Lo Duca drives in seven, Niese wins one

In Cincinnati, New York Mets pitcher Oliver Perez forget to bring his control with him to Great American Ball Park. In five innings he gave up only four hits, but he walked five batters. He threw 90 pitches; only 52, or 58%, made it into the strike zone. If it weren't for the Mets hitters, the five runs that Perez gave up would have resulted in his 10th loss rather than his 13th win. One Met alone outscored the entire Reds team.

Paul Lo Duca must have thought the game was an extension of batting practice. In five at-bats he knocked in seven runs, six coming on two three-run homers. Before yesterday Lo Duca had only hit five home runs all season.

This afternoon, the Mets send John Maine to the mound in their try to sweep their second series in a row. Though Maine's won 14, he went 2-3 in August with a 6.32 ERA. He also walked more than twice as many batters as he did in any other month this season. If Maine can't reverse his recent run of poorer performances, the Mets could be in trouble when the play-offs roll around.

Another member of the Mets organization seems ready for the play-offs, which start for them tonight. The Mets' Triple-A affiliate, the New Orleans Zephyrs, won its regular season finale Monday night 6-2. It newest reliever, Carlos Muniz, a Double-A call-up, pitched two innings of one-hit, no-run ball for the Z's. Better still, in three outings with the Zephyrs, Muniz has pitched 5.2 innings without surrendering a run, earned or unearned. At 26, Muniz is a bit old to be considered a prospect, but he seems to have the "right stuff." In 44 games with the Binghamton Mets he had a 2.45 ERA.

And in the Florida State League play-offs, the St. Lucie Mets won their first game behind the one-hit pitching of Jon Niese. In his six innings, he struck out nine. During the regular season, Niese led St. Lucie with 11 wins, the third highest number in the FSL.

But there was bad news for Brooklyn. The Cyclones lost to their archrival, the Staten Island Yankees, 5-4. The Yankees scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth off loser Eddie Kunz, who's been finding pitching in Single-A much tougher than for the Oregon State Beavers. After walking two batters, the second intentionally, Kunz gave up a single to Jose Gil, which ended the game. Kunz's ERA is now 8.10. Did the Mets make a mistake making him their top draft choice?

Easley's mad dash highlights win

Single-A and below: Brooklyn won though starter Nicholas Waechter lasted only 2.2 innings. He was pulled in the third after Oneonta got its fourth single in the inning. Replacement Steven Cheney got the Cyclones out of the jam, striking out Cory Middleton. In his remaining three innings of work, Cheney struck out five more batters while giving up only three hits and no runs. William Morgan pitched the final two innings. He hasn't given up a run since July 13. His ERA now stands at 0.82. That's a great ERA, even in short-season Class-A.

In a notch above Brooklyn in St. Lucie, the Florida boys beat up on Palm Beach 10-3. Jonathon Niese won his tenth, limiting the Cardinals to a run and five hits in seven innings. This is Niese's second straight strong outing.

Savannah lost, Kingsport won, and the GCL Mets didn't play.

Double-A: The B-Mets mimicked the Big Club, routing Trenton 14-2. Six Mets got at least two hits with both Miguel Negron and Mike Carp getting three and second baseman Mark Kiger, who's old to be playing in Double-A (he's 27), homering twice.

Robert Parnell pitched one of his better games. In six innings he gave up only four hits and a run while striking out eight.

Triple-A: Mike Pelfrey might want to buy a rabbit's foot. He hasn't had much luck this season. In seven innings against Sacramento he gave up nine hits but only two runs, yet he lost, 2-1. He now has a losing record this season in both the majors and the minors.

Sacramento scored both runs in the first when seven batters stepped to the plate. A walk mixed within three singles produced both runs. The lone Zephyr run came in the sixth on Fernando Tatis' 14th homer.

Majors: Though he gave up eight hits and three runs in five innings, Brian Lawrence won his first game as a Met. But Lawrence's victory wasn't the big news. The Mets hitters battered the Brewers pitchers. Led by David Wright's four hits, the Mets collected 18 hits, knocking in 12 runs. Lastings Milledge and Damon Easley each added three hits. One of Easley's was an inside-the-park home run that scored Moises Alou.

With Alou on second base, Easley drove the ball to deep right-center. The race was on, Easley's 37-year-old legs hurrying behind Alou's 41 year-old-legs as two of the Mets' senior citizens rushed around the bases. Rounding third, Easley was wearing down. “I’m hoping for somebody to push me,” the Times quoted him as saying. Easley just managed to beat the throw to home plate. Afterward, the Times quoted him as saying “My legs were done after that for the rest of the game.”

Only one Met starter other than Lawrence was unable to get a hit. New second baseman Luis Castillo couldn't buy one. He went 0-6, flying out twice, popping out three times, and grounding out once. Castillo is now 1-11 as a Met. The man he replaced, Ruben Gotay, lined out in one pinch-hit at-bat.

Jonathon Niese improving at St. Lucie

In St. Lucie yesterday, starting pitcher Jonathon Niese had unusual statistics. In five innings of work, he gave up more runs than hits. However, only one of the three runs he gave up was earned. More impressive were the facts that he yielded only one hit while striking out eight to up his record to 9-6.

In the Florida State League, Niese is fifth in wins, 26th in ERA, 15th in strikeouts, and 21st in WHIP.

WHIP's calculated but adding a pitcher's walks and hits and dividing the total by the number of innings pitched. The higher a pitcher's WHIP, the more men he puts on base. The WHIP for the St. Lucie team is 1.39, lower than Niese's 1.45.

In his last 10 games, Niese has shown improvement. His record's been 6-3 (increasing his W-L Percentage from .600 to .667). He's struck out almost one an inning (50 in 54.1), lowered his WHIP to 1.28, and his ERA from 4.86 to 4.64. His ERA when runners aren't on base has been exceptional: 0.48.

The Mets drafted Niese in the 2005 MLB Draft's seventh round.

Scout.com rates Niese as the Mets third-best pitching prospect, behind Mike Pelfrey and Philip Humber but ahead of Deolis Guerra.