FIRST TO FORTY?

As I write this, with the Mets up 9-4 in the eighth inning, it looks as though the Mets will be the first National League team to 40 wins. (Uh-oh - it's now 9-7 - I think Heilman just gave up a 3-run bomb). The balls are just flying out of Citizen's Bank Park tonight (8 total).

The bad news - Tom Glavine couldn't make it through 5 innings - getting knocked around (and falling victim to the long ball) in 4-and-a-third innings, and giving up 4 earned runs while throwing 110 pitches. Chad Bradford got the Mets out of the inning after Glavine left in a big jam. The Mets are playing the total opposite of the way they've been playing when Glavine was on the mound for them in past years. His first year with the team, he was the problem. But since then, he's been pitching well, and getting absolutely no support. This year, he's getting plenty of support - evidenced by his 9-2 record. And even when he gets banged around, the Mets have been scoring runs - tonight, too, but Glavine couldn't hang around long enough to get the win.

The Mets jumped right back on top, too, after Glavine left. Future Hall of Famer David Wright crushed homer number 12 on the season (and 53 in his career) as the Mets scored 5 times in the sixth, breaking a 4-4 tie. Earlier, Carloses Beltran* and Delgado went back-to-back with bombs (Delgado's reached an upper deck) to give the Mets a lead. Beltran* now has 18 homers (he had 16 all of last year), and in a similar vein, Jose Reyes walked twice Tuesday night, bringing this year's total high enough to surpass his season total of all last year.

OK - I have to stop writing - big computer problems at the House Sponsored By DirecTV. Hopefully there won't be a slugfest tomorrow, and no computer problems, and I can give a good summary of the game.

JUST HOW GOOD WERE THE METS OUT WEST?: Here's a great stat from the Mets' 4-game series in Arizona. The Mets jumped out to a lead in the first inning of each game, so they led in the first half-inning of each game. And they never looked back. The Mets became the second team in history to lead in every half-inning of a game in a 4-game sweep on the road - the only other team to do that was the 1943 Dodgers. Pretty impressive.

THE KID'S KIDS: Palm Beach completed the 2-game doubleheader sweep of the St. Lucie Mets on Monday, turning the 9 game winning streak into a 2-game losing streak pretty quickly. I have no info right now on Tuesday's game, so I'll update that tomorrow, but the Mets still have a 2-and-a-half game lead in their division.

FANTASY UPDATE: An e-mail having to do with the What If Mets:

"Dear Johnnymets,

More than 10 percent of your readers are wondering how many games are left in the What If Mets season. What is your record? Where does the Southern Bureau stand after his hot start? What is your record since you ditched Pedro?

Signed,
Dave in Brighton"

Honestly, Dave, you couldn't have written this at a better time. The What If Mets just took 2 out of 3 from the Braves (following up the sweep with the division-leading phillies). So the record stands at 60-63. I'm just 3 games out of the wild card - trailing none other than the wild-card leading Nationals, run by the Southern Bureau. And guess who I play next? Thaaaat's right...Big day tomorrow. Big day.

I've started to make so many moves that I decided not to keep track of records since I dropped certain guys. I don't even know if I have a winning record since I dropped Pedro. I wish I could help you with that stat...but I can't.

BEAT THE STREAK: Vladimir Guerrero ended my season-high 12-game hitting streak with an 0-for-4 against Bobby Keppel and the Kansas City Royals Monday night (for the record, Keppel didn't look bad - but he was far from impressive). Shea Hillenbrand started a new streak for me Tuesday, and I'll take one of the hot-hitting Mets, Jose Reyes, Wednesday night. I get nervous at 12 games - I wonder if I'd have heart palpitations or something if I actually threatened a 30-, 40-, or 50+ - game hitting streak.