It'll all be over soon

The Mets got a well-pitched game for the first time in ages (or five days) but it was not enough as they were shut out by Joel Piñeiro. As a result of this and the Phillies' 6-4 win over the Braves, they are now tied atop the NL East and one game behind the Padres in the NL Wild Card race. The Mets still control their own destiny as all they have to do is win all of their remaining games to win the division. The only problem is that now one of those games might take place on Monday in Philadelphia.

Pedro Martinez was not perfect, but he was very good. A Luis Castillo error allowed a run to score and forced Pedro to throw 25 pitches in the first inning. But he moved past that and got through seven innings on 105 pitches, allowing a total of three runs on seven hits and one walk with eight strikeouts. He allowed two doubles to Albert Pujols, one of which drove in a run, but got the only threat in the Cardinals' lineup to fly out with two on and two out in the seventh. Aaron Heilman and Pedro Feliciano each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

Unfortunately, the Met bats chose this night to make Joel Piñeiro look like Johan Santana. They managed just three hits and one walk in eight innings against the man who entered the game with a 4.50 ERA and hadn't pitched as many as eight shutout innings in a game since July 26, 2003. David Wright doubled in the first and walked in the fourth, never advancing past second base. Carlos Delgado led off the fifth with a single only to be erased by the inevitable Paul Lo Duca double play. Shawn Green followed this with an infield single, but Pedro couldn't keep the inning alive and the Mets' offense was done for the evening.

This role reversal was astounding and at the same time completely unsurprising. If the Mets (87-72) have done anything consistently this year, it's been finding ways to lose games they should win. They've got three more of those on the schedule with the Marlins (69-90) coming to town having lost three straight to the Mets last weekend. Oliver Perez (15-9, 3.32), John Maine (14-10, 4.07) and Tom Glavine (13-7, 4.14) will take the mound for New York against Byung-Hyun Kim (9-8, 6.11), Chris Seddon (0-1, 6.89) and Dontrelle Willis (10-15, 5.20). It all comes down to this. If the Mets can't wake up against the last-place Marlins, they will be remembered forever as chokers. And rightly so.