Pitchers cringe at the sight of it -- and for good reason. It's a haunting group, that freakishly talented top half of the Mets lineup. One mistake is all it needs to slap a crooked number on the scoreboard. Two mistakes, and it might be a short night.

The top six command attention -- it's as simple as that. But a lineup is nine batters long, and even the strongest core can't hide a bottom without any punch.

And that's where those cringes turn into unabashed horror. For there's no doubt that this bottom has punch.

Plenty of punch.

Consider that Shawn Green, the regular seventh hitter, is batting .351 on the year. His three home runs rank second on the team, his 13 RBIs third. Then there's Jose Valentin, a rock in the eight hole. Valentin clocks in at .281 -- paltry by comparison, though his 12 RBIs stand as proof of his clutch start.

They will rarely be top priority on an opposing pitcher's agenda -- there's simply too much else to worry about. But take them lightly, and you're bound to regret it.

"It's fun to be in a lineup like this because you can't blink," Valentin said. "Anybody can make you pay."

Green and Valentin both know what it's like to be the centerpiece, so if anything, flying under the radar is a breath of fresh air. It's not as if these two are fringe hitters just happy to crack a lineup. They're former sluggers, still plenty productive in the latter phases of their careers.

Valentin, for one, was once a deadly combination of power and speed, slamming 25 homers for five straight seasons at the start of the decade. And Green was even more impressive, three times eclipsing 40 home runs.

"Pretty much everyone here has hit in the middle of a lineup at some point in their careers," Green said. "It's obviously a really deep lineup, and the thing that's nice is a lot of days the top of the lineup's going to carry it and other days the bottom of the lineup's going to carry it. I think everyone's capable."

But for former middle-of-the-order guys such as Green and Valentin, it's taken some adjusting. Hitting in the middle can be fairly straight-forward -- knock in those in front of you, and get on base for those to come. But at the bottom, with the pitcher due up, situations aren't always so clear.

There are times when simply moving a runner into scoring position won't do, as it would at the top. Not when the next man up is a pitcher who, even on a good day, isn't likely to get the job done. So the bottom two always have to be aware of the situation -- not just the number of outs, but the score, the likelihood of a substitution, and every other headache that rarely concerns a hitter at the top.

Not to mention that with the pitcher coming up, batters aren't likely to see a whole lot of strikes. Opposing pitchers can tread carefully, knowing that a walk isn't as bad with their counterpart ready to step up to the plate.

"I'm still kind of getting used to that," Green said. "I was actually talking to some of the coaches about it, when to try and drive a guy in from second and when to get him over. The situation dictates things more."

Of course, all that matters less when hitters are mashing the ball like Green and Valentin. Green has nine hits in his past 10 games, earning him everyday playing time in right field. It's no small feat for a notoriously slow starter who hit just one April home run last season.

Then there's Valentin, who has hits in eight of his past nine. That streak included four straight multi-hit games, and has the second baseman batting .400 since April 14, a span of nearly two full weeks.

"It's not easy to face a lineup that way, when the bottom of the lineup is swinging better than the top," Valentin said. "Because those guys on top of the lineup, even when they're struggling, it just takes one pitch for them to change the whole game."

It'd be a stretch to say New York's top is struggling, with Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran in particular off to smoking starts. But Carlos Delgado and David Wright -- a duo that combined for 64 home runs last season -- have just one between them this April. And that makes the pick-me-up at the bottom all the more satisfying.

"Those guys have done a fantastic job," Wright said of the bottom two. "It's definitely easier for the guys that are struggling to put less pressure on ourselves when we're winning. It'd just be nice to join the party."