Pedro Martinez pitched 7 strong innings. He made just one mistake giving up the two run homerun to the Met nemesis Chipper Jones. David Wright hit two home runs. The Mets played good defense, Duaner Sanchez again doing his thing and Billy Wagner strikes out the side to end it although he gave me some agata in the process. After the game I watched the highlights on SNY but the one highlight they didn't show for me was the most important. Jose Reyes in the top of the ninth led off with a drag bunt single, stole second, went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Paul Lo Duca, then scored on a Carlos Delgado sac fly. Now that's winning baseball, simply text book! When Reyes is on, the Mets win, it's as simple as that.

Pedro is 5 and 0, so much for that toe problem. This guy is a winner, he has an intangible to go along with his great stuff, he just knows how to compete and has tremendous desire to win. He is just so much fun to watch. Hopefully Tom Glavine will be ready to take the spotlight tomorrow night. It's early but it would be great for the Mets to win this series. One game at a time, one game at a time.

Through the first twelve games of the season, the Mets had a 10 and 2 record, their best start in franchise history. During the last seven games, the Mets record has been 2 and 5. What has changed? A lot has been made of Victor Zambrano’s inability to pitch effectively which is surely a contributor. But let’s take a look at the lead off hitter Jose Reyes.

The speedy shortstop got off to a very good start. Through the first 12 games, Reyes hit .283 with 15 hits and 4 walks while scoring 13 runs! He hit a couple of triples and stole bases causing havoc on the base lines. In his last seven games, Reyes is batting just .138. He has only scored 3 runs and walked just once. It seems that the production of the Mets offense is directly related to Reyes’s offense, when he does not hit, the Mets slump. Lately he is upper cutting everything popping the ball up and not taking pitches out of the strike zone. Jose must learn how to get into hitter’s counts and take walks whenever possible. He is the key to the Mets being able to score runs early and putting pressure on the opposing pitcher.

Is Reyes the lead off hitter of a championship caliber team? When he is hot, there is no question that he is. The problem is that he has too many of these periods where he can’t get on base. With his speed, he has got to learn to hit down on the ball and to understand the strike zone better. Doing so will increase his number of infield hits and walks. He’s going to get his doubles, triples, and occasional homeruns but his focus must be just to get on first base. Speed is his game. He can turn walks into doubles. He can steal third, and score on a sacrifice fly or ground ball out. When Reyes plays like that he ignites the offense. Hopefully he’ll catch that spark again soon.

Notes: I mentioned in an earlier blog that the Mets should have dl-ed Beltran. I hate when I’m always right. For the amount of time Beltran has been “day to day”, he could have been resting and Lastings Milledge could have been playing center. I know there is issues with the 40 man roster but come on figure it out and get him up here. If Beltran is close, I still say put him on the 15 day DL now so he can really get his hamstring healed up. We’ll figure out what to do with Milledge later.

WFAN is the flagship station of the Mets yet during “Imus In the Morning”, they don’t give the Mets score. They give the Yankees, Braves, Red Sox and maybe a couple of others, but not the Mets. What’s up with that? Who runs that station anyway, Mike Francesa? (or is it Franceser)