You better be ready today. As a Mets fan you know it's inevitable. At some point during the course of the day be it at work or play, someone will come up to you and say "The Yankees have a better record than the Mets". And of course they will say it in that arrogant tone that all Mets fans recognize. You know the tone, it has that entitled feel to it. If you live in Jersey like I do, generally you're out numbered as a Mets fan. The Yankees draw a huge portion of their fans from west of the Hudson unlike the Mets whose majority of fans come from the island. So out here in "Soprano's land", we Mets fans generally take a beating. I'm counting the minutes till one of my cohorts comes by spewing "Naaa Naaa Na Naaa Na" at me. Hey I have to give the Yankees credit. They have played extremely well considering the injuries they have suffered. They have won two in a row from their nemesis from Boston, one drubbing and the other a pitchers duel while our Mets went into LA winning the first game on a great effort by Soler and losing last night in Pedro's worst outing of the year (but once again I must point out that the Mets hitters early on left two runners on in two innings). After last nights games the Mets record stands at 34 and 23 while the Yankees have climbed to 35 and 22. For some reason, the Mets have hit a barrier at 12 games over .500. They have now failed at 6 different attempts to pass that mark.

Of course Yankee fans will also point out that their team climbed to the top decimated by injuries. Well just point out to them that the Mets have been in first place since the beginning of the season and that they have not exactly been the poster boys for physical fitness either. The Mets have also had a slew of injuries this year starting with Kaz Matsui going on the disabled list at the beginning of the season with an injured knee suffered in spring training. Carlos Beltran missed a bunch of games early on with a hamstring pull. Alexander Hernandez, who played great defensively at second, took a hike after he suffered from a bulging disk in his back. Then in San Francisco, Brian Bannister pulled up lame rounding third, another injured hamstring. Don't expect him back till after the All Star break. His replacement, John Maine, is just now making rehab starts after he went down after one start with an injured middle finger. Then of course you have Victor Zambrano running off of the mound on May 6th with his elbow shattered. Recently of course Xavier Nady had an appendectomy putting him on the shelf for a couple of weeks at least. And of course last night we get the word that Jose Reyes has a slight sprain in his wrist, Cliff Floyd sprains his left ankle running to third, and Carlos Beltran looked like he may have hurt his back diving for J. D. Drew's drive in the gap. Even Gary Cohen is out with an appendectomy!

Anyway you shake it, the Mets, like their cross town rivals, have been beat up pretty bad by the injury bug. I'm sure Cliff is going to miss a few days after his foot went perpendicular to his leg. Hopefully Beltran will be in the lineup tonight or the Mets outfield will be manned completely by fill ins (even though we know Milledge is more than a fill in). I would not count on Beltran tonight. He has shown that if he doesn't feel 100 percent, he doesn't play (unlike Mr. Wright who has to be pried out of the lineup with a crowbar regardless of how he feels).

This is a very tough stretch for the Mets right up till the All Star break. It's not going to be easy especially with their health in the shape it's been in. Hopefully they can hold their own while they get their players back little by little. And as for the Yankees--really I don't pay that much attention to them until the Mets play them again. That will be at the end of this month. Let's hope the Mets can get healthy by then.  

Notes: Don't look now but the Phillies have won three in a row and the last two were in Arizona. If the Phillies have a good road trip and the Mets continue to stumble along, it could get quite interesting next week in Philadelphia.

Glavine goes tonight pitching on only three days rest.