EVEN STEVEN

Mets 8, Braves 1 (NYM: 46-46, 7 GB; ATL: 52-41)

For the 23rd different time this season, the Mets are at .500. They split the second-half-opening series with the Braves, 2-2. I'm trying to decide whether or not this is disappointing. The Mets struggle against the Braves. So I'm thinking a split is pretty good - it sure is better than losing 3 out of 4, which past Mets teams might have done this series against Atlanta. However, after the way the Mets won the first game of the series, with Mike Piazza's dramatic homer, I think I expected more. Especially considering two of the Braves pitchers, Tim Hudson and Mike Hampton, were making their first starts off the DL.

I didn't have a chance to say anything on Saturday night about Saturday's game. This was Hudson's first start back, and he shut the Mets out for six innings. The worst thing about the game was that he only threw 62 pitches over those six innings. I think he had something absurd like 16 pitches in 4 innings. The Mets had to make Hudson work more in his first start back. He cruised.

The good news is, the Mets didn't let Hampton (public enemy number two in my book, following Kenny Rogers) cruise. They got to him early....and often. THE GREATEST BALLPLAYER WHO EVER LIVED, Jose Reyes, led off the game with a single, went to third on a Mike Cameron single, then scored on a Carlos Beltran* groundout. Reyes was then involved in the run scoring in the second as well, when the Mets got 4 runs, knocking Hampton out of the game. The big blow was an opposite field home run by Cameron which looked like a line drive, but just carried and carried.

The five runs were more than enough for Pedro Martinez* (whose asterisk remains only for superstitious reasons...he no longer deserves the mark....Beltran*, on the other hand, does). Martinez* went six innings, giving up just two hits - no runs - and striking out five. Pedro* threw just 61 pitches over his six innings. His record is now 11-3 and his ERA is 2.60. I was hoping he'd pitch like this, but, man, even me, the most optimistic of fans, didn't expect this.

A couple of interesting events over the weekend. If you missed Saturday's posting, Doug Mientkiewicz is back. He played in Friday night's game. The Mets, when they activated Mientkiewicz, also brought up Juan Padilla. In turn, they demoted Brian Daubach and Royce Ring. Daubach I don't care about (hopefully Jose Offerman follows suit soon - although he had another RBI pinch hit on Sunday), but Ring I find curious. He was one of the Mets' better relievers, especially being lefty. My thought here is that Ring is going back to Norfolk to close out games, and the Mets might shop Braden Looper, to see what they can get for him. If they end up trading Looper, I wouldn't be surprised to see Ring brought back as the closer. Just a thought. If it happens, I think that would be good. If it doesn't happen, I have no idea why they sent Ring down.

More good news, Milwaukee kicked Washington's butt this weekend, so the Mets are just 7 games out. The slide begins....

Florida is now tied with the Mets at the bottom of the NL East, Philly is a game and a half ahead. The Mets are five and a half back of Atlanta (wild card leaders).

I knew Al Leiter would be picked up by someone - but I didn't think it would be so soon...or by the Yankees. There was part of me hoping he'd come back to the Mets and pitch like he did on Sunday night, but I didn't think Leiter would come back to New York, considering his comments about the city (WFAN, Mike and the Mad Dog in particular) in the off-season. I wonder how that will play out now that he's with the Yanks.

A couple of new features for the rest of the season. ELTRAN*'S 2ND HALF will track Carlos Beltran*'s second half (it's the second half of his name), and the WRIGHT WATCH is back...this time tracking David Wright's quest for the team record in doubles. It's a longshot, but it's worth watching.

ELTRAN*'S 2ND HALF: 6-16 (.375 BA) 0 HR, 2 RBI, 1 RUN, 0 SB

WRIGHT WATCH: 2nd Half: 0 doubles Season Total: 22 Team Record: 44

THE KID'S KIDS: This is where Hall of Famer Gary Carter is going to have to come through as a manager. The Gulf Coast Mets are suffering a four-game losing streak, dropping their record to 13-7. They're still in first place, but from 13-3 to 13-7 is a big drop. Sunday's are off days, so there was a (probably) much-needed day off. They'll try to find their winning ways again Monday, which, incidentally, is an off-day for the Major Legaue Mets.

DOING FINE AT 39-39

Mets 5, Phillies 3 (PHI: 40-39; NYM: 39-39, 8 GB)

Despite the ups and downs so far this season (and there really have been a bunch), the Mets are at .500 through June. They went 11-13 in April, 15-13 in May, and finished June 13-13. The Mets have 27 games in July, so a 13-loss month would leave them at 53-52 heading into August. I'd take it. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I just find it interesting that the Mets have lost 13 games in each month so far...if they're going to catch the Nationals, they're going to have to have a better-than-one-game-over-.500 July. I'm not starting to believe in Washington, they've just jumped out to a big enough lead that if they start struggling right now, the Mets still need to play very good ball to catch them.

The Phillies are vanishing...fast. The Mets took 2 out of 3 from Philadelphia, 8 out of 12 so far this season, and will probably pass the Phillies in the standings this weekend. In so doing, the Mets would be beating up on the Marlins, which I believe they can do, and can thus be in third place for next week's 4-game series in Washington, beginning on the 4th of July. Then the Mets go to Pittsburgh (as does johnnymets.blogspot.com - ROAD TRIP!!), before the All-Star Break.

