The Mets will see a lot of the Pittsburgh Pirates this week, playing five games against them thru next Monday, wrapped around three games against the N.L. East cellar dwellers, the Washington Nationals.

The Pirates return to Shea for a matinee performance Monday afternoon, a make-up for the rainout back on April 28th. The Mets and Bucs split the two early season contests. The clubs will meet again this weekend in Pittsburgh in a four-game series which extends thru Monday afternoon. The Mets have gone just 9 and 11 against the Pirates all-time at PNC Park, which opened in 2001.

John Maine is eligible to come off the disabled list this week and return to the Mets rotation. Maine has as many career victories for the Mets as any of their five winningest starters. Here's a list of the Mets current rotation in order of wins for the Mets, thru the games of August 10th:

Aaron Heilman owns a dubious Mets record having allowed nine home runs this season, eight of which have come with runners on base, the most by any relief pitcher in club history. However, Heilman also holds unique distinction among Mets pitchers on the positive side. Heilman has the most wins by any pitcher who has spent his entire major league career with the Mets. Here is the list of the winningest pitchers, past and present, in team history who pitched only for the Mets:

Last week, David Wright hit his first career game-ending homer. It was the 7th career last at-bat, game-winning rbi at Shea for Wright, tying him with Rusty Staub and placing him one behind Kevin McReynolds for the most in club history. Staub's 7th and final game-ending rbi for the Mets came on September 25th, 1984 when he hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 9th against the Phillies Larry Andersen, giving the Mets a 6-4 win. McReynolds Met record 8th game-ender came seven years later, on July 11th, 1991 against the Padres. McReynolds knocked in the game-winning run in the 4-3 victory with an rbi single off of...Larry Andersen.

According to research from a writer under the name of "birtelcom" at Amazinz.com and updating it to include the past two seasons, Wright's game-ending homer was the 111th in Mets history. Mike Piazza, Kevin McReynolds, Cleon Jones and Chris Jones share the club record with four. Chris Jones, who hit 12 homers in his two seasons for the Mets, is one of nine Mets players to have hit two game-ending homers in a single season and the only player to have done it twice in club history, connecting two times in both 1995 and '96. No Mets player has ever hit three game-ending home runs in a single season.

The Mets split their two games played against the Nationals in Washington back in April. They will play a four-game series in D.C. next month. The Mets have gone 9 and 12 overall on the road against N.L. East opponents in 2008 after having compiled a 23 and 13 road mark in 2007 vs. their division rivals.