Braves 3, Mets 1

Well, there are 158 more games on the schedule. I remain confident that the Mets will win one of them. But I'm just an irrepressible optimist.

Victor Zambrano didn't do a lot to allay the concerns about him, even if he might have escaped the first inning without allowing the two runs charged to him had Kazuo Matsui made the play on a tough but playable ground ball. Zambrano only made it through five innings on 100 pitches, he walked four batters and hit another. He did strike out six batters and only allowed those two runs on five hits. He was like a discount Kazuhisa Ishii.

Of course, the more important story of the night was the Mets' offense being shut down for the second consecutive day, this time by John Thomson. They managed nine hits and no walks, but the only hit that went for extra bases was Mike Piazza's first home run of the season. And both Jose Reyes and Cliff Floyd were caught attempting to steal, even if Reyes looked to be safe and did manage to steal a base later in the game. The new aggressive Mets are now two for six on the season in stolen base attempts, which is not too encouraging. Floyd has already been caught twice.

Tomorrow night, the NL East's cellar dwellers try to revive their bats against Horacio Ramirez (2-4, 2.39 last year) and the Braves. Aaron Heilman (1-3, 5.46), who replaced the recently DL'ed Mike Cameron on the roster and the less recently DL'ed Kris Benson in the rotation, will take the mound for the Mets. This matchup doesn't exactly inspire confidence that tomorrow will be the day the Mets finally outscore somebody.  ¶ joe | 11:05 PM |