The New York Mets coming off a terrible weekend opened a three game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday.  The Mets had John Maine on the mound and Moises Alou back in the lineup.  Early in the day, the Mets held a players only meeting behind closed doors where they discussed their goals for the rest of the season.  They all carried a sheet of paper that is their “blue print” for success.  Written on the paper were some motivational messages like, “team before self”, “We B4 I”, “We have time”.  The Mets plan was to go 62-38, finish with 92 wins and make the playoffs.  However, things didn’t exactly work out for the Mets and their little plan as they dropped the series opener 9-5 and put themselves in the midst of their second five game losing streak of the season.

The Diamondbacks scored first but the Mets came back in the bottom of the inning and scored three runs to take a 3-1 lead.  In the bottom of the second with a runner on base, David Wright hit his 12^th homerun of the season, giving the Mets a 5-1 lead.  That lead would not stay for long as Orland Hundson hit a two run homer in the top of the fifth to cut the Mets lead 5-3. 

John Maine left the game after five innings, giving up five hits, three earned runs, three walks and seven strikeouts; he left the game after five innings because he had thrown 101 pitches.  It has been the same old story for Maine, he leads the majors in the amount of pitches thrown, and he is 30^th in the league in the amount of innings pitched.  John ends up throwing too many pitches early and as a result does not go deep into games.  He doesn’t always make adjustments, or isn’t able to close out innings.  And Tuesday night was no different.

Claudio Vargas was on the mound in relief with a 5-3 lead in the top of the sixth, he walked the lead off man then retired Chris Snyder on a liner to left.  With one and and one on, Justin Upton was hit by a pitch, and a grounder by Jeff Salazar allowed the runners to advance a base; both would score on Augie Ojeda singler that just made it past the glove of a diving Carlos Delgado and rolled into right field.  Ojeda would take second on Endy Chavez’s throw to home, but was stranded there when Vargas retired Chris Young to end the inning.

There was some excitement when in the top of the seventh inning, the weather worsened and the Umps suspended play, Billy Wagner and Scott Schoeneweis came out of the bullpen to help the grounds crew secure the tarp on the field.  All I could think, as nice as it was that they helped out, I figured one of them would end up breaking a finger or spraining their ankle.  Luckily though, the tarp went down without injury and the Mets were on a rain delay for about an hour.  After the rain delay, Joe Smith gave up a homerun to Chris Snyder in the top of the eighth to give the Diamondbacks a 6-5 lead.  The Diamondbacks would hit two homers off Duaner Sanchez in the top of the ninth to make it 9-5.  It should be noted that when Rick Pederson visited the mound in the ninth and when Willie Randolph came to the mound to remove Sanchez from the game, they were both booed. 

As I mentioned before, Alou finally returned to the Mets line up after missing 18 games with a strained right calf.  The Mets are playing their 63^rd game of the season and Moises Alou has played in 15 of them. Judging by this, he should be hurt again by Saturday.  Seriously though, Alou hit the first pitch he saw and drove in two runs.  For the night Alou was 1-2 with 2 RBI.  After the rain delay, he was replaced by Damion Easley because of stiffness in his calf.  Marlon Anderson also came off the DL and pinch hit in the bottom of the seventh.      

 The Mets placed Ryan Church on the DL retroactive to last Friday.  It is thought that he should be able to join the team when they return to Colorado at the end of June.  This whole thing has been a mess and handled so poorly.  Church will not be allowed to resume any baseball activity until he is 100% symptom free, and according to Mets brass, they will make their decision solely on medical advice of Church’s neurologist.  Great, only took them three weeks to figure out what to do.  Consider this, Moises Alou had talked his way off the DL and into the starting line up last weekend during the Padres series, but the Mets waited until Tuesday to allow him to play because they wanted to be “cautious.”   I don’t know if that is an example that the Mets realize that Alou is made of glass or if they really just didn’t pay attention to what was happening with Church but you really have to do a better job than that.  If they had paid closer attention to Church’s condition, maybe he would not be going through this right now.       

