Mets 7, Marlins 6
Marlins 7, Mets 3
Marlins 3, Mets 0

This is getting boring. The persistent mediocrity of this team may be a step up from recent years, but that doesn't make it fun to watch. If they were getting as consistently lucky as the similarly mediocre Washington Nationals, things might be a different story. The Nationals have outscored their opponents this year by a grand total of two runs and they are currently nineteen games above .500. The Mets have outscored their opponents by four runs and are currently a game under, ten games back of the first place Nats. If the division comes down to a battle between Washington and Atlanta, I will not be amused. The Marlins joining the fray won't exactly make me feel better, either.

On Friday, the Mets managed to overcome a bullpen meltdown due to some unusual offensive output. Tom Glavine survived for five innings without imploding, giving up just three runs on nine hits and two walks. He did get credit for one strikeout, but that was the result of pitcher A.J. Burnett bunting foul for the third strike, so it's hard to say he earned it.

Still, when Glavine was removed after the fifth inning, the Mets were ahead, 5-3. That's not exactly a comfortable lead, but it was better than nothing. David Wright drove in a pair of runs with a single and a bases loaded walk in a rare appearance in the fifth spot in the lineup. Cliff Floyd, Mike Cameron and Marlon Anderson each hit a double, and Anderson and Chris Woodward had two hits a piece. The Mets added a sixth run in the seventh to stretch their lead to three on Mike Cameron's seventh home run of the year.

Meanwhile, Aaron Heilman was pitching excellently in relief. He got through two perfect innings before Willie Randolph sent him out to pitch the eighth. And it's hard to quibble with that decision given that Heilman had needed just twenty pitches to get through those two innings. But regardless of his workload, he fell apart in the eighth, allowing a single, a walk and a two-run double before being removed. Roberto Hernandez entered and got two quick outs, but an infield single by Luis Castillo brought a third run home to tie the game.

But the Mets somehow rebounded. Anderson's double and Woodward second single of the night came in the bottom of the eighth and that was enough to give the Mets the lead again. Braden Looper very nearly blew it again, as the first thing he did in the ninth inning was allow a double to Carlos Delgado. He also walked Juan Encarnacion, but he got out of the jam to record the save. He even recorded a strikeout for the first time in four appearances. He's now got thirteen Ks in twenty-nine and one-third innings as compared to eleven walks. That sort of thing may have worked for Dan Kolb last year, but his fate this year should remind everyone that it's not a way to be successful in the long term.

Saturday was a different story, as neither the offense nor the pitching was quite as effective. Kris Benson got knocked around pretty well, allowing five runs on eight hits and a walk in six innings, though two of the runs were scored as unearned due to an error by Mike Cameron. Benson struck out just two batters and was removed after throwing just seventy-seven pitches. He did have a single, an RBI and a run on offense, though.

Also contributing on offense were Jose Reyes, who had a pair of singles, Beltran, who had a pair of doubles, and Wright, who had one of each back in his comfort zone of the seventh spot. But, as you might expect on a day when both Anderson and Jose Offerman were in the starting lineup, consistency was hard to come by and the Mets could only mange three runs.

Heath Bell was adequate in relief of Benson, pitching two scoreless innings with two strikeouts, though he allowed two hits and a walk along the way. Royce Ring was somewhat less successful following him, as he gave up a hit and two walks, one of the intentional variety, and recorded just one out before being removed with the bases loaded. He was relieved by Danny Graves, so you wouldn't think the bases would stay loaded for long, but in fact they did. Because when you enter a game and hit the first batter you face, a run scores, but there's still three guys on. The same is true when the next batter reaches on an infield single. Graves was able to get out of the inning before runs started being charged to his account, thus lowering his ERA to 7.09.

Sunday, Victor Zambrano was effective again, though he was no match for Dontrelle Willis. Zambrano gave up seven hits, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. And he only struck out one batter in eight innings. But he also only walked two, which would be good even for a pitcher not named Victor Zambrano. This unusual line added up to just three runs. Zambrano has gotten his ERA all the way down to 3.80, bringing him just .05 shy of Benson for the second-best ERA on the team. Of course, no one currently on the team has an ERA that can compare to Jae Seo's 2.00, but I digress.

The Mets' offense couldn't get anything done against Willis, though sending out a lineup that included Offerman at first base, Woodward in left field and Miguel Cairo at second base probably didn't strike fear in the heart of the Marlins' young lefty. Though Woodward does have higher on-base and slugging percentages this year than three of the five guys batting ahead of him--Reyes, Beltran and Mike Piazza. He had one of the Mets' three hits and their only one for extra bases to put him at .330/.367/.460 for the season in precisely 100 at bats. Beltran and Cameron each had singles while Piazza drew the team's only walk.

The Mets (40-41) have their first Monday game in a month tomorrow, as they'll take on those lucky, lucky Nationals (50-31) in our nation's capital. Kazuhisa Ishii (2-7, 5.68) goes for the Mets against John Patterson (3-2, 3.17), so the Nats may win this one by more than a run. The game will be on ESPN2, where the commentary may not be as annoying as those new Army ads they have all over their website.  ¶ joe | 10:43 PM |