The Mets with John Maine on the mound, stayed with the Cubs and their ace Carlos Zambrano most of the way tonight but with the bullpen not sharp and some sloppy play, the Mets wound up losing by a final of 7-1. After taking two out of three against Philly then arriving in Chicago at 3:00 am and having to face the first place Cubs at home with their ace on the mound tonight’s loss was somewhat predictable.

Zambrano pitched 7 innings only yielding only one run. The Mets managed to get just five hits off the Cubs ace. No one in the Mets line-up had more that one hit and they hit into four double plays which seems to happen in every game so far this young season.

John Maine pitched 6 strong innings giving up just two earned runs, walking two and striking out six.

Duaner Sanchez looked sharp pitching a perfect 7th but the slumping Aaron Heilman could not make it out of the 8th inning after Jose Reyes started the inning botching a ground ball, Heilman hit the next batter and it was all downhill from there. Heilman was able to get two outs with the bases loaded but gave up a single to the gap in left center after getting within a strike of escaping the inning. Four unearned runs were charged to Heilman. Then Jorge Sosa came in with two runners on and gave up a three run homer to Felix Pie making the score 7-1 Cubs.

So, for me it’s just a game the Mets should put behind them. They got in late and lost to a good team with their ace on the mound. No, shame in that. Hopefully they all went back to their hotel rooms straight away to rest up for the day game tomorrow.

Nelson Figueroa is scheduled to start for the Mets tomorrow versus Ted Lilly for the Cubs. Game time is 2:00 pm.

The Mets had their five game winning streak ended by the Phillies tonight in a 5-4 loss.

• Mike Pelfrey did not continue his early season brilliance today. In five innings of duty, he allowed four runs on 10 hits and two walks.
• The Phillies jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on the back of Chase Utley who hit two HRs. Utley has now done yard work for four consecutive games.
• The Mets mounted a comeback to tie the game at 4-4 in the 6th inning, with a triple by Jose Reyes, a single by Luis Castillo, a double by David Wright, a single by Carlos Beltran and a single by Ryan Church.
• Jorge Sosa pitched a scoreless 6th, and Pedro Feliciano got two outs in the seventh, even though he allowed a pinch-hit HR to Pedro Feliz. Feliciano left two on base for Joe Smith, who caught Chris Coste looking to end the inning. Smith proceeded to pitch a scoreless 8th.
• Raul Casanova started in place of the injured Brian Schneider. Casanova doubled in the 8th, but as a pinch-hitter, Angel Pagan failed to drive him home and Casanova was left stranded.
• Endy Chavez made his first start of the year and was 0-3. However, he made a great read and made a perfect through to easily nail Pat Burrell out at 2nd when he tried to turn a 1B off the wall into a 2B.
• In the top of the 9th, the Mets had runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs off Brad Lidge, when Luis Castillo failed to get the bunt down and struck out. David Wright popped out in the spacious foul grounds of CBP, and Carlos Beltran hit a hard ground ball up the middle but Eric Bruntlett decided to make a decent play for once and ended the ball game.

Mike Pelfrey didn’t have his best stuff by any means. He wasn’t throwing as many strikes as he had been early in the season, and he left a few pitches to Utley over the plate. He was lucky to limit the damage to four runs.

The sixth inning was as perfect as I could imagine with big hit after big hit. Even the struggling Beltran got a single, because he was aggressive early in the count. He’s taking way too many pitches, and he’s been striking out because of it. Carlos: Be aggressive. B-E aggressive.

How in the world does Pedro Feliz have two HRs against us this year?

Oh, and Chase Utley is really good. Four HRs against the Mets this year, jeez.

How doesn’t Luis Castillo get that bunt down? Fundamentals guys, jeez. Wright can’t always be superman.

First things first, UHG!! no post game show, it annoys me to no end. The Mets have their own network, inexcusable.

Willie Randolph spoke to the media following the game and Wagner spoke about Heilman,

Willie on Ollie:

“Ollie was in a nice rhythm, threw hard into the mid-90’s. When he’s on like that, he’s tough to hit.”

Willie on Heilman:

“You have to be tough-minded in the bullpen, and Aaron’s as tough as they come. He did a great job. I have complete confidence in him. He understands his job and his position, that your not gonna come through every time but you have to be confident. I have supreme confidence in him.”

