NEW YORK -- Coast-to-coast traveling saps those involved, particularly those moving left to right. So if seven games in seven dates in two cities left any energy in the Mets, their LA-to-home flight Sunday night probably claimed it.

Their need for rest is the primary reason Shea Stadium is dark Monday night; that and the absence of an opponent and the gloomy, wet weather.

A day without ground balls, curveballs and shagging flies won't necessarily restore the spring to the steps of all involved. The Mets are approaching the 100th game of their season -- their rousing but draining 5-4 victory against the Dodgers on Sunday was their 98th.

The demands -- read strains -- of the big league schedule are familiar to most of the members of the first-place team in the National League East. Not so with Joe Smith, who is experiencing his first full season as a professional, full being the operative word. It has occurred to the Mets rookie reliever that "We play every day," that there is a remainder of the season, but that with the All-Star break already passed, there is no rest of the season.

The batteries recharge rather quickly at age 23. And nary a syllable of complaint has passed Smith's lips. "We play every day" is merely an observation he made last week in Dodger Stadium when asked what he had learned in his first tour of big league duty. When he repeated it, the "every" in every day was emphasized, but understandably so.

Wright State, the school for which Smith pitched for parts of the previous three years, played about as many games in his time there as the Mets will play this season alone if they play as deep into October as they hope.

Of course, he hopes to experience fall ball, but forgive him if he silently asks the backseat question: "Are we there yet?"

"It is the biggest adjustment you make when you get to the big leagues," Aaron Heilman says. "And for Joe it's been even bigger, because he hardly played [in the Minor Leagues] last year."

Smith was in the Wright State of mind last summer when the Mets made him their selection in the third round of the First-Year Player Draft. The amount of pitching he did with their Class A Brooklyn and Double-A Binghamton affiliates, 32 2/3 innings, was essentially double what he had done in his final intercollegiate season. And now he has thrown more with the Mets, working 38 1/3 innings in 64 games -- with six days off.

He's enjoying it, but his body is being taxed as never before.

"I can't really say I'm tired, but I feel different some days," Smith says. "I'm getting used to [the workload]."

He already heeds the "get your rest" advice of veterans Scott Schoeneweis, Aaron Sele and Billy Wagner. He has been introduced to the phenomenon, peculiar to the big leagues, of "sleeping fast." Those lessons and adjustments are as much a part of what his rookie season is about as the sidearm slider that helped produce 36 strikeouts in those 38 1/3 innings, and a 2.82 ERA in 45 appearances.

"It wears on you," Heilman says. "We all know what he's going through because we went through it. But not many have done what Joe's done -- [he] pretty much [went] straight from college to this. And that makes it harder. In college, it was pretty easy to get up for each game. You played four or five a weeks, tops. Now it is every day."

And maintaining a performance, Smith has learned, isn't easy. The league learns and makes adjustments, too. His slider can be just as sharp Sunday as it was Saturday and not produce the same results. Ground balls find holes. But sometimes a ground ball through a hole would be preferable to what happens.

Smith has surrendered two home runs -- one to J.J. Hardy of the Brewers, the other to Rockies rookie Ryan Spilborghs. Both were grand slams. And it was Smith's pitch Saturday that led to the runs that proved decisive in the Mets' 8-6 loss to the Dodgers, no matter that the pitch produced a ground ball with double play potential and that it was a teammate's error -- a faulty relay by Ruben Gotay -- that was mostly to blame.

He doesn't rationalize it that way. He deals with it.

"Lately," he says, "my head's been getting in the way. I know more about the hitters and about how the game is played [so much quicker than in the Minor Leagues]. But I'm not pitching as well."

He spoke the truth. Smith allowed four runs in his first 29 appearances (26 1/3 innings), three of them coming on the pitch Hardy hit May 12 at Shea Stadium. Opponents had 10 walks and were batting .204 in 93 at-bats against him. Since then, he has allowed eight runs in 12 innings -- five runs in one inning in the Detroit nightmare. Opponents have walked eight times and batted .346 in 52 at-bats.

"I need to get back to where I was," he says.