Defeat the Empire

They say the greatest athletes persevere on nights when they just don't have it. Pedro proved that last night.

In the first inning, Pedro allowed 3 walks and a hit batsmen, yet got through the inning. In fact, he walked the leadoff man each time in the first 3 innings, yet carried a no-hitter into the sixth. Pedro's changeup wasn't there, and his control eluded him, but he used an excellent curveball and dialed his heater up to the low-90s in order to shut out the D-Backs through six innings. Pedro hit 100 pitches as he retired Shawn Green on a groundout, his last batter of the game.

Victor Diaz provided a great deal of the offense for the Mets on a night when their bats were silenced by ex-Yankee Javier Vazquez. Diaz, embroiled in a mini-controversy involving his tagging up from second base late in Wednesday's 18-4 blowout, responded with a solo home run in the second inning, Victor's ninth, to put the Mets up 2-0. Diaz added an RBI on a ninth-inning sacrifice fly that gave the Mets an insurance run. Cliff Floyd had two hits, and David Wright extended his games-on-base streak to 14 with a walk and a single.

Not counted on the previous two nights, the bullpen stepped up. After a tired Aaron Heilman inexplicably was summoned by manager Willie Randolph, Robbie Hernandez got out of a seventh inning jam and stayed on to pitch the eighth. He gave up a solo home run to Chad Tracy, but was able to hold the lead. A 1-2-3 ninth inning by Braden Looper earned the Mets the win, and Looper his 26th save in 31 chances.

With the win, the Mets pulled to just 1.5 games back of the idle Phillies in the NL Wild Card. They also took a one-game lead on Washington, which is stunning considering the Nats were 10 games ahead of the Mets in the standings as late as July 5th.

Today's Schedule

Royals (Wood, 4-4, 4.09) @ Yankees (Johnson, 11-8, 4.34)

The Yanks look to stay hot after taking 3 of 4 from the Blue Jays, and look to get revenge on the Royals, who swept them in Kansas City May 31-June 2. The Royals just took 2 of 3 from the Red Sox.

Red Sox (Wakefield, 12-10, 4.29) @ Tigers (Johnson, 7-9, 4.09)

Predictably, Curt Schilling got bombed last night in KC. The sad reality may be that Jonathan Papelbon can better help the Red Sox in that rotation than can Schilling. Tim Wakefield looks to right the ship tonight.

Mets (Trachsel, 0-0, NR) @ Giants (Correia, 2-4, 4.86)

Steve Trachsel makes his first start for the Mets since September 28, 2004. He is opposed by the weak-hitting Giants and rookie Kevin Correia. The stage is set, hopefully, for another convincing Mets victory, prodived Trax can get back on track in a hurry.