Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Boom boom boom boom
I'm gonna shoot you right down,
right offa your feet
Take you home with me,
put you in my house
Boom boom boom boom

--Johnny Lee Hooker, Boom Boom.

It might go down as the game that turned into batting practice.

Facing a Phillies pitcher making his first start of the season, the Mets had their greatest run production since 1989. Every starting position player had a hit. The team that had hit 12 home runs in its first 13 games had a club-record seven on Tuesday, including a grand slam by David Wright, and buried the Phillies, 16-4.

Was it only yesterday that Carlos Beltran was bemoaning the pitching in the NL East?

"This is a tough division," Beltran said the Mets' bloodless performance in the series opener Monday night. "I think it is the toughest division in baseball. Every day you face not only a good pitcher, but an ace. Every day you really have to prepare yourself mentally and do an adjustment every at-bat because it's quite a challenge."

Excluding Vincent Padilla and Gavin Floyd, apparently.

Jose Reyes led off the game with a home run that fell a couple rows deep along the left-field line - the type of home run that gave the ballpark its reputation as a bandbox but a homer nonetheless.

Mike Piazza hit the second-longest home run in the two-year history of this stadium, 471 feet onto the outfield concourse. David Wright hit the next pitch for his first career grand slam. Reyes and Diaz both had a pair of homers to became the first Mets to hit two homers each in the same game since Butch Huskey and Bernard Gilkey did it in 1997.

Reyes, Diaz, Piazza and Mientkiewicz are all tied with 6 RBIS on the season for the Mets. Piazza's batting average is now up to .250 and rising fast.

Here we see Reyes and the Kaz Man were all smiles.

Of course, the offensive barrage kept Victor Zambrano off the hook. Even Zambrano managed to hit a triple in last night's game but frankly, his control was still dodgy. He threw 96 pitches, 57 for strikes, slightly better than Glavine and Ishii managed the last two games but still nothing pinpoint about it. He also had a wild pitch and three walks, six hits and two earned runs over 6 inning and did a swell job pitching out of two bases loaded jams in the first and second innings. His ERA is still a respectable 3.71.

The Mets bullpen pitched three scoreless innings.

For the Phillies, Vicente Padilla, who gave up five home runs in the first 17 batters he faced, was pulled after his 18th batter, then watched Gavin Floyd give up a home run to the first batter he faced. Padilla and Floyd allowed eight runs apiece and combined to throw 140 pitches in six innings, prompting E-A-G-L-E-S chants among the crowd of 28,063.

As Padilla's second inning of work came to a close, catcher Mike Lieberthal received an instruction he had never gotten from the right-hander before.

"He told me to start calling his breaking balls and changeup more," said Lieberthal. "After the first couple of innings his velocity went down. He didn't feel very confident in his fastball."

Would you?

Not to rock the boat and I've already made issue yesterday of the madness of promoting Cryin Mike Cameron and demoting Victor Diaz but with the way Diaz is hitting, you might think he'd make an ideal leadoff hitter.

From the Don't Fix It If It Ain't Broke Dept: Jose Reyes' homer was his third of the season but as a leadoff hitter he also has 12 strikeouts and zero walks in 63 at-bats. His batting average and OBA are both .286 - and he's 3 for 4 in stealing bases.

Conversely, Victor Diaz, who also has 3 homers on the season, has walked 7 times and struck out 11, has a .452 OBA the highest on the team, and is two for two in stolen bases.

Wonder how the lineup might work with Diaz leading off instead of Reyes and having Reyes bat 2nd? Of course you lose a little flexibility with the right handed Diaz compared to the switch-hitting Reyes but if you've got Reyes hitting second followed by Beltran, Piazza, Floyd, Mank, Wright and the Kaz Man hitting eighth, you've still got a righty, switch hitter, switch hitter, righty, lefty, lefty, righty and switch hitter through the lineup leading up to the pitcher. Despite last night's game, the hitting is still a problem so far this season and once last night's euphoria wears off, the hitting still has to be addressed. Especially with such a shakey starting rotation behind Pedro capable of surrendering 5 or 6 runs a game.

The Mets are hitting .311 with 5 homers against lefties so far this season and .232 with 7 homers against righties.

Good news for the Free Heath Bell clans sprouting up all over the internet: he's finally free!

Felix Heredia on the 15-day disabled list and Bell was brought up to replace him. He hadn't allowed a hit or a walk and had struck out 11 in 6 2/3 innings, converting three save opportunities with Norfolk after he allowed just 12 baserunners and struck out 13 batters in 13 2/3 innings in Spring Training.

He pitched a perfect 9th inning last night, joining Koo and Aybar in a perfect bullpen outing last night.

The Mets will now travel to Miami for another quick two-game set. Aaron Heilman will start for the Mets on Wednesday in Florida

New York Mets @ Florida Marlins
Wednesday, April 20: Aaron Heilman (0-0) @ Josh Beckett (2-1, 0.45)
Thursday, April 21: Pedro Martinez (1-0) @ Al Leiter (0-1, 2.55)

Washington Nationals @ New York Mets
Friday, April 22: Esteban Loaiza (0-0, 4.58) @ Tom Glavine (0-2, 5.17)
Saturday, April 23: Tomo Ohka (0-0, 4.50) @ Kaz Ishii (0-1, 3.29)
Sunday, April 24: Livan Hernandez (1-1, 4.50) @ Victor Zambrano (0-1, 4.09)

via Mets Daily.

Kris Benson, on the disabled list with a strained right pectoral muscle, will throw off a mound on Thursday in Miami.

The Marlins and Nationals remained tied for first in the NL East with the Mets, Braves and Phillies all tied, one game back. The Braves are at Washington and the Phillies will host the Rockies.

Future Pitchers Association

A few nights after Brian Bannister won his third game of the season for AA Binghamton Mets, giving him 16.1 IP, only 8 hits 0 earned runs allowed, 23 Ks and only 4 BBs on the season and after Gabby Hernandez, the third-round draft pick last June, threw five no-hit innings for Class A Hagerstown Sunday, the real future superstar pitcher Yousmeiro Petit had his worst outing in three starts this season and failed to get out of the fourth inning as the Binghamton Mets lost, 5-4, to the Portland Sea Dogs Tuesday night.