Suddenly Seo Good, Mets Top Phils 3-2

It could have been billed as the Battle for the Bottom of the NL East. The Phillies are in last place having lost 10 of their last 15 and the Mets were only one game ahead of them going in to last night's game with the unpredictable Jae Seo taking the mound for the Mets.

But Seo pitched a bit like Cy against the Phillies last night, holding Philadelphia hitless until David Bell's single to left with two outs in the fifth. He matched a career high with eight strikeouts, didn't allow a run in seven innings and threw 109 pitches, 71 which were strikes. He has now lowered his earned run average to 2.00 in three starts this season. His reward? Getting optioned to Triple-A Norfolk after the game to make room for right-hander Kris Benson, who will come off the disabled list Thursday and make his first start of the season. I guess Victor Zambrano didn't answer the page for his train to Norfolk and they couldn't convince Tom Glavine to retire to make room on the roster.

While Seo was brilliant, the Met fans new MVP candidate, Cliff Floyd had yet another spectacular evening, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 20 games, the longest in the majors this year, and boosted his batting average to .391 with eight homers and 25 RBIs. As icing on the cake, he stole an almost certain homerun off Jason Michaels in the 7th and warmed to MVP chants by the Met faithful. The Mets are 10-5 at Shea this season and back to .500 overall, two games from the basement and two and a half games from the lead.

Joining Seo back to Norfolk will be Royce Ring who is being sent down now that Mike Cameron also coming off the disabled list Thursday. Victor Diaz was almost certain to join Seo but perhaps his homerun, his two hits and a walk and his two catches at the wall were sufficient to keep him here, despite getting caught stealing AND getting picked off to demonstrate his bonehead complex on the basepaths. Aaron Heilman will temporarily join the pen as added insurance for Kris Benson's start this afternoon.

You know what that means? The Mets' rotation for the their three-game series in Milwaukee will be Victor Zambrano, Martinez and Tom Glavine which might also mean probably losing two of three to the Brewers. Why not have Zambrano slated for long relief instead of Heilman? In Heilman's bad game-good game scheme of inconsistency, he was due for another outstanding performance in his next start having walked five batters and earned a no decision in his last outing. The Seo move makes sense only in that he won't be able to start for another 4 games or so anyway and may as well open up the rotation for someone else but geez, neither Zambrano nor Glavine have proven themselves to be anything more than fatalistic liabilities on the mound this season and even against the (13-13) Brewers, do you really want either of them pitching for you?

*****

Nevertheless, this afternoon's game against the Phillies will see our latest and perhaps only remaining pitching saviour in Kris Benson take the mound for the first time this season even though if he's doubtful to pitch past the fifth inning.

Adding excitement as he almost always does, Bradon Looper did it for us again in a closing performance that really put the RELIEF in relief pitching after he gave up back to back homeruns to Chase Utley and Bobby Abreu in the 9th to allow the Phillies to draw to 3-2 before striking out the last two batters.

Jose Reyes got a rest yesterday and came in to pinch hit for Seo in the 7th. Oddly enough, he drew his second consecutive walk. A new trend? Not likely but it will be curious to see whether or not Cameron, a strikeout king in his own right, supplants Reyes as the leadoff hitter in the order. Let's hope not. Cameron is nowhere near as exciting or disruptive as Reyes is once on the basepaths.

Piazza with another Ohfer Night notched in his belt now has one hit in his last 21 at-bats and saw his season batting average drop to .198. He and Glavine are two senior players who have seen their better days flash before their eyes and if May doesn't bring a miraculous improvement, they're both going to end up being a very heavy dead weight to the roster for the rest of the season.

******

The Braves beat the Marlins for the second straight night to create a two-way tie for first place. The (16-11) Braves will host the (11-15) Astros whilst the Nats and Marlins will be idle.

Looking ahead, the Phillies will travel to Chicago to play the Cubs, the Mets to Milwaukee to face the Brewers, the Nats travel to San Fransisco agains the (14-13)Giants a and the Marlins will host the horrific (6-19) Colorado Rockies.