Mets 5, Marlins 0

Dontrelle Willis better watch his back. One day after the young Florida lefty made headlines by one-hitting the Mets, the Mets' older, wiser rookie starter went out and nearly matched his effort. With a little bit of help from his corner outfielders and shortstop, Jae Seo tossed a one-hitter of his own for six and two-thirds innings until a split fingernail forced him to leave the game early. Juan Encarnacion hit a single in the fifth inning but was later called out trying to steal, despite the fact that his left hand clearly got the bag before his right arm was tagged. But that poor call notwithstanding, Seo combined with David Weathers and Armando Benitez to face the minimum, 27 batters, for the first time in franchise history. It's not the elusive no-hitter, but the Mets seem to be creeping ever closer.

Fine defensive play and fingernail injuries aside, it was still quite a performance by the twenty-six year old veteran of Tommy John surgery threw just 72 pitches, an impressive 56 of them for strikes, while striking out four and walking no one. And the injury is not supposed to be serious enough to keep him from his nationally televised Sunday night start against that other New York team. Seo is now 5-2 on the season and his 2.66 ERA is fourth in the league.

Offensively, Jeromy Burnitz kept up his hot hitting, going two for three with a walk, a home run, his eleventh, and two runs scored. Ty Wigginton went two for four with a solo home run of his own, his fifth of the season.

Tomorrow, we'll see if the streak of one-hitters continues as Al Leiter (7-3, 4.82) takes on Brad Penny (5-4, 3.44).

Oh, and watching Jeff Weaver's childish reaction to getting roughed up by the Devil Rays this afternoon was highly amusing. I'll be downright sad when Steinbrenner trades him for a bag of balls next week.  ¶ joe | 1:41 AM |