The Mets spoiled an excellent outing by Al Leiter in which the lefty pitched 7 innings allowing 5 hits and 1 earned run. The earned run ended a personal best 29 1/3 consecutive scoreless inning streak for Leiter. When Leiter left the game for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the seventh the game was tied at one. It's easy to blame David Weathers for the loss after he gave up a solo homer to Jose Vidro (hardly a power hitter) but that wouldn't exactly be fair. The blame should go to the Mets hitters who are just not getting the job done. They managed just 4 hits off Expos starter Zach Day (2 in the first inning) and failed to get any hits off of relievers Luis Ayala and Rocky Biddle. In fact, Biddle threw only 6 pitches to retire the Mets in the 9th and earn his third save of the year.
It's easy to say that it's too early in the season to panic but you can't be too patient even this early in the season. If you allow yourself to get into too deep of a hole in April then you're only making you're job tougher for later in the season. When you get pitching that is as good as last night's pitching then the job is made relatively easy. You simply can't waste good pitching performances like the Mets did last night. Whatever is wrong with the hitting must be fixed if the Mets are going to stay afloat in the early going this year.
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