GAINING GROUND

Mets 5, Pirates 1 (NYM: 61-58; PIT: 51-69) 7.5 GB East, 2.5 GB Wild Card

Two in a row over Pittsburgh. Just what the Mets neeeded. There's no room for celebration yet, though, because the Mets need to sweep this series. After these first two games, there's no reason to think they can't do it....but we're talking about the Mets here, so you never know.

Teams continue to walk Cliff Floyd intentionally to get to David Wright (when he hits behind Floyd). Wright is the first person I've seen in a long time who says he's personally offended when teams do that, and then has the ability to come through consistently when that happens. On Wednesday night, Carlos Beltran* (more on him later) singled, stole second, and then Floyd was walked. After a wild pitch put those runners on second and third, Wright ripped a single, scoring both men, putting the Mets ahead 3-1. Only thing better would have been a double.

Some good news comes out of this game. First and foremost, Beltran* was back. He started and played center field. I didn't see him get many chances out in center, but his first at-bat he walked, and then scored all the way from first on a single into right-center field by Floyd. So that was a good sign. Then he singled, and stole second...and later scored on the Wright hit. He doesn't seem to be bothered psychologically (on offense at least) by the collision. And he played one of his better offensive games of the year. So that's a very good sign of things to come from Beltran*.

Other good news was the game pitched by Tom Glavine. Again, he had a strong outing. One run in seven innings. He gets the win, improving to 9-10. Aaron Heilman got the save, pitching a very strong two innings in relief of Glavine (coming in with two runners on and leaving them both stranded). The RBI by Wright were numbers 74 and 75 on the year - putting him one behind team leader Cliff Floyd, who picked up one RBI on the night. A solid game all around.

There was some bad news, though. First off, Mike Piazza missed the game, and is day-to-day with a small fracture in his left wrist. The team doctors want to wait for the swelling to go down before they decide how much time he will really need to miss. The Mets want to avoid putting Piazza on the disabled list, so for now Piazza won't be in the lineup the next couple of days.

Also bad news is that on Thursday Steve Trachsel will make his (supposedly) last rehab start at Triple-A Norfolk. I say supposedly, because his last rehab start was supposed to be his last. He doesn't seem happy - I think he thinks he's being jerked around by Willie Randolph. Really, though, I can't blame Randolph. Jae Seo's been pitching lights out. The problem here is Seo should have been in the rotation long ago, and the Mets shouldn't have messed around for so long with Kaz Ishii. If the Mets can somehow move Seo to the bullpen a la Aaron Heilman, that might solve a little of the reliever problem, and make Trachsel happy by getting him back into the Major League rotation. I think if Seo goes to the bullpen it would be very similar to the relief role Masato Yoshii played in the 1999-2000 post-season runs - and it would be effective.

The Braves won Wednesday night, so the Mets couldn't gain ground in the division (everyone in the East actually won, except for Washington, losers to Philly). The Phillies, with the win over Washington, moved into a tie for the wild card with Houston. This is good news, because, all together now: PHILLY DOESN'T SCARE ME. The Nationals play a doubleheader with the Phillies tomorrow, so that could be good - either one team gets swept, and the Mets pick up some ground no matter what (granted, a Mets win over the Pirates is essential), or the teams split, and it's essentially no harm no foul. But the better news is that then Washington has to play the Mets - so hopefully it's a taxing doubleheader.

Now is the time for the Mets to make a move. A big weekend against the Nationals could put them within a game of the Wild Card. I've been saying it all week - these six games at Shea are huge, before the Mets head West again. So far, the Mets have taken advantage of a bad Pittsburgh team. We'll see how they do Thursday against Pittsburgh phenom Zach Duke, who I've mentioned here before. He's having a fabulous rookie season. He was called up on July 7, the day before the Mets went to Pittsburgh before the All-Star break, so he didn't face them then, but he's been shutting everyone down since his call-up. I have a feeling he's going to get a little bit roughed up before the season ends (all rookies do), so I hope the Mets start that trend, before he goes on to a great career.

ELTRAN*'S: In his return, Beltran* was 1-for-2 with 2 walks. He scores a lot when he gets on base - that just shows how important he is to this offense. Much like Jose Reyes. So, for the second half: 28-for-101 (.277 AVG.) 3 HR, 15 RBI, 22 Runs, 7 SB

WRIGHT WATCH: The aforementioned RBI single for Wright, in a 1-for-2 night, lifts his average to .304, but no doubles.

SECOND HALF: 10 SEASON TOTAL: 32 TEAM RECORD: 44

WRIGHT NEEDS 12 DOUBLES IN THE TEAM'S FINAL 43 GAMES!!!

THE KID'S KIDS: Ho-hum. Another day, another win for the Mets. 9-3 over the Nationals. 32-15 on the season, 10 games ahead. Still no word from Port St. Lucie on a post-season. I'll try calling again tomorrow.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: It has just come to my attention that the Jets-Vikings preseason game will be televised on Friday night nationally on CBS. Chad Pennington will be starting for the Jets. Seems like this weekend will be a good time to start up johnnyjets.blogspot.com. Stay tuned, please.