The 2011 New York Mets season was the franchise's 50th season and its third at Citi Field. Following a poor 2010 season, the Mets sought their first postseason appearance since 2006. However, they failed to make the playoffs for the 5th straight season. Offseason On October 4, 2010, one day after the conclusion of the 2010 season, the Mets fired Manager Jerry Manuel, along with general manager Omar Minaya. On October 29, the team hired former Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres and MLB executive Sandy Alderson to replace Minaya as general manager. On November 23, Terry Collins was hired as manager. As of December 3, 2010, the Mets non-tendered contracts to John Maine, Sean Green, Chris Carter which made them free-agents. In December 2010, Mets owner Fred Wilpon was named in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme and on January 28, 2011 Wilpon issued a statement in which he intends to seek "one or more strategic partners" to buy a 20 to 25% interest in the Mets to offset pending losses due to litigation. As a result, the Mets were unable to sign any high priced free agents as they did during the Omar Minaya era. In March 2011, the Mets released Luis Castillo and Óliver Pérez from the team. The two players became the target of the fans' wrath in the previous two seasons due to their poor performance on the field. Regular season The team began the season with high-priced stars Johan Santana and Jason Bay on the disabled list. Santana never played for the Mets in 2011, while Bay returned on April 21. After seeing limited action in spring training following a 2010 knee injury, Carlos Beltrán started on opening day and played the full game. The initial five-man rotation consisted of, in order, Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese, R. A. Dickey, Chris Young and Chris Capuano. The Mets started 2011 with a 3-1 record but, after losing consecutive doubleheaders on April 14 and 16, their record was 4-11, tying for third-worst in Mets history. Only the 1962 and 1964 New York Mets seasons were worse after 15 games. The seven-game losing streak was the longest since 2004 and the consecutive doubleheader losses were the first since 1982. However, the Mets went 7–5 to close out the month of April, with the return of Jason Bay and offensive power. The Mets