Mets 11, Brewers 6 (52-55, 8 GB)

Let me begin with a couple of stat lines.

First, this pitcher's line: 5 1/3 IP, 8 H, 3 BB, 7K, 6 R, 4 ER. Pretty crappy, but good enough for a win by Victor Zambrano. He got a nice little welcome to the Mets gift. Usually the Mets hang new pitchers out to dry by not scoring any runs. But Zambrano is now 1-0 in the National League (despite a 6.75 ERA), mostly because........

......of this stat line: 3-for-5, 2 2B, HR, 2 R, 6 RBI!!!! You know who put those numbers up Thursday afternoon. None other than future Hall of Famer David Wright. If you didn't see Wright's first inning home run, turn on ESPN now, and wait for them to show it. It was a BOMB. This guy's good. His line yesterday looked like something from when he was tearing up Double-A. He's really starting to find his stroke. Watch out Pete Rose and Hank Aaron. Not to mention Tris Speaker. He's the all-time doubles leader. Or should I say, WAS, the all-time doubles leader. After hitting 2 doubles yesterday, 6 of Wright's 15 hits have been doubles. In 13 games, Wright has 6 doubles. Let's just say he plays about 150 games a year (assuming he doesn't break Cal Ripken's consecutive games streak), for 10 years. That averages out to 750 doubles in his career. And we all know Wright will play at least 20 years, if not 30. That means he'll shatter Speaker's record of 792 career doubles. We're watching history here folks.

OK. So the Mets swept the Brewers. I'm very happy about it. But if they could just hit like this against other teams, namely the Braves, it would probably feel a little better. Believe it or not, statistically, the Brewers are not a bad pitching team. They rank tenth in the majors in ERA. So you figure if the Mets could hit their pitching, they could hit others. Maybe the bats are coming around. Hope it isn't too late.

Mike Cameron sure is smoking the ball. And the Mets seem to have figured out how to hit with the bases loaded. Mike Piazza is still slumping pretty bad, so that's very worrisome. Sadly, I almost prefer to see the Mets 1,2, 6, 7, 8 hitters to the 3, 4, 5 hitters lately. Hmm..no offense, Kaz, but has anyone missed Matsui these last few games? I still feel he's one of the best clutch hitters on the team - if not THE best - but THE GREATEST BALLPLAYER WHO EVER LIVED Jose Reyes just looks so much better at shortstop.

So neither Zambrano or Kris Benson have been too impressive in their Mets debuts. I hope that means they'll only get better for the rest of the season. But who knows, this is the Mets we're talking about. But I think Zambrano was very, very nervous before this start. So maybe it's the best possible thing that he was given a 6-0 lead, almost blew it, and then held on to get a win. Maybe now he thinks he'll only get better, and he'll be more relaxed when he pitches at Shea. I'm reaching folks, but we need these guys to perform lights out, or else it's lights out on the season.

This weekend will be yet another test for the Mets. It's the Mets at Saint Louis. Here's a refresher on how the Mets did in their last series with the Cardinals. A 5-4 win, come-from-behind, when the Mets scored 2 in the bottom of the ninth to beat Jason Isringhausen. The Mets followed that up with a 1-0 loss, and then had one of their worst games of the season on a Thursday afternoon, getting pummeled 11-4. Just an ugly game. So the Mets lost 2 out of 3, but they held their own against a very good team. Now we'll see if they can beat a very good team 2 out of three. Because the Mets can't afford to lose another series the rest of the season. The pitching matchups for this series look phenomenal:

Friday: Tom Glavine vs. Matt Morris
Saturday: Kris Benson vs. Woody Williams
Sunday: Al Leiter vs. Jason Marquis

Let's Go Mets.