Mets @ Padres Series Preview

Energized by the return of Mike Piazza, New York has been on fire at the plate and have received timely pitching from its staff, including a near no hitter on Sunday by Steve Trachsel.

The Mets bring their season high six game winning steak to sunny California where they will begin a nine game road trip against the Padres. Both teams are essentially playing out the string, but this streak has given Mets fans a reason to be optimistic about 2004. This will be the last trip the Mets make to the soon to be torn down Qualcomm Stadium. The Mets took three out of four games in San Diego in 2002, and two out of three at Shea earlier this year.

Tuesday’s game will also be the first without Cliff Floyd, who decided to shut himself down for the season to prepare for surgery on his right Achilles heel on Aug. 28th. Floyd had been the hottest player on the team recently, going 12-23 with six RBI in his last five games.

Pitching Matchups
Tom Glavine (8-11, 4.71 ERA ) will try to keep the Mets streak alive when he takes the hill tonight against a Padres team that has lost nine of their last twelve games, and five straight overall. Glavine didn’t allow a single run and gave up just three hits in six innings during his last outing, a 5-0 win against Colorado. San Diego, on the other hand, will counter with Kevin Jarvis (4-5 4.62), who has dropped his last three starts, including a disastrous performance against the Braves, in which Jarvis gave up seven runs on eleven hits.

Aaron Heilman (2-5 7.49 ERA) will go Wednesday night against Jake Peavy (9-9 4.25 ERA ). Heilman was lucky to escape with a win in his last start verses the Giants. Benefiting from a night when the Mets scored eight runs, Heilman was able to overcome a shaky outing, in which he gave up three runs and seven hits in just five innings. Jake Peavy, one of the few bright spots on the Padres, struggled his last time out, yielding four runs on four hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Thursday’s finale will feature Jae Weong Seo (6-8 4.32 ERA) versus Oliver Perez (4-6 5.31 ERA). Seo didn’t look particularly sharp in his last outing, giving up four runs on seven hits in five innings, but he was fortunate to pitch on a night when the Mets’ bats exploded for 13 runs, so Seo was able to notch his 6th win of the season. Perez was shelled for five runs on six hits in four innings last week in a 10-0 loss against Atlanta.