The Mets’ chief opponents this season are the 4 other NL East teams and the Astros, who are the only non-NL East team seriously in the Wild Card hunt. So, how has Pedro Martinez performed against these 5 teams?
Well, first of all, he’s faced them in 12 of his 25 starts (10 vs. the East and two vs. the Astros), a scheduling feat (even in light of the imbalanced schedule) for which Willie Randolph deserves credit, and which accounts to some extent for the fact that the Mets, along with the Braves, are the teams in the NL East that have played better against their own division.
Look at these numbers:
| W | L | ERA | GS | IP | H | HR | BB | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 2 | 1.76 | 12 | 87 | 51 | 3 | 13 | 91 |
That “hits” column is especially staggering. The only blight on Pedro’s record here is three frustrating no-decisions, which were not his fault.
I’d point out that after tonight’s game the Mets will have played 50/125 games against the NL East (40%), while Pedro will have 10/25 starts against the NL East (identical). The Mets have played 10 games against the Astros, and Pedro will have started his 20% share of those as well. So while Pedro certainly has made his starts count against the key teams this year, I’d leave Randolph out of it.