Beltran 'Embarrassed' After Mets Loss

Thursday afternoon, the Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, completing a three-game sweep at the hands of a team who has already waved the white flag on 2009 by trading Nate McLouth, their best offensive player. Carlos Beltran -- who is hitting .356 with seven home runs, 32 RBI, 32 runs and seven stolen bases in addition to playing superb defense -- is apparently tired of not getting much help from his New York teammates.

The 32-year-old center fielder, often maligned by some in the media for not taking enough of a leadership role with the team (I'm looking right at you, Steve Phillips), was a tad bit angry after Thursday's 11-6 defeat. In fact, the soft-spoken Beltran got pretty vocal about his team.

"We have to find a way to play better, there's no doubt. Overall. I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. Offense, defense, pitching -- we have to find a way to play better. The reality of this is, coming here to Pittsburgh and being swept -- personally, I feel embarrassed.

"I don't think it's fun. We have to find a way to play better and to focus better and focus more on what we need to accomplish."

"We have to play better," he said. "There's no doubt we have to play better. We have to take this personal, because this can't happen. It can't happen for us to come here and lose three games just like that. It can't happen."

"I know they're a big-league ballclub, but we're better than them," he said. "We're better than them. We know we're better than them, but we have to do something about it."

"McLouth wasn't there and they still come out and score how many runs? Eleven? Eleven runs," he said. "So we have to play better."

It might sound harsh, but this is exactly the kind of thing leaders do. Some people would want players to internalize discussions, but Beltran most certainly held back -- even to the point of being a little political by hedging himself in a few different places. Hopefully, for the sake of the Mets, Beltran continues to be a vocal leader. It's obvious they need someone to step up.

Maybe they need to fire the manager again? It seemed to do wonders for them last year. I mean, that's obviously why they started winning games again, right?