Willie on Reyes showing emotion today:

“Party’s always here guys. When your winning and getting hits and scoring runs you’ll see a lot of that. I like when my guys show emotion and have fun playing the game. He (Jose) got excited, hit a big home run, he should show emotion.”

Click here for video of Reyes home run and a little dance.

Willie on Wagner:

“Three days in a row now he’s been solid. Even with the new wind-up. He’s been using his change-up, his slider had good bite to it and he had hop on his fastball. Power against power with Burrell and he did a really good job. He was great today.”

Wagner on Heilman:

“He usually gets off to a bit of a slow start every season, but with his stuff he just needs to find his rhythm. I’m not surprised when he’s successful but today speaks volumes about his character.”

Injury news: According to Brian Hubbuch of the New York Post’s Mets Blog Mets C Brian Schneider has a bruised forearm and is listed as day-to-day, there was some swelling afterward, but post-game X-rays were negative.

Video: Fox Sports.com’s Ken Rosenthal prior to today’s game versus the Phillies spoke with Jose Reyes about returning to his old self.

Exciting, edge of your seat game today, Great win. Now get the brooms ready, got some sweeping to do tomorrow night.

The Mets beat the Washington Nationals 6-0 tonight.

• Mike Pelfrey was brilliant, allowing no runs and only five hits and two walks over seven innings. He struck out two and 65 of his 100 pitches were strikes.
• Jose Reyes began the game with a spark, hitting for a single, double, triple in that order in his first three at-bats.  He failed to hit for the cycle, although he singled again in his fourth at-bat.
• David Wright was 3-4 with a 2 2Bs and a 2-run HR to start the game. He scored two runs and had five RBIs, and now has 15 on the season.
• Carlos Beltran was 1-4 with an RBI.
• Ryan Church batted 2nd, behind Jose Reyes while Luis Castillo batted 8th. 
• Duaner Sanchez pitched the ninth for the Mets, striking out one and allowing one hit.

Game ball definitely goes to Mike Pelfrey who had a fabulous outing.  He was in control the whole time and never got out of control.  He was phenomenal.

Reyes had a fantastic game, but his hammy doesn’t seem 100% yet.  If he was hustling the whole way, that 3B could’ve been an inside the park HR, and he was caught stealing in the first inning.  Take your time Jose it’s a long season.  It was also nice hearing fans chant the ‘Jose-Jose-Jose-Jose’ rather than it being blasted over the loud speakers.

Nice to see Wright getting back into the groove of things, a HR and a 2B, plus another hard hit ball to his former high school team-mate Ryan Zimmerman.

Aaron Heilman still doesn’t look like himself, but I still trust him with the ball in his hands…call me crazy. He got out of the 8th unscathed, but it was scary.

Awesome to see Duaner back in a real game again, he can be such a lift to this team.  Plus his goggles are pretty boss.  Also amazing to see how emotional he was after the game in the post-game interview, behind those goggles I swear I saw tears.

Finally, I told all my friends today it was a guaranteed win because I wore my Mets tube socks today.  Make fun of tube socks all you want, but they get it done for our Mets.  Everybody then asks, why I don’t wear them everyday and you simply have to understand that you cannot abuse the power of the Mets tube socks.  Might’ve been a bit early too early to bring them out, but this was a nice win and I don’t regret it.

By the way, Luis Castillo should bat ninth. 

After today’s loss to the Brewers Mets manager Willie Randolph spoke with the media. Listen to the press conference at WFAN

Before taking question’s Willie said:

“This will put a damper on a nice off day, huh?… Geez. Too many wasted opportunities. We get out to a nice lead and… just a sloppy game. Kind of games we can’t have.”

On Oliver Perez:

“He was struggling with his command. He just couldn’t stop the bleeding. Gotta make sure that doesn’t happen. It’s not the way you want it to be.”

On all the missed opportunities:

“Real dissapointing, lots of guys on and five double plays, geez, this was just a giveaway game. We can’t have it.”

Asked again about the double plays:

“I just addressed that, it’s not good. Gotta make sure you come through in those spots like that.”

On Brady Clark getting double up at home in the eighth inning:

“Brady’s real aggressive, but he has to read that better. With Castillo running (from first base) he’s (Fielder) not gonna double him up. Make sure you stay there (at third). Let them get one out. Not a good read. Mental mistake, that’s the day, too many mental mistakes, too many missed opportunities. If your gonna be a solid ball club you can’t play like that, you can’t play like that. We just have to get it done.”

