Plan G

The Mets were due for a game like this, and they were particularly due a game like this based on the way they've junked the Phillies this season. That doesn't make it any easier to deal with, but if the Mets were going to lose to the Phillies, at least they got their asses handed to them in a manner that exposed some pretty severe weak links.

We've been through enough of Jon Niese to know that just about every time he looks like he might be ready to turn the corner and return to being the 2012 Jon Niese who was starting to draw ink as one of the best young lefties in the National League, he has an outing like he did last night, where he gives up a couple of hits, gets a bug up his ass, gets frustrated, gives up some runs, gets even more frustrated and ends up grooving an 0-2 pitch to a light-hitting backup infielder and said infielder mashes the pitch into the seats, and instead of being down 2-0, he's down 5-0 and we then have to see him screaming at himself on the bench. This is the inherent problem with Jon Niese and it's once again why he's teetering on the verge of getting knocked out of a crowded rotation. He's just not Pitcher enough to put it all together.

But that was only half of the problem on Tuesday night. After the Mets rallied against Aaron Harang to cut the Nieseified 6-0 deficit to 6-4 after 5 innings, Terry Collins was stuck in Bullpen Limbo. Here, he had more than his usual assortment of pitchers at his fingertips because of the expanded September rosters. Back on the team were Bobby Parnell and Erik Goeddel and more are probably on the way before too long. But in a situation where Collins really needed his bullpen to keep the game where it was, every move he made resulted in the Baseball equivalent of him stepping in gum. First, Parnell was brought in and really ever since he blew that game back in Washington in July, Parnell has been an unmitigated disaster. He's in dire need of completely making over his game at this point and if that doesn't work I just don't think he's Major League material anymore. He came into a game that needed to be held and instead walked two batters and then heaved a bunt attempt into Right Field allowing a run to score and basically opening the door for the Phillies to stampede over the Mets. Then again, Collins didn't do anyone any favors by removing Parnell and replacing him with Eric O'Flaherty, who's been even worse than Parnell and probably should have been booted off the team weeks ago, and yes, I know he's only been here a few weeks to begin with. I mean he should have been cut before he was even acquired. He comes in to face the lefty, walks the lefty and then gets taken out of the game. And then comes Carlos Torres, because at this point why not, the game is one long hit away from getting slammed down the toilet and who better to have the honor of giving up that hit but Torres? For good measure, Torres then allowed another 4 Philly runs after that, making it 8 for the inning and turning a 6-4 game that seemed to be tilting the Mets way into a 14-4 game that sent everyone running for the exits.

The Mets then made some perfunctory rallies late in the game and somehow made a total shit show look like slightly less than a shit show, but when you allow 14 runs, you haven't done much right and after some of the beatings the Mets have inflicted on recent opponents, well, turnabout is fair play. Still, a game like this is avoidable if, perhaps, Collins calls on Goeddel in the 7th. Or Gilmartin. You know, someone who's useful. Time to figure something else out.

That Black Cloud

In the bottom of the 6th inning on Sunday, a rogue downpour formed over Citi Field. Quite literally, because it didn't appear to be raining anyplace else in the city except around Citi Field. At the time, the Mets had battled the Pirates to a 1-1 standstill, thanks mainly to Matt Harvey and his ability to grit his way through 6 innings in spite of not having his best stuff. Though he pitched in and out of jams all afternoon, the Pirates only reached him in the 2nd inning when Pedro Alvarez mashed a Home Run. Travis d'Arnaud matched Alvarez with a Home Run of his own and up until the rain came, this game appeared headed down the same track as the two games prior: a late (and perhaps later than late) decision.

The Pirates sort of seemed like they were treating this game as a house money affair; their best player, Andrew McCutchen was out of the lineup with a case of sore Harveys for a routine day off. The Mets, of course, tried to do everything they could to salvage one game in this series, particularly when they had their best pitcher on the mound. But then the rain hit and after a 50 or so minute delay, the game resumed and it seemed like this delay had just taken the Mets completely out of the game.

Bobby Parnell, whom I'd already expressed some concern about, entered the game for the 7th inning and immediately walked Pedro Florimon, and you've heard plenty about this because Parnell was ahead in the count and walked a guy hitting .200. So basically he'd made his own bed right then and there. Then, of course, came the ill-fated Mike Morse comebacker, a ball that seemed ticketed for a double play until Parnell chucked the ball into Center Field. This seemed to be some kind of cosmic mindfuck that involved everything that's gone wrong with the Mets crammed into one play, which happens sometimes. It involved Parnell, who's struggled, actually make a pitch and put himself in a position to get two outs. It involved Daniel Murphy, who for years has been the Shleprock of the Mets, essentially cowering in terror as if he couldn't believe a baseball was being thrown in his direction. And it involved Ruben Tejada, whose career arc could be best described as a tractor stuck in neutral. The play was Tejada's, at least in the sense that he was the one heading for 2nd base, except that when the throw arrived at 2nd base—and the throw did arrive at 2nd base, Parnell couldn't have walked it over there any better—€”the ball had already sailed into Center Field, because Murphy, as I mentioned, was too busy avoiding the fallout instead of trying to back up the play.

Basically, from this point forward, you could put a fork in the Mets, because they were done. Parnell then Wild Pitched a run home, gave up another 4 hits and 4 runs, got booed off the mound and replaced by Eric O'Flaherty who wasn't any better, and essentially the entire game went down the shitter as what was shaping up to be another close game turned into an 8-1 debacle.

You could, I suppose, say that the Mets were due for a real stinker like this, and the rain delay basically killed the entire team's energy. This isn't a good excuse, but it's the only reason I can think of for everything to break down as completely as it did in the 7th inning. Perhaps after battling the Pirates tooth and nail for 30 innings over the past 48 hours had something to do with it, and the day off they'll have today is probably a good thing because they can sleep this game off like the bad hangover it probably was.

Toe To Toe

This weekend's series against the Pirates shapes up to be somewhat of a telling series. The Pirates, who currently are firmly entrenched in the top Wildcard spot in the National League, seem fairly certain to be playing as the calendar flips to October. The Mets, of course, still only aspire to get there. Neither team, of course, is assured of anything at this point, but you go from what you see. What I've seen out of the Pirates, aside from a team that's already made the playoffs each of the past two years, is that they're a really good, really deep team that can find a lot of ways to beat you. For the Mets, who've struggled against these NL Central Playoff contenders, this was another chance to just see how they might stack up. They looked lousy against the Cardinals, in spite of only playing 3-4 against them they really got their asses kicked in the 4 losses. Against the Cubs they were patently awful, going 0-7. But, in both these instances, the Mets were playing with essentially half a deck. Now that the Mets have actual players in their lineup, they seem to have a bit more teeth to them and they've been playing as such. Going back to that Friday Night game against Washington, the Mets have won 11 of 13 games.

