Liverpool Reds
PHOENIX -- So call them the best-of-four Mets and understand that they believe their best is yet to come.
They took another confidence-building step Thursday night when they completed a four-game sweep of the anything-but-poisonous Diamondbacks and inched closer to the leaders in the National League Wild Card race. Their 3-1 victory, largely the work of the tag team of Pedro Martinez and Victor Diaz, moved them beyond the Nationals, kept them even with the Marlins and put them within 1 1/2 games of the leaders, the Phillies.
They're that close to the Phillies because a series of good things happened since they left New York late Sunday in search of away-from-home success. The opposition was less than formidable, but that wasn't the only reason the Mets completed their fourth series sweep this season, the first one longer than three games.
They played with a sense of urgency Willie Randolph said he had detected before the flight to the desert and a degree of relentlessness that encouraged the manager. And they achieved a baseball oddity. Schedules don't provide many four-game series, so four-game sweeps are rare. But, sweep or not, the Mets seem to play better when the schedule yells "Four."
They have won 15 of the 20 games they've played in five four-game series. Find some other set of games in which this team has played at the .750 level. There's no explanation. But there is an awareness that this season provides a final four of a different sort -- four games at Shea Stadium, Sept. 20-Oct. 2, against the Rockies, who aren't even as competitive as the Diamondbacks.
"We know," Cliff Floyd said. "It could come down to that."
But the schedule has other obstacles for the Mets before their Rockie ending, not the least of which is their three-game weekend series in San Francisco, where they seldom have prospered, a blink-of-the-eye homestand against the Phillies, and a 10-day excursion to Miami, Atlanta and St. Louis that includes a four-game series against the Cardinals.
Now that they have won four straight road games -- regardless of site -- for the first time in three years, the Mets see the remaining 2005 schedule as less menacing.
"I think we're feeling better about ourselves every day," Tom Glavine said.
Adding to the Mets' belief was what they witnessed Thursday -- Pedro Martinez charming the Snakes and actually getting a win for his work. The Mets had won only one of his previous five starts, and he hadn't won any. But, with the assistance of Diaz, Martinez (13-5) gained his 13th victory, his first since July 23.
He pitched six scoreless innings, throwing 100 pitches and allowing seven baserunners, two on hits, four on walks and one hit by a pitch. He didn't allow a hit until the sixth. But this wasn't a no-hitter night. Martinez experienced minor tightness in his back and spent four innings in search of his rhythm. But he won.
"And we have to start winning more of his games," Randolph said.
The Mets' record in Martinez's starts is 15-11.
Diaz and Roberto Hernandez made the victory possible. After the Mets had scored one run against losing pitcher Javier Vazquez (10-13) in the second inning on a ground ball double play, Diaz hit his ninth home run. And he drove in David Wright with a sacrifice fly in the ninth, with a resolute turn at bat against Brandon Medders.
"If that's what he meant to do," Randolph said, "hit the ball in the air like he did, then that's a good sign. We've talked a lot about situational hitting and making the necessary adjustments."
Diaz's home run was a rocket to left. The sac fly was a lazy fly ball to right.
"It's easier for me to get the ball up in the air if I go the other way," Diaz said. "That's what I was trying to do."
In between Diaz's two RBIs, the D-Backs offered some resistance -- two hits in Martinez's final inning, a home run off Hernandez by Chad Tracy leading off the eighth, and a seventh-inning scare. Aaron Heilman, Martinez's successor, surrendered a leadoff triple by Royce Clayton and then hit Quinton McCracken. Hernandez was summoned. With the Mets' infield positioned for a double play and not a play at the plate, Wright took a ground ball from Alex Cintron and threw Clayton out at the plate.
Randolph was willing to clear the bases at the price of a run.
"We ducked one there," he said.
But the play was made. And when Craig Counsell lined into a double play, not one cared how the outs had been achieved. They'd rather win than play well. But doing both is acceptable.
Two innings and one Braden Looper save later, the Mets had secured their ninth victory in 12 games and put their record at 67-60, marking the first time since May 3, 2002 their record has been seven victories better than .500.
The sweep was their first in a four-game road series since Sept. 6-9, 2002, when they swept through Philadelphia. They had played 11 since then. Until Thursday night, that 2002 sweep stood as the only one by the Mets in 59 four-game road series since 1992.
"We don't play many, but when we do, we're OK," Randolph said. "I guess we like them."