On addressing the team:

“No reason for that. Ten games into the season. I could be disappointed in the way we played but I’m not gonna make a big deal about it.”

At what point should he address the team:

“No guys, it’s not about that. We got a lot of games to play. I’m disappointed but we have a long way to go and it’s not like I’m ready to flip out on anybody or anything like that. We gotta play better and crisper. That’s what I’m expressing that’s all. I’m not at a point where I gotta think about blasting anybody. We are playing hard, it’s about execution that’s all.”

The questions from the media about addressing the team were justified. If you listen to Willie here he sounds very agitated and rightly so. When Willie finished his opening remarks he said “Go” to let the reporters know that they can ask questions now. I have a sense that Willie will not be patient like he has been in the past. That may be do to job security or he might just think he needs to find a different approach. I just hear a different Willie so far, a little bit more aggressive.

The Mets offense was hitting, but their pitching fell short and the double play ball killed them, as the Brewers won in the series finale, 9 to 7.  Ollie struggled giving up six of the Brew Crew runs despite only going 4 and a third. He tossed a wild pitch, though Schneider did not help by having three balls pop out of his glove. He added a hit batsmen and a homerun, both in the first inning, bringing a quick close to his streak of scoreless innings pitched.  The rest of the Mets arms weren’t much better, with two Sosa wild pitches and another hit batsman (Kendell) by Heilman. Kaplar (3 for 4, HR, 2 doubles) and Cory Hart (4 for 5) both owned the Mets staff.

The Mets bats connected for 14 hits, but 5 double plays killed their attempts to rally, including one to take out a run at home and a bad luck line drive to Prince Fielder.  On a plus side, Wright his his 100th career homerun.  Schneider went 3 for 5 with 3 RBIs.  The Mets had 3 doubles, including ones from Castillo and Pagan, both who went 2 for 4 with a walk.

While 5 double plays and a 10 left on base hurt, its hard to blame this on the Mets offense. Fourteen hits and 7 runs should normally get the job done.  Ollie’s struggles are more to blame for this loss than anything else, even rally killing double plays (a Met record, true).  And don’t blame Willie for waiting so long to pull Ollie. Both starters were struggling, and we can only tax the bullpen so much in this sort of game. 

The Mets were victorious over the Marlins today by a score of 7-2. Johan Santana got the win for the Mets. Mark Hendrickson took the loss for the Marlins. For a full recap, head on over to MLB.com.

A few notes:

• Santana pitched seven innings of two run ball, allowing three hits and striking out eight
• David Wright had a three run double in a six run fourth inning
• Matt Wise, Jorge Sosa, and Scott Schoeneweis combined to pitch a scoreless eighth
• Carlos Beltran 2-5 with two doubles.
• Jose Reyes added two hits but was caught stealing in the 5th.

The same two teams will battle it out again tomorrow night starting at 7:10 ET. The pitchers will be Pedro Martinez and Rick VandenHurk.

The Mets defeated the Nationals today by a score of 7-3.  For a full box score, go to MLB.com.

Oliver Perez had a great outing, giving up only one unearned run on 2 hits.  He also walked none and struck out 5 through 5 innings.  Joe Smith and Duaner Sanchez each gave up one run in one inning of work. 

Jose Reyes went 2-for-3 with 2 SB and a run scored.  David Wright went 2-or-3 as well, with 2 rbi.  Fernando Tatis went 0-for-5 in his first game this spring.  Ryan Church went hitless in 4 at bats with a walk in his return from maternity leave.     

Tommorow is an off day.  The Mets play Cleveland on Wednesday from Tradition Field.    

The Mets beat the Astros in todays spring training game, 3 to 0.

John Maine went a full 3 innings, striking out three, giving up no hits and walking that pesky David Newhan. At least one of his strikeouts was Victor Diaz. This lowers his spring ERA to 4.15. Wags pitched one, Heilman two and each surrendered one hit. The pitching staff as a whole got eight strikeouts.

On the other side of the plate, Jose had one hit, but it went deep. Wright added a triple and Angel Pagan a double, as he tries to earn a spot on the roster. The Stache went hitless in his debut, but given it was thought at one point he’d be at this point in May at least he didn’t shatter into pieces. The Mets had seven hits total, with Endy the only other member of the projected 25 man roster to have one.