Also, I know that it is still technically early, and that headed into play Tuesday night there were 100 games left in the season, but dating back to exactly on year ago the Mets are now 82-82.  There is no reason to believe that the Mets are going to pick it up any time soon and turn this around.  I love the fact that the manager Willie Randolph says that there are still 100 games left to play.  I am sick of hearing that there is a lot of baseball left to play.  What will the excuse be when there are only 81 games left in the season?  Is that still a lot of baseball left to play?  Or, how about last year with 17 games to play, was that a lot less baseball left to play?  Yes, so your point is that the Mets can turn this around.  Funny though, we were saying to ourselves in September there are only 17 games to go, the Mets can’t possibly blow this.  The Mets are not playing well now, they haven’t played well in a whole year, and the fact that it just keeps getting worse, isn’t lost on anyone.  People can clamor all they want about it isn’t Willies fault, or that there is still 100 games to go, but time is running out and the longer the Mets let this go, the harder it will be to over come.  If I was Willie I would be really annoyed by the fact that once the Mets had the lead then went on cruise control.  I don’t know if they have this false sense of security or maybe it is a sense of entitlement, whatever it is, they need to stay in the game, and play the whole game.   

The Mets continue the series with the Diamondbacks on Wednesday night, Mike Pelfrey will pitch for the Mets and the Diamondbacks will have Brandon Webb on the mound.  First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets lost their fourth straight game to the San Diego Padres 8-6 on Sunday afternoon.  The bats came alive early, in the first inning the Mets scored more runs than they had the first three games of the series. Howeve they were unable to capitalize on their offensive production.  With one swing of the bat, Tony Clark drove in the winning runs and the Padres completed a four game sweep, sending the Mets home to Shea 7 ½ games behind the first place Phillies. 

Pedro Martinez did not pitch well.  When he took the mound in the bottom of the first, he had a 3-0 lead.  The Padres scored their first run of the game off a balk by Martinez, for Pedro that was only the sixth balk of his career, the first one in ten years.  Pedro allowed three runs in the first inning, that marked the sixth straight start (dating back to last season) where Pedro had given up at least one run in the first.  Pedro went five innings, giving up four earned runs on ten hits with four strike outs. 

Endy Chavez had a great defensive play in the bottom of the first when he threw out Edgar Martinez at third to record the second out of the inning.  Endy Chavez had kind of gotten lost in the shuffle early on because  Marlon Anderson was getting so much playing time and plate appearances, but with both Ryan Church and Anderson unable to play, Chavez has come in and consistently played great defense and has had some good offensive production as well.  In the top of the seventh, Chavez laid down a perfect drag bunt that scored Delgado from third to add what was thought to be an insurance run, to give the Mets at 6-4 lead.    

Raul Casanova was the surprise starter behind the plate today, as Ramon Castro was a late scratch from the line up, not because of injury but because he overslept and did not show up until one hour before game time.  Great job by Castro, especially considering that he knew that he would be starting today with it being a day game after a night game and a lefty on the mound for the Padres.

Maybe I should write uncomplimentary things about Carlos Delgado every day (like I did in yesterday’s blog), after going 3-4 yesterday, Delgado was 3-5, hit two RBI came off a triple in the first inning.  Although the guys did have a better day offensively, the Mets as a team left nine guys on base.  Maybe a couple of other big hits might have saved this one for them today since their pitching let them down. 

For Billy Wagner, it was his third blown save of the season.  Wagner replaced Duaner Sanchez with two on and two out in the bottom of the eighth, he allowed a single to Jody Gerut which scored a run (that run was charged to Sanchez).  With the count full, pinch hitter Tony Clark took a fast ball deep to hit his first homer of the season and to give the Padres an 8-6 lead.  8-6 would be the final score as Trevor Hoffman came in to the game in the top of the ninth and the Mets were retired in order to end the game. 

The Mets did a terrible job; this weekend was a big weekend for them (and not in a good way).  They were coming off a stretch where they had just won three series in a row, and were playing the last place Padres, they should have taken three of four or at the very least split the series.  Not only were they playing the worst team in the National League, but their division rivals, the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies were playing each other, meaning the Mets could have gained some ground in the division.  The Braves were swept by the Phillies, and had the Mets played well against the Padres, they would be going home in the thick of the race.  Instead they now go home closer to last place than first.

 If this four game stretch wasn’t bad enough, the Mets return home to face the first place Arizona Diamondbacks who are scheduled to have Micha Owings, Brandon Webb and Dan Harren on the mound in this series.  The Mets will counter with John Maine, Mike Pelfrey, and Johan Santana.  The Mets are in trouble, they have put themselves in a position where every time they take the field now they need to win.  Yes, it is only the second week in June, but the Phillies 7 ½ game lead could become insurmountable quickly as the Phillies are hot right now and the Mets are not. 

