Mets 4, Braves 0 (5-4, 3 GB)

Thursday, April 15, 2004

This might have been the Mets' best win of the year so far. Al Leiter (1-0), David Weathers, Orber Moreno, and Braden Looper combined for a 4-hit shutout. Leiter hasn't given up a run in his two starts this year, and has a scoreless innings streak of 24 1/3 innings, dating back to last season. The big spot in this game, though, came with Weathers on the mound. Leiter left with men on first and second, and one out in the sixth. The Mets were up 2-0. After walking Andruw Jones, Weathers got Julio Franco to ground into a double play, ending the inning. That's the type of play that the Mets have been on the other end of the past few years.

Karim Garcia and Jeff Duncan padded the Mets lead in the eighth with RBI singles, making it a 4-0 lead. That's another good sign - the Mets kind of twisting the knife - not settling for just the 2 run lead.

That blew the save opportunity for Looper in the 9th, but he was still pretty good. And I'll take the W over the save any day.

Notes: Ralph Kiner, again, bringing his A-game last night. When Julio Franco comes to the plate with the bases loaded in the sixth, Kiner says, "The old man's up now." Haha. Ralph Kiner calling someone else an old man. But he was great....Another interesting point with Kiner - when he retired, with 369 home runs, he was number six on the all-time list. Now, he's number 57...Interesting situation when Bobby Cox was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the fifth inning. Up until that point, Leiter was cruising, no-hitting the Braves. Then he threw a 3-1 strike that Cox argued vehemently over, and it didn't look like he made that much of a case. But the papers this morning point out that it was probably an attempt to upset Leiter's rhythym. If it was, it worked. On the next pitch, Leiter gave up his first hit.