The Mets were game to the challenge of the Pirates on Friday. Bartolo Colon, allowed an early Home Run to Neil Walker but then gave up nothing over the remainder of his 7 innings to keep the game close. But the Mets offense wasn't able to figure out much against J.A. Happ, who has resurfaced in the NL after several seasons bouncing around the American League, but remains as Muppet-faced as he was back when he was a wiry rookie with the Phillies. The Mets had enjoyed some success against Happ in the past, but not on this night. Only when Yoenis Cespesdes reached out and knocked a Home Run in the 6th inning were the Mets able to break through, but otherwise, this was a game that belonged to the pitchers.

I still felt optimistic when the game turned over to the bullpens, but that was primarily because I wasn't sure who was pitching out of the Pirates' pen and I knew that the Mets could bring in Clippard and Familia and bridge their way from there. Problem was, the Pirates bullpen turned out to be good and on this night turned out to be better than the Mets in the end. Jared Hughes, Antonio Bastardo and Arquimedes Caminero matched the Mets arms and the game somewhat fittingly ended up going extra innings. So, if you wanted to see how the Mets stacked up against the Pirates, well, they held up at least through 9 innings.

Then Bobby Parnell entered the game in the 10th and everything went haywire.

Parnell, who early after his return to the Mets looked like maybe he'd learned how to pitch after surgery and a subsequent loss in velocity, but after a while teams started catching up to him. After his ill-fated outing in Washington a few weeks ago, Parnell has quickly pitched himself out of favor, at least with me, to the point where it's not unrealistic to think he might need to be replaced once Erik Goeddel returns or Logan Verrett re-ascends. Last night sort of underscored this need because Parnell really didn't have much and the Pirates took advantage, banging out three straight hits and plating a run before he was finally removed, but by that point the damage had been done. Still, the Mets proved game and attempted to rally back against Mark Melancon, the Pirates closer who looks hittable except that nothing really falls in against him. Certainly, Lagares battled him and had Granderson caught his pitch a little more square, the game might have been tied. But instead his drive found Marte and the Mets couldn't do anything further of consequence and fell to the Pirates 3-2 in a game that could have gone either way.

Certainly, this was a frustrating loss and I suppose at this point every loss is frustrating. But Washington also lost their game in San Francisco so in the grand scheme of things it still doesn't hurt the Mets. But you'd rather they show they can hang with the Big Boys a little more than they've displayed. Still two more chances to do that.

The Stupid Strikes Again

The Mets played a game on Wednesday afternoon that was rather specifically reminiscent of a few games they played way back in 2008, which just so happens to be the last time the team was this relevant this late in the season. I somehow maintain that 2008 was one of the more poignant seasons in Mets history because of everything that was at stake and how it all came down to the last two innings of the season. It feels like a lifetime ago, so on the one hand maybe it's good that the Mets can now once again lose games that feel as exasperating as this particular loss did. On the other hand, I think we're all sick and tired of these such exasperating losses no matter where the Mets are in the standings.

The problem in 2008 was that the Mets bullpen was so embarrassingly bad that teams, no matter how terrible they were, always kept playing extra hard against the Mets because they knew they could come back if they could get into the bullpen. The script is different now in 2015, because teams continue to play hard against the Mets knowing that if they can somehow catch a Pitcher on an off day, they can come back and grab a lead knowing that the Mets offense is so embarrassingly bad that they can't get off the mat.

This, unfortunately, is what happened on Wednesday afternoon. Noah Syndergaard gritted his way through 5 innings with less than his best stuff, but he was still good enough to depart with a 3-1 lead. The Mets offense had their 3-run spurt in a 4th inning rally, but could not tack on anything more from there. But after Hansel Robles got through the 6th and Jenrry Mejia the 7th, you had to feel pretty good about the way things were going. Bobby Parnell was reborn and pitching great, and he'd get the Mets through the 8th, and Jeurys Familia would bring it home from there, awesome win, .500 road trip, series win against fierce rival and 1 game out of 1st coming home.

But nooooooooo. That was too easy. Parnell, for the first time since his return, didn't have it. Although from what I saw on Gamecast he was throwing 96-97mph for the first time in a long time, he allowed a hit, and then a walk, and although he was 1 strike away from putting away Michael Taylor, the Nationals' 15-year old Center fielder, everything collapsed in the span of two pitches The first pitch was wild and allowed the runners to move up. The second pitch was bounced up the middle for a hit that scored both runs and tied the game. And if that wasn't bad enough, Danny Espinosa, who no longer sports the mutant Sal Fasano moustachio that he had earlier in the season, then drilled a double to left to score the 15-year old Center Fielder and give Washington the lead.

True to form, the Mets had no recourse to come back from this. Drew Støren came in and struck out the side in the 9th, and the Mets had one of those games that made me want to mash my head into my desk at work and what appeared like a golden opportunity to make a statement was flushed down the proverbial toilet.

But, this is what happens sometimes. A reliever doesn't have his best stuff every game and good teams will take advantage of that. Terry Collins put the blame on himself but should it really have come to this? Were the Mets of more offensive fortitude, they probably would have taken Jordan Zimmermann behind the woodshed because he was plenty hittable early in the game, but the Mets couldn't extend their lead like they did on Tuesday night. A few more runs in the bank and they're able to absorb a bad outing by Parnell and Collins can get Familia in the game sooner and everything is probably hunky dory. But this is what happens when you can't hit. So, for as much as you'd like to pin this loss on Parnell, or Terry Collins would like to pin the loss on himself, the reality remains that it always comes back to the fact that you can't win games if you don't hit enough. Only now has it cost the Mets a game that they really should have won and screwed them out of a really good opportunity.

Now they can come home off of a really deflating loss and have the high pleasure of facing Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke on back-to-back days and everything is terrible.

Familiar Friendly Sights

Tuesday night at Citi Field brought about a pair of comfortably familiar performances that punctuated a 3-2 Mets victory. First of all, Matt Harvey, who's looked very un-Harvey-like over his past few outings, got back to basics, and back to pitching like a badass. His 7 innings of shutout ball were punctuated by 4 hits against a tough Toronto lineup, 6 strikeouts, no walks and 3 exuberant fist pumps and expletive-laced motivational screeches.

But you knew that at some point, Harvey was going to get back to this kind of a game, because he was too good and too motivated not to.

Perhaps of more singular importance was the way the game was finished, with Bobby Parnell coming out of the bullpen with the bases loaded and 1 out in the 8th inning and finishing off the game, picking up his first Save in close to two years while keeping the lead intact.

Up to that point, Harvey had clearly made himself the story with his 7-inning effort, which included him helping his own cause by belting an RBI double in the 2nd inning off of Blue Jays youngster Scott Copeland, who clearly looked over his head. The Mets scored 3 runs off Copeland early and he was gone by the 5th. Harvey, of course, was on cruise control, scattering his hits and finishing off with a flourish.

