The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves 3-1 on Sunday afternoon. It was the second straight defeat at the hands of their division foes as the Mets fell below .500 for the first time this season.

It was over when: Mark Teixeria killed the Mets twice, first with this homer in the bottom of the eighth and then with his glove in the top of the ninth. I have a feeling that I'm gonna start to hate this guy very quickly.

Good: This Johan Santana kid is pretty good. Santana gave up one run over seven strong innings but was the hard-luck loser as the offense and Aaron Heilman gave him absolutely zero support. For the second consecutive game, though, the Mets refused to go down without a fight. They brought home a run (finally) in the top of the ninth and had the tying run on first when Brian Schneider hit a bullet down the first base side. Unfortunately, Mark Teixeira made a fantastic play, stopping the ball and making the flip to Soriano to end the game.

Bad: I already mentioned them both. The offense was dead for eight innings and by the time they showed up, Heilman had already given a two-run homer to Teixeira the inning before. You have your ace on the hill and you don't manage to give him a single freakin' run? Maybe the Mets wanted to give Santana a reminder of his days in Minnesota. Right now, Santana is the best 1-1 pitcher in baseball.

Ugly: Reyes: 0-4. Castillo: 0-4. Wright: 0-2, 2 SO, 2 BB at least. Beltran: 0-3, 1 BB, 2 SO including a pathetic at-bat in the top of the ninth in which he didn't take the bat off his shoulder once. Hey Carlos; I'll stop riding you when you start to earn your ridiculous paycheck. Oh yeah, Delgado went 2-4 today but he also left three men on base. I'll just sum all of this up. The Mets sucked at the plate for 8+ innings today. Yeah, they were facing John Smoltz today but Blaine Boyer, Will Ohman and Peter Moylan all held the Mets scoreless today. Are you kidding me?

Overall: Thankfully, I missed over half of this game. Once again, the Braves were the better team and they deserved to win. The bats better show up against the Phils this week. Performances like this at Shea will not sit well with the home fans, boys. Then again, playing like this in Atlanta angers me just as much. If we're going to be excited when the Mets beat up on the AAA-quality Florida Marlins, we have to be annoyed when they play like a Little League team against the Braves.

Grade: D. Which is sad because Johan Santana deserved better.