Mets 4, Brewers 2

Walking out of Shea Stadium yesterday, in my 2008 season debut, I proclaimed the Mets have seen the last of an under-.500 record this season. With a 4-2 win against the Brewers tonight, the Mets are on their way, now 5-4 and with Johan Santana set to throw tomorrow in his Shea debut.

Tonight was more than you could have ever expected from Nelson Figueroa, a journeyman pitcher from Brooklyn who was drafted by the Mets in 1995, but never made it to the bigs. With Pedro and El Duque out for who knows how long, Mets fans can sleep a lot easier having seen Pelfry pitch well and now Figueroa. Facing a talented lineup, Figueroa looked sharp all night and always seemed in control. He credited pitching coach Rick Peterson and catcher Raul Casanova for outlining a great game plan. If Figueroa can pitch close to how well he did tonight in the five-spot, the Mets won't have to worry about when Pedro or El Duque come back. Figueroa pitched 6 innings, gave up just two hits and two runs. He struck out six and walked two, throwing only 85 pitches. Best of all he pitched with confidence, as if he's been here and done it before.

For as well as Figueroa performed, even flirting with a no-hitter for four innings, a big story tonight was the bullpen. Mets fans have been all over the bullpen. Newsday's Ken Davidoff wrote a column in Friday's paper detailing the group's lack of success. But tonight the trio of Joe Smith, Aaron Heilman and Billy Wagner delivered three scoreless innings to preserve a tight lead. For the record, Heilman's ERA fell to 7.71. Wagner, who pitched in a non-save situation last night, came in to record his first save without a hiccup.

Offensively the Mets haven't lit up the scoreboard yet, but they're finding ways to score enough runs. Angel Pagan came through again, batting 2-for-4 with an RBI. David Wright, who's gotten off to a slow start, delivered two hits. Carlos Delgado (1-for-4) added an RBI, as did Damion Easley (1-for-3). Casanova picked up his first Met hit and got an RBI on it as well.

The scary news for Mets fans is obviously Jose Reyes coming out of the game. The initial reports of tightness in his left hamstring don't sound terribly serious, but it brings back bad memories of Reyes' early career where he was consistently injured. My guess is Reyes will be back sooner than later, but the way injuries have piled up for the Mets, anything's possible. Willie Randolph didn't seem concerned after the game.

When Reyes went out Marlon Anderson came in to play second and Easley shifted to short. Anderson, who's normally reserved for a pinch-hit role, filled in nicely and made all the plays his way. He even backed up an errant throw from David Wright to prevent the runner from advancing to second. How do you not love Marlon Anderson?

Willie Randolph on Figueroa: "We're proud of the kid in front of his hometown people ... Exactly what I was looking for ... Great job."

Randolph on bullpen: Another good job stepping up. When you play every day you're going to go through ups and downs ... Bullpen is going to be fine. We have a nice group of guys down there. I believe in them so I'm going to go to them."

Reyes: "I'll take it day by day and see how I feel tomorrow. I don't think I'm going to play tomorrow. ... Right now it's still sore so we'll see how it feels tomorrow."

A few notes:

Carlos Beltran reminded us again just how good a center fielder he is with a terrific late-inning catch on a deep fly ball to center field. He catches just about everything.

Here's a quick summary of currently injured players:

Jose Reyes

Pedro Martinez *DL

El Duque *DL

Ramon Castro *DL

Luis Castillo

Duaner Sanchez *DL

Matt Wise *DL

Moises Alou *DL

It's only April 11!

The Mets, though, will persevere. 

And of course, some guy named Johan is still pitching.

Never gonna give you up

So the Mets have been Rick rolled and the team's brass is refusing to admit it.
Now they're playing a different song every day this week and testing fan reaction. Last night it was "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees. We'll also hear "Livin' On a Prayer" by Bon Jovi, "Movin' Out" by Billy Joel, "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond and "Build Me Up Buttercup" by the Foundations.
If we had to choose from that list, we'd be forced to pick "I'm a Believer" because at least it goes with the Mets' slogan. "Sweet Caroline" is the Red Sox song, so it's appropriate we move away from that one and "Build Me Up Buttercup" hits a little too close to home — mainly because the Mets have "just let us down" too many times.
We like the suggestion of our friends over at Mets Fan Club.com, who suggested the team play the "Curly Shuffle" each night.
Or how about this one ... we don't have an eighth inning sing along? Since when do we have to occupy every second of our time with some form of manufactured entertainment at a baseball game?
Whatever happened to watching the game?

