Mets 3, Braves 1

Watching a team that's fifteen games under .500 play the first place team it trails by upwards of 25 games in August isn't supposed to be fun. A Mets starting lineup featuring Jay Bell and Joe McEwing certainly isn't supposed to be a recipe for offensive excitement. And honestly, twenty year old shortstops just aren't supposed to put on record-breaking shows of power against the Atlanta Braves. But obviously, someone forgot to tell Jose Reyes. Having never hit more than eight home runs in a full minor league season, Reyes now has five in just 263 major league at bats after becoming the youngest player ever to homer from both sides of the plate last night. And just to make sure no one could criticize anything about his game, he also drew a walk.

And in addition to the Reyes show, Met fans got to see Al Leiter toss his best start of the season, going seven scoreless innings giving up just two hits and one walk while striking out six. The walk total is the most remarkable and encouraging part of his line, but Leiter's overall performance since the All-Star break continues to erase memories of his pre-break, pre-injury work. Leiter is now 5-2 with a 1.65 ERA in the second have after going 8-5, 5.57 in the first half. His strikeout rate is up from 6.6 per nine innings before the break to 8.6 after, and his walk rate, while still not great, is down from 5.8 to 4.2 per nine. Who knows how long this will continue or which Leiter we'll see next year, but he, like Tom Glavine, continues to give Met fans reasons to believe he's not done yet.

Tonight, Steve Trachsel (13-7, 4.01) looks to keep on winning against the Phillies and upcoming free agent Kevin Millwood. Trachsel is 4-0 in his last five starts with a 1.51 ERA.  ¶ joe | 2:03 PM |