But, the real question was if the Mets could survive the final two innings with Familia unavailable, Robles unavailable and the untested, untried Akeel Morris lurking in the wings. Carlos Torres was summoned to try to get through the 8th inning after pitching an inning on Monday and Torres had one of those outings he's periodically prone to where he's just terrible. The Jays were stinging the ball against him, and only by dumb luck did he pick up one out because Kevin Pillar didn't pick up that the runner ahead of him, Ryan Goins, had been stopped at 3rd base on a Jose Reyes hit. Pillar instead kept steaming forward until he arrived at 3rd and was clearly horrified to see Goins standing on the base, and by that point all Pillar could do was stick a fork in his shoes and take a bite out of them.

But Torres couldn't fix his own mess and instead walked the next batter to load the bases and earn himself a trip to the showers. Then, it was Parnell, and admittedly I was feeling kind of skeptical because Parnell hadn't looked at all like Parnell, even going back to before his surgery last Spring. I surmised over the weekend that he was basically going to have to try and reinvent himself if he wanted to survive. His secondary pitches were deathly when coupled with him throwing 100mph, but when he was only throwing 92, it didn't seem quite as severe. So, he had to pick his spots. Yes, he allowed two of the runners he inherited to score, but when he needed it, he got a strikeout of Colabello to finish the 8th, and given a clean slate to start the 9th inning, Parnell just finished the job himself, and that was the sort of Parnell performance I was hoping to see. I can't call it the Parnell of old, because he wasn't blowing hitters away, but he was keeping them guessing, which is what he's got to be able to do. The age old adage of being a pitcher instead of being a thrower, and if Parnell can be a pitcher, he'll be OK. I think.

So, the Mets have swept the Citi Field portion of this Lake Ontario Series or whatever you want to call it. If you again want to get technical about it, the Mets now have a 11-0 record when playing the Blue Jays at home. That record is less successful when they play at Rogers Centre, but if nothing else, they can do no worse than split with the Jays, which is fine considering they came in to New York having won 11 straight.

No Relief

Saturday's game had all the makings of one of those "Bad Hangover" games. The sort of game where the Mets lose and it's so deflating that it takes the steam out of the ship for the next few days and then all of a sudden you've lost 10 of 15 and nobody knows what the hell happened. It can go down that quickly, and that's what troubles me the most about a really troublesome loss.

The Mets basically dragged themselves kicking and screaming into a position to win this game in the first place. It took overcoming getting generally handcuffed by Shelby Miller, getting Andrelton Simmons-ed to death, having Jacob deGrom give up a Free Steak-level Home Run to Freddie Freeman and having Danny Muno nearly submarine everyone with an unconscionable three errors...And yet somehow they were able to get past that and grab a lead in the 7th inning. It took Jacob deGrom basically outpitching the stink of his team, and the Mets finally took advantage of an opportunity in the 7th inning.  It took a Juan Lagares pinch hit, a Curtis Granderson double, a 2-run single from Travis d'Arnaud and an RBI single from Lucas Duda, and all of a sudden a 1-0 day in the doledrums turned into a sunny 3-1 lead.

Things got even better in the 8th inning. Jack Leathersich entered the game and gave up double to Cameron Maybin, who subsequently stole 3rd and was primed to score when Freeman flew out to left. But Darrell Ceciliani, who's had himself a nice little week bopping around here and there, was able to throw a perfect strike to d'Arnaud and nail Maybin at the plate. Though Leathersich departed following the 3rd round of Muno's Follies, he was relieved by Bobby Parnell, a welcome sight for someone whom, when we last saw each other, was moping his way off the mound after blowing a Save last Opening Day with a torn elbow ligament that required the Big Boy Surgery. Parnell gave up a hit, but also got the 3rd out of the inning, thus bridging the game to the 9th inning.

Here's where the turd in the punchbowl reared its ugly head, because Jeurys Familia had picked a rather inopportune time to father a child. The Friday night/Saturday morning birth of Jeurys, Jr. precluded his ability to close out Saturday afternoon's game, leaving the Mets to counter with...Hansel Robles?!

Robles has pitched OK, but just OK in his time in the Majors. I like his stuff, but he needs experience before I'd trust him to close out a game. He needs to be slowly worked in to instances like this. A few weeks ago, Collins ran him out there with a 3-0 lead against Philly and after two batters, the game was tied. The Mets ended up winning that game so everyone forgot about this. But in this game, with a 3-1 lead, now being trusted to finish the Barves out, Robles was nervous, struggled, gave up a walk, and then a hit, then got two outs, then gave up an RBI hit to Maybin, and with Freeman then coming up, Robles was removed in favor of Alex Torres. Torres, then, was the one who had the high pleasure of giving up the tying hit to Freeman and getting hung with the blown Save.

Blowing the lead was particularly deflating, and the fact that the Mets were retired in order in the 9th and then the 10th spoke to a team that really had the wind let out of their sails. This game probably could have continued long into the evening, but fortunately Maybin singled home 2 runs in the 11th off of Carlos Torres, making himself the hero of a game he was probably going to be the goat in at least an hour or so earlier. The Mets finally re-awoke and got hits from Ceciliani and Dilson Herrera against Williams Perez (the Barves' secret weapon, Williams Perez), before Mayberry lined into a rather irritating Double Play and Lagares grounded into a Fielder's Choice, and the Mets ended up losing a game they really had in their pockets.

Now, the key here is can the Mets come out today (you know, in a few minutes), shake off the cobwebs from this debacle of a game and win the series against a team that doesn't look like they're trying very hard at least 65% of the time. Dillon Gee is making a spot start...that's not so encouraging. I'd say hang on to your hats and hope for the best. If they lose today, I'm not going to feel so good.

Failure To Answer The Bell

Whether you had good expectations for the Mets over the course of the regular season or not is sort of academic as far as Opening Day is concerned. The Mets almost always come away with a victory on Opening Day, usually giving the fans that come out to see them some nice good vibes to take home for a couple of days. Usually. I've been to Opening Day each of the last 10 years now, and in years when Opening Day was actually Opening Day (and not just the home opener), the Mets are 4-1.

The one, of course, was yesterday, when a series of feel-good stories, courtesy of Dillon Gee, Andrew Brown and Juan Lagares ultimately dissolved into a series of failures by a Bullpen unit that was considered shaky to begin with and ended up justifying everyone's fears. Even worse, the Bullpen became even more shorthanded this morning when it was revealed that Bobby Parnell was injured and probably badly enough to require surgery.

Things started out reasonably well enough for the Mets, despite a few harbingers that things were going to go sour. First, Chris Young, who was expected to start in Left Field, came down with a Quad injury and couldn't play. Daniel Murphy was unavailable due to his impending fatherhood. Their absences, however, couldn't dampen the spirits of the fans, who were certainly out in full force despite great weather for Football (the wind so bad in the seating area that fans abandoned their seats in droves for the "warmer" confines of the concourses). Howie Rose welcomed everyone to the 2014 National League Season, the shofar was blown and away we went...except that the Mets took the field without a 1st Baseman. The missing man at 1st went on long enough for me to muse that perhaps the Mets had simply decided that no 1st Baseman was better than the ones they had, but then Ike Davis popped out of the dugout to the delight of everyone in attendance and away we went.

