Argh

When is winning two of three a disappointment? When you're the New York Mets playing the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Mets' offense fared well enough against some decent starting pitching. But one bad inning from Oliver Perez on Thursday brought an end to dreams of the team's first series sweep in a month. The Phillies and Braves are doing all they can to keep the Mets comfortably in first place, but every time the boys from New York seem about to get on a roll they go and do something silly like lose a game to the Pirates.

The Mets did put eighteen runs on the board in three games despite losing Carlos Beltran to an abdominal strain before game two and seeing Moises Alou's return from injury delayed yet again. I think this time it was the gout. Possibly polio. Lastings Milledge started the final two games in center and had a terrific overall series with six hits including two home runs and a double. Paul Lo Duca actually outhit Ramon Castro over the course of this series, going four for eight with three doubles compared to Castro's two singles in four at bats. In general, the offense seems to have woken up a bit, scoring 5.14 runs per games since the All-Star break, more than half a run better than their pre-break average.

John Maine had the best start of the series, allowing two runs in seven innings on five hits and a walk with seven strikeouts and hitting his first career home run. But Tom Glavine was good enough to get career with number 299 on Wednesday, allowing three runs in six innings on eight hits and three walks with two Ks. Then there was Perez, who absolutely dominated his former team for five innings, allowing one hit and striking out eight, before coming undone in the sixth, when he allowed five runs that will all count as unearned due to his own throwing error. Then Scott Schoeneweis and Joe Smith combined to give up three runs of their own in the seventh as a result of which Smith has been sent to AAA for the first time in his professional career.

The Mets (57-44) remain four games up on their nearest competition and once again boast the best record in the National League. If that's not enough to make a Mets fan feel better after Thursday's game, the next four games on the schedule feature the Washington Generals...I mean Nationals (43-58) providing the opposition. Jorge Sosa (7-5, 4.36), Orlando Hernandez (6-4, 3.14), Mike Pelfrey (0-7, 6.12) and Maine (11-5, 3.04) will start for the Mets against Mike Bacsik (3-6, 4.39), Tim Redding (1-2, 2.92), Billy Traber (2-1, 4.09) and Jason Bergmann (2-5, 4.56). I am planning to be at Shea Stadium for the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, so of course the forecast calls for scattered thunderstorms. But if you happen to be at the game or just watching at home and you see a handsome you man sporting stylishly long hair and a 1987 Doc Gooden #16 road jersey, feel free to say hi. If you're watching at home, say it pretty loudly or I won't be able to hear you.