Johan's pitching tonight. Unfortunately.

It's Santana Day in the Citi tonight. With Johan on the mound, the Mets have their best chance of winning out of every five games.

But it bothers me that he's pitching tonight, rather than two nights ago. Why? Because Jerry Manuel and Dan Warthen have decided that, despite all the off-days during the early part of the schedule, they're giving all five starters their regular turns in the rotation. For the life of me, I can't see how this was a good plan -- particularly for two men who have to know their jobs are on the line. With your team's catalyst (Jose Reyes) out for the first week and the anchor of its lineup (Carlos Beltran) out indefinitely, it's more important this year than in others not to get off to a slow start. One way to prevent such a thing from happening, I would think, might be to use your best pitcher as often as possible, without overworking him.

I can understand that Johan is coming off of surgery that ended his season early last year and that the Mets wouldn't want to have him worn out at the end of the season. But, um, you have to get to the end of the season in contention before that becomes an issue. So why not use Johan every fifth day instead of every fifth game and then work the rest of the rotation around that? Even if Manuel wanted to give John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez regular work in the early going, I can't see how it would have been a problem to start Jon Niese off at Buffalo and bring him up when a fifth starter was finally needed.

This problem with Johan's use struck me this week, when I realized that because of the way Manuel set up the rotation, Santana will not pitch against the Braves this weekend or the Phillies next weekend. Sure, all games are equal, all wins and losses count the same, but don't you think there's a mental boost -- especially with this team -- that could come from having your ace shut down the top two contenders in your own division?

For a visual comparison, below is the Mets' schedule for April and May (click each one for a larger, clearer view) with the dates Santana pitched or will pitched based on starting every fifth game (in green) as he is now vs. when his starts would fall if he went every fifth day (in blue).

The time is Wright for a walk-off

David Wright's walk-off homer, Aug. 7, 2008
Originally uploaded by NJ Baseball

On Wednesday night, I turned to a co-worker after David Wright committed the error that allowed the Padres to tie the game. "He needs a day off tomorrow," I said. After baserunning blunders the last two nights, some limp at-bats in clutch situations, and now this error, he looked worn down, sluggish. He looked like he needed a break.

Thankfully, he talked Jerry Manuel out of it. Wright had three hits and belted his first career walk-off home run on Thursday afternoon at Shea. That it came after Scott Schoeneweis could not hold a one-run lead in the ninth -- giving up a game-tying homer to Jody Gerut of all people -- was barely remembered on the 7 train back toward Manhattan. Though there are plenty of Mets fans who are only happy when they're bitching about something (Scott Kazmir actually came up, again, on the train ride back. Get over it, people), Wright rounding the bases was the lasting image in my mind as I counted the stops to 74th and Broadway and an escape from the packed, stuffy car.

I'm heading back to the ballpark tonight, my wife and I, for one more first-time-and-last-time experience at Shea: We're sitting in the picnic area. In 23 years of attending games there, I've only looked down at Shea's small section of bleachers and watched the home runs land there. Mostly a group-seating area, it is only opened for general purchase for certain games, and tonight was one of them. With just 27 dates remaining on Shea's calendar (postseason TBD), the opportunities are dwindling.

And for the first time in at least a decade, I'm going to have to bring my glove to the game.