Mets & Nats: Sooo Not BFF

As the Mets celebrate the 20th anniversary of their 1986 championship club, the tributes to that team are coming fast and furious.

Jesse Orosco threw the first pitch of the season to Gary Carter on Monday.

The Mets are selling a ticket package consisting of games against 1986 foes like the Houston Astros.

And they're also playing clips from that memorable year at each home game.

And so it was that around the 3rd inning last night, the Mets broadcast a clip from a game in 1986 that was also immortalized in the 1986 Mets Tape.

It was a game against the Cincinnati Reds in which Ray Knight took a swing at an opposing player, prompting a bench clearing brawl, mass ejections, and later, the debut of Roger McDowell and Orosco as outfielders.

Last night's game never became a full-on melee like that game in '86, but this footage proved fitting on a night that featured 5 hit batsmen, a benches-clearing fracas, and 2 ejections.

So yeah, yesterday's game was no love-fest, and the Mets and Nationals may decide to cancel all previously scheduled playdates, but the bad blood aside, there was a lot to like in terms of actual baseball.

Pedro Martinez made his much ballyhooed 2006 debut last night and the result was a mixed bag. Checking some of the papers today I see that Joel Sherman is trying to stir up the worst fears of Mets fans, suggesting that Pedro's line last night could become the norm for a 34-year-old pitcher with a history of injuries.

I'm not worried. The issue with Pedro last night was his control. Beyond the 3 hit-batsmen, he also walked 5 guys, including the opposing pitcher on 4 pitches.

This is a guy with a career WHIP of 1.02. A guy who needed 5 starts last year to reach 5 walks. A guy who had never hit 3 batters in a single game before in his 14-year career.

So he clearly didn't have his command, but I suspect that will round into shape as the season goes on. He only tossed 7 innings in spring training, and the rust was evident in his control last night.

He got hit hard only twice, however, once on a line out by Alfonso Soriano, and once on a game-tying 3-run homerun by Nick Johnson, who is fast establishing himself as the greatest Mets killer this side of Pat Burrell and Chipper Jones. Johnson's home run came after Pedro walked Jose Vidro and plunked Jose Guillen yet again.

In total, Pedro allowed 4 hits last night. One a home run. One a single up the middle. One a blooper down the right field line that fell in luckily. One a dinker to the pitcher that Pedro threw away that probably should have been scored an error. Take away the walks and the hit-batsmen, and it was actually a pretty encouraging start.

So don't listen to the scaremongers preaching doom and gloom about Pedro, not yet anyway. If he can find his command he'll be every bit the ace we need him to be this season, with or without mid-90s heat.

Other than Pedro, Duaner Sanchez continued to look impressive, bearing down in the 7th and working out of trouble, and then striking out the side in the 8th.

Chad Bradford made a serious bid to be the Mets' third middle reliever (over Wednesday's dog Jorge Julio). Working through the heart of the Nationals' order, Bradford allowed a 1-out single to Johnson but then struck out Soriano and Ryan Zimmerman to end the game.

Perhaps more encouraging than the pitching last night was the hitting. The Mets pounded out 10 runs on 15 hits and 2 homeruns.

Mr. Glass legged out his first triple, part of a 3-hit night. Carlos Beltran slugged his first homerun, and though he almost ruined the moment by initially refusing a curtain call, he ultimately came out at the sage urging of Julio Franco.

(Note to Carlos: I don't like it either, but yes, the fans boo you when you don't perform. You haven't done enough in a Mets uniform to be considered one of our own. But believe me, we want to embrace you. We're desperate to embrace you.

So please, when the fans make a big show of embracing you, don't be surly or complain later about how fickle we are. Just soak it all up and continue being the player we all want you to be. Deal?)

Meanwhile, how legit does our lineup look when Beltran is producing? Carlos Delgado has quickly established himself as the middle of the order presence we've been lacking the past 5 years or so, David Wright hits everything, and Cliffy has been producing behind him as well.

And that's not even touching on Paul Lo Duca and Xavier Nady, the former of whom has contributed nicely, while the latter has emerged as just about the best 7-hitter in baseball (small sample size, admittedly).

The only weak link in the lineup, of course, is Anderson Hernandez, but so long as he can make plays like this...

... we'll just have to abide it, won't we? He did make solid contact in his final at-bat last night, the first time he's done so all season, and you can see him just chomping at the bit to break out of his 1-30 Major League funk.

Let's hope so at least. I love his leather but having the equivalent of two pitchers at the end of your order really makes the bottom third a black hole. I mean, Nady is essentially useless without runners on because if he singles it's basically meaningless right now.

So anyway, a lot to like about yesterday's win, and about the opening series in general. I'm not sure that I'm completely on board with the M-V-P chants for David Wright just yet (as far as I'm concerned, those have no business being uttered before, say, the 120th game of the season). But if, as I suspect, that's the crowd's way of saying "we-love-you" to the Mets' golden boy, then that's fair enough.

Anyway, 2-1 on the season. Yeah, we should have won the middle game, but if we can just concentrate on winning 2-of-3 every time we'll find ourselves in good stead come the end of the season.

- A.F.O.M.G.

PS.. Mike Pelfrey debuted yesterday in Single A, pitching 5 innings of scoreless ball and getting a no-decision in the St. Lucie Mets' 1-0 win. He struck out 6, allowed 2 hits, and walked 1. Let's go!

PPS.. Like just about everyone else, I think the plans for the new stadium look great. We'll undoubtedly devote a whole column to this at some point, but there is one remnant from Shea missing from the designs I've seen.

I've always loved that silhouette of the New York City skyline that sits atop the scoreboard. Along with the homerun apple, the skyline silhouette is one of the few things that give Shea legitimate personality.

I realize a new stadium means new beginnings, but it is my sincere hope that this element of Shea makes the jump to the new ballpark.