On the Mets beat

9:47 -- Aaron Heilman continues to be Shea Public Enemy No. 1. The fans seem to love booing him. Anytime he hurls a ball or serves up a hit, out comes the venom. Reyes and Schneider went out to the mound with two outs to calm him down and pitching coach Rick Peterson did one pitch later. He did get out of the eighth inning and those boos turned to (well, mild anyway) cheers..

9:33 -- Good sign for the Mets: Wright is having a great game at the plate. He doubled in Reyes from second and has three RBI tonight. If Wright continues this throughout the rest of the week I'd really think hard about dropping him into the cleanup spot if I were Willie Randolph. Beltran singled in Wright and things are looking pretty good for the Mets at the moment.Mets 4, Nationals 0.

9:14 -- Solid outing by Pelfrey. He's thrown 99 pitches through seven innings (64 for strikes) and has been in very little trouble the last few innings. We've probably seen the last of him for the night. Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano are warming up in the bullpen. Wonder if we'll see Duaner Sanchez? It's get up and stretch time.

8:53 -- Those three days off to rest the hammy appear to have benefitted Reyes. He's 3-for-3 after just missing a homer off the leftfield wall. Milledge couldn't get to it and Reyes motored into third for a standup triple. The crowd busted out into the "Jose! Jose! Jose! ... Jose! ... Jose!" chants. I think they are happy. But the Mets squandered a golden opportunity by failing to drive Reyes in and left the bases loaded. They better hope it doesn't come back to haunt them.

8:37 -- Nothing doing for the Mets in their half of the fourth and Big Pelf continues to keep the Nationals offstride. He has thrown just over 70 pitches through five innings and struck out Milledge (to the delight of the fans) to end the fifth. With the bullpen being severly overworked lately, it wouldn't be a bad thing for him to go deep into the game.

8:19 -- Nice pace to this one. Pelfrey might be settling in and retired the side easily. On to the bottom of the fourth.

8:13 -- Mets waste Reyes' leadoff double and subsequent one-out walk by Wright as Carlos Beltran grounds into a 6-4-3 double play to end the third. Still not sure if batting him cleanup is a great move. I think I'd still like to see him and Wright switched in the order. Anyone agree/disagree?

8:04 -- Risky decision to throw to second in an attempt to get the lead runner (Ronnie Belliard) there by Schneider on Perez's sacrifice bunt. But he got him by a whisker. Pelfrey loaded the bases but fanned Nick Johnson to end the Nats' big scoring threat. By the way, Big Pelf, as David called him in a few posts down recenty, is shattering plenty of bats so far.

7:53 -- After a rocky first, Perez gets through the rest of the lineup without a scratch. Wonder how Luis Castillo feels hitting eighth behind Brian Schneider?

7:46 -- Is there any harder play to make in the field than the one where the broken bat head and ball and heading toward you at the same time? Reyes made it look easy in fielding Wily Mo Pena's grounder to shortstop to end the top of the second. Starter Mike Pelfrey isn't overly sharp but he's getting the job done.

7:33 -- Guess Jose Reyes' hammy is feeling OK. He singled in his first AB and tried to steal second but was picked off by Odalis Perez. Ryan Church singled against his old mates and Wright launched a 1-and-1 offering that went just over the outstretched glove of Wily Mo Pena and over the wall for a 375-foot, two-run homer. Wright's bat appears to be heating up and the Mets need him to produce on a consistent basis if they are going to have a good season. Mets 2, Nationals 0.

7:19 -- Lastings Milledge alert. He was booed when he came to the plate before lacing a double to left. The fans had plenty to cheer about not too long after L-Millz' hit because he was thrown out trying to steal third. Not a smart move. Why would he even try that? So the Nats go down and we move to the bottom of the first.

7:10 -- Rod Boone here blogging tonight. We're about to get underway here on Jackie Robinson Night. Gov. Paterson tossed out the first pitch. If someone was batting righthanded, they would have been beaned because that's where his throw went. You may insert your own joke here. I give you permission.

And then there were three. The Mets have narrowed their eighth-inning sing-a-long choices to three finalists, which will be played in order beginning tonight. Just as before, the crowd reaction will help determine the winner.

"I'm a Believer" -- The Monkees
Movin' Out" -- Billy Joel
"Sweet Caroline" -- Neil Diamond

Without further ado, here is tonight's lineup:

NATIONALS

Guzman (ss)
Milledge (cf)
Zimmerman (3b)
Johnson (1b)
Kearns (rf)
Estrada (c)
Pena (lf)
Belliard (2b)
Perez (lhp)

METS

Reyes (ss)
Church (rf)
Wright (3b)
Beltran (cf)
Delgado (1b)
Pagan (lf)
Schneider (c)
Castillo (2b)
Pelfrey (rhp)