Mets 10, Braves 6

With Cliff Floyd out of the lineup for at least a couple of weeks and Mike Piazza taking at least one day, today's Mets lineup could have been forgiven for not managing much offense. And with the Braves also missing a couple of key bats from their lineup, one might have expected a tight pitchers' deul in true Shea Stadium style. But the Mets got offensive contributions from up and down the lineup and Steve Trachsel bounced back from an awful first start to get the job done with both his arm and his bat.

Just like last week in Atlanta, the Mets wasted no time getting to Mike Hampton. With two outs in the first, third and fourth hitters Shane Spencer and Todd Zeile (I am not making this up) hit singles and Mike Cameron followed with one of his own to drive in Spencer. The Mets kept it up, scoring in each of the first five innings to amass a 10-0 lead. RBI doubles by Trachsel and Cameron and a two-run double by Kazuo Matsui highlighted the all-around offensive effort on a day when the Mets scored ten runs without hitting a home run. The only starters without a hit were, shockingly, Ricky Gutierrez and Joe McEwing, and while Gutierrez walked once and McEwing twice, Gutierrez joined Trachsel as the only starter not to get on base as least twice. Zeile had three hits in five at bats starting at first base and is looking like the Mets' best option at third right now, hitting .417/.385/.583 in limited duty as compared to Ty Wigginton's .185/.241/.296. Matsui reached base three times with a double, an infield single and a walk to bump his on-base percentage back up to an even .500.

Trachsel, meanwhile, pitched six innings giving up just one run on four hits while striking out three. And after Orber Moreno got through the seventh inning on just six pitches, three of which he needed to strike out Jesse Garcia, Grant Roberts came in and picked up right where he left off in Trachsel's last start. The Braves were able to make a game of it by torching him for four runs on a walk and three hits including two home runs. His ERA is now a robust 48.60 through one and two-thirds innings of work. Dan Wheeler helped make things interesting in the ninth, loading the bases with the help of some questionable defense by Wigginton at third. But Braden Looper came in, threw two pitches and got Andruw Jones to hit into a game-ending double play to earn his second save in as many days.

While this lineup can't be expected to produce like this on a regular basis, it's good to see guys like Zeile and Spencer come off the bench and provide some offense along with guys who've been producing on a daily basis like Matsui and Cameron. If the Mets can continue to get a little bit of help from the bench as well as getting Piazza back in the lineup on Wednesday, they should be able to continue to put some runs on the board. And Steve Trachsel in his second start became the fourth of four scheduled starting pitchers to give the Mets' an excellent outing. It's still too early to know quite what to expect out of the fifth spot in the rotation, but the top four have looked great so far and combined with this offense should be able to win some games even when either side's production slips a bit. And who'd've thought the day Cliff Floyd goes on the DL would give us reason to feel good about the Mets' offense.

The 4-3 Mets have tomorrow off, but on Wednesday, Tyler Yates (0-0, 0.00) tries to follow up his tremendous major league debut with a win as he takes on John Thomson (0-0. 3.60) and the Braves.  ¶ joe | 8:56 PM |