Mets Blog

Talk about an ending that you usually don’t see in a baseball game.  Mets relief pitcher Scott Schoeneweis hit Paul McAnulty with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Mets lost to the Padres 2-1.  Very dissapointing outcome to a low scoring game.

Schoeneweis took the loss as he walked the bases loaded in the ninth inning before hitting McAnulty.  About the worst thing happened for Schoeneweis, you never want to walk the bases loaded.

Mike Pelfrey got the start for the Mets and pitched six innings.  He gave up eight hits and one run in a pretty good outing.  Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith, and Duaner Sanchez all seen action in the game as well out of the bullpen.

The one Mets run came in the sixth inning when David Wright singled in Jose Reyes.  The Mets really struggled at the plate as they only had five hits the entire game.  They really need to start swinging the bat better and putting the ball in play.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants 5-3 on Wednesday afternoon and with the victory they won the three game series by taking two out of three games.  The Mets now have won two straight games and are two games over .500 at 30-28 on the season.

John Maine threw six innings while giving up seven hits and two runs to get the victory.  Maine stepped up big for the Mets and recorded his sixth win of the season.  Duaner Sanchez pitched seventh and eighth innings and allowed one run and then turned things over to Billy Wagner in the ninth who shut the Giants down and recorded his 13th save of the season.

At the plate for the Mets, they got three runs in the first inning and than two more in the fourth inning for all of their scoring.  In the first inning, Carlos Beltran doubled to score Jose Reyes and David Wright.  Beltran then came around to score on a rbi single by Carlos Delgado.  In the fourth inning, it was a two run home run by Reyes that scored both runs.

Reyes and Beltran both finished the game with two rbi while Delgado had one rbi.

The Mets will start a four game series with the San Diego Padres on Thursday.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets in unlikely fashion beat the Florida Marlins 7-6 in a 12 inning game in which the Mets came from behind not once, but twice to win.  For a second game, Personal Relations Director Jay Horowitz donned a hideous orange jacket.  Horowitz first wore the jacket on Tuesday night, and it seems will have to wear it until the Mets lose, let’s hope he is wearing that jacket for a long time!  The jacket is a leftover from Jeromey Burnitz era and has often been worn by Pedro Martinez as a club house joke.  Well, the luck it has brought the Mets the last two nights isn’t a joke, for the second night in a row the Mets not only notched a win, but they actually looked better as a team.   

The Mets jumped out to an early lead against Marlin’s starter Scott Olson on Luis Castillo’s two run homer in the bottom of the first inning.  The Mets would tack on another run in the bottom of the fourth on a sac fly by Fernando Tatis.  In the bottom of the fifth Jose Reyes would extend the Mets lead with his seventh homerun of the season.  Reyes extended his hitting streak to 13 games, and has safely reached base in 28 consecutive games.   

The Mets had a 4-2 lead in the sixth inning when Oliver Perez seemed to just lose his concentration.  Although Perez had allowed two homeruns earlier in the evening he had been pitching well, but in the sixth inning with one out, Perez walked Wes Helms; Dan Uggla hit a ball that David Wright was unable to make a play on.  So, with two on and one out Cody Ross came to the plate with one homerun under his belt and on a 2-1 count Ross hit his second home run of the game, a line drive to left field, the Marlins would take the lead 5-4. 

At that point, we knew that the Mets were 1-19 when they trailed in the 6^th inning, however, unlike those other games, the Mets didn’t give up.  They got excellent pitching the rest of the way, and in the bottom of the ninth inning, Endy Chavez came to the plate pinch hitting for Ramon Castro and tied the game with homerun to right field sending the game into extra innings. 

The Mets got great pitching the rest of the way, Scott Schoeneweis put up 0’s.  Aaron Heilman who is suddenly the Renaissance man, was dominant in his two innings of work he didn’t give up a hit and had four strikeouts. After pitching the ninth inning on Tuesday night, Billy Wagner pitched in the 10^th  and recoreded two strikeouts.  Duaner Sanchez pitched the eleventh, and actually had an at bat in the bottom of the inning recording a sac bunt.  After leaving a runner is scoring position in the bottom of the 11^th the Mets looked as if they might be in trouble in the top of the 12th when Alfredo Amezaga took Sanchez deep, giving the Marlins the lead 6-5.  But, the Mets would not be deterred this time, with the heart of the order due up to lead off the bottom of the 12^th, David Wright walked to start  the inning and Carlos Beltran hit a single to left that advanced Wright to third.  Damion Easley came up and struck out swinging, up next was Fernando Tatis who was playing for the injured Ryan Church, and he came through for the Mets hitting a rocket down the left field line that allowed both Wright and Beltran to score and the Met to win the game. 

