Luis Castillo stumbles on to the Citi Field Curse

Up to now, the Mets could not say they were the victims of bad luck. Every team has injuries, and while the Mets have had more than their share, they must take the blame for lack of depth in the organization. There are also continuing questions in how the team deals with injuries.

But when Luis Castillo gets hurt simply going down the dugout steps and must be carried to the clubhouse, it's time to wonder if more malevolent forces are at work. Is there a Yankee fan or a Phillie fan somewhere with a box of voodoo dolls?

If Castillo ends up on the disabled list, it will mean that just about every Met position player will have spent time there. Even backups Alex Cora, Angel Pagan, Fernando Martinez and Ramon Martinez have been on the DL, or in the case of the latter two, are still there.

David Wright and Daniel Murphy have been spared, but perhaps our sinister Phillie fan took a more subtle approach with them.

Wright was not injured, just sapped of his power. Murphy was fine, except when he was in the outfield, when he would lose the ability to stay on his feet.

Come to think of it, a perfectly-timed voodoo spell could also explain why Castillo dropped that popup.

Only Omir Santos has been immune to the spells among the position players. Santos has neither been injured nor humiliated. Instead, he was responsible for the high point of the season - the ninth-inning homer off of Jonathan Papelbon.

Santos came out of nowhere to take a share of the catcher's job. But the vibe around Santos is so positive that, even when Santos' success got Ramon Castro banished to Chicago, Castro ended up catching Mark Buehrle's perfect game. And Castro is also in a pennant race.

Or maybe Santos is living some sort of "Twilight Zone reality" in which he has all the luck and nobody around him has any.

Then again, Santos can't be that lucky - he is on a team that is nine games out of the wild card.

Photo by therozblog