average). Their situational hitting isn’t good. And they don’t hit in the clutch (in the seventh inning and on, they are 12^th in the NL with a .235 average). David Wright and Carlos Beltran are both on pace to drive in 100 runs but you couldn’t really say they’re having great years. Jose Reyes isn’t having a bad year but could be better. And at this point they’re stuck with Carlos Delgado.

Jerry Manuel said after last night’s game he may start making changes to the lineup and the rotation. Of course, that’s a good thing. But what exactly can he do? If he benches Delgado, who plays first? Damion Easley? Marlon Anderson? Who replaces Perez in the rotation? Tony Armas Jr.? Not a lot of great choices there, but the team really can’t keep going with the same old, same old. They changed the manager, and Manuel seems more dynamic and has more ideas than Willie Randolph, but unfortunately, they have the same old players.

The Mets have had a lot of injuries to key players―Ryan Church, Moises Alou, Martinez, El Duque―which plays a big role in the inconsistency of the team. But the bottom line is, the players who are in the lineup are not producing. When they play well in brief spurts, they can’t ever sustain it. The Mets are two games under .500, can’t beat up on the bad teams and don’t have a consistent focus. Until they hit, pitch and field at a consistently high level, they’re just going to hover around .500. Right now they’re the definition of a .500 team―great one game, terrible the next.