The Mets had more hits in the first inning on Friday night than they did in the entire nine innings of the 13-1 loss to the Pirates on Wednesday beating the Diamond back 7-2.  It looked like the Mets might be in some trouble heading out west to take on the Arizona Diamond Backs.  There is no reprieve for the Mets in this series as they are scheduled to face the best pitching trio in baseball in Micha Owings, Brandon Webb and Dan Harren.   

Maybe it was because the roof was open, perhaps it was the fact that Ryan Church was hitting second, or could it be that just having Moises Alou back on the team made everyone feel better.  What ever it was, the Mets handed Micha Owings his first loss of the season, collecting 7 runs on 12 hits.   

The Mets took an early lead in the first inning when Jose Reyes smacked a triple off the wall and scored on a Ryan Church sacrifice fly.  David Wright singled up the middle, Carlos Beltran walked, Moises Alou and Carlos Delgado hit back to back singles before Raul Casanova and Luis Castillo were retired to end the innings.  The Mets are now 6-0 when Ryan Church hits in the two spot.  Obviously just having Church hit second will not win the game for the Mets but, this is a place where Church seems comfortable, and it worked again Friday.  Church was 2-5 with a double, homerun and three RBI and Jose Reyes was 4-5 with a single, double, and two triples, a stolen base, and three runs scored.  Reyes was just a homerun short of the cycle, and in the eighth, it looked as if he might have that home run.  He hit a rope to center field that went over the head of Chris Young, Reyes rounded second and looked like he had no intention of ever stopping at third, however, he was thrown out at the plate and given credit for a triple.  If Reyes had been safe, it would have been the first time a cycle was completed with an inside the park homerun since 1940.   

John Maine struggled with his control early again tonight.  He would finish the night pitching six innings, giving up six hits, two run, and six strikeouts.  And while he only had two walks, Maine again failed to go deep in the game because of an inflated pitch total that is a direct result of not finding the strike zone, and hitters working the count against him.  Maine has been a disappointment considering that all we heard how dominant he had been in spring training.  Mets fans were expecting great things.  I am guessing that part of Maine’s great spring was the fact that he wasn’t actually pitching to major league ready hitters.  The guys in the bigs have started to figure Maine out, he is getting fewer swings and misses on his signature high fastball.  Major League pitchers are making adjustments, it is time for Maine to do the same.  

I think it is pretty evident that the Mets pitching staff misses catcher Brian Schneider behind the plate. I am not knocking Casanova, but he is not Schneider.  When the Mets signed Brian Schneider, they knew they weren’t going to get a lot of offensive production out of him but the buzz on him is that he is a very good defensive catcher and he did a terrific job with the Nationals and Expos young pitching staffs.  Mike Pelfrey pitched really well on his last start before Schneider was injured and really credited Schneider with that performance, saying it was Schneider who encouraged him to be more aggressive.   

There are some rumblings in the rumor sections of the New York sports pages that Mets pitching coach Rick Pederson’s job could be in trouble, and rightfully so.  He failed to “fix” Victor Zambrano, he has done little to facilitate the maturity of Mike Pelfrey and the rest of the Mets’ pitching staff has struggled, namingly, Oliver Perez and Aaron Heilman.  In past years when the Mets weren’t hitting they had no problem firing the hitting coach-like last year when they fired hitting coach Rick Down.  Personally, I think Pederson is a snake oils salesman, you can see the guys flinch when he come out to the mound and does his signature hand on the shoulder move. 

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