Successful start for Johan, Pedro to pitch tomorrow

Johan Santana's second start for the Mets was far more successful than his first, which is certainly encouraging. His changeup was as lethal as it's always been as he struck out four in three innings of work. He allowed one run on two hits, one of which was nothing more than a seeing-eye single up the middle. Steven Register, the Mets Rule V draft pick out of the Rockies system, also pitched two innings of shutout ball. Scott Schoeneweis threw a great inning, striking out two and not allowing any baserunners. Fernando Martinez went 2-3 with a double, raising his spring average to .300. Anderson Hernandez also went 3-5 with a double, and the Mets knocked off the Dodgers 3-2.

Pedro Martinez is supposed to be making his first spring start tomorrow night against the Nationals at the Nationals spring training complex in Viera. I will be flying home for spring break during his start, so I won't be able to see it. Damn it.

In more unfortunate news, Moises Alou is going to be out for 4-6 weeks because of a hernia that was picked up today in his MRI. This is the most recent of the numerous injuries suffered by the Mets since the beginning of spring training, and is probably the most damaging. Carlos Delgado will probably be back in the lineup by this weekend after resting his injured hip, and Luis Castillo is due back within the next week or so. There's no word on Beltran, but the general consensus is that he will be back by the end of next week. Juan Padilla threw an inning today for the first time in almost two years, and gave up an unearned run along with two hits.

Even with all of their injuries, spring training has not been all bad for the Mets. With today's win, they improve their record to 5-3. A number of younger Mets have been playing out of their minds during spring training so far, the most noteworthy of which has been Angel Pagan. Pagan was picked up from the Cubs during the offseason, and although drafted by the Mets originally, he never sniffed the big leagues in his brief stint here before. In today's game, Pagan went 1-2 with a walk and pushed his spring average up to .429. Pagan came into camp in better shape than all of the other players who donned a Mets uniform, and demonstrated his dominance by winning a fitness competition held by the Mets early in camp.