Pedro Martinez*(asterisk could be gone after the All-Star break) earned the win in the 5-3 win over Philly on Thursday. Pedro* was good, not great, throwing too many pitches in the first couple of innings, so he only lasted six, giving up 2 ER, and striking out 6. He's now 9-2. A decent job by the Mets' relievers, pitching out of jams - Heath Bell, Royce Ring, and Roberto Hernandez, got the Mets to Braden Looper in the ninth, for a very uncharacteristic 1-2-3 inning.

After the Phillies took a 1-0 lead on a Jimmy Rollins homer, Chris Woodward hit a 2-run single to give the Mets the lead in the second inning. In the fourth, the Mets got the rest of their runs. After another Woodward hit, this time a double, the Mets had runners on second and third, and THE GREATEST BALLPLAYER WHO EVER LIVED, Jose Reyes, lined a triple to the wall in center, making it 4-1, then Mike Cameron singled Reyes home, making it 5-1.

Interesting lineups in this one. The Phillies had Kenny Lofton leading off, and Jimmy Rollins hit fifth! for the Phillies. I found that strange. The Mets continue to keep David Wright in the 6th or 7th spot in the order. I just don't understand it. Marlon Anderson hit sixth on Thursday, and Wright 7th! I don't get it. I know Willie Randolph must have a reason he's keeping Wright low in the order, I just haven't heard it yet. Maybe I missed it. But it can't be to take the pressure off Wright anymore...he's such a good hitter. He should be hitting second, in my opinion. Heck - he's producing more than Carlos Beltran* - maybe he should be moved down to 7th in the order.

Interesting note for me. I just realized, as I watched Heath Bell give way to Royce Ring, that the Mets have a young righty-lefty combo coming out of the bullpen with great names - "Ring Bell", "Bell Ring". I call dibs on marketing rights.

A bonus for this game: Ted Robinson wasn't doing the TV coverage. I haven't been watching Wimbledon, and unfortunately I haven't watched much of the Mets lately: I wonder if Robinson is on assignment. Anyway, it was just Fran Healy and Keith Hernandez in the booth. Healy was his usual dopey self, but Hernandez was ON. He was great. First of all, Healy and Hernandez called out Sammy Sosa, saying they were glad the Mets didn't make the Sosa-for-Floyd trade that had been talked about last year. Then they started talking about how thin Sammy Sosa looked...then they mentioned Ivan Rodriguez (hadn't noticed his physical difference), and Ryan Klesko ("like night and day", they said, and I agree) all losing weight. Hernandez said - "You're seeing it all over baseball - it's pretty clear what's going on." Talk about saying it, without really saying it. But there was more from Hernandez: a crowd shot showed a little kid with ice cream all over his face, and they were making fun of the kid, and then at the top of the screen, some dude with a tattoo on his arm walked through the shot, and Hernandez started talking about how ugly the tattoo was. Not as entertaining as I write this. Hernandez also said he loved when fans did the wave at Shea. I must admit, when that place is packed, like it used to be, the wave did look cool. I always thought the players wouldn't like it...but it's nice to hear Hernandez did. I feel like I contributed to something by taking part all those years ago.

Here's part of why Fran Healy is a dink (but a harmless dink - like I've said, I'll take him any day over Robinson). During Wednesday night's game, Cliff Floyd sent a hard grounder through the first/second base hole, but since the Phillies had the shift on, it wasn't a base hit - it was a groundout. Healy says, "That should be illegal!" No it shouldn't, Fran. If you're a good hitter (and not stubborn, like Ted Williams), spray the ball the other way, and get yourself a base hit. Thursday, Floyd dropped a bunt down the third base line against the shift, and got a base hit. Healy didn't talk about how the shift should be illegal when it was exploited.

Also mentioned during the game on Thursday - Mets PR man Jay Horwitz celebrated his 4,000th game with the Mets. That's something. He's awesome...and very funny. He told Matt Laughlin he spilt his 3,400th Coke during the game. The Elias Sports Bureau said Horwitz had seen 2,010 wins, 1988 losses, and 2 ties (I guess games called due to rain and never made up?). Horwitz has had some low times when he's had to represent the Mets to the media (I'm thinking 1993 with Vince Coleman's firecracker, Bret Saberhagen's chloride, and more recently, with Grant Roberts' pot, but there have been many more), but he's also been with them for some good ones. Hernandez said the 1986 Mets all voted to take a cut of their Championship checks to give something to Jay because he wouldn't get a World Series check. I hope Horwitz is around for a while more...he's a Mets establishment.

CARTER COUNT: The minor league baseball website doesn't do the Gulf Coast League much justice...but so far as I can tell, the undefeated season in Hall of Famer Gary Carter's mangerial debut is over. The Gulf Coast Mets are now 5-1, so I can only assume they split their doubleheader with the Nationals today. Still, the Hall of Fame managerial career of Carter is off to a great start.

***We're not going to do a running commentary on whether or not Mike Piazza deserves the starting nod at catcher in the All-Star Game, but I just wanted to point out, first of all, that Piazza got another hit (and was robbed of a second by Kenny Lofton) on Thursday, going 1-for-4. Secondly, I don't think my numbers on Piazza added up to his current numbers. The homers are what I'm talking about...but the average, runs and RBI should be right. I think I confused my doubles and home run columns when I was looking up his stats. The bottom line is that since May 26th, Piazza has been playing very well, and is much more deserving of an All-Star nod than his numbers would indicate. Now, whether or not he deserves that nod over, say, Paul LoDuca or Ramon Hernandez is debatable. But he still has more power than LoDuca, and Hernandez is hurt. So there. Beltran* is another story - he'll be starting in the All-Star Game undeservedly, but I still think he'll finish the year with some good stats. "He's a great second-half player", so they say....