Simple Math: 4 Games, 4 Victories

Starting pitching, that which was to be the downfall of the Mets this season, has proven the 4th game in a row to be a decided strength.

Coming on the heels of auld men Glavine and El Duque, followed by the youthful exploits of Omar Minaya steal John Maine, the incalculable Oliver Perez allowed one run and five hits in seven innings to soil the Atlanta Braves' home opener with a humiliating 11-1 victory. It was Perez's first game with six or more innings pitched without a walk since Sept. 29, 2002. No control issues for one night anyway. Since June 1, he's 2-0 with an 0.56 ERA in two starts against the Braves, and 0-8 with an 8.82 ERA in 11 starts against everyone else.

Those long dark years of Brave dominance are over. The queasy feeling in the stomach of Mets fans every time the Mets travelled to Atlanta has resolved itself into an anticipatory zeal; another chance to bury those scandalous memories and pile another shovelful of dirt atop them.

"If you're going to get beat, you might as well get the snot blown out of you," said Jeff Francoeur, who produced the Braves' only run with a fourth-inning homer off Perez.

The sweet justice was in embarassing the Braves like that in their home opener. It won't make up for 13 some odd years of perpetual futility but victories, it appears, helps erase the uneasy memories of humiliating losses and the more of them you have, the less memory remains.

Better still, these Braves had swept the laughable Philadelphia Phillies, the self-annointed "favourites" to win the NL East.

Friday night it was the continued plate dominance of the rapidly emerging superstar Jose Reyes with a triple both left handed and right handed along with a single in six plate appearances, a wrecking ball-like 4 RBIs and two runs scored on his own driving this offensive engine which has humiliated the pitching of the World Champions and ever-lasting rivals over the past 4 games.

That the Mets are 4-0 for the first time since 1985 coming on the heels of their worst Spring Training record in history proves to be well, ironic.

Manager Willie said all along that the spring record meant nothing but you thought he was busy blowing smoke up his own arse, didn't you? You were worried like the rest of us that the backroom rumours were true, the Mets were going to struggle and struggle big this season.

Well they weren't even this good last season when they opened up against divisional muppets like the Marlins (who allowed the Phillies their first win of the season last night) and the Nats (who might be the fastest team to 100 losses this season.)

Overall the Mets pounded 15 hits of Braves pitching. In addition to Reyes' 3 hits which raised his batting average to .368, Paul Lo Duca scattered 3 singles of his own to raise his average this season to .444.

Wright, Beltran and Alou are all hitting .333 to date and all three had doubles last night - Wright had a pair.

And Perez gave the starting rotation another feather in it's cap. That's four starts and four victories. Four starting pitching victories. A collective starting ERA of 1.00. Look around you lads. What other starting rotation in MLB is doing this? No sloppy mop ups for the bullpen. Last night the final two innings were left to Ambiorix Burgos and Joe Smith, who gave up only one hit between them.

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On Saturday Tom Glavine faces auld teammate John Smoltz in what is likely to be a tight pitching duel as the Braves attempt to end the Mets unbeaten streak to the start of the season.