It's Now Or Never

Tonight could make or break our season, but isn't that every game that could do it? It's Pedro Martinez, the Mets ace, versus John Smoltz, the Braves ace. The Mets need Pedro to be vintage Pedro as I like to call it, and the bats need to get smoking... and I mean smoking. Our starting pitching is fabulous, but our offense is downright dismal. I know Smoltz is a great pitcher, and can still get it into the low- to mid-90's, but Pedro's velocity hasn't been there in a real long time. At one time during his career, Pedro could throw mid- to high-90's, but his velocity has been down to 85-87 mph for his fastball, which is Tom Glavine territory. The first game Pedro Martinez faced John Smoltz this year was when the Mets carried a horrible 0-5 record through the first five games of the season. Smoltz sat down 15 Mets on strikes, but still lost the game. After that game, Carlos Beltran had 2 home runs on the season and their record was 1-5. Carlos Beltran now has 14 home runs, only 12 more since that 6th game of the year. The Mets record is now 70-67, 137 games into the season, 25 games left to make the playoffs. 3 games out of the Wild Card are the Mets, but with 7 losses in the last 9 games, it's very tough to make the playoffs. The offense can't produce, and you can't get far in the playoffs if your offense can't score and drive in runs.

When the Mets lose, I get extremely pissed. When they win, I think they're going to make the playoffs the next day. If the Mets don't make the playoffs, it's still a good year, because I expect them to finish over .500. They should definitely finish better than last year because their final record last year was 71-91, and they only have to win two more games to eclipse that mark. The Mets need a huge offensive bat right in the middle of that lineup, but who is it?