With 2 on and 2 out in the bottom of the 1st, courtesy of hits by Lagares and Wright, Andrew Brown came to the plate. George mused to me that he had no idea who the hell Brown even was. I mentioned that he was on the roster last season, but that he didn't do anything to particularly distinguish himself. The ensuing discussion of the exploits of Andrew Brown ended with the conclusion that Andrew Brown is a Professional Baseball player who plays in the Major Leagues and is capable of occasionally getting a hit. Brown then proved that he is also capable of running into a Stephen Strasburg fastball and blasting it into the Left Field seats for a 3-run Home Run. This was, of course, completely unexpected but nonetheless warmly welcomed by all who saw it.

Staked to an early lead, Dillon Gee, himself an unlikely presence on Opening Day, nonetheless went out and pitched great, save for one bad pitch to Adam LaRoche that was deposited into the bullpen. Following that, Gee settled in and retired 15 Nationals in a row, a streak that stretched into the 7th inning. For Gee, who'd pitched especially well over the 2nd half of last season, this was really picking up right where he'd left off. He pitched great, both effective and economical until he ran out of gas in the 7th. But he managed to get within shouting distance of getting out of the inning until Anthony Rendon reached him for an RBI double that made the score 4-3.

Then the Bullpen took over.

Then things pretty much went downhill from there.

It took 3 pitchers and 9 pitches before a Met reliever managed to throw a strike, which right there should tell you how well things were going. Carlos Torres walked his batter. Scott Rice walked his, forcing in the tying run and stripping Gee of what would have been a well-deserved win. Finally Jose Valverde, Papa Grande of all people, somehow managed to restore order to an imminent disaster, striking out Ryan Zimmerman after a sweaty 9-pitch at bat.

Valverde's perfect 8th inning was icing on the cake and for a hot second it appeared he would be the game's unsung hero when the second unlikely Mets Home Run of the day came courtesy of Juan Lagares leading off the bottom of the 8th. Lagares, like Brown, probably wasn't supposed to be in the Opening Day lineup, but circumstances brought him there, and Lagares, who seems to be one of those "if only..." guys on the Mets roster, justified his presence in the lineup with a pair of hits and 3 runs, including a laser of a Home Run off Tyler Clippard that briefly gave the Mets a 5-4 lead and had everyone dreaming of a nice, clean 9th inning and another happy Opening Day.

Then, of course, the rest of the game happened. Bobby Parnell didn't have it and Jeurys Familia and John Lannan had even less, and the result was a Blown Save and a 10th Inning meltdown that needs no recapping except to say that it was horrible and made a cold day feel even colder. Perhaps in another dimension, Lannan gets Anthony Rendon to pop out and David Wright ends up the hero, but instead, Wright's Home Run, which capped a 3-hit performance, was purely putting lipstick on the pig that was this 9-7 loss.

I suppose I probably should have known better than to think things would turn out well on a day that was so miserably cold in the wind tunnel that is the Citi Field Promenade that George and I willingly spent an inning watching from the Promenade Club. True, it's easy to overreact. But given the compounding circumstances surrounding the team, and the fans, and the general dissatisfaction with the way the organization has been going, how could any Mets fan come away from this game feeling very good? The bullpen is a complete disaster, at bats in key spots are being given to Lucas Duda and the equally worthless Omar Quintanilla, and even though they might be excused for having faced Strasburg, striking out 18 times on Opening Day is pretty far from confidence-inspiring. Hopefully this isn't a sign for the rest of the season.

Not Sorry I Missed It

I spent a good chunk of the day Monday thinking I might actually go to the Mets/Braves game. I didn't have tickets for it, it wasn't in my particular plan, but I thought, what the hell. The Mets were playing better, Dillon Gee was on a roll, why not go out and walk up? I used to do that all the time back in the days of Shea Stadium.

Then, I thought better of it. It was disgustingly humid and intermittently rainy all day, with no breeze or relief to speak of. The heaviness in the air sucked all the energy out of me and made me feel uncharacteristically tired all day. Ultimately, I decided against going.

For a while, I rued my decision to stay home. But in the end, I made the right choice, because by staying home, I missed the Mets 2013 specialty: A sweaty, 3+ hour game where they got great starting pitching, didn't hit at all, blew a late lead and ultimately lost a game played mostly through a rain shower that was hard enough to bother the players but not stop the game.

Dillon Gee, for the most part, was the Mets for this game. All he did was go out and stop the Braves dead in their tracks for pretty much all of his 7 innings. He started off with a 12-pitch slog with Overratelton Simmons that ended with a ground out. Things got much more efficient from there, so much so that I'd actually kind of tuned the game out. The only thing that really got my attention between the 1st and 6th inning was Marlon Byrd's line drive that Ratso Upton dove and didn't catch, resulting in a triple and later a run when Ike Davis followed with a rare single. Gee made this run hold up, and it wasn't until Gary Cohen made some thinly veiled mention of it did I realize that Gee was actually throwing a no hitter. Of course, then, I thought, "Shit, he's going to throw a No Hitter the night I decide not to go." Fortunately, or unfortunately, Bitch Freeman led off the 7th with a hit. Meathead Gattis also got a hit, but Gee muscled up, getting out of a bases loaded jam with all the ease of, say, Matt Harvey.

LaTroy Hawkins pitched a fine 8th, and Bobby Parnell came on for the 9th and things looked good.

Then, things didn't look so good. Parnell gave up a pair of quick hits, but got a Fielder's Choice and appeared to have things under control, but then came the Passed Ball that more or less sank the battleship. I'm stating the obvious, but this Passed Ball basically turded the entire game from that point forward. Parnell got the ground ball that would probably have ended the game out of Chris Johnson, except that it instead resulted in the tying run scoring. Reed Johnson followed by hitting a pitch off his lips for the lead-taking single. Choker Kimbrel was ripe for the taking in the bottom of the 9th, storming around the mound, bitching and moaning about the rain and wiping his hand on any surface possible, but Justin Turner's line drive that seemed destined for paydirt ended up instead in the outstretched mitt of Jason Heyward, and this frustrating slog of a game was over.

Perhaps, the only upside to all this is that once the game ended, I did not have to make my way home on two subway trains in the muck that was this Monday night. I instead could just shut the TV off, go in the bedroom and sit in front of my air conditioner and write about what a mess this game was, and how I'm not sorry I missed it.

Working Forward

It's very easy to complain about several of the bad things that have gone on with the Mets to this point this season. It's also been just as easy to forget that nobody thought the Mets would be especially good to begin with. But, in the thick of the Baseball season, emotions always get the better of us. That's just part of being a fan. The Mets, to this point, have been often maddening, often frustrating and sometimes enjoyable. And with the season half over, it's time to take a look at what the hell has gone on this year.

