Not Quite as We Hoped

Perhaps Gothamist was a little too hopeful going into last night's Mets-Braves game. We were daydreaming of a pitchers duel going into the 9th inning with the Mets winning in the bottom half of the 9th. Not exactly how things turned out as the Mets lost 4-3. Pedro Martinez gave up three runs in the 1st inning, allowing the Braves get a good jump on the Mets, who answered with one run in the 2nd. For his part, John Smoltz pitched good enough to pick up his first win of the season, allowing 1 run in 6.2 innings. Martinez picked up the loss, his first of the season, allowing 4 runs in 7 innings pitched.

The Mets offense showed signs of life in the 9th inning, when they rallied to within 1 run of tying, only to fall short. With two outs in the 9th (the two coming on a double play), Eric Valent hit a double, followed by another double by Jose Reyes. Reyes scored on a single by Mike Piazza, who was out despite going 3 for 4 in Monday's game. Carlos Beltran, who was the hero in the first Martinez-Smoltz match-up, added a single that advanced the tying run to 3rd. Piazza would remain at 3rd, as Cliff Floyd, who has had a hot bat as of late, popped up to end the game.

Despite the loss by the Mets, Smoltz had good things to say about his division rivals, "They don't have the sense of the previous Mets' teams. They just have something different. They're going to be a team that's going to be there all year, I can promise you that." So they are, in fact, new Mets.

Another photo and a panorama of Shea here.