Marlins 5, Mets 2 (twice)

Going three and four in the wake of The Sweep, as it shall be known for years to come, isn’t exactly a great way for the Mets to stumble into the All-Star break. Luckily the rest of the division didn’t do much better, and they still sit only two games out of first place despite being just one game above five hundred. But the difference between a great ending to the first half of the season and this disappointing one was basically just Tom Glavine waking up from the dream season he’d been having up until about a week ago. After his worst start of the season in Philadelphia, Glavine came back with another rough game in Florida He gave up four runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out three in six innings and, as usual, the Mets’ offense wasn’t there to pick him up, despite Jose Reyes picking up three hits and a pair of stolen bases on the day. Hopefully Glavine can hit the snooze button after the break, because the Mets’ chances in this division will go south in a hurry if he can’t be an effective pitcher at the top of the rotation. Of course, even before these last two starts, it’d been a while since he’d won a game, thanks to the Mets’ offense deserting him more often than not. But even he’s not always getting the win, it’s crucial for him to keep the Mets in games and not let his early-inning troubles get out of hand to the point where his post-second inning rebound is too little, too late, as it was against the Phillies last Monday.

Sunday brought another less than stellar start from one of the Mets’ top pitchers with the offense failing to help out as Dontrelle Willis continued his career-long dominance of the Mets. Al Leiter went just three innings on eighty-eight pitches, allowing four runs on three hits and two walks with a Jeff Conine grand slam pretty much ending his day. Orber Moreno pitched a scoreless inning, walking one, and Ricky Bottalico threw two, striking out four and walking one, before giving way to the bloated corpse of Mike Stanton. Stanton went two innings and, despite not entering the game with any runners on base, allowed a run on two hits and two walks while striking out two.

Also over the weekend, Scott Kazmir finally made his AA debut, with mixed results. He went six innings and struck out six, but he also walked five while allowing six hits and two runs. Walks were something of a problem for Kazmir down in St. Lucie this year, as he issued twenty-two free passes in fifty innings, so it’s something he definitely has to work on, as that rate is a bit higher than what he’s done in the past. Still, for now we can probably chalk up his extreme wildness to the adjustment to the new league. His strikeout total is certainly encouraging as he seems to be getting back on the right track, having wound up with fifty-one Ks in those fifty innings at St. Lucie. I’m certainly excited to go see him start the next time Binghamton comes to Trenton to take on the future Yankee trade bait. They’ve got a four game series at the beginning of August, so it looks like there’s a good chance I’ll get to see Kazmir take the mound.

Of course Sunday brought the Futures Game, featuring David Wright and Yusmeiro Petit representing the Mets. Wright looked perhaps a little nervous early on, striking out in his first at bat and having trouble with three separate grounders in the third inning, one of which was ruled an error. But he bounced back later to single in the second of his three at bats and also show off his range and arm in the field. Petit came in with a pair of runners on and one out and allowed a double that went over the left fielder’s head after he appeared to misjudge it. But he bounced back to get the second of his two outs via the strikeout having allowed just the one hit.

And tonight is obviously the All-Star Game with Mike Piazza representing the Mets as the National League’s starting catcher and Tom Glavine sitting out in the bullpen to perhaps make an appearance in relief.   ¶ joe | 2:26 PM |