Despite winning two of three games from their opening series—the last by a laughable 13-0 score—the series still felt like a disappointment for the Mets. After all, it’s almost unthinkable to imagine losing the series, and the sole loss was further marred by the injury to Pedro Martinez. Still, the Mets mostly did their job and pushed around a team like they should have.

Now the Mets (2-1) can turn their attention toward an old nemesis, the Atlanta Braves (1-3), who they’ll play for three games in Atlanta. The Braves, who were the automatic winners of the NL East for over a decade haven’t finished higher than third since the Mets broke their streak back in 2006. The team’s hoping to reclaim their place in 2007, and many writers at ESPN think they will, Johan Santana or not. The Braves certainly have a high-powered offense, which includes Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira, Kelly Johnson, Brian McCann, and others, but they’ll still need strong years and good health from their starting rotation, and another good year from their bullpen.

The opening matchup includes John Maine (0-0, —) and Atlanta ace Tim Hudson (0-0, 2.57), while Mike Pelfrey (0-0, —) and former Met Tom Glavine (0-0, 1.80) start the second game. Johan Santana (1-0, 2.57) takes the mound against John Smoltz (0-0, —) on Sunday.

Game 1: Tim Hudson, RHP

What’s the Story? After a down year in 2006, Hudson returned to form last year to go 16-10 with a 3.33 ERA. What was the big difference? Well, for one, he cut his walk rate in half, but he also dramatically reduced his homerun rate. Some of the latter is likely due to an improved sinker—he got a few more groundouts last year than 2006, but some of it was just luck as only 6.5% of his outfield flies became homeruns. Hudson’s lost a little bit of velocity over the years—he mostly hovers around 89 or 90—but he can still dial it up to 92 or so when he needs to. His sinker’s still excellent, and he still has three other pitches he can turn to: a nasty splitter, a good slider, and a decent change-up.

Last Year: Hudson made four starts against the Mets in 2007 and went 2-2 with a 3.33 ERA over 27 innings. While Hudson isn’t a strikeout pitcher to begin with, he only rung up eight Mets. Luckily, he walked just five also. He posted game scores of 73, 44, 45, and 54.

What to Expect: Expect Hudson’s infield to get a lot of work. Hudson will usually throw a lot of early-count fastballs and sinkers, while saving the splitter and slider as out-pitches. He’ll mix the changeup in here and there, though mostly to lefties. However, as Josh Kalk mentioned, in Hudson’s first outing he didn’t throw a single pitch that could be classified as a sinker according to Pitch f/x data. That doesn’t mean he didn’t throw any, but that none acted like one (they were flat). It’ll be interesting to see if that sink returns tonight.

Game 2: Tom Glavine, LHP

What’s the Story? Everyone should be familiar with Glavine by now as before re-joining the Braves this season he had been a Met for five years. If you’re a regular around here, you’ll also know that I have a fascination with how he pitches. He has no velocity on his fastball whatsoever (tops out at 87 and mostly hovers around 84), and it doesn’t move. His change is his best pitch, but it’s really nothing special. In recent years he’s added a cutter, and he also throws his curve more frequently then he used to, but that can still only be described as “very occasional.” He can’t strike batters out, he doesn’t post very good walk rates and he’ll give up a few homers. Quite frankly, Glavine looks like he shouldn’t be able to get a soul out. And Tom Glavine will go to the Hall of Fame.

Last Year: The Mets obviously didn’t face Glavine in 2007. In fact, the last time they did was September 28, 2002, a game that Glavine only pitched the first two innings of—it was an appearance just to stay fresh, since he was scheduled to pitch the opening game of the NLDS three days later.

What to Expect: There’ll be no surprises here; Glavine’s been doing pretty much the same thing a long time. You can expect lots of fastballs and lots of change-ups, and it’ll be nigh impossible to tell them apart. He will mix in the rare breaking pitch, and he’ll throw cutters to the inside corners to keep righties honest. He’s liable to leave a lot of balls up in the zone, and he’s not afraid to walk the occasional batter. In short, if he pitches well, you’ll be asking yourself “How are the Mets not beating this guy?” the entire time. But he knows how to pitch, and he knows when he can afford to give an inch and when he can’t.

Game 3: John Smoltz, RHP

What’s the Story? Smoltz, who has had his first start of the season somewhat delayed after experiencing tightness in his neck and shoulder two weeks ago, is the polar opposite of the only slightly older Glavine, even now. He can still throw in the mid-90s, and he has great secondary stuff: a great, mid-to-high 80s slider, an excellent splitter, a good curve, and a solid changeup. He’s a tough pitcher, a power arm who gets lots of strikes, doesn’t walk many, and doesn’t give up too many homers.

Last Year: Smoltz made six starts against the Mets and was really pretty mortal against them, going 2-1 with a 3.55 ERA and 28 strikeouts against 11 walks. He had an average game score of 50.5, with his best start coming on May 24, when he threw seven shutout innings.

What to Expect: When a guy has as many weapons as Smoltz does, it’s tough to expect exactly what he’ll do. He will pound the outside corner of the strike zone with fastballs to set up the slider, which is still one of the best pitches in the business. Against lefties, you shouldn’t be surprised to see him throw more change-ups and even more curveballs, which is more effective in those situations than the slider. I can’t imagine the Braves will let him throw too many pitches due to the tightness he felt in spring training, so the Mets should do their best to rack up his pitch count.

Overall: This is a tough series to predict. The Mets do have their two best pitchers in John Maine and Johan Santana taking the hill, but so do the Braves on the same days. My first instinct is to say that there’s a chance that Hudson-Smoltz might be the more effective duo at home, but I’m not positive either is at 100% at this point in the season, while both of the Mets pitchers have looked phenomenal this spring. And I’m sure Glavine will kill the Mets, not that I expect too much from Pelfrey. So I’ll pick the Mets to go 2-1, losing only the middle game. However, I can just as easily see 1-2, so I don’t have a ton of confidence in my prediction.