The Mets managed to split their doubleheader this afternoon against the Marlins, falling 3-2 in the first game, and then clobbering the Marlins 17-3 in the second game of the twin-bill. While it’s nice that the Mets managed to win the second game and split the series, it doesn’t really make that big of a difference given their huge lead in the NL East. What’s more important to take out of these two games is how well their young, rookie pitchers fared against the Marlins. The Mets had John Maine go for them in the first game, and highly touted and greatly hyped Mike Pelfrey went for the Mets in the second game.

John Maine pitched relatively well for the Mets in the opening game of this doubleheader. He managed to pitch six strong inning, allowing six hits, and three earned runs (all solo homeruns), while striking out three. Unfortunately, the Mets weren’t able to muster much offense against the Marlins. The Mets left an absurd 19 runners on base during the game, with David Wright leaving the most on base for the Mets with 5. The benches in this game briefly cleared after Duaner Sanchez drilled Miguel Cabrera in the leg, after Cabrera was showing the bunt. Obviously Cabrera was only faking the bunt, but perhaps this was some sort of retribution for Josh Johnson hitting Carlos Delgado in the hand with a pitch earlier in the game, which forced Carlos out of the game. The altercation ended with the umpires warning both dugouts, but continued until after the final out had been made; Cabrera was mouthing off to Sanchez and the Mets as he walked off the field. The crew chief Charlie Reliford gave Cabrera the boot after he apparently had something to say to him as well.

After a short break, then came the game that everyone was waiting for: the major league debut of Mike Pelfrey. Willie Randolph allowed Pelfrey to throw over 100 pitches, but unfortunately, that was only enough to get him through five innings of work. Pelfrey allowed two earned runs over five innings, striking out three, but walking four. Overall, it wasn’t such a bad major league debut for Mike Pelfrey. He’s going to have to get his walks down if he wants to be effective for the Mets, but he demonstrated some flashes of talent that many people in the organization believes he has.

I’m glad the Mets are calling up pitchers to start for them. I’ve had enough of the likes of Jose Lima, and I’d like to see what these young kids have down in the minors. The Mets have a huge lead in the division, and I don’t really foresee any team in the NL East getting relatively close to the Mets. Even if the race becomes closer, I’d rather lose with unproven rookies from the minors, than lose with proven veteran losers like Jose Lima. The Mets go for a split of the series tomorrow, with Tom Glavine taking the hill for the Mets. Game time is at 1:10PM EST, with coverage on SNY.