Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That the Mets not only snapped their five-game losing streak, but they did their part to save the world on Wednesday. After manager Jerry Manuel's team meeting in the wake of Tuesday's loss, the Mets all came to the ballpark on Wednesday on buses, instead of players arriving individually in cabs. Although the team-building experience may have actually done more to save on fuel than to actually bond, the result was a 1-0 victory.
Manuel wasn't going to take credit for his speech firing up the team, especially since pitcher Mike Pelfrey missed it. Pelfrey had left the ballpark early Tuesday night to get some rest.
"I told him, 'If he'd been at the meeting, he would have thrown a no-hitter,' " Manuel joked.
NEW YORK – Now batting cleanup for the Mets: faith. Hitting fifth: hope. But how many runs can they drive in?
"You have to believe that somebody is going to catch fire and hopefully pick up some slack," Mets manager Jerry Manuel said Monday after the team placed center fielder Carlos Beltran on the disabled list.
"There is no doubt that this is going to be very challenging for us."
To recap: the Mets are without Beltran (fourth in the NL with a .336 average), first baseman Carlos Delgado and shortstop Jose Reyes.
That's three of the top five hitters from the Opening Day lineup and three guys who combined to score more than 40 percent of the team's runs in 2008.
FORMER BASEBALL CAPITAL OF THE WORLD -- There is a Subway Series this weekend.
There is one again in two weeks.
There will not be one in October.
Friday night's game at Yankee Stadium, which both teams deserved to lose, showed us that.
It will be remembered forever, at least in the five boroughs and surrounding areas, as the Luis Castillo game. The Mets second baseman dropped Alex Rodriguez's popup with two outs in the ninth, allowing two runs to score and the Yankees to win 9-8.
NEW YORK -- Blasphemy, you'll say, but think about it. What are you going to remember about Tuesday night's Yankees-Red Sox game? David Ortiz's third home run of the year? Nick Green's second? Maybe Josh Beckett, fine, but the fact is this isn't 2003-04 anymore, the Red Sox own the Yankees now and they're both probably making the playoffs anyway, what with the Rays looking like World Series-hangover-roadkill.
No, this here is where it's at for big-time baseball rivalries circa 2009. Mets-Phillies has morphed from spring training trash talk to nailbiting, in-season theater, complete with all the subplots, drama and good, intense baseball you can take. Tuesday night had everything anybody could ask of a midseason rivalry game, and in the end it was the battered-underdog Mets who came away with a 6-5 victory that was in no way easy but in all ways satisfying.
WASHINGTON -- Forget their neighbors in the Bronx, there is no better soap opera in the major leagues right now than the New York Mets.
The Mets' latest chapter of intrigue (or sorrow, if you're feeling especially gloomy) has nothing to do with a rickety bullpen or a crushing September collapse. Instead, it revolves around a vicious injury bug that has already bitten first baseman Carlos Delgado and whose latest victims include shortstop Jose Reyes and setup man J.J. Putz.
"You always build a team with depth in mind, and now that's going to be a challenge for us," New York manager Jerry Manuel said.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
The Mets are beginning to look like the Patriots when it comes to injury information. Just a couple of weeks ago, I told you to be worried about Jose Reyes' bum leg when we found out he had a "calf strain." Thursday night, the team confirmed Reyes has a torn right hamstring tendon and this is believed to be something new. Excuse me for being cynical, but this is the latest in a long line of sketchy diagnoses. Let's take a look at what else New York bungled, shall we ...
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what's ahead. You Oughta Know ... That it's awfully hard for K-Rod to earn his money if J.J. Putz isn't doing his job ahead of Rodriguez. For the second straight day, Putz had a rocky outing. He surrendered two runs in a touch and go eighth inning Sunday against the Marlins (the Mets still won the game) and followed that Monday by allowing four runs and taking the loss against the Pirates.
Putz gave up four consecutive singles during Pittsburgh's rally, and attributed much of his performance to misfortune.
"A couple hoppers up the middle," Putz said. "They hit groundballs; they just hit them to the right spot.
"There's not much you can say about that. There's a little bit of bad luck involved."
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
When Willy Aybar's home run Thursday in Cleveland was upheld by a video review, it marked the sixth time in six days umpires made use of baseball's instant-replay rule.
So the natural question to ask Jimmie Lee Solomon, Major League Baseball's executive vice president of baseball operations, is why the flurry of trips to the secret chamber to watch replays? Are the umps more willing to consult the tape than in the past?
"These things come in bunches," Solomon told FanHouse.
NEW YORK -- Assuming the rain holds off and they play baseball here at Citi Field Tuesday night, this could be a night for which Mets fans have been waiting excitedly for a while now -- the major league debut of outfield prospect Fernando Martinez.
In a slew of pregame moves, the Mets placed shortstop Jose Reyes and right fielder Ryan Church on the disabled list. They announced that the MRI on center fielder Carlos Beltran revealed a bone bruise on the tibia and that he would miss the remainder of the current series. They acquired shortstop Wilson Valdez from the Cleveland Indians for cash. And they called up Martinez from Triple-A Buffalo and put him in the starting lineup -- playing right field and batting sixth.
NEW YORK -- The Mets are either waiting for Major League Baseball to institute a five-day disabled list or they are just willing to play short-handed every night.
It has come to this for the Mets: pitchers Livan Hernandez and Mike Pelfrey on Monday night had "to have spikes on the whole game," as manager Jerry Manuel put it, meaning they were available to pinch hit or pinch run.
It's not just that the Mets are banged up, it's that so many of their injuries are of the good-old "day-to-day" variety.
And so the Mets are handcuffed. Or have handcuffed themselves by indecision.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
NEW YORK – Now batting cleanup for the Mets: faith. Hitting fifth: hope. But how many runs can they drive in?
FORMER BASEBALL CAPITAL OF THE WORLD -- There is a Subway Series this weekend.
NEW YORK -- Blasphemy, you'll say, but think about it. What are you going to remember about Tuesday night's Yankees-Red Sox game? 
WASHINGTON -- Forget their neighbors in the Bronx, there is no better soap opera in the major leagues right now than the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Starting Five
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in 
NEW YORK -- Assuming the rain holds off and they play baseball here at Citi Field Tuesday night, this could be a night for which Mets fans have been waiting excitedly for a while now -- the major league debut of outfield prospect 
NEW YORK -- The Mets are either waiting for Major League Baseball to institute a five-day disabled list or they are just willing to play short-handed every night.