It was great to watch the guys celebrate the victory, the guys rushed out of the dugout to greet Wright, Beltran and Tatis, jumping and pounding on each other, it was great to see them celebrate.  The Mets have had a long arduous season thus far and you really got the feeling that as much as they were elated with the victory, getting a come from behind win like that in extra innings, at least for one night, got the monkey off their backs.  It was a great game and the Mets played well.  

The Mets got good news regarding Pedro Martinez and his first rehab start.  Pitching in Port St. Lucie, Pedro threw 82 pitches, 63 of which were strikes, he gave up 4 hits and two earned runs-everything came in the fourth inning in the 2-1 loss to Vero Beach.  Pedro is scheduled to pitch for the Mets Tuesday against the San Francisco Giants.

Mets got not so great news about Ryan Church. Church visited a neurologist after suffering ill affects from a concussion he sustained in a game against the Braves.  Church has been told that he must rest and he has to avoid light.  Church has also been instructed that he has to be symptom free for 48 hours before he can resume baseball activity. 

The Mets open up a series against the Los Angels, Brad Penny will pitch for the Dodger and the Mets will counter with Claudio Vargas.  First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.   

Mets Blog

The New York Mets ended their five game losing streak with a 9-2 win over the Colorado Rockies on Saturday afternoon.  They finally found some offense and quickly went to work on Rockies’ starter Jeff Francis, jumping out to a five run lead in the first inning.  When all was said and done the Mets would score 9 runs off 12 hits. The Mets found the spark that has been missing during their losing streak; maybe it was the fact that they jumped out to a 5-0 lead.  However, I think the excitement of seeing rookie Nick Evans make his major league debut going 3-4 with three doubles and two RBI helped a little bit too.  Evans was called up from AA Binghamton where he has played in 43 games, hitting .296 with 31 RBI.  Evan’s offensive production marked only the second time in the last 58 years that a Mets rookie went 3-3 in this major league debut; the last Met to do that was Kaz Matsui.   

The New York Mets outhit the Washington Nationals by two hits but they were no where close to that on the scoreboard as they lost 10-4 on Monday night.  Mets pitchers allowed the Nationals to score in all but three innings in the game.

Nelson Figueroa started the game and threw five innings while giving up five hits and six runs.  Figueroa took the loss as his record dropped to 2-3 on the season.  Jorge Sosa came in to pitcher after Figueroa and he gave up another four runs in the game in only one inning of action.  Duaner Sanchez, Joe Smith, and Billy Wagner all threw one inning each and did not allow one run.  Good job by those there pitchers.

Damion Easley and David Wright both hit solo home runs in the game.  Easley also had a rbi single to finish the game with two rbi.  Carlos Beltran also had a rbi single in the first inning for the Mets.

The Mets are now three full games out of first place behind the Florida Marlins.  Can the Mets rebound and win the next four games against the Nationals?  I see them winning two, but losing one more.

Mets Blog

After handing Micha Owings his first loss of the season, the Mets faced a 6-0 Brandon Webb on Saturday afternoon.  Knowing how good Webb is, as Mets fans we couldn’t expect that there would be much offense, and there wasn’t, at least, not for the Mets.  The Diamondbacks crushed the Mets 10-4; Brandon Webb earned his seventh win of the season. 

The Mets pitching was so bad on Saturday, that I can hardly find the words to describe it, which is a problem given that that is exactly what I am supposed to be doing.  The score is not really an indication of how bad the Mets pitching was.  The Diamondbacks scored 10 runs on 15 hits.  However, as a team, they left 11 guys on base.  Imagine what would have happened if the Diamondbacks got a few other key hits. 

