Reds 7, Mets 6

Well that sucked.

Pedro Martinez's Mets career got off to a rocky start before he settled in and blew the Cincinnati Reds away for a few innings, only to have his efforts wasted by a bullpen collapse. Martinez allowed a three-run home run to Adam Dunn in the bottom of the first inning, right away blowing an early lead provided by Kazuo Matsui's second Opening Day opening inning home run in as many years. He then retired thirteen of the next fourteen batters, an astounding twelve of them via the strikeout. He finished up with a scoreless sixth inning in which he allowed his second walk of the game for a line of six innings, three runs on three hits and two walks and the aforementioned 12 Ks. Meanwhile the New Mets' offense was putting another five runs on the board, in large part thanks to two-run home runs by Carlos Beltran and Cliff Floyd. Those two each had three hits on the day, as did Jose Reyes, with Beltran adding one double and Reyes hitting a pair.

Unfortunately for Pedro, oh, and for the rest of the team, Manny Aybar entered in the seventh and provided only the second worst Mets bullpen performance of the day. He allowed a run on a pair of doubles to center, one of which glanced off the outstretched gloved of Beltran at the edge of the warning track. He did manage to strike out a pair along the way. Dae-Sung Koo followed with a strong eighth inning, maintaining the Mets' 6-4 lead with a couple of strikeouts of his own.

Then entered the one apparently dependable pitcher in the Mets' bullpen, Braden Looper, who proceeded to allow three hits, two of which landed on the wrong side of the outfield wall thanks to Adam Dunn and Joe Freaking Randa. That was enough to end the game in the Reds' favor and leave Looper with the always fun infinite ERA, as he failed to retire a single batter. I know that when I expressed my concern about the Mets' bullpen this year, this wasn't quite what I had in mind. Last year, Looper allowed a total of five home runs, never two in the same month, let alone the same game. It's amazingly early to be drawing conclusions about flaws in Looper's mechanics or the eventual fate of this team, and the fences at Great American Ballpark do seem to be about a yard and a half from home plate, but it was still a disappointing way for the game to end. Oh, and Kris Benson went on the DL with a torn, or as the Mets are calling it "strained" pectoral muscle.

Still, there were a lot of encouraging signs though the first six and a half innings or so. Pedro looked pretty awesome after the first inning, though it did take him a few more pitches, 103, than you would like to get through six innings. Jose Reyes appeared capable of hitting major league pitching, at least to the extent that the Reds' bullpen qualifies as such. And the new centerpiece of the offense, Carlos Beltran, had a big day. The Mets got fourteen hits, eight of them for extra bases, and their pitchers struck out fourteen while walking just two. That that wasn't enough to get a win in the first of 162 games can't be too disappointing.

The Mets and Reds take a day off before meeting up again on Wednesday with Tom Glavine (11-14, 3.60 last year) and Eric Milton (14-6, 4.75) taking the hill.  ¶ joe | 7:09 PM |