What's Gone Right:

Matt Harvey: Duh. But what's been surprising about Harvey is just how completely dominant he has looked so early in his career. We knew he'd be good. We didn't think he'd immediately launch himself into a Seaver/Gooden stratosphere in his first full season in the Major Leagues. But that's what's happened. He started off his season with a 7 inning, 1 hit, 0 run, 10 strikeout effort and hasn't looked back, to the point where his good outings usually involve him taking a shutout or a no-hitter into the late innings of games, and his bad outings might be better than the best days of most. Fans have picked up on this. And the reward is that Harvey will now be introduced to the entire nation when he starts the All Star Game tomorrow night.

Bobby Parnell: I was pretty sick of Parnell after last season because he never managed to put it together enough to have an actual role in the Bullpen. And he had a good season last year, but when he was bad, he was awful. That said, when Terry Collins named him the closer in Spring Training, I was all for it, just to see what the hell he was made of, once and for all. And Parnell has responded by, for the most part, having a great season and really carving a niche for himself as a Major League quality closer.

David Wright: At this point, Wright is sort of just doing whatever he can to carry the team. The problem is that he's had no consistent protection or support and so while his numbers look somewhat thin, how much more could he logically do?

The Future: It's going to be interesting, if nothing else. Harvey's proven himself to be such a polished product that he's put a bit of heat on these other young pups that are on the way up. Zack Wheeler has come up and was up and down in his first couple of outings, before putting forward a great start in San Francisco (that I was only able to follow on a rumor level from Canada). Meanwhile, there's also Noah Syndergaard and Rafael Montero who are lighting things up in the minors. The problem is that although there's a boatload of pitching, there's no offense to speak of, at least as far as I can tell. Wilmer Flores appears ready to ascend, but does he have a position? Does anyone else really register on anyone's particular radars? Which begs the question: Will Syndergaard or Montero really make an impact here, or are they going to be some high-level trade bait?

What's been OK:
Daniel Murphy: Yeah, sure, when he gets on a hot streak, he looks great, but then he goes into one of those funks where he starts grounding out all the time and moping around like Leonard Hofstadter. Strange as it may sound, Murphy is actually one of the elder statesman on this club and it's hard to imagine that he's going to get much better than he already is. That's all fine and good if he's going to be the Murphy who can hit .320. But if he's the Murphy who hits .268, that won't wash.

Jeremy Hefner: Jeremy Hefner deserves some particular commendation for pitching as well as he has of late, because I really don't think anyone gave him enough credit to pitch that well. I certainly didn't, and I've been pleasantly surprised by how well he's performed. His record is still sort of ugly, but it's been a bit more bad luck and less bad pitching as his season has progressed. Yes, he was bad at the beginning, but he's proven himself a valuable part of the rotation, particularly as injuries cropped up around him.

Dillon Gee: Similar to Hefner. Gee had an awful start to the season but he's turned it around, pretty much starting with his outing against the Yankees and working forward from there. Safe to say he's just about back at the level he was throwing at when he got hurt last year. Except when he faces the Phillies.

Other pleasant surprises include: Josh Satin (Expected nothing, got surprising production), Omar Quintanilla (Holds the fort well enough), Carlos Torres (Got people out), John Buck (April only).

What's been bad:
Unfortunately, everything else. Ike Davis got off to the same bad start he got off to in 2012, but this time he couldn't pull himself out of it and now appears to be right on the verge of hopelessness, which is shocking because he hit 32 Home Runs in about half a season last year. Lucas Duda somehow drew all sorts of attention for walking a lot early in the season, which seemed to be to be a whole lot of grasping at straws because he also had numbers that looked something like 6 Home Runs and 14 RBI, which means that he's either walking or hitting a HR, and that only works if your name is Dave Kingman. Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Anthony Recker have run into a couple of fastballs at opportune moments in time but that's about the only noteworthy things they've done. Ruben Tejada made me look like an idiot for casting Edgardo Alfonzo comparisons on him, and after last season who wouldn't have, but his performance to this point has been beyond reproach. Jordany Valdespin has proven himself to be little more than an untalented Lastings Milledge-type and his recent outburst over his demotion may have signed his ticket out of town. The Bullpen, the bullpen, the bullpen. Passes go to LaTroy Hawkins, Scott Rice and David Aardsma but everyone else? No, no, no. I'd go in depth but who needs the aggravation? Jonathon Niese has, to this point, failed to build on his strong year last year and in the process is now injured, the rest of his season in limbo. Shaun Marcum, I only shake my head and at least there was some tangible reason for the fact that he looked like the most miserable man on the planet every time he took the mound.

The past few years, the Mets have come out of the All-Star Break after a reasonably promising first half and proceeded to make complete asses out of themselves each year. This probably won't happen again, if only because they sufficiently buried themselves in the first half, but maybe these pitchers will keep the Mets sort of afloat, and just maybe they'll pull themselves up to around .500 for the season. I don't know for certain if they can pull this off, but they've managed to drag themselves out of the abyss over the last month and one can only hope that this will carry over into the 2nd half. Again, the key word here is hope, because that's the one thing the Mets have left.

Unnecessary Moves

I didn't see any part of last night's game for a variety of reasons, but I did try to keep track of the game when I could, and what I basically was able to grok was that there were essentially two games in one going on.

First, Matt Harvey went out and pitched a Matt Harvey game. He had a perfect game into the 5th inning, he struck out 11 batters, he actually got a little bit of run support, and by time he departed after his 7 innings of work, he appeared to be very much in line for his 8th win of the year, and his 3rd win in 3 consecutive starts, as the Mets had a 4-1 lead. I could expound more on Harvey, but, really, it's been done all year, and besides, I have a word count limit on the weekend.

The second game was the remainder of the game, which was patently awful. Terry Collins basically left the game in the oven about 2 hours too long and then tried to serve it up to everyone. David Aardsma came in for the 8th inning, which was fine, Aardsma has pitched well, and he gave up a leadoff single, and then very quickly got the next two outs without much issue. So, Terry Collins pulled him from the game to play lefty/lefty, bringing in Josh Edgin to face Denard Span.

This is basically where everything went wrong. Edgin gave up a hit, Brandon Lyon came in and gave up a walk and a 3-run double, and the Nationals had built up enough of a groundswell that they scored two more off of Bobby Parnell in the 9th to win a game that they really had no business winning.

I'm sure I'm not the first, and I can't imagine I will be the last to ask why, exactly, Aardsma was taken out of the game at that point. There was really no particular reason to do it there. If Collins was so into playing matchups, then why not pull Aardsma when Chad Tracy pinch hit one batter earlier? The entire thing reeks of overmanaging, and when you start doing that, you usually end up outfoxing yourself. Last night, Collins outfoxed himself right out of a victory for Matt Harvey. I say this a lot, but at least I wasn't there to witness the clown car at Citi Field, but that's besides the point. After this latest road trip, and after the Mets have actually looked a little lively these past couple of weeks, how is it that they've come home and turned back into a bunch of pumpkins? What is it about playing at Citi Field that makes everyone not named Harvey or Wright implode? I can't figure it out. Maybe they should make everyone wear road jerseys or something.

Understudies

The Mets followed up their series win in Atlanta with a series win in Philadelphia, that featured an impressive comeback, an even more impressive comeback, and a full-scale shellacking, a trio of efforts where the Mets have looked better than they've looked in about a month, probably ever since they played the Yankees.

