Anytime we can use the word confluence in an entry, we should, I think. Of course when we mention the confluence, we’re talking about the Mets playing the Pittsburgh Pirates, who once upon a time played at Three Rivers Stadium, where the three rivers met, and flowed together, creating a confluence. The Good Guys wind up splitting the four game wrap around series with the Pirates, and here the 3 Up & 3 Down.

3 Up

1) Fantastic Starting Pitching: Mets starters pitched awesome in all four games, sadly a real solid job by Mike Pelfrey went to waste on Monday night. Chris Capuano was superb on Sunday afternoon, and Dillon Gee remains undefeated. R.A. Dickey delivered his usual steady outing. A very nice job by the starting staff this series.

2) Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose: Just how hot is Jose Reyes? Sunday he had another multi-hit game including a home run. If you haven’t cast your All Star ballot yet, vote early and often for Jose Reyes at shortstop. Also, lets not be so fast to write Reyes off. I think ownership is going to make an all out attempt to re-sign him.

3) Dinks, Doinks, Dunks, Bloops & Flairs: This team has very little power, but has been piling on the base hits. On Monday night they sputtered a bit, but how about all those two out hits in the eight inning on Sunday? All little hits, but they were timely and clutch hits.

3 Down

1) Wasted Efforts: Mike Pelfrey and R.A. Dickey pitched well enough to win their games this series, but the Mets offense came up short. That’s too bad, better luck next time, you just hate to see the effort go to waste. Nice outings by both guys though.

2) Base Running: Two unusual plays on Sunday & Monday. Sunday we have Angel Pagan getting called out at second on a sacrifice fly because he rounded second base, but on his way back to first he didn’t step on the bag! Monday night Lucas Duda got called out for leaving first base too soon on a fly ball in the eighth inning. Sadly Duda’s blunder killed a late game rally by the Mets. I do like the aggression on the base paths, but the guys just need to follow the rules and play smarter.

3) Off To Atlanta: The Mets head to Atlanta and a three games series at the house of horrors known as Turner Field. The Mets are playing real good baseball right now, lets hope they can win this series against a divisional rival that’s in front of them in the standings.