Mets Mawl Marlins, 9-3

Four games, three wins. Four starters, each of them going six innings. Auspicious beginnings for what was considered to be a questionable starting rotation. Everyone exceding expectation but for perhaps Jorge Julio, the new Armandogeddon and Anderson Hernandez who waited four games to get his first hit of the season. And look, two hit batsmen last night and no unsettling behaviour...


Delgado bat in hand, hit by pitch but no steps to the mound.


David Wright takes one for the team, another star hitter getting plunked and yet, where is the controversy? Where is the anger, the foaming mouth indignation? Oh, right. We don't have Jose Guillen on our team.

Although starter Steve Trachsel started the game a bit sluggish allowing the first two hitters on board, he rebounded to keep these stripped down and paint-chipped Marlins scoreless but for former Met Mike Jacob's 4th inning solo homer. Oddly enough, Met starters have allowed more walks(13)than hits(9) over the first four games but odder still these same starters have combined for four hits in 9 at-bats. a .444 clip. If that keeps up they can provide their own run support all season.

More importantly, the Mets continue hitting. Reyes was a triple short of the cycle last night to spearhead a Met attack that has had 28 basehits and 19 runs over the last two games. Granted, all games at Shea and none on the woeful West Coast. (good gawd, you remember those miserable performances in places like Oakland and Seattle last season when the Mets meted out base hits like blood from a stone, don't you?) However, the batting order is proving thus far to be as formidable in real life as it appeared this winter on paper.

Perhaps the most satisfying thought of the season so far is that unlike the Mets of say, 2001, a reliever like Jorge Julio is not going to kill them. So long as Willie keeps him out of games with anything less than a 10 run margin for error. There's been too much goodwill thus far to go Jorge-bashing just yet but we'll be monitoring the situation.

One could try to continue to scuttle Omar's dubious offseason pitching moves but Xavier Nady for Mike Cameron might well be the steal of the offseason (to date anyway) and Duaner Sanchez is looking solid so far. You might note that Jae Seo hasn't started a game for the Dodgers yet, one miserable relief appearance to his credit in which he surrendered a three run homer in three innings work, Cameron is on the DL and Mr Anna Benson lost in his only start of the season so far to the Devil Rays, albeit with a decent 2 run, 4 hit 7 inning outing. (Scott Kazmir by the way? 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA...)

Où se trouve Messieur Sandman? - we haven't seen hide nor hair of our star reliever since he surrendered the game tying homer to the Nats in Game Two.

By the way, in his professional debut, Mike Pelfrey threw 5 shutout innings allowing only 2 hits and striking out 6.

*****

The Phillies continue their horrific beginning this season, echoing the Mets start last season by having lost their first four in a row although it should be noted that the Mets lost theirs on the road whereas the Phillies are humiliating themselves at home with nothing but the road to look forward to.

Other than the Mets and Phillies, the rest of the NL East have started all their seasons on the road thus far including Atlanta's harsh West Coast tour. Actually, you might consider it fortuitous that for the Braves to get a West Coast trip over so early in the season sparing them at least one trip in the latter, dog days of the season. Actually the Mets have a seven game swing San Diego and San Fransisco later this month and then through LA and Arizona in June so there may be no dog day roadtrips of the Western sort for us either.

*****

Tom Glavine takes the hill Saturday against The D Train in what promises to be a thrilling duel.