The brilliance has been almost uninterrupted for a while now. Orlando Hernandez simply keeps doing it.
Every start and practically every inning.
El Duque continues to pitch like the Mets’ ace, and he did it again yesterday, twirling another magnificent game at Shea.
Hernandez carried a two-hit shutout into the seventh inning and earned the victory in the Mets’ 4-3 triumph, finishing with seven innings of four-hit, two-run, seven-strikeout ball.
Willie Randolph referred to it as “masterful.”
Some of the shine might have been rubbed off Hernandez’s jewel when he lost his shutout by serving up back-to-back homers to Luis Gonzalez and Russell Martin in the seventh.
But Hernandez capped his day by striking out Matt Kemp, and the two blasts were the only two blemishes of his afternoon.
Actually, there haven’t been any true blemishes with Hernandez since July 4.
The Mets haven’t lost a game he’s pitched since then.
They’ve won his last nine times out.
“I didn’t know that number,” David Wright said.
“We feel very confident when he’s on the hill, that’s for sure.”
You certainly have to if you’re the Mets.
The Mets have won 16 times in his 22 starts.
He has gone at least six innings in each of his past nine starts, and he has given up two runs or fewer in 15 of his 22 games this season.
Unreal.
“I’m happy,” Hernandez said.
“I feel very good.”
The oddest part of yesterday’s win – and perhaps the only alarming element – was that Aaron Heilman closed it out. Billy Wagner told the team he wasn’t going to pitch yesterday, believing it was more beneficial for him to stay off the mound.
He told The Post before the game he’s in a “dead-arm stage,” adding he just feels a little tired and he gets something like it every year.
The most encouraging part of the win came from Carlos Delgado, who snapped his 0-for-18 hitless streak with a key two-run single.
The Mets were 6½ games up on Philadelphia and Atlanta in the NL East, pending the Phillies’ and Braves’ games last night.
The Mets will begin a seven-game stretch against those two teams tomorrow after they finish the Dodgers series today.
The Mets took a 3-0 lead for the second straight day. Wright’s RBI single put them up 1-0 in the third. Delgado ended that inning by popping out and leaving two on, hearing boos.
He also left the bases loaded in the first inning, grounding out weakly and hearing boos then, too.
But in the fifth, the fans began a preemptive cheer for Delgado. With two outs and nobody on against lefty Eric Stults, Wright walked, and Carlos Beltran singled him to third, then stole second. Once he did, the Dodgers intentionally walked Jeff Conine, bringing up Delgado with the bases loaded.
When Delgado’s name was announced, the fans cheered, and the scoreboard read “Make some noise.”
Shea responded with a standing ovation.
“I wasn’t sure if it was for me,” Delgado said. “But they were loud.”
Delgado rewarded the place. He drove a single to center, the fans cheering as two runs came in for a 3-0 cushion.
Delgado had only a mild reaction, clapping his hands softly at first base.