The Mets won yesterday, claiming a 5-0, rain-shortened victory over the NL East cellar-dwelling Washington Nationals. David Wright went 2-3 with 2 RBI singles, (one with 2 outs!) while premier backup catcher Ramon Castro hit a two-run homer to help buoy the Amazins.
No chance that's a real picture of a younger Ramon Castro. No chance. But it all might have been for naught if John Maine was Steve Trachsel. If Maine hadn't taken the hill at Shea for five innings in a steady downpour and worked hard, fast, and efficiently to retire 15 Nationals on just 66 pitches, the Mets would have been left to pick up the pieces of a 2 out of 3 series loss to the Nats, staring down the barrel of an extra meeting in September with a team that clearly has at least a small piece of their number this year. As it was, had the abbreviated win been an abbreviated loss, the Mets would have dropped an embrassing mid-summer 3 out of 4 this weekend.
In 9 games against the Nationals this season, the Mets are 5 and 4, with wins of 3-2, 1-0, 3-1, 5-0 (yesterday), and 6-2 (that game was tied at 2 going into the 11th inning). Washington has beaten the Mets by scores of 6-2, 4-3, 6-2 and 6-5.
I guess my point is that the Mets haven't looked very good against their division's movementless, 83 mile-an-hour fastball of a last place team this year. Their wins have been indecisive, while their losses have been far more convincing. Maybe this means nothing. But it's food for thought.
As the Mets continue their season-long search for consistency, beating up on teams like Washington and Pittsburgh might help. After a West Coast swing that saw the Mets take 3 out of 4 from LA to pull a 4-3 mark in 7 games, the Mets came home and could barely swing 4-3 over two teams with a combined record (today) of 87-121.
I won't say that the Mets of 2006 would have performed differently because - whoops there it was I just said it. One point bears mentioning; in a blurb Sunday about losing to last place teams, metsblog's Anthony De Rosa notes that if the Mets win the division, when October goes down a shoddy end of July performance against the Nats will be a scant memory. This is true.
Still, championship teams don't screw around against lesser competition. They feast on it. And as the Mets prepare for another test over the course of the next two weeks, with games against Milwaukee, the rejuvenated Cubbies, and Atlanta, as fans we can only hope that they pass it with loftier colors than the last place teams test that they barely got away with failing to study for.
Good luck to Glavine tomorrow night as he goes for win no. 300.
At long last. Try not to let it drag out, Tommy. Get it quicker than Clemens and you'll have bragging rights forever. (Photos courtesy baseball-almanac.com, digitalderek.typepad.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment