Murray Chass: NOT THE MAGNIFICENT METS

The Mets expect Maine to return to the rotation in 10 days to two weeks, and Minaya was cautiously optimistic about Perez (at left), who hasn’t pitched for the Mets since May 2.

“Perez finally had a good session yesterday,” Minaya said Friday. “He’s not ready now. It depends on how his knee responds. He’s on a cycle to pitch every five days. He threw well yesterday, 91, 92. That was good news.”

Minaya was not interested in getting into the sweepstakes for Pedro Martinez, who has been throwing for about half a dozen teams. The general manager, however, asked Cleveland about Cliff Lee, last year’s American League Cy Young award winner, but the Indians decided not to trade him.

In the meantime, while the Mets tread water awaiting the return of their injured starters, they need to figure out how to convert late-inning leads into victories. In the space of nine recent days, leading to the weekend, they lost four games which they led after the fifth inning.

The losses resulted from a combination of their relief pitchers giving up runs and their hitters shutting down and not producing late-inning add-on runs.

The Phillies, on the other hand, have demonstrated that they are a relentless and a resilient team, and even if the Mets remain in the race, they will have a difficult task in overcoming them.