Woohoo, wowee, that was fun!! Delgado is all heated up, finally! :gasp!: No, not Shawn Green!!! No, not Carlos Gomez!!! El Duque looks fantastic, I knew Maine would bring it on the road, and anything else I might say (albeit written slightly better :wink: ) about this series can be found in the official wrap-up, so here it is from mets.com:
MIAMI -- The Mets had a substantial list of things to savor after they completed a three-game sweep of the Marlins on Sunday before heading into Monday's off-day.
At 32-17, they are playing two games better than at this point last season, when they went on to compete in the National League Championship Series.
They have now won seven straight games at Dolphin Stadium, five of them this season.
They have not made an error in the last seven games.
Closer Billy Wagner managed his 30th consecutive save, expanding his franchise record. And with the Braves losing, Sunday's victory gave the Mets their biggest division lead of the season, 4 1/2 games.
Of the fact that the Mets are ahead of last season's 97-win pace, manager Willie Randolph said: "It just shows how good we are, really. It shows we're still hungry and we're one of the teams that play our best. We have a good group of guys who play hard for me every day. And guys pitch in and help. We are a team."
With the Mets playing shorthanded, Randolph had hoped for an easy game on Sunday. And that's what he got. The Mets used a four-run fourth inning as a springboard to forge past the Marlins, 6-4, before 23,622 mostly Mets supporters.
With two players sidelined by injuries -- outfielders Shawn Green and Carlos Gomez -- five Mets drove in a run, and right-hander Jorge Sosa resumed his winning ways after a loss against the Braves, his former team.
Sosa gave up two runs in 5 2/3 innings in improving to 4-1. He was particularly sharp for the game's first four innings, allowing just two runners. The Marlins got the first two runners on in the sixth, and then the next two batters hit shots to the warning track in left field.
That was it for Sosa. Left-hander Pedro Feliciano came on to get the final out. That left the Marlins in a hole they couldn't escape, drawing it closer with a run each in the eighth and ninth innings.
Sosa, who dedicated the game to his mother, Miguelina Sosa, because it is Mother's Day in the Dominican Republic, said he had markedly better command of his pitches on Sunday than he did against Atlanta.
"I felt more confident on the mound," Sosa said, "and I was throwing more strikes."
Randolph thought Sosa "got back to his comfort zone." Still, the manager gave him a relatively quick hook because "he got some balls up in the zone, and they hit some balls pretty hard off him."
First baseman Carlos Delgado, who drove in five runs on Saturday night, produced the first Mets' run with a single in the fourth inning. Damion Easley followed with a run-scoring single, and a third Mets run scored on second baseman Dan Uggla's error. Endy Chavez capped the rally with an RBI single.
David Wright hit a 3-0 pitch for a run-producing double in the fifth, and pinch-hitter Julio Franco's RBI single scored a run in the eighth.
Wright said the Mets showed plenty of resilience after losing two out of three games in Atlanta.
"More than anything, it proves to ourselves that we can rebound after a letdown," Wright said. "We don't let things prolong. We didn't let it go past Atlanta."
Wright paused for a moment, and then said, "We know that the National League East is going to have to go through Atlanta. We know we're going to have to beat the best teams in the league and the best teams in the division. And so far we haven't been able to do that against Atlanta."
Told that the Mets are two games better at this point than they were last year, Wright said that is impressive inasmuch as so many players have been injured. He ticked off the names of the wounded: pitchers Orlando Hernandez and Pedro Martinez, second baseman Jose Valentin and, more recently, outfielders Moises Alou, Green and Gomez.
"I think our record speaks volumes about our bench," Wright said.
But he noted that, injuries or no injuries, the Mets still can put a formidable lineup in any game. Wright said that he and Delgado began slowly and have picked it up as of late after Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran carried the club early, but both could not have been expected to continue their torrid pace.
"That's what makes our lineup so special," Wright said. "We don't have to be perfect to win games. I'll tell you, it's a pretty scary thing what this lineup can do when everybody is clicking at the same time."
Randolph seemed to perk up most on Sunday when he was told about the seven-game errorless streak.
"Any time we play solid defense, that just makes our pitching that much better," Randolph said. "We always take a lot of pride in our defense. We work hard at it, and we take it very seriously. So it's nice to catch the ball when we have to."
Randolph now has until Tuesday afternoon to figure out his roster situation. Outfielder Ben Johnson arrived just after Sunday's game started, but he might find himself heading back to Triple-A New Orleans if the Mets get good news on either Green or Gomez.
Both are set to have testing done on Monday -- Green a bone scan and Gomez an MRI -- and then meet with doctors on Tuesday. Of the two, Gomez appears more confident that he'll be able to play very soon.
Alou also will be the team, but he was emphatic on Sunday in saying that he's far more likely to resume playing this coming weekend than on Tuesday.
Whatever decisions Randolph makes, one thing is certain: the Mets left Florida feeling quite good about their station in the baseball universe.
Charlie Nobles is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.