The Mets made it five in a row by breaking through in the eighth inning Friday night against the lowly Pirates.

It looked as if this could have been a stress-free night when Delgado’s first-inning single brought home two runs, but Buccos’ starter Jeff Karstens settled down to hold the Mets off the board for the remainder of his six-inning outing.

Mets starter Jon Niese turned in six solid innings of his own.  (This young southpaw does not come as highly-touted as Scott Kazmir, but Management should make plans to keep this kid in the organization for years to come.  Twenty-two year old lefties who sport a 92-mph fastball are worth a bit more than Victor Zambrano.)

So it turned into a Battle of Bullpens with the game tied at 2-2.  It was definitely not the case last year, but one would think the Mets would have an edge in this department Friday night.  Omar ADDRESSED THE BULLPEN!  Remember?

Needless to say, the folks down at Omar’s local bagel joint were all smiles.

After Sean Green (who may or may not be Heilman 2.0, he deserves a chance though) worked around a double, the Mets most-exciting young gun took the hill.

Bobby Parnell actually had an easier time setting down the Buccos than JJ Putz did in his inning last night.  It’s hard not to jump onto the Parnell Bandwagon.  The farm product, who notched his first career win, is nothing short of a hard-throwing righty that goes right after the opposition.

And it was nice to see former Met Tyler Yates make an appearance, ultimately taking the loss.  Remember when this Mets castoff was being groomed as a possible successor to John Franco?

On that note, let’s make it six straight…