Mets win again, 3-0 over the Astros. Jose Reyes led off the game with a line-shot home-run over the right-field fence. David Wright hit the ball hard the opposite way, with a triple to show for his efforts. Angel Pagan continues to hit and on top of a crisp, efficient win, there was a Jose Valentin sighting. Who knows where Jose will wind up, but it was good to see him back. NY is now 8-4 on the spring; after an 0-3-1 start, who's complaining?

The story of the afternoon however was John Maine. He breezed through the Astros batting order as if it was spring training. Maine went 4 hitless innings, striking out 3 and walking 1. He wasn't exactly facing the Killer Bees as 3 ex-Mets were in Houston's line-up: Victor Diaz, David Newhan and Ty Wiggington. Still, Maine had some pop on his fastball and looked unhittable. Billy Wagner and Aaron Heilman (2) contributed 3 scoreless innings, as did Juan Rincon and Carlos Muniz. More positive signs from PSL. Always a good thing.

Metsblog has a few comments on the status of Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran; both look fine according to Matt. I'm sure the rash of recent injuries, in addition to the players who were recovering from surgery looked scary, but as I've said almost every time I've mentioned injuries here; it is still only March 9th. Plenty of time to take it slow and make sure they're as close to 100% when Opening Day does arrive.

I watched Friday afternoon's Mets win over the Indians and got a good chuckle from John Kruk (rare, but it happens). The Krukster is picking the Mets to finish 3rd behind Atlanta and Philly. Of course he is. I really didn't have much to say about it; it would sort of be like complaining about Joe Buck and Tim McCarver calling an NLCS with the Mets and Cardinals. What's the point? Anyway, I did find a mildly amusing post about it, so of course I'll pass it on. When I Google Kruk and get results like this '...of about 7,810 for idiot "john kruk"', I'm not really going out on a limb when I say that it isn't the first and nor will it be the last time Kruk beclowns himself.