The mixture the Mets have been going with this past week hasn't been perfect, certainly, but it has been effective, or at least effective enough to generate some liveliness and wins in the process, as opposed to the muck we've been used to. Ike Davis continues to sit around AAA. The dregs like Cowgill and Ankiel are gone. Lucas Duda now finds himself on the DL. Replacing them are players like Eric Young, Jr and Juan Lagares, not exactly the sexiest names out there, but they've been getting the job done, which is really all we've been asking for. Just go out there, make a good effort and look like you're worth something. Young and Lagares have done that, and particularly this weekend it's managed to turn those 3-1 losses into some 4-3 wins, and even made a blowout into a respectable game on Saturday.

Friday's game saw Jeremy Hefner, whose position in the rotation is now a bit more secure with Jon Niese's injury keeping him sidelined indefinitely, come out and promptly give up 3 to the Phillies in the 2nd inning. Previously, the Mets probably would have promptly lied down and died, even with Cole Hamels, he of the big mouth and lousy start to the season, on the mound. But the Mets, particularly Eric Young, Jr. and Juan Lagares, kept battling and eventually chipped away enough to turn that 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 lead. Young chipped in with a pair of hits, one of which set the table for David Wright to drive him in (proof that when people actually get on base in front of him, David Wright can drive in some runs), and later tied the game with a 2-out, 2-run single, scoring Juan Lagares, among others. One inning later, with 2 outs and Lucas Duda on 1st, it was Lagares again coming up with the clutch hit off Hamels, drilling a long double off the wall in center, a deep enough drive that Duda and the icebox he was carrying were able to chug all the way around to score the lead run.

Hefner had done a good job of keeping the Phillies at bay while the Mets came back and eventually took the lead. Though it might not have been the prettiest outing, with 10 hits allowed, he somehow managed to scrounge through, particularly with help from Lagares, who ran down a long fly ball with the bases loaded in the 5th. Now, it was up to the Bullpen to finish the job, much like they did Thursday. And much like Thursday, the bullpen answered the bell, with Scott Rice and Carlos Torres bridging the way to Bobby Parnell. Parnell, who has simply been locked in of late, stopped the Phillies without a peep in the 9th, finishing off a real, live comeback win.

With Friday a success, the Mets decided to try to come back again on Saturday, and in fact they succeeded, even if their furious late rally was negated by Kevin Frandsen's walk-off Home Run. Dillon Gee, who probably just shouldn't face the Phillies anymore, took another beating at the hands of Ryan Howard and company, departing with a 6-1 deficit that turned into 7-1 when the Mets kicked the ball around while Ben Revere circled the bases. Again, what the Mets had shown us this season is that when they went down by enough runs, you may as well stop paying attention. So I sort of did, at least until Eric Young, Jr once again came up with a big hit, this time, a 0-out, 2-run double that cut the deficit to 7-4 and set up another run later in the inning. Though that rally eventually was cut off, the Mets had one more push in them. Jonathan Papelbon, who appears to have a touch of Craig Kimbrel Disease, couldn't lay down the hammer on the Mets. Young led off with a grounder that he probably beat out, except that the umpires decided he didn't. This was unfortunate because Jordany Valdespin followed with a Home Run that made the game 7-6. Wright walked, but it appeared he would be stuck there after Byrd flew out and Murphy looked bad on a couple of pitches. But with Wright running, and Rollins covering 2nd, Murphy somehow managed to reach out and poke a slow roller that snuck through the vacated hole and into the Outfield. Wright, who was motoring and not slowing down, probably would have scored even if Ben Revere had fielded the ball cleanly. Amazingly, the Mets had come back to tie the game.

Then, it took a mere 2 pitches from Carlos Torres in the last of the 9th for Frandsen to un-tie the game and send everyone home. It was a rarity for the Mets: A loss that felt oddly like a win, if only because for once, the Mets kept playing and actually made a game out of a mess.

Sunday, Matt Harvey was on the mound, and that pretty much summed up the game. Harvey had already whipped the Phillies pretty soundly earlier in the season, and on Sunday, he did the same. The rain was the only thing that could beat Harvey, it seems, because after a brief delay in the 7th, Harvey did not return, despite only 72 pitches.

By that point, the game was already well in hand, but there was some doubt earlier in the game as to whether or not the Mets actually would be able to score some runs for him. A pair of plays in the 5th inning answered that question. First, Juan Lagares (notice how he and Young were everywhere this weekend) kicked things off by hitting a lazy fly ball to Center Field. Ben Revere caught it, no sweat. Such a can of corn, in fact, that he figured he'd just style a little and drop the ball from his mitt to his hand, and, oops, he dropped it. Unfortunately for Revere, that made it a live ball, and fortunately for Lagares, he never stopped running, the kind of trait rarely seen from most Major Leaguers, and eventually found himself on 3rd base. Now, could the Mets get him home? Omar Quintanilla couldn't, so Harvey went and did it himself, something he's had to do on more than one occasion this year. This may or may not have shamed his teammates into going out and supporting him themselves, since it kicked off a flurry of extra base hits that drove the score from 2-0, to 4-0, to 6-0 in a matter of 2 innings. David Wright in particular was heavily involved, ringing 4 extra base hits of assorted variety. The Phillies had no answer for Harvey and fared no better after he left, resulting in a resounding 8-0 win and a series victory, the Mets 2nd such win in a row. Baby steps, certainly, but something encouraging, if nothing else.

The point here is that this revolving door of personnel the Mets have been using all season long is finally starting to click a little bit, and the result is that the Mets are looking a little less dead this past week. How long or if it will last, I'm not quite sure. But if nothing else, it makes the Mets a little more interesting. I can tune in to games like this and think there's a chance, as opposed to turning it on, seeing them down a run or two and assuming the game is done. And, of course, Mr. Excitement, Part II is on the mound the next time the Mets take the field on Tuesday. 

Full Team Effort

I was making dinner in the 4th inning, so I didn't really see what exactly happened to Jonathon Niese until a replay was shown. All I know is that while tending to something on the stove, I heard Gary Cohen say something about "He's coming out of the game," and turned around to see Niese scowling and walking off the field.

Already down 3-2 at this point, and playing in Atlanta, where as I've said nothing good ever happens to the Mets, I figured this was probably the perfect point for the Mets to lay down and die. Needing the bullpen to cobble together the remainder of the game was, at best, a dicey proposition, and even if they managed to get through, was there any guarantee that the Mets would come back and generate enough runs to offset their deficit? David Wright, the lone Met who could be counted on, had already hit a pair of Home Runs, which was more than his quota for the day. Someone else had to step up.

