Expos 5, Mets 3

And so the Mets' journey to Puerto Rico ends, swept by the Expos. It would be easy, and not too inaccurate, to blame this one on the bullpen yet again, but sometimes you need your shortstop, who's only there for defensive reasons, to play good defense. And Rey Sanchez failed to do so, misplaying a grounder in the eighth, extending the inning so that the Expos could score two runs, breaking a 3-3 tie and putting themselves on top for good. Sanchez was also inexplicably batting second for the second time this year, but he did manage to get a hit and score a run in his four at bats, raising his average to a robust .150. In other news, Jose Reyes went 2 for 3 today with a walk, a run and his eleventh stolen base of the year in eleven tries, raising his average above .300 for the AAA Norfolk Tides. If you choose to draw any connection between the last two sentences, you should feel free to do so.

The Mets got some more solid starting pitching, this time from Steve Trachsel, who went six innings, giving up three runs on five hits and a walk while striking out three. But Scott Strickland, who got his first loss of the season, gave up one unearned run in 1 1/3 innings of relief, while Mike Stanton gave up another in 1/3 of an inning before having to leave the game with a "strained right knee muscle," according to ESPN.com. That diagnosis sounds not quite right to me, but I'll assume they're referring to the quadricep until I learn otherwise. David Weathers pitched the final third of the eighth inning, with no runs and one hit being charged to him.

The Met offense didn't exactly come alive, but Tony Clark finally hit the team's first home run of the series in miniscule Estadio Hiram Bithorn, driving in wunderkind Ty Wigginton, who went 1 for 3 and also walked once. Roberto Alomar continued his mini-revival, hitting a solid double off the wall in right center in four at bats. The ball would've been a gapper in any other ballpark, but it was very nearly a home run in this one.

Timo Perez and Tsuyoshi Shinjo started in left and center, respectively, but neither got a hit. Roger Cedeno showed he is very effective in the role of bench-warmer.

Tomorrow night, the Mets head north to Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates in a three game series. Maybe facing a team that's not completely stacked with solid young pitching for once will help the bats of the Mets not named Ty and Timo get going a bit. Tom Glavine, coming off of a pair of good starts, the last of which didn't earn him a win thanks to that infernal bullpen, takes on Josh Fogg, who is 1-1 with a 4.26 ERA in two starts this year.  ¶ joe | 1:34 AM |