Nice bounce-back win

Delgado was 3-4 with 2 jacks and 3 RBIs. What's gotten into this guy? I don't know, but I like it

6-3. And it only took nine. Phew.


(Image courtesy news.yahoo.com)

Not a good game to lose

It's not like you needed me to tell me that. It's pretty much universally recognized that blowing a seven run lead against your division rival in a late August game with first place on the line is not very advisable.

Shades of 2007 - watch out!!!! Tonight's game was the supreme manifestation of every fear that Mets fans have relative to our blossoming rivalry with the Phillies. This was like the game where we had a ten run lead and Philly almost came back and won. Except this time, they, you know, did end up winning. They're the team that doesn't quit, scores lots of runs, finds ways to gradually erase early seven run leads.

Mets fans have been conditioned to panic. This game sucked, but to characterize it and everything the result supposedly stands for so simply and viscerally would betray many of the facts in this situation. Like how we're (still) 9-5 against the Phils this season. Or how our success since Jerry Manuel took over can widely attributable to the fact that despite their own issues, the Mets themselves have made a habit of responding positively to setbacks - not quitting has been pretty central to this season's turnaround.

Or like how the Phillies have at least as much of a propensity to screw it up in the big spot as we do. Had they not stumbled over the summer, the Phils should have put us away earlier in the season when we couldn't buy back-to-back wins with Willie at the helm.

Get over it already. The Phillies have a bunch of good hitters, so they score a lot of runs. Sometimes, they don't score those runs until they're already down by 7. It happens

That said, it's still impossible to overlook the fact that you just can't blow a 7-run lead on your division rival, in a pennant race, in a game to determine sole possession of first place. Despite all the renewal, it sure feels like the Mets have had a lot of these games this summer. Just think of where we'd be had we held a few more of these leads.

It might be nice to win at least one of our final seven games against Philadelphia this season. Looks like it might once again be pretty important for the Mets to tap into some more of that newfound resiliency. What a long strange trip its been.

The Grateful Dead would be proud

(Image courtesy michpics.wordpress.com)

10 of 11...somehow

Do you hear that? It's the sound of a rejuvenated Shea crowd, cheering loudly and confident in a tight game that the Mets will find a way to pull it out. That crowd - and the Mets' ability to both excite and win improbably - has always been a hallmark of the Amazins' success, when they've been successful. That's what made it all the more painful to watch the team sleepwalk through a year and a half under from early '07 through the middle of this past June.





Of course, the crowd was never much help. It seemed that over the same period the only time anyone got out of their seats at Shea, or clapped their hands, or said, well, anything, was when the scoreboard or loudspeaker indicated that any of those things were appropriate.

Everyone used the term "malaise" to describe what the Mets seemed mired in through the first couple months of '08, appropriately. The entire aura around the team seemed very lethargic, from their ineffectual manager to the aforementioned crowd. No one was having any fun. People went to games to boo. It was like watching an old married couple that can't really stand each other anymore. Kind of sad.

Not everyone seems to notice these things, and maybe I'm just overreacting, but watching the end of the Braves game the other night, you could tell the fans were really into it. The players feed off that energy; every Met in the dugout was on the top step with their cap turned inside out, and when Omar Infante dropped Carlos Delgado's soft liner to left to score the winning run, the whole stadium went nuts and the Mets all celebrated like they were 12 years old and Jerry Manuel was going to take them out for ice cream after the game. When Delgado put the Mets ahead to ignite a five-run eighth on Tuesday night, it was the same deal.

There's a fundamental difference between a crowd that's on its feet because they're supposed to be, and a crowd that's on its feet because everyone in the stadium is just that stoked. The '07-beginning of '08 crowd would have been cheering for the Mets to pull out that win the other night, but it would have sounded tepid, dispassionate. It's just not the same.

What a difference a few months make. I went to two games within about three weeks of each other, at the end of July and beginning of August, and there seems to be a real positive buzz around Shea these days. It's as if everyone is just glowing at the fact that this season has somehow been rescued from the gates of hell. Carlos Delgado...hitting? Everyone is just so high on success right now.

Often times you appreciate something that much more when it's been taken away. After the Mets raised expectations astronomically in '06, only to fall short and then deliver last year's double downer, we're all just happy that the Mets are playing with passion again. Somehow or another, it's translating into victories, bullpen woes be damned.

Any team is only as strong as its weakest link, and the Mets are no different. How far they end up going this season will correspond directly to the amount they're able to win despite the ongoing issues in the 'pen. One thing that's encouraging, though, about this latest winning stretch, aside from the fact that Mets for once are finally beating up on crappier teams: despite being repeatedly undermined by injuries, a terrible bullpen, and other glaring flaws, they have been relentlessly determined to win. And they have. At a 39-21 clip since Jerry Manuel took over (as of tonight's win), the Mets have been playing like that for the better part of two months now.

