Mets Top Brewers 7-5 For 4th In A Row

"It wasn't very pretty. Too many beers around here, too many breweries." Pedro on Pitching and hecklers in Milwaukee

Several days last week was spent officially denying that Ramon Castro is Pedro's personal catcher. Last night's game saw Mike Piazza and his 6 for 9, 3 homer hot streak catching Pedro yet again, finally perhaps out of excuses, or perhaps his bat just too hot to be left out.

Pedro's reaction?

"I felt draggy," Martinez said after pitching to Piazza. "Bad day, when you don't feel like you'd like to [pitch]. Bad, when your body didn't physically click for you. Today, I didn't click. I didn't feel good the whole game. But still, I used my experience to keep the team in the game, keep them off-balance, make pitches. Gave up a couple of bombs. Ended up with a win, team won. That's what really matters."

Piazza's reaction?

O for 5 at the plate, sudden end of hot hitting,

Hmmm. What a coincidence. Wondering who wil be catching his next start?

Nevertheless, Pedro still managed to strike out 11 Brewers and actually allowed only 3 hits despite giving up 5 runs as one hit was Carlos Lee's three run homer in the 4th and the other, a two run shot courtesy of the bat of Lyle Overbay in the the 7th.
He also retired the side in order every inning except the two he surrendered the homers in.

Pedro's ERA with Piazza catching climbed to 4.50; with backup Ramon Castro, it's 2.10.

Fortunately for the Mets, the Brewers bullpen had Julio Santana coming out of it. Santana, who was promoted from Class AAA Nashville when Brewer ace Ben Sheets was disabled last month, walked Cameron and served up a 2-0 pitch that Beltran hammered over the wall to give the Mets a 5-3 lead in the 7th. After the Brewers came back to tie the game in the bottom of the inning, Santana came out for an encore performance and threw a poorly placed 1-2 curveball that Doug Mientkiewicz hammered into the seats for a homer and a 6-5 lead which left Santana with an 8.31 ERA.

Perhaps as puzzling as Pedro's ERA with Piazza catching him is that all six of Carlos Beltran's homers this season have come in games started by Pedro. He's batting .484 with 17 RBI in Martinez's seven starts and .234 with five RBI in the Mets' other 24 games.

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Cryin Mike Cameron is hitting .545 in his first three games of the season but Victor Diaz still has the highest OBP (.427) of anyone on the Mets with more than 50 at-bats.

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The Mets have now won four in a row and six of their last seven. They are now they're three games over .500 for the first time since July 9 of last season. If they sweep Milwaukee today, they'd be four over for the first time since July 31, 2002.

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Despite the Mets winning ways, they are still 2 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves. That's because the Braves, and everyone else, keep winning. The Mets have won four games in a row, the Braves, four wins in a row, the Marlins two in a row, the Nationals three games in a row, and even the Phillies have gotten into the act, winning the last two from the Cubs.

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Must be about that time already. Jose Reyes said his left calf was a little tight, last night. The shortstop played, insisted it was "nothing".

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Baseball Perspectives has a look at Potent Met Males

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Today, Tom Glavine faces Chris Capuano, LHP (2-2, 4.08). Both left-handed and right-handed batters are hitting .320 against Glavine when he isn't walking them.