Hangover Cure

It occurred to me as I sat down on the couch to watch Monday's Holiday afternoon game in Cincinnati, that ESPN in fact had managed to find a way to screw the Mets, but rather than do it in our faces, on live TV on Sunday Night, they chose a more psychological route. By invoking their "Bitch Fit" clause and moving the Mets/Nationals game to Sunday night, they would then force the Mets to play late Sunday, then have to immediately fly to Cincinnati and play on Monday on no sleep.

Joke's on you once again, ESPN. The Mets don't need sleep.

The one well-rested Met, Bartolo Colon (if you haven't been subjected to enough Skyline Chili Coneys for dinner jokes yet), came out and looked almost sprightly in throwing 6 shutout innings. Yes, it helps that the Mets were playing the Reds, a team that's been playing out the string since June (and hasn't beaten the Mets since 2014), but nonetheless, if there was ever a day that the Mets could have lost and really not been blamed for it, it was Monday. Though Colon has been doing this all season, the rest of the lineup Terry Collins tossed out there...not so much.

Resting were Jose Reyes, Yoenis Cespedes, Asdrubal Cabrera and Curtis Granderson. Starting were Alejandro De Aza, Kelly Johnson, Michael Conforto, recently returned from the Minors, and Matt Reynolds, who returned from the Minors Monday Morning, and whose well-documented traverse to get to Cincinnati seems like something from the volumes of Homer. So, of course Reynolds drove in the game's first run, with a 3rd inning solo Home Run off of Robert Stephenson. And of course Kelly Johnson hit a 5th inning Home Run to extend the Mets lead. And of course Colon, Hansel Robles, Jerry Blevins and Fernando Salas shut out the Reds. Because when you go out and essentially telegraph that you're not necessarily going all out to win this game, and you win the game anyway, and you win it pretty easily, things are probably going pretty well. Right now, things are going pretty well for the Mets. However strange that sounds after 4 months of stagnant baseball.