Breaking Brooms

The Mets had their "b" lineup working in today's finale against the Brewers, and they helped overcome a deficit created by starting pitcher Tom "Countdown to Retirement" Glavine, but the Brewers prevailed in the ninth and prevented a Mets sweep by winning 5-4.

Hits were hard to come by after the first inning, when the Mets couldn't expand on a 1-0 lead provided by Carlos Beltran's RBI single. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Mike Cameron struck out, David Wright lined out to right, and Victor Diaz struck out to end the threat. Glavine then gave the game away by giving up 2 in the first and two in the second for a 4-1 deficit. Many of the eleven hits that Glavine gave up in his 6 innings of work weren't hit very hard...and if you didn't know that then the Mets' announcers were eager to remind you of that every two minutes.

Mike Cameron started the Mets comeback a two run HR in the 6th, his second in the short time that he has played this season after coming back from injury. Then in the 8th, former Met Ricky Bottalico threw away a Carlos Beltran bunt, and after a wild pitch and a walk, the tying run scored on a fielder's choice, as Mike Cameron's take out slide forced a bad throw to first and Beltran scored the tying run.

After a shaky but effective relief outings by Heath Bell and Roberto Hernandez, Mike DeJean pitched the ninth. Junior Spivey created the winning run and dropped DeJean's record to 1-1 by walking and stealing second. And with two outs, J.J. Hardy drove him in with a ground single to left field for the win. Mets pitchers gave up 5 runs on 17 hits, and their four game winning streak is kaput. Now it's on to Chicago for three games against a struggling Cubs squad before three games at home against the N.L. Central leading St. Louis Cardinals. That kicks off a nine game homestand which includes three against the struggling Reds, and three against (drum roll) the New York Yankees.

Side note: The Braves were all over the Astros today by a score of 16-0. This makes Tom Glavine the first pitcher in the history of baseball to be in two places at once, as there is no doubt in my mind that he was pitching for the Astros as well as the Mets today. That brings his ERA for the season to one million.