Welcome Back

A couple of potentially playoff-bound teams will gladly welcome the return of former 20-game winners to their starting rotations this week.

First the New York Mets, 3 games up on the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East, will send Pedro Martinez to the mound Monday night in Cincinnati, to take on Aaron Harang and the Reds. Pedro hasn't pitched since September 27 of last year when he suffered his fourth straight loss and retired just 8 batters before giving up 7 runs to the Atlanta Braves. He had off-season rotator cuff surgery and Willie Randolph says he will be limited to 75 pitches and no more than 35 in an inning, tomorrow.

And the St. Louis Cardinals, now 2 games back of the NL Central leading Cubs, will get Mark Mulder back in their starting rotation, likely Wednesday, at home, against Matt Morris and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mulder, like Pedro, had rotator cuff surgery in the off-season and has been rehabbing ever since. Mulder has not pitched in a big league game since August 29 of last year, where he suffered his third straight loss and got just 5 outs before giving up 5 runs to the Florida Marlins. Interestingly, once he returns, the Cardinals will go to a 6-man rotation featuring Adam Wainwright, Braden Looper, Kip Wells, Joel Pineiro, Mulder, and Anthony Reyes. The thinking here is all the converted relievers, rookies, and guys coming off injuries will have an extra day's rest in-between starts. Tony LaRussa hasn't said what sort of restrictions will be in place for Mulder, but you can bet he'll be on a pitch count for a while.

It's difficult to say what sort of impact these two will have, if any, on the 2007 stretch run. But you know their teams and teammates are just glad to see them, apparently, fully recovered from major arm surgery. At their peak, these guys were some of the best in the game and just a few years ago, both were still major contributors. In 2005 Pedro went 15-8 with a 2.82 and 208 K's while Mulder was 16-8 with a 3.74 ERA and 2 shutouts. If they can both make about 4 starts this month and get their arms into decent shape, and if their teams make it to October, who knows, they could come up huge.