Pedro Pulls Mets to .500

Quite appropriately, 88 games later and at the All Star break in the action the Mets are pretty much exactly how they started the season: reliant on Pedro to keep them afloat.



At 44-44 the Mets have proven themselves to be masters of the middle road, neither good nor bad, terrible of terrific. Just a mediocre team with an extraordinary ace.

Not only does Pedro make the team better, in particular, he makes the Mets lone young superstar better as well. Carlos Beltran is hitting just .250 (63-for-252) in games Martinez has not started. However, he is batting .328 (21-for-64) in games started by the Mets' ace. Nine out of his 10 home runs have been hit when Martinez was pitching.

Yesterday, having already blown the first two games of the series to the less-than-stellar Pirates, Pedro led the Mets back onto the road to redemption, throwing seven innings of five-hit, one-run pitching and winning his 10th game of the season with a 2.72 ERA to lead the Mets to a 6-1 victory.

Unlike Friday night's horrific meltdown which saw them blow a 5-1 lead in the 9th and lose in 10, Roberto Hernandez and Bradon Looper managed to pitch the final two innings without incident.

As they have been lately, the Mets were once again marred by masochistic baserunning which almost undid them entirely. This time, it was Marlon Anderson, who was doubled up on a line drive to second base, and Mike Cameron, who was doubled up on a fly ball to left field when he forgot how many outs there were.

Naturally, if the Mets are to have any semblance of success in the second half, giving away runs on the basepaths will have to be eliminated. You can chalk up some small percentage of the boneheadedness to inexperience but in due time, and what better point than the halfway mark of the season, the Mets will have to take their collective heads out of their collective arses when it comes to baserunning and stop giving runs away and killing rallies.

Inspired by Pedro, the Mets’ No. 1-3 hitters — Jose Reyes, Cameron and Beltran — were 7-for-14 with five RBIs and helped lead the way to victory. Oddly enough, it is was a rare victory for the Mets against Pittsburgh. They are just 2-7 against the Pirates the last two seasons.

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Washington's second straight loss to the Phillies keeps the Mets 8 full games behind the Nats for coughcough, first place.

In the inevitable wildcard race (we still think the Braves are going to be a lock for the NL East title by September) the Mets are 5 1/2 games behind those Braves but only a game behind the Marlins, who have underachieved with a 44-42 mark in the first half.

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The Mets sent pitcher Brian Bannister to Class AAA Norfolk, pitcher Philip Humber and outfielder Lastings Milledge to Class AA Binghamton, and pitcher Gabby Hernandez to Class A St. Lucie.

Manager Willie announced his rotation for the games immediately following the All-Star break: Kris Benson will start on Thursday in the opener of the Mets' four-game series against the Atlanta Braves, Tom Glavine goes on Friday, Victor Zambrano throws on Saturday and Pedro Martinez will pitch on Sunday.

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Pointing out the obvious, Piazza admits he stinks.