Daily Links — 4/5

Where are they now: Neil Allen. A key player in the deal that brought Keith Hernandez to the Mets, Allen is now a minor league pitching coach in the Tampa Bay Rays' system. The Montgomery advertiser published an interview with him Friday.

Nelson Figueroa has travelled a very interesting path to get back to the big leagues. Hopefully the next chapter in his story will be a positive one for the Mets.

The Class-AA Mets will spend at least two more seasons in Binghamton.

Perhaps it's because I'm a community journalist, but I always love seeing these stories about big leaguers from their local media outlets.

The Mets and Bermuda have gotten together for a tourism promotion. Very strange business partnership.

Off-day blues

To help you get through the Mets' first off day of the season, we present to you one of the greatest music videos Martha Quinn ever introduced. Look closely at the 6-second mark for the greatest catch ever made by a first baseman.

Links of the day — 4/3

As the Mets leave Miami, the Baltimore Sun reports that the Florida Marlins are paying their entire active roster less than the Yankees pay Alex Rodriguez. That even includes eight disabled players.

The biggest reason the Phils won't repeat in the NL east this year: They have very weak pitching. Hamels is great, Myers is decent and everyone else sucks.

Not sure we'll see this kid this season, but he looked excellent in the spring. When the Mets do get him up here they could be very tough against predominantly left-handed hitting teams (like the Phillies and Braves) with Niese, Santana and Perez.

We're a couple days late on this one, but we couldn't resists the temptation to pay tribute to the best Mets rookie of all time: Sidd Finch.

The New York Times reports of scientists who developed a way to evaluate managers.

Mets 13, Marlins 0

By David Lennon
Newsday
MIAMI - With no early word on the status of Pedro Martinez, the Mets went about their business before last night's game against the Marlins. John Maine and Mike Pelfrey were immersed in their usual game of chess while a handful of other players checked out a double feature of the Vin Diesel spy vehicle, "XXX," followed by "Office Space."
Fretting about Martinez wasn't going to make his left hamstring heal any faster, and once they stepped onto the field, the Mets began having too much fun to notice he was missing.
David Wright had three hits, including a rocket three-run homer, Ryan Church also went deep and Carlos Beltran tied a team record with three doubles to back Oliver Perez, who really didn't need that much help in the Mets' 13-0 win over the Marlins at Dolphin Stadium.
"That's why I love these guys," manager Willie Randolph said. "They don't make excuses. They just play the game."
Click here to read full story

Marlins 5, Mets 4

By David Lennon
Newsday
MIAMI - It wasn't the surgically repaired shoulder that betrayed Pedro Martinez in the fourth inning of Tuesday night's game against the Marlins. When Martinez let go of his final pitch, a curveball to Matt Treanor, he grabbed at the back of his left leg with his glove hand and screamed in pain.
Treanor slapped a ground ball at David Wright, who flipped a wild throw over to first base, but all eyes were locked on Martinez, who hobbled stiffly around the mound. When manager Willie Randolph and assistant trainer Mike Herbst appeared, the conversation was brief. Martinez soon walked slowly toward the dugout, and after being diagnosed with a strained left hamstring, it could be a while before he is seen again.
The Mets won't know the severity of the strain until Marti.nez has an MRI, but he's not generally known as a quick healer. Martinez also has a history of pitching through a variety of injuries, such as the torn tendon in his left calf that helped end his 2006 season, so it's possible the hamstring could have been a problem before Tuesday night.
Robert Andino, who was inserted in the 10th inning to play third base, smacked a two-out home run off reliever Mike Wise to deliver a 5-4 win for the Marlins and make the Mets' long night even worse.
Click to read full story

Daily Links — April 1

Edward Thoma of the Mankato Free Presss in Minnesota broke down the Johan Santana trade over the weekend from a bottom line perspective. Apparently the Twins drew 33,000 fans per Santana start in 2007. Caught a little of last night's Twins game on ESPN and the fans sure seemed to like what they saw in Carlos Gomez, just one of the many ex-Mets to get off to a good start to his season.

Out Magazine, yes the same Out that once ran an op/ed piece from a man who claimed to be the partner of an unnamed gay baseball star, had an interesting blog item on the Phillies once being New York's baseball team.

Change is definitely the big theme this season. The Rocky Mountain News chose to focus on change in its 2008 baseball preview.

The 10 best games at Shea Stadium, according to the Courier News

Binghamton's pumped to be getting Mike Carp back. He looks less like a ballplayer than Bruce Berenyi.