Expos 8, Mets 5

Armando Benitez is in midseason form. Or maybe I should say he's in postseason form, because he gave the kind of performance today that he normally reserves for critical games in September and October. The Mets were up 5-4 heading into the ninth inning thanks to a huge two-run homer to centerfield from Tony Clark, who was replacing Mo Vaughn, who sat the day out to rest his injured hip. Benitez faced the top of the Expos order in the ninth and he promptly gave up a hit to leadoff hitter Endy Chavez. After getting Jose Vidro, he faced Vladimir Guerrero in what promised to be a great matchup. After a first-pitch ball, Benitez blew a pair of fastballs by the free-swinging Guerrero and the crowd was on their feet looking for a strikeout for the second out of the inning. But from that point on, Benitez went away from the fastball that was nearing 100 miles per hour and threw him some splitters that were nowhere near the strike zone. Guerrero is no kind of patient hitter, but even he was able to lay off of those pitches and get a walk. Jeff Liefer came to the plate with two on and one out and after Benitez blew one fastball by him, he caught up with a second and launched it over the right field fence for a three-run homer. The Expos would add one more run in the inning to make it 8-5. The Mets were unable to do anything in the bottom of the ninth against Rocky Biddle and Benitez added his first loss of the season to his first blown save, evening the Mets' record at 3-3.

There were some bright spots offensively, in addition to Clark's home run, as the five runs are the most the Mets have scored in a game so far this season. Ty Wigginton went 2 for 3 with a triple and a walk. Mike Piazza made his return from baseball jail and went 1 for 3 with a run scored and a walk. He also caught Jeff Liefer trying to steal. Jeromy Burnitz went hitless, but did have a walk and a run. Roger Cedeno started in center yet again and went hitless, although he did have a walk and his first stolen base of the season. Disenfranchised outfielder Timo Perez got his one plate appearance for the day and used it to drive in a run with a sacrifice fly. Timo is still hitting .200, compared to Cedeno's .182, although Cedeno does have a .280 OBP in the leadoff spot. And somehow this team has only scored 21 runs in six games. Manager Art Howe finally used Tsuyoshi Shinjo as a late inning defensive replacement, but it was for Cliff Floyd in left rather than Cedeno.

The Mets are off tomorrow before starting a series in Florida on Tuesday, so I won't have anything to watch to distract me from the car crash in progress that is WWE Raw. I'll be sure to write a thing or two about wrestling tomorrow to make sure I alienate any baseball fans who might be reading this site.  ¶ joe | 5:49 PM |