Not since Frank Viola in 1990 have the Mets produced a 20-game winner.  In fact, the only Met to win as many as 17 games in a season since then was Al Leiter, who went 17-6 in 1998.  But that might change in 2012, and the man who might make it happen is R.A. Dickey. R.A. Dickey, who just extended his personal scoreless streak to 24⅔ innings (just seven innings shy of Jerry Koosman’s franchise [...]

Take a look at the headline above.  This was the back page of Saturday’s edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  See anything intersting?  See it twice? Apparently, the writers and/or editorial staff of the newspaper don’t think Johan Santana earned his no-hitter, the first thrown by a Met in 8,020 regular season games.  They claim the blown call by third base umpire Adrian Johnson on Carlos Beltran’s screaming liner caused Santana to pitch a tainted [...]

On Sunday, R.A. Dickey pitched 7⅓ innings of shutout ball against the Padres, allowing three hits, walking one and striking out ten batters.  The 10-K performance gave Dickey 29 strikeouts over his last three starts (20⅓ IP).  It also helped in lowering his ERA to 3.06, a number Dickey had not seen since his sole bad start of the year in rain-soaked Atlanta on April 18.  On that day, a day in which Dickey admitted [...]

Even the most casual of Mets fans could probably tell you that David Wright’s name is plastered all over the team’s all-time leader board in various categories.  If he’s not already the franchise leader in an offensive category (doubles, extra-base hits, total bases, times on base, RBI), he should be there by the end of the season (hits, runs scored). Obviously, if Wright’s name is all over the team’s all-time record book, then it stands [...]

Terry Collins has told reporters that Ike Davis will not be demoted to the minors. Instead, Davis will lose significant playing time, but will be permitted to work out his problems at the Major League level. Collins said that he will start Davis based on favorable matchups. Davis is batting .159 with a .213 on-base percentage, five home runs and 15 RBI this season, and has two hits in his last 36 at-bats. Updated by RJ Original [...]

The Mets gave up a couple of touchdowns to the Toronto Blue Jays in their 14-5 loss on Friday.  But I’m not going to talk about that.  I’m also not going to talk about the whiplash Jonathon Niese must have suffered from turning his neck so quickly to watch all the home runs leaving the yard.  Here, let me just show you what I’m going to talk about. R.A. Dickey: 8 starts, 50⅓ innings pitched, [...]

Jonathon Niese pitched six shutout innings.  Kirk Nieuwenhuis started yet another rally.  Mike Baxter got well-deserved respect as a premier pinch-hitter.  Justin Turner won another battle against Heath Bell. And the Mets still lost. After Nieuwenhuis started a two-run inning for the Mets in the fourth inning with a single, Niese continued to pitch shutout ball before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the seventh.  Ramon Ramirez relieved Niese hoping to protect the lead. Triple. [...]

Last night’s game against the Miami Marlins was already going to be special for the Mets because it was to be their first game in the Marlins’ new ballpark.  But Mets historians such as myself will remember the game for another reason, as it was the 8,000th regular season game in franchise history. In their first 8,000 games, the Mets have emerged victorious 3,829 times, while falling short on 4,163 occasions.  They have also played [...]

Jon Rauch has been outstanding for the Mets in the bullpen this year.  After getting credit for his team-leading third victory in the Mets’ 2-1 victory over the Miami Marlins last night, Rauch has now pitched 9⅓ scoreless innings in ten appearances.  But the zero in the runs allowed column is just the beginning of the story. Rauch has faced a total of 32 batters over his first ten relief outings, retiring 28 of them.  [...]

In Saturday’s 5-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants, the Mets blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning, costing Mike Pelfrey a chance to get his first win of the season.  Pelfrey pitched eight strong innings, allowing one run on six hits while throwing 102 pitches.  Despite stifling the Giants’ bats all day, manager Terry Collins decided to pull Pelfrey from the game and go with Frank Francisco in the ninth inning, less than [...]