When you’re writing a game story about a doubleheader split when one of your pitchers is outstanding and the other is less so, you simply have no choice to use the “It was a tale of two pitchers on Thursday for the Mets” line. It’d be malpractice not to! Anyway, Jon Niese was fantastic last night, throwing a one-hit shutout to beat the Padres 3–0 in the nightcap. In the first game, the Padres won 4–2, beating Johan Santana, who should clearly retire now. The Mets are four games over .500 and only two and a half games behind the first-place Braves. Remember those dreaded PECOTA Playoff Odds? The Mets are at 17.5 percent, which is better than the Angels, anyway. After a three-game set in Baltimore this weekend, we can only imagine it’ll go up.