New York — If 20 strikeouts in his previous two starts seduced some into thinking John Smoltz might go on like this forever, Sunday served as a reminder that he can't.

Even the bearded Braves icon can't ignore pain and keep mowing down hitters in perpetuity. Now he'll have his sore shoulder checked to see how bad the wear and tear has become and whether he needs to take some more time off.

AP (ENLARGE)

Smoltz allowed four runs and seven hits in his shortest outing of the season, including a homer to Carlos Delgado -- his first since April 8.

AP (ENLARGE)

David Wright is picked off in the sixth inning by Braves first baseman Mark Teixeira.

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"It's frustrating, I'm not going to lie," Smoltz said after lasting four innings and allowing four runs and seven hits including a pair of homers in a 6-3 loss to the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. "Especially with the start I've had [this season]. But sometimes you can't do anything, and I just couldn't do anything."

Carlos Delgado hit home runs off Smoltz and Will Ohman as the Mets finished a 2-1 series win that included Saturday-Sunday wins against Braves co-aces Tim Hudson and Smoltz (3-2). The co-aces gave up 14 hits and eight earned runs in only seven combined innings.

Smoltz entered with a miniscule 0.78 ERA and .179 opponents' average. But those stats didn't matter Sunday, when Smoltz barely touched 90 mph with his fastball and couldn't make his slider bite.

"I just never got comfortable," he said. "I couldn't command any one pitch that I wanted to, and had to throw a lot of off-speed pitches because my fastball wasn't anywhere near where I needed it to be."

Several Mets players said he wasn't the pitcher they were used to seeing.

"Smoltz did not throw as hard as he normally throws," center fielder Carlos Beltran said. "He didn't have as his normal break or velocity."

"I still don't like 70 percent of Smoltz," said third baseman David Wright, the victim in two of the veteran's five strikeouts Sunday.

Smoltz (3-2) said he would wait a couple of days before having his shoulder examined, probably in Atlanta. The Braves have a two-game series in Washington Tuesday and Wednesday.

He was five days removed from the joy of his 3,000th career strikeout, but Smoltz was also 2 1/2 weeks away from his 41st birthday. He doesn't need a birthday as a reminder of his pitching mortality.

The ache in his shoulder, which landed him on the disabled list last summer and to start this season, seems unlikely to subside while he's trying to throw fastballs and sliders past major league hitters.

All four of his arm surgeries have been on the elbow, but it's been his shoulder causing problems the past four seasons. Smoltz has said before that he wouldn't endure another major surgery and rehab.

On Sunday, he couldn't make adjustments to pitch effectively and with tolerable discomfort.

"The [recovery] cycle has not been the way I would like it to be," he said. "Meaning, certainly today, I didn't have some of the stuff I had the first four games. And there was nowhere to get it.

"So that's why I'm going to assess it, see what we need to do to either make the changes or rest it or do whatever we have to do. Because I can not pitch like [Sunday]. That's not going to help the team."

He hadn't surrendered a home run this season until giving up a two-run homer by Raul Casanova in the third inning. The previously slumping Delgado added a solo shot in the third for a 4-0 Mets lead.

"He's been dominating," manager Bobby Cox said of Smoltz, who needed 83 pitches to get through four innings. "This is the only time he hasn't been dominating."

Cox said he pulled Hudson after three innings and Smoltz after four because he wanted to do all he could to get his veterans through the season, as long as there were enough fresh arms in the bullpen.

But even with a day off Monday, the Braves' bullpen was already overused. And the fact of the matter was, Cox didn't have to pull Smoltz. The pitcher had made it pretty clear he was done.

"I was just trying to give as many innings as I could," Smoltz said. "But obviously I didn't have very good stuff and I couldn't do much with the hitters today, and they won out.

"I've been struggling [with his shoulder], but been trying to give as many innings as I can. Saturday didn't go the way we wanted it to, and I certainly wanted to try to help the bullpen as much as I could. Four was as much as I could go."

"I gave them more than I though I could today."