Pirates 6, Mets 3

The Mets continue to struggle to get hits at any meaningful point in the game. Mike Piazza and Mo Vaughn both homered tonight, their first and second of the season, respectively, but they both did it to lead off an inning rather than actually getting it done with men on base. Piazza got the Mets third run home as well, but he did it by grounding into a double play after coming to the plate with runners at the corners and no outs, so it can hardly be considered a victory. No other Met had an extra-base hit, although the middle of the lineup did look a little bit better tonight, as Roberto Alomar went 2 for 4 with a run scored, raising his average to .281, and Cliff Floyd went 1 for 4, although he left three runners on base. The only other Met to get a hit was Jeromy Burnitz, who went 1 for 4, although the ever-resourceful Ty Wigginton did manage to once again reach base on an error.

David Cone gave the Mets an adequate five innings of work, allowing just three runs on six hits and two walks, while striking out three. But after Jaime Cerda pitched a scoreless sixth inning, the normally reliable David Weathers came in and gave up three runs on four hits and a walk in the seventh to give the Pirates the lead for good, although Cone wound up taking the loss.

In a small sign of managerial intelligence, Art Howe brought in Tsuyoshi Shinjo to replace the hitless wonder Roger Cedeno in center in the seventh.

Now, one thing I've been noticing during the Mets' struggles throughout the first two and a half weeks of the season is that while their offense has seemed largely inept, they also seem to be facing an inordinate amount of excellent, often young, starting pitching. They've faced the top three in the Cubs' rotation, as well as the good youngsters from Montreal and Florida. I did some calculating and found out that the total ERA of the thirteen starting pitchers the Mets have faced in their fifteen games (Tomo Ohka and Livan Hernandez have each faced them twice) is 2.74. Not too shabby. But interestingly enough, their total ERA in starts against the Mets is 3.12, compared to 2.52 against the rest of the league. So, somehow, during this dismal start, the Mets have actually been hitter better against these quality pitchers than everyone else has. Of course, it's a rather small sample size, and the fact remains that the Mets have yet to score more than five runs in a game, or more than four earned against any starting pitcher.

Five of the thirteen have higher ERAs against the Mets than against the rest of the league. Seven are lower against the rest. And Livan Hernandez has yet to pitch against anyone other than the Mets. Because of this, Hernandez is fairly irrelevant, but removing him from the equation only drops the ERA vs. Mets down to 3.09, so he's not the reason for the disparity. It seems the reason is mainly that these five starters just didn't stay in the game for very long. In fact none of them gave up more than three earned runs. Kerry Wood, who went five innings against the Mets, has a 3.60 ERA against the Mets, 2.40 against everyone else. Matt Clement is at 9.00 vs. 1.88 thanks to a three run, three inning outing. Tony Armas Jr. is at 5.40 vs. 0.45, having given up only one earned run in twenty innings against other teams. Javier Vazquez is at 4.50 vs. 1.42. And tonight's starter for the Pirates, Jeff Suppan, gave up one earned run in six innings for a 1.50 ERA, as opposed to 1.13 against everyone else.

So, what's the point of all this? Well, for one thing it shows that the Mets haven't done jack against bullpens this year. But it also shows that maybe the Mets' offense isn't quite as hopeless as their record would lead one to believe. Maybe when they get a shot at some of the less than stellar starters the National League has to offer, they'll be able to score some runs. Tomorrow night the Mets face JefF D'Amico and his 5.79 ERA, and we'll see if he'll be what the Mets need to get their bats going.  ¶ joe | 11:41 PM |