Mets Week Six: At least we've still got Glavine

This past week saw the Mets begin their toughest road trip to date and as a result they had a pretty bad week. Losing two games in Milwaukee and one and a half (if we're being honest) in Philadelphia left them just one game up in the NL East. For once the offense wasn't to blame, as they had a pretty good week, scoring more than six runs per game and at least four in every game that lasted more than five innings. Rather, as one might expect when a team starts both Jose Lima and Jeremi Gonzalez in a week, the pitching was the source of the trouble.

With forty percent of their starting rotation tied behind their back, the Mets really couldn't afford subpar relief pitching or a merely human week from Pedro Martinez. But that is what they got. Pedro gave up seven runs in fourteen innings en route to two Met losses, though the fact that he also struck out twenty makes it hard to be too concerned about his future prospects.

The bullpen was not quite so mediocre, however. Met relievers pitched 13.2 innings this week and allowed 14 runs. The newly touchable Duaner Sanchez was the lead culprit, allowing his first six runs of the season in just 2.1 innings of work. But Heath Bell and Chad Bradford struggled as well. On the bright side, Billy Wagner pitched two innings and allowed just one hit while striking out six.

One encouraging bit of news from the week was the performance of Jeremi Gonzalez. True, if you look at the box score, he appears to have allowed three runs in five innings. But the third of those runs scored after Aaron Heilman relieved Gonzalez. And the second was a clearly blown call by the home plate umpire, awarding Prince Fielder a home run on a ball that bounced off the top of the fence and back into play. Gonzalez isn't going to be anything special for the Mets and he might not even be competent from here on out, but right now he looks like he'll at least be less embarrassing than Lima.

Now the Mets limp on St. Louis and, from there, home to face the Yankees. It is worth noting that even in losing four out of six, the Mets outscored their opponents 37-34 over the course of the week. Despite all of their problems, they're not getting blown out. Still, if they let Jose Lima pitch again, someone needs to sit Omar Minaya down and give him a stern talking to. It's for his own good.