Again, it wasn’t just one pitcher, as a staff walks were a problem.  Or I should say, throwing strikes was the problem.  Mike Pelfrey pitched only 5 innings.  He was awful, but luckily for him, the Diamondback’s helped him out of trouble a time or two.  Pelfrey would leave the game after the fifth inning because he had thrown his maximum number of pitches and was clearly laboring.  His final line: 5 innings, 9 hits, 5 Runs (all earned), one strike out, and 4 walks.   It wasn’t just Pelfrey who stunk, Heilman-awful, Schoeneweis, Sanchez-awful!  The Mets as a staff gave up a total of six walks; four of them belonged to Pelfrey.  Guys didn’t get ahead of hitters, Aaron Heilman hit two batters-although, I do have to give him some credit, with bases loaded in the seventh, he did get a big strike out to end the inning.  Duaner Sanchez gave up five earned runs on 4 hits.  The fact that the Mets can’t get a starter to go more than five or six innings has totally exposed the Mets bull pen, and if this keeps up, how can they expect that the relief pitchers can hold up in August?  

After the Mets disaster on Wednesday (and I’m not talking about the water main break at Shea Stadium) manager Willie Randolph said to the press here in New York, that in 162 games, a team is bound to have a stinker-I’m wondering now if for some reason I misread what he said, like did he go on to say that teams are bound to have some stinkers every other game?  Is it too early to be concerned?  The Mets have failed to play well and we are whole month into the season.  Is it too early to be worried that they haven’t and won’t get passed what happened last year in September?  I think for a lot of folks, the frustration about how the Mets are playing isn’t so much that the Mets are having a hard time to start the season; but it is about the Mets having not played well since last year in August.  

There are two good things to mention.  The first, Carlos Delgado hit another homerun, and has raised his average about 30 or so points in the past week, I hesitate to say it is a good sign, so I’ll just say, maybe there is hope.  The second good thing, Ryan Church!  Church is the ONLY guy on the team hitting .300 or better.  He is hitting .330 to be exact.  There was some concern that Church wouldn’t be able to hit off lefties, but Church it the lone bright spot in a struggling Mets offense.   

Also, note to Willie Randolph-could you show us something?  A little emotion please?  Something!  While I understand that you are not a guy like Bobby Cox and that you’d like to conduct yourself more like the guys you worked with on the other side of town, but right now, you’re looking more like Art Howe instead of Joe Torre.    

The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-4 on Tuesday night in extra innings.  On a night when one would expect the story to be about Johan Santana, Tuesday was all about the Mets offense.  The Pirates tied the game in the top of the ninth, taking it to extra innings.  David Wright came through for the Mets.  After going 0-4 on the night, Wright came up in the bottom of the eleventh with the bases loaded, hit the first pitch to right, and it just stayed fair;  Endy Chavez scored from third and like that the Mets won 5-4 to make it three in a row. 

The Mets got on the board in the fourth on a two run homer by Ryan Church.  In the fifth, the Mets looked poised to have a big inning.  Endy Chavez led off with a single and would score on a Jose Reyes triple.  Luis Castillo would walk, and Reyes scored on an error by second baseman Freddy Sanchez.  Sanchez’s error allowed David Wright to reach base and Carlos Beltran walked to load the bases.  The Pirates changed pitchers and Damaso Marte settled in striking out both Ryan Church and Carlos Delgado to end the Mets’ threat.  If you saw the game, you would know that it was a questionable called third strike on Church, who actually jumped up and down and had a few choice words for the home plate umpire. 

Things are looking up for the Mets at the top of the order. Jose Reyes was on base six times tonight going 3-3.  He had two singles, a triple, and three walks, one of them intentional which came in the eleventh.   In the first inning, Reyes was caught stealing for the third time this season; however, in the seventh inning, after drawing his second walk of the night, he stole second making him 6 of 9 on the season.  In the ninth, he led off with a walk and looked like he might set the table for the Mets come back, but the Mets were unable to capitalize and the game went into extra innings.

 Johan Santana started for the Mets.  Santana struggled a bit, pitching 5 2/3 giving up two runs on two hits, three walks and seven strike outs.  The two runs Santana gave up came on solo home runs.  Santana would not factor in the decision as the Mets bull pen gave up a run in the eight and in the ninth taking the game into extra innings. 

Pedro Feliciano came in to the game in a big spot with the bases loaded in the sixth and got Adam LaRoche to pop out ending the inning.  Duaner Sanchez entered the eight and struggled for the first time after coming back to the Mets, he gave up two hits, two walks, and walked in a run.  Mets fans are hoping it was the cold weather that contributed to Sanchez’s struggle, because after seeing the way Aaron Heilman pitched in the seventh, we are all eager for Sanchez to work his way back to being a dominate setup man for Billy Wagner. 

