MET NOTES
SAN DIEGO – Entering last night, the last time the Mets’ bullpen had given up a run was Sunday.
In Thursday night’s 7-2 win over the Padres, the Mets’ relief corps continued its surge, tossing three scoreless innings and giving up one hit. The pen walked nobody and struck out four, a strong job by Chad Bradford, Pedro Feliciano, Duaner Sanchez, Aaron Heilman and Jorge Julio.
But the Mets bullpen had been outstanding all week. In the previous four games, the relievers had tossed 101/3 scoreless innings, permitting four hits and striking out 12. In fact, since Darren Oliver allowed two runs in the sixth inning Sunday against the Brewers, the relief corps is on a 132/3-inning scoreless streak.
This season, the Mets’ bullpen has the best ERA in the majors (2.98).
Sanchez (0.00 ERA in 10 innings) and Bradford (0.00 ERA in 32/3 innings) had yet to give up a run this year, and Billy Wagner had given up one run in seven innings. Even Feliciano, a recent call-up, had tossed 31/3 scoreless innings.
Julio also has started to pitch well. After his first four outings resulted in a 19.64 ERA, the hard-throwing righty recorded three straight one-inning outings without giving up a run, striking out five and giving up one hit. Thursday, he struck out two in his lone frame.
“Just [looks] to me like he’s just settling in, just settling down,” Willie Randolph said after Thursday’s game when asked about any differences with Julio.
“You can see him backing off on some of his pitches, his slider in particular. Sometimes he throws it too hard. I thought he threw some great sliders [Thursday night] and that’s because he backed off of it a little bit. Instead of throwing it overly hard, he just kind of just let his arm come through the zone and threw some great sliders. Same thing with his fastball.”
*
Utility infielder Jose Valentin has finally gotten on the board. He singled Thursday night to break an 0-for-15 start to the season. Valentin entered last night hitting .062.
Counting last year, when he hit .170 (25-for-147) in 56 games with the Dodgers, Valentin has hit .160 since the end of the 2004 season.
