The Jekyll and Hyde Mets

Tomorrow night, when Dillon Gee faces off against Cliff Lee in the finale of the Mets' three-game series in Philadelphia, the team will complete its sixth turn through its starting rotation. And there's an interesting pattern to those six revolutions of the pitching staff, as measured by Johan Santana's starts. The first time through they had four wins, their first four games, against just one loss. The second turn through they went 3 and 2. Then came their dreadful stretch including the series against the Giants; because of a double-header, the rotation lasted six games this time, and they went 1 and 5. But then they bounced right back, winning 4 and losing just 1 their next time through. And then they gave that right back again, with a 1-and-4 trip through the starting rotation. And now they're 4 and 0 so far this time through. So in five of the first six times through the Mets rotation, they've either had only one win or only one loss. And they look really, really bad during the bad trips around the rotation, but very good during the good ones. It'll be interesting to see if this pattern continues.

(Incidentally, the first spot in the rotation, Santana's games, has produced a 4-&-2 record; the second spot has given us a 4-&-2 record as well behind Dickey; the third spot, Niese's, is also 4-&-2; the fourth spot, formerly Pelfrey's but now patched together with Schwindens and Batistas, is 3-&-3; and the fifth spot, Gee's, is just 2-&-3. There was also that double-header start of Batista's, a loss that didn't fit into one of the normal rotation slots. We'll see if Gee can pull even tomorrow night.)