I finished making my dinner and was sitting down to eat when one of my questions was answered, in the form of Andrew Brown, whom I derided yesterday as basically cannon fodder, but in this particular moment picked a good time to show his worth, socking a game-tying Home Run off Mike Minor, a parabolic shot that Ratso Upton looked like he had lined up until he ran out of room. Brown was up pinch hitting for David Aardsma, who, since mysteriously surfacing with the Mets a few weeks ago (and replacing Don Aase at the top of the Mets alphabetical roster), has pitched rather well, in spite of it often coming in a hopeless situation. Aardsma was the first man out of the bullpen Thursday, getting out of a minor jam after relieving Niese.

LaTroy Hawkins followed Brown and Aardsma and, after starting out the season looking like he'd be one of my daily flogs, has actually done a reasonably good job of shutting me up. I can't say he's been especially flashy, but for the most part he's been effective (although when he's ineffective, he's patently awful). His two innings of work, the 5th and 6th, featured two singles of little consequence, which was good for two reasons: a) It kept the game tied and b) it allowed me to enjoy my dinner.

Still, all these good pitching performances stood to go for naught if the Mets offense continued to not hit. Omar Quintanilla led off the 7th inning with a double, and he was followed by another Pinch Hitter, Josh Satin. Josh Satin has been another player I've deemed a useless spare part, and for the most part, that's kind of what he is, but, much like Andrew Brown, he had his shining moment in this game by slicing a line drive down the right field line that looked for all the world to be curling foul, but fell to the ground just soon enough to tap the foul line and bounce into the corner for the tie-breaking hit. So now, not only have the Mets been getting lights out work from the bullpen, but their offense managed to get them a lead. Satin then got thrown out at 3rd on a boneheaded baserunning play later in the inning, proving that even the least common denominator on a 25-man roster can sometimes shit a diamond.

Now working with a lead, Brandon Lyon took the mound and immediately walked Ratso Upton. Fortuitously, however, Fredo Upton immediately followed by hitting into a double play, allowing Lyon to get through the 7th with relative ease (and a minor note, I goofed the other night, mistakenly referring to the elder Upton brother as "Cheech," forgetting that he should properly be known as "Fredo"). Things got slightly hairy in the 8th, however, courtesy of a David Wright error. Lyon still appeared primed to get out of the inning, but for a broken bat bloop from Tyler Pastornicky (who appears to be one of those guys that is always going to annoy the hell out of you) that fell in with 2 outs, putting runners at the corners, Jason Heyward at the plate and Lyon in the dugout.

Josh Edgin was where I figured the Mets luck was going to run out. Edgin was miserable early in the season and no better since he's returned. But, given one shot, and after working the count full, he did manage to get Heyward to ground to Duda, who made the maddest of dashes to beat Heyward to 1st Base.

The Mets, of course, didn't tack on any runs, so Bobby Parnell was summoned to protect a 1-run lead against the vaunted middle of the Braves Lineup, Bitch McFreeman, Ratso Upton and Fredo Upton. But, after so many innings of being lulled to sleep by the variety of relievers the Mets had been running out to the mound all night, Parnell simply carved the lot of them up, capping off a mettle-testing 4-3 victory by posting the only 1-2-3 inning of the night.

So, after all that, the Mets actually won this ridiculously extended 5-game series in Atlanta 3 games to 2, becoming the first road team to win a series in Atlanta. Given the Mets history at Turner Field, and the way the first 4 innings of the game Thursday night unfolded, you probably would not have figured that likely, but it actually happened. And after everything that's gone on to this point this season, the Mets are, in fact, beginning to show some signs of life. Maybe.

Gee Whiz!

It is a pretty significant night for the Mets and their fans, who have, for the past 17 seasons have been playing these games against the Yankees, and although they've had plenty of nice moments over the years, they've also had some pretty lousy ones too, and more often than not, the Yankees and their fans have been all too happy to kick the Mets while they're down in these instances.

But tonight, the Yankees can't say much of anything (even if the TYFI response is something like "DUH! 27 to 2! (garble drool grunt)"). Particularly since the Mets came into this 4-game series in about as bad a shape as you could possibly be, not hitting, barely pitching and generally looking listless, and somehow the entire team decided to wake up and beat the Yankees in all 4 games. Though just about everyone contributed, this sweep was accomplished primarily by 4 consecutive outstanding pitching performances, one of which was expected, since Matt Harvey has done it all season, but the other three were rather surprising.

Tonight, Dillon Gee was the culprit, coming out of nowhere to post his best start in close to a year, pitching 7 1/3 innings, allowing only a Robinson Cano Home Run and striking out a career-high 12 batters. This from the same pitcher whose line has been something like 5 innings, 8 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks and 3 strikeouts every time out for the past month. Gee didn't allow a baserunner after Cano's Home Run and when he got pulled in the 8th, after only 88 pitches, there was sort of an uproar. When the hell did you ever think Dillon Gee being removed from a game would cause an uproar?! That's how good he pitched tonight.

But as has been the story this week, pretty much anything anybody expected out of the Mets ended up turning out exactly the opposite. Most Mets fans probably would have accepted it if the Mets had won 1 of the 4 games and not gotten totally embarrassed in the process. Instead, the Mets played with a chip on their shoulder all week. They fell behind on Monday and Tuesday and came back. Last night and again tonight, they got an early lead and made it hold up. The offense wasn't gangbusters against Vidal Nuno, but they made their hits count. Marlon Byrd hit a real Yankee Stadium Home Run last night and tonight he hit one that would have been a Home Run in Citi Field, too, accounting for the first two Mets runs early on. Late, it would be the Mets small-balling their way to an insurance run, as a pair of walks and a Wild Pitch from Hobo Chamberlain set the stage for John Buck to take a mighty swing...and tap a roller up the 3rd base line that kept rolling and rolling and rolling, but stayed fair, giving Buck a rare Infield Hit and plating Omar Quintanilla with the 3rd run.

In the hands of Gee, Scott Rice, who has become the Pedro Feliciano of the current era, and Bobby Parnell, this lead appeared plenty secure. Rice picked up after Gee left and allowed nothing, and Parnell, who has really begun to enhance his stature as he's grown more and more comfortable in the closer's role, buzzsawed the Yankees in the 9th inning to finish off a most impressive series sweep.

There have been plenty of 3-game sweeps in the 17-year Subway Series history on both sides. But only once had an entire season series ended in a sweep, when the Yankees did it in 2003. That was a pretty humbling moment which I don't care to remember. It's taken 10 years, but the Mets have finally returned the favor. And, as such, it's a fine time for the Mets fan to take a little pride in this moment, because it's not something that comes along very often. It's too bad that Big Stein isn't alive to see this. Can you imagine? He probably would have gone to the mound on Wednesday night and fired David Phelps on the spot. I can only hope he's turning over in his grave multiple times. Sure, the Yankee fan might offer some pithy response spoken mostly in lower case, but they can't take anything away from us this week or this season. Particularly when you consider that there's a very good chance that this is the high point of the Mets season, unless this now 5-game winning streak ends up turning the tide completely. Time will tell, but for right now, this is pretty awesome.

