This year's success is nothing new for the New York Mets.
The Mets roared out to a 4-0 start in the first week of April, staked an early claim to first place in the National League East, and never looked back, dominating the division all year long. With a division title in sight as their magic number approaches single digits, the Mets are poised to be the only team in baseball to lead their division for every single day of 2007.
That feat would be much more impressive if they hadn't accomplished nearly the same feat last year.
While the St. Louis Cardinals are nominally baseball's defending champions, it's hard to argue that the Mets, who haven't been below first place since Apr. 5, 2006, aren't the most dominant team of the past two years. The Mets are well on their way to finishing another season with the NL's best record, and while that isn't surprising, one thing is: the way they're doing it.
The 2006 Mets' run was made possible by an epic 834-run season, the product of a convergence of career highs - from Carlos Beltran's 41 homers, to Jose Reyes' 17 triples, to Paul Lo Duca's 39 doubles, everyone was coming up with the big hits.
This season is a bit different: the '07 squad, which struggles to stay in the NL's top five in runs scored, has been dominant thanks to one of baseball's best starting rotations. The Mets' nucleus of Tom Glavine, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Orlando Hernandez and Jorge Sosa was stellar in the early going, and rookie Mike Pelfrey, who was 0-7 through August, has rebounded nicely in September.
Sosa's ERA of 4.19, a mark good enough to make him an ace on some teams, is amazingly the worst of the five starters, and although Pelfrey was horrendous in the first half, he's found his groove nicely, allowing just three runs in 11.1 September innings and going 2-0.
National League hitters already had six reasons to fear the Mets' pitching staff, and that's not even counting their solid bullpen. And as their luck would have it, a seventh was on the way.
Ace Pedro Martinez was hampered by a left calf injury last season and struggled throughout the second half to return to peak form. After a hideous 13-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Sept. 27, 2006, Martinez was done for the season, as the Mets announced that an MRI revealed he needed rotator cuff surgery.
After a year-long recovery, Martinez made his return on Sept. 3, wasting no time in collecting both his first win of 2007 and the 3,000th strikeout of his career. He allowed two earned runs on five hits in five innings against the Cincinnati Reds, benefiting from a nightmarish outing from Reds ace Aaron Harang to earn an easy 10-4 win.
Pedro followed that up with a gem over the Houston Astros Sunday, pitching five shutout innings as the Mets beat the Astros' Roy Oswalt, 4-1. After two starts, the three-time Cy Young winner has quite the impressive stat line including 2-0 record, a 1.80 ERA, and eight strikeouts in 10 innings. His next start will come at home Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies.
If Pedro stays healthy and keeps winning, manager Willie Randolph will definitely be keeping him in mind for October as the Mets prepare to almost certainly host Game 1 of the NL Divisional Series. Randolph appears to be facing every manager's favorite problem in the world to have: too much good pitching.
How do you build a playoff rotation out of Glavine, Maine, Perez, Hernandez, Sosa, Pelfrey and Martinez? Randolph's job was tough enough with just the first six before adding perhaps the best pitcher of his generation into the equation. Who gets Game 1? Who gets left out? Who moves to the bullpen?
Last year, Randolph rode Maine, Glavine and Steve Trachsel to a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, but all three had their struggles against the Cardinals, who took the pennant in seven games. This year's team may rely more on Perez in October - the then-25-year-old won Game 4 and was stellar in a no-decision in Game 7 against the Cardinals. He's having a career year in the Mets' rotation this year.
Then again, they may want to rely on Hernandez - who's led the '07 Mets in ERA, WHIP and batting average against - for a quality start or two in October. Or on Sosa, who started the season 6-1 with a 2.64 ERA when he began the year as a starter. Or Pelfrey, who's lowered his ERA over half a run in his last two starts.
And then there's Pedro, one of the most dominant pitchers the game's ever seen. He gave the Boston Red Sox seven shutout innings against St. Louis in his only career World Series start and is no doubt itching to make his return.
While Randolph has made his fair share of mistakes in his three years at the helm as Mets manager, he's stumbled into a fortunate situation this time as he heads into his second postseason. With a staff like this, he can do no wrong.
