Good Morning Mets Fans!

Luck be a lady tonight......

7 wins in a row, a resurgent starting pitching staff, solid bullpen work, strong defense and enough offense to beat anyone.

It's a formula for success.

Yesterday the Mets completed their third consecutive sweep by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-4 in front of 38,871 fans on a beautiful Mother's Day.

Several players swung pink bats, and there were other signs of pink all over the park, including Ian Snell's cheeks.

Livan Hernandez pitched 6 solid innings en route to his 3rd victory of the year.

He wasn't quite as sharp as his last start, but he was sharp enough and allowed only two runs and seven hits for his 150th career win.

It must be contagious because every Mets starter has gone at least six innings during this winning streak, and they're a combined 6-0 with a 2.26 ERA.

"We're playing good baseball, especially our starting pitching -- to go six, seven innings gives our bullpen a rest," said Wright, who's hitting .356 over his last 12 games. "We feel pretty comfortable when we put up a couple crooked numbers we're going to win the game."

Katie Straing at Newsday has more on Livan:

"It was a tough day," Hernandez said. "but I got a win and more importantly, the team got a win."

Although Hernandez didn't have success with all his pitches, he adapted well. Because of the wind, Hernandez said he scrapped his sinker early and opted to use his cutter instead.

"When the sinker doesn't work, you've got to call up your Plan B," Hernandez said. "That was my Plan B today and I struck out three or four people with that."

Carlos Beltran praised his ability to react and push through to give the team six solid innings.

"He didn't have his best stuff out there, but he was able to keep them off-balance," Beltran said. "The key of this winning streak has been our starting pitching."

After the game, Hernandez discussed the rotation's struggles at the beginning of the season and said he did not want the current winning streak to end with him.

"Every time you go on the mound, when you've won six in a row, you don't want to lose a game," Hernandez said. "You want to continue to win to see how many more are coming."

Ben Shipgel from the NY Times has an excellent piece on the starters helping the bullpen.

The offense chipped in too.

Carlos Beltran had another big late inning hit--a hit that would have been a homerun in 90% of major lesgue parks.

Omir Santos also had two hits, as did the suddenly red hot Jose Reyes.

For those that don't know, Omir Santos is actually the product of some Mets mad scientists.

Omir Santos is here to stay...it's just a question of what will the Mets do when they have three healthy catchers? My guess is they trade Castro.

So now the Braves come into town for what is very much a marquee pitching matchup tonight--Johan Santana vs Derek Lowe.

Does it get any better than this?

Enjoy your coffee!

Scoreboard
Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Pittsburgh (12-19)	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	11	1
N.Y. Mets (17-13) «	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	4	x	8	11	0

Players of the Game

New York O. Santos AB 4 R 1 H 2 HR 0 RBI 2

New York Mets
Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Jose Reyes, SS	4	1	2	1	1	0	1	.276
Luis Castillo, 2B	4	0	2	2	0	0	2	.333
Carlos Beltran, CF	4	0	1	2	1	1	2	.374
Carlos Delgado, 1B	4	1	1	0	0	1	5	.298
Sean Green, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
David Wright, 3B	4	1	1	1	0	2	4	.304
Daniel Murphy, LF	3	1	0	0	1	1	1	.298
Jeremy Reed, LF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.286
Omir Santos, C	4	1	2	2	0	2	1	.300
Ryan Church, RF	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	.264
Livan Hernandez, P	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	.111
Pedro Feliciano, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
a- Gary Sheffield, PH	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	.186
J.J. Putz, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
b- Fernando Tatis, PH-1B	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	.341
Totals	34	8	11	8	3	7
a-grounded out for Feliciano in the 7th
b-hit by pitch for Putz in the 8th
Batting
2B - Jose Reyes (3, Snell), Carlos Beltran (6, Grabow), Carlos Delgado (7, Snell)
SF - Luis Castillo (1)
RBI - Jose Reyes (13), Luis Castillo 2 (9), Carlos Beltran 2 (24), David Wright (18), Omir Santos 2 (8)
2-OUT RBI - Carlos Beltran 2 (8)
SB - Jose Reyes (10, 3rd base off Burnett/Diaz), Luis Castillo 2 (4, 2nd base off Snell/Diaz, 2nd base off Burnett/Diaz), David Wright (5, 2nd base off Snell/Diaz)
Team LOB - 8

New York Mets
Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Livan Hernandez (W,3-1)	6	7	2	2	4	5	0	5.08
Pedro Feliciano (H,5)	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	3.46
J.J. Putz (H,8)	1	2	0	0	0	2	0	3.50
Sean Green	1	1	2	2	1	0	1	9.00
Pitches-Strikes - Livan Hernandez 103-58, Pedro Feliciano 14-8, J.J. Putz 20-15, Sean Green 25-12
Ground Balls-Fly Balls - Livan Hernandez 7-5, Pedro Feliciano 1-1, Sean Green 1-2
Batters Faced - Livan Hernandez 28, Pedro Feliciano 4, J.J. Putz 5, Sean Green 5