Wagner gave up his first run of the season, it was unearned as Jose Reyes had an error on a bad throw to first that Delgado could not make a play on, the runner would move up on a past ball and score on a base hit to tie the game at four.  Wagner worked a scoreless tenth. 

After watching Santana give up two home runs and then load the bases in the sixth it got me thinking, Is Santana the best pitcher in baseball?  Is he even the best pitcher in the National league?  That is a valid question when you consider what Brandon Webb has done for the Diamond Backs and what Jake Peavey has accomplished in San Diego.  While Santana does lead the league in strikeouts to walks ratio, we haven’t really seen dominance from him yet.  In fairness, it is still very early in the season, and the Mets haven’t played in many warm weather games.  Again tonight the temperature at game time was in the low 50’s.  Look, I am in no way saying that Santana stinks, what I am merely pointing out is that he hasn’t been dominant.  Being labeled as the best pitcher in baseball, and being the highest paid pitcher in baseball comes with a lot of expectations.

It should be noted that when Carlos Delgado came to bat in the second inning of Tuesday night’s game, the crowd cheered for him.  Delgado went 0-4 on the night leaving three men on base.  The news on Moises Alou is good.  The MRI test results showed that there was no major damage to Alou’s ankle.  The question really is when Alou will be activated.  The Mets clearing a roster spot for him hinges on the prognosis of catcher Brian Schneider who is still in the hospital receiving treatment for a staph infection in his thumb.  If Schneider is unable to play and heads to the DL, Alou will take his roster spot, if Schneider is cleared to play, then the Mets will likely remove back up catcher Gustavo Molina from the active roster.  

 Mets Blog

The New York Mets closed out a weekend series with the Atlanta Braves winning 6-3.  The Mets caught a break as red hot hitter Chipper Jones sat out for a second straight game.  The real story was the Mets offense. 

On a cold day at Shea Stadium, the Mets bats seemed to warm up.  Jose Reyes had been in a 1-25 funk, his batting average falling to .237 with a .265 OBP.  He snapped that when he lead off the first with a double.  He would finish the day with 1-3 with a walk and two strike outs.  Reyes is the catalyst to the Mets offensive production.  Getting Reyes on base seems to be one key to getting the other hitters going.  All in all the Mets would collect 12 hits, 6 of which were for extra bases.  Raul Cassanova (2), Carlos Delgado (2), and David Wright (1) would all record RBI in the win.  

Saturday Mets hitters chased starter Tim Hudson from the game early.  Sunday the Mets did the same to John Smoltz who left the game in the fourth inning.  Having yet allowed a homer this season, Smoltz gave up two in his four innings.  Catcher Raul Cassanova hit a two run shot in the second and Carlos Delgado hit a solo homer to left field in the third.  When Delgado goes the other way good things are sure to follow, as was the case when he hit his second home run of the game in the seventh.  It was a shot to right center that hit half way up the scoreboard.  Delgado had been hearing boos from the Mets fans and refused to come out for a curtain call after he hit his second homer of the day.  The way Delgado has been struggling you would think he would want to bank a little good will with the Mets fans.

New York native Nelson Figueroa took the mound for the Mets.  He was cruising along until the sixth inning when he ran out of steam.  He left the game having pitched 5 1/3 giving up three runs on three hits with three strike outs and three walks.  Joe Smith would enter the game as his replacement and allowed one of the inherited runners to score.  Scott Schoeneweis pitched a scoreless seventh and Pedro Feliciano tossed a scoreless eight.  Feliciano was the eight inning guy because manager Willie Randolph wanted to give Duaner Sanchez a break after pitching back to back games.  Billy Wagner allowed his first hit of the season to Matt Diaz with one out in the ninth, however he retired the next two batters to end the game and record his sixth save of the season. 

It was reported that Moises Alou was close to joining the team.  However, after twisting his ankle in a rehab start, Alou will now be in New York for an MRI because there is concern that his sprain is actually a fracture. If that is the case, the bat the Mets have waiting on is far from joining the line up. 

On Monday the Mets begin a three game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Mets Ace Johan Santana (3-2) is scheduled to start.  He will be opposed by pitcher Ian Snell (2-1).   

 Mets Blog