With their recent nine-game winning streak well behind them and a new hot stretch just taking form after taking two-of-three from the Rockies in Denver, entering the month of May, the 2000 New York Mets were still searching for their true identity.

A 16-10 record in April is a nice start to a long season, but that’s all it is. A strong showing against one of the league’s best in the star-studded San Francisco Giants would be a great place to start regaining momentum.

Barry Bonds, Jeff Kent, Ellis Burks, and J.T. Snow were tasked with making Dusty Baker‘s Giants’ offense go, which they did in spades.

Robb Nen and Felix Rodriguez anchored the Giants’ bullpen, and a 25-year-old Livan Hernandez headed up a middle-of-the-road starting rotation.

Over the course of their four-game series at beautiful Pacific Bell Park overlooking the San Francisco Bay, that middling group would prove to be the deciding factor.

Shawn Estes allowed three runs over seven innings, riding Kent’s sixth homer of the season — a solo shot in the second off Bill Pulsipher (3.1 IP, 4 ER) — and Bonds’ 11th of the year — a three-run blast in the sixth — to a 10-3 win over the Mets in the series opener.

Glendon Rusch took the hill for New York the following night and was cruising right along before Bobby Estella’s grand slam in the fourth put the brakes on that.

Hernandez allowed one run to cross in the first — an RBI-double via Robin Ventura — but that would be all, recording a complete game, 7-1 victory with eight hits, three walks, and five strikeouts.

The Mets finally showed signs of life on Wednesday, jumping on Russ Ortiz for three runs over the first four innings, but the road wouldn’t be so smooth as the night went on.

Jon Nunnally‘s leadoff homer started the night off with a bang and hard-hit singles from Derek Bell and Ventura later in the inning — albeit unfruitful — set the tone and seemed to reset the team.

Kent tied the game with a two-out RBI single off Mike Hampton in the bottom of the first, but the Mets jumped ahead, 2-1, on Bell’s RBI single in the third. Bonds drove home Ortiz (unearned run) in the bottom half of the frame to tie the game at two, but Todd Pratt‘s two-out RBI double in the fourth put New York ahead again.

With the Mets ahead 3-2 heading into the sixth, Hampton got into trouble early and wouldn’t get the chance to clean up his mess.

Three of the first four Giants to come to the plate in the sixth would reach base (walk, groundout, single, stolen base, walk), and back-to-back bases-loaded free passes — putting San Fran ahead, 4-3 — would be the end of the line for the crafty southpaw.

Dennis Cook entered the game in relief, Calvin Murray greeted him with an RBI single into left to make it a 5-3 game, but the Metsies would strike back once again.

Following consecutive base hits from Matt Franco and Pratt to start the seventh, Melvin Mora — double-switched into the game when Hampton was pulled — brought everyone home with a triple off the wall in left-center field to tie the game at five.

Pat Mahomes turned in a scoreless inning, John Franco contributed two more, and Turk Wendell worked around a couple of baserunners in the tenth to keep things knotted up, but New York’s offense was simply non-existent against Nen and Rodriguez, and Kent’s walk-off three-run homer in the bottom of the 11th off Wendell sent the Mets to their third straight loss.

The Mets were largely baffled by left-hander Kirk Rueter in the series finale, plating two in the sixth to take a short-lived, 2-1 lead. Rick Reed was fantastic, allowing one run over his first seven innings before imploding in the eighth.

Following a leadoff walk to Armando Rios and a single from Rich Aurilla, Felipe Crespo‘s RBI single tied the game at two an ended Reed’s night. Cook then entered the game, balked both baserunners into scoring position, and hit Marvin Bernard with a pitch to load the bases.

Armando Benitez proceeded to allow a bases-clearing triple to Bill Mueller in the next at-bat and a two-run homer to Kent two batters later, sending the Mets to a 7-2 defeat, their fourth loss in a row.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, immediately following their four-game sweep at the hands of the Giants, the Mets had to hop a flight to Miami for a three-game weekend series against the Florida Marlins beginning at 7 PM EST the next day.

Miraculously, the Metsies actually broke the slide on Friday. Mike Piazza hit his seventh homer of the season and Al Leiter willed New York to a much-needed victory with seven innings of one-run ball (nine strikeouts, three walks).

Unfortunately, the Mets could only muster one run on five hits off Florida starter Alex Fernandez the next day — Pulsipher couldn’t make it out of the fourth for the second straight start, allowing five earned runs over 3.1 innings — and got shutout courtesy of a complete game one-hitter from Ryan Dempster in the series finale.

For all the steam that was built up over the first month of the 2000 season, following a 1-6 start to May — dropping them to 17-16 on the year and into third-place in the NL East — the Mets would need to regain their balance if they wanted to replicate the success they achieved in 1999.