The Echo Chamber

Most games played in that puke-green hell hole known more colloquially as Mickey Mouse Taxpayer Fraud Marlins Park tend to sound, to those watching on TV or listening on radio, as though they were being played in an airplane hanger. It's not because the stadium's roof is usually closed to protect the people of Miami from their normal Summertime temperatures of 89˚ with 142% humidity and a rogue late-day torrential downpour. It's because there's nobody in the stadium. So sounds just carry and echo and everything sounds weird. I feel the need to point this out every time the Mets go to Miami, just because I feel it's my duty as a Mets fan to clown the Marlins and remind everyone what a joke of a franchise they are.

When the Mets come to town, there's usually a spike in attendance. South Florida is full of transplanted New Yorkers that root for the Mets, and so, you know, they're a draw. Add Noah Syndergaard to the mix and perhaps it felt like a sellout on Friday night, with a robust crowd of 22,269 on hand. The Marlins, as we all know, only have about 4 fans, and really, if you're a Marlins fan and you stuck by this team, I'm not sure whether you deserve a Purple Heart or a kick in the head for all the crap that you continually have to endure. Remember, this is a team that's so obsessed with image over substance that they purposely hired Celebrity Manager and Celebrity Hitting Coach as a cheap ploy to try and be relevant.

All that being said, strange things tend to happen to the Mets when they go to Florida, and it's usually not good. It was already odd enough that the calendar had already turned to June and the Mets were making their first trip of the season to Wonderwheel Park. Then, there was the news that David Wright was headed to the DL for an undetermined period of time. I can't really say that this is a bad thing, though, considering that Wright's been a walking strikeout for the majority of the season and really a shell of what he once was. The real problem is that the Mets have really been decimated by injuries, to the point where Neil Walker was in the cleanup spot and guys like James Loney and Rene Rivera were now heavily involved in the picture. This kind of gave the proceedings an ominous overtone, but after looking mostly sluggish against the Dodgers and White Sox, the Mets woke up, hit 3 Home Runs and beat the Marlins 6-2.

Syndergaard, after his brief cameo on Tuesday, pitched his normal compliment of 7 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and striking out 9, and then later revealing he didn't have his best stuff and really had to battle his way through a few innings. Fortunately, the Mets were able to plate a couple of runs off of Tom Koehler, and in the 7th inning, James Loney had his official "WELCOME TO NEW YORK" moment when he hit his first Home Run as a Met, a 2-run shot off of Mike Dunn (duh YANKEE PROSPECT) that put the Mets ahead for good. In the 9th inning, Rene Rivera hit a Home Run of his own to give the Mets some breathing room.

So, in spite of all that's gone on, the Mets still manage to piece these things together and get contributions from these irregular guys. I don't know how long this is going to last, but the more you can cobble these things together, the better a situation you'll be in when the regular guys do get back. Whenever that is.