Win or lose, that's a team I can always cheer passionately for. Judging by the recent tone of the Shea crowd, I think most Mets fans agree.


(Image courtesy newsday.com)

Mets bullpen blows it again

I've got to hand it to the Mets for becoming relevant again this season. They've been fun to watch and have taken the season from a pretty deep low point (basically the entire Willie part of the year) to a situation where they're in contention and are likely to at least stay in the mix through September.

It's unlikely the turnaround will turn into a playoff berth, however, if they lose many more games like the one today.

Another rough day for Heilman, and the rest of the 'pen

You just have to win when you hand your bullpen a 5-1 lead. You just have to. Who can we even trust out there to get anyone out? Eddie Kunz?

This Mets team has showed a lot of resiliency since Manuel took over, and they've needed it. Billy Wagner is the most reliable member of the 'pen, and he's got 7 blown saves. Will Billy's forearm get better? I hope so. It makes me uncomfortable to say it, but we need the dippin' Virginian more than anything right now.

As a this year move, getting Huston Street from the A's at the deadline is looking better and better in retrospect. When it comes to building a sustainable franchise, however, it's not really ever a good idea to trade your two top prospects for another team's relief pitcher (even if he is a closer). Nobody wanted to trade Fernando Martinez, (rightfully so I think) so the collective calculus seems pretty much to have been for us to leave it be and see how far the current squad can take us.

Might as well enjoy the ride...


(Image courtesy nydailynews.com)

1-5 road trip

Well, at least we can all temper some of that excitement, right? Relax a little bit, and remember that the last thing this Mets team is going to do is run away with this thing. Curb your enthusiasm.




Breathe in, breathe out.

All it took for the Mets to lose first place and (potentially) four games in the NL East standings was one 1-5 stinker of a road trip. A sweep at the hands of the also-ran Astros, and all of a sudden there's some gum in the gears.

It's not as if the Mets were going to win every single game for the rest of the season. 10 straight had to end at some point. But then the Mets responded in kind with consecutive series wins in big tests at home. We began using adjectives like "resilient" to describe the team, even batting around words like "mettle" and "guts" when talking about our players.

I'm hoping these last six games were an isolated incident, and that it just didn't go well on this road trip. Looking back, you can tell it might not have gone so well when you figure that the Mets in the last week managed to lose individual games started by Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, and Oliver Perez, who had all been brilliant lately. Pelfrey lost for the first time in nine starts. After pitching to a 1.38 ERA in the month of July, Perez had a rough, though not horrible day today (4 ER in 6 IP). The bullpen wasted another strong effort from Johan Santana, who once again seems to have been removed from a game too early (with one out in the 7th, and a 4-1 lead on just 103 pitches). Did I mention that John Maine got hurt?

It's that bullpen that seems like the biggest ongoing cause for concern. Duaner Sanchez's fastball is topping out at 86 MPH. Aaron Heilman has been pitching better, but he's been exposed time and time again and you can't rely too heavily on the guy. Billy Wagner's arm hurts, and when he is in there, he's turning into a slightly more lovable version of Armando Benitez. The other guys are going to have their hiccups, and they picked an unfortunate time to experience them together. Hopefully Eddie Kunz can be an effective reinforcement, because there wasn't a whole lot out there at the deadline for anything other than Omar Minaya's firstborn child.

Look, if one thing has been made clear over and over again this season, it's that these Mets aren't that good. They've proven they can compete for the division, but we also now know that in the post-Willie Randolph era the momentum halting 1-5 road trip is still a part of the team's repertoire. Jerry Manuel has proven himself to be a much better manager; that doesn't mean that the Mets don't have some issues which go beyond the guy leading them.

What this road trip has done is turned the Mets' upcoming home stand into another test. It will either get worse, and the Mets will go 2-4 or lose comparably to the Padres and Marlins, or the Mets will again display some of that newfound resilience and regain their footing. One thing's for sure and that's that Chris Carlin wasn't kidding on WFAN last Friday when he called this the "don't screw around portion" of the Mets schedule. The hardest team we play before a quick two-game series in Philly beginning on August 26 is the aforementioned Marlins, who we'll see this weekend.

Another thing's for sure and that's there is more than enough room in October for a flawed Mets team coming out of the NL East. If this remains a close race, anything can and will happen. There are going to be some peaks and valleys in the season, and with the Mets competing against other teams that aren't that good either, this road trip won't look as bad if the Mets can just prevent it from getting out of control. We know that that won't necessarily be easy, but we've also been given reason to believe that it can happen.

In the end, what are the Mets going to do? At this point, anyone's guess is as good as mine.


(Image courtesy nypost.com)