Great Pitching Only Gets Ya So Far

In August, I mentioned that Texas went 3-9 in a string of games in which they scored at least 5 runs in each. Well, in September, the Mets did the opposite. In their first 13 games of the month, they never allowed their opponent to score more than 5 runs...and went 2-11. Through the first 17 games of the month, they allowed only 61 runs, or only 3.6/game while going 4-13. I guess that could be because they only scored 49 (2.9/game) themselves. (For those of you counting, that an average of only 6.5 runs combined per game!)

And that all came after a historic two-game outbutst in which they scored 32 runs. It took them 13 games to score 32 more. And they reached as many as seven runs just once in the next 33 games.

Extra Esoterica:
The Mets finished their season with an interesting series of occurrences. In each of their last three series, two pitchers with the same last name either won or lost consecutive games!

1. On 9/23, the Mets' Roberto Hernandez picked up the win in relief against Washington; the following day, Livan Hernandez beat the Mets.
   
2. On 9/27, the Mets' Juan Padilla got a relief win against the Phillies; the next day, Philly's own Padilla--Vincente--beat the Mets.
3. On 9/29 and 9/30, the Mets defeated two Kims: Colorado's Sunny and Byung-Hyun.

What makes this even more impressive is that this comes on the heels of their celebrated August 7 Zambrano-Zambrano affair!