Hip Hip Oy Vey

A major Arts Festival precluded me from keeping too much of an eye on the actions of this past weekend, which meant that I didn't get a chance to say anything about the folly of Friday's suspended game, but then again, given how that game and Saturday's subsequent game turned out, there wasn't much I could say that was either a) Kind or b) Already said by someone else. Sunday, the Mets actually won, although I really can't gather whether or not they skillfully outplayed the Braves or just kind of fell ass-backwards into a victory because that does happen sometimes, even to the Mets.

So, that brought us to Monday, and the return of the highly anticipated or utterly loathsome (or perhaps both) Subway Series with the Yankees. Once again, I'm not going to any of the games, for reasons I've explained previously. That's not to say that I was a little tempted, seeing as how they can't seem to give away tickets to these games (fine seats are readily available on a variety of outlets). But, no, I've decided I can't deal with it. The past few years, the Mets have generally looked rather bad against the Yankees, no matter how well they might be playing, and this year, well, forget it. The one upshot to all of this is that instead of having to be subjected to the Yankees and their semi-educated legion of fans 6 times a season, that number has now been reduced to a much more palatable 4, all of which are conveniently this week. So, there's that.

Monday's opener brought the biggest crowd since Opening Day to Citi Field this year (and I'd assume that after Tuesday, the largest crowd you'll see will be at the All Star Game), a paltry 32,911. If 10,000 seats went completely unsold for a Subway Series game on a National Holiday, then you know things are really going badly. Fortunately, the 10,000 available seats were not bought up by enterprising Yankee fans determined to take over Citi Field with their circus chants and chicken sacrifices, so the crowd appeared to be mostly slanted towards the Mets (The 7 Line, who could easily be described as Mets Freedom Fighters, were quite visible in Center Field, which pleases me). I was at home, in front of the TV.

Jonathon Niese, who has been sort of the poster boy, along with players like Ike Davis, Lucas Duda and Ruben Tejada, of the struggles the Mets have had this early part of the season, came out and pitched one of his better games of the season, scattering 8 hits over his 7 innings, and only allowing a run when the aforementioned Duda face-planted on a dying quail by Brett Gardner, allowing the ball to roll behind him for a triple in the 6th. Fortunately, this was the only run Niese would allow. Unfortunately, the Mets offense has often been hard-pressed to match a run, and at the plate, they were making Phil Hughes look like the phenom stud pitcher every Yankee fan continues to insist he is. Thus, it appeared Niese was destined for a Matt Harvey, a fine outing in which he got no run support and left the game either tied or losing.

But...David Wright did what he's been doing all season and got a big hit, in this case a tying Home Run in the 7th.

But...David Wright did what he's been doing all season and made a big play in the field, starting an inning-ending DP in the 8th.

But...Daniel Murphy did what he's been doing some of the season and drove in the lead run in the 8th inning.

And Bobby Parnell, who really ought to be commended for the job he's done this season, finished things off in the 9th, shutting up the Yankees and their fans and actually getting this season's incarnation of the Subway Series off to a winning start. That's not to say it was pretty, because Parnell did allow a single to Ichiro with 1 out, and couldn't you just see one of these scrap-heap Yankees like Overbay or Hafner somehow pulling a Home Run out of their ass? This seemed like the kind of thing that's been happening for the Yankees over pretty much the entire history of the Subway series. But, no. Parnell was up to the task of gassing Overbay for the 2nd out, and then induced Hafner to pop up—and probably give every Mets fan a heart attack as they waited for the ball to come down—to Wright, who held the ball and gave the Mets a fine victory...and come back with Matt Harvey on Tuesday.

Outclassed

Tuesday night, I worked late and missed the game completely. Wednesday, I had the game on the radio, but had to leave midway due to an outside appointment.

It's becoming a recycled comment, but I see I missed very little.

It's sort of to the point right now where nobody's immune from the stink on this team. Today, Matt Harvey and Bobby Parnell, two of the Mets few reliable players, were the ones who faltered. It was a rare bad outing for Harvey, who gave up a season-high 4 runs in 6.2 innings. He didn't pitch badly, certainly not by the standards of his teammates, but for him, of course, it wasn't great. Still, a stinker for him is probably a really good day for some lesser pitchers. Plus, given how well he's pitched to this point, logically, he's got to have a bad outing at some point, and if it's going to happen, it may as well be against perhaps the most potent offense in the National League.

Bobby Parnell also took it on the chin, giving up 3 runs in the 9th inning (though I didn't hear what happened, I found out later on that he wasn't helped by Ike Davis yakking on a grounder) in another rare poor performance. And, I suppose you can echo what's been said about Harvey. Plus, if Parnell is going to have a bad day, at least he's done it when Harvey also had a bad day, so as to keep the suckitude confined to one day.

But this isn't about Harvey or Parnell, who in general have performed rather well this season (to my surprise, Parnell settled down once he was named the closer and has finally seemed to get his act together). The rest of the team has just been a total drag on everything. Nobody outside of the two pitchers and David Wright have performed with any degree of consistency. It's starting to wear on even the most diehard of Mets fans, I'd have to imagine. It's killed any of the meager joy we could have taken in this season (it's beyond the point now where we're happy to have Baseball and too soon to begin getting wistful that the season is drawing to a close) and it's actually beginning to sap some of the juice from the hot prospects the team is banking on to save the future. The couple of "name" prospects that are on the way aren't going to swing the favor of the team the way it's composed right now. There's just not enough talent on the roster.

The result is that right now, the Mets come off as no better than the Cubs or the Padres (not quite as hopeless as the Marlins or Astros, but a little too close for comfort) and most fans have just become sick of it. The crowd at Monday night's game appeared to be less comprised of actual Mets fans than people who just thought it would be fun to go out to a Baseball game that night, or some groups of idiot hipster kids that were looking for an offbeat place to hang out. I mean, yes, the regulars are still there (Cowbell Man and Mr. Struck-Him-Out and his entourage have been present at every game I've been to this year, and the Hooligans have also been present on occasion), and I'm sure plenty in my ilk have and will continue to show up plenty of times, because that's simply what we do. But the more games I've been to this year, with tepid crowds that number between 10-15,000 (basically take whatever the announced attendance is and knock about 40% off that), the more I've noticed that there really aren't that many "Mets fans" there. And, I mean, can you blame them? Who, if you were someone just getting into Baseball right now, would want to root for this team? Who, who isn't someone who has lived and died with this franchise for 29 seasons like I have, or even longer like many Mets fans I know, would take the same kind of undying joy in being a Mets fan right now?

More than a few fans are starting to get really nervous that the improvement of the team may take much longer than expected. It'll happen, sure. But when?

The Gleaning

I didn't see any part of last night's game, but based on what I heard about it afterward, this is basically what I figure happened:

1) The Mets made every good effort to try to hand the Giants the game, but the Giants just wouldn't take it.

2) Jonathon Niese made a very good rebound start after his putrid outing in Arizona.

3) Bobby Parnell actually pitched a reasonably calm, 1-2-3 9th inning, shocking everyone, and maybe even himself.

Ruben Tejada fired the keynote, hitting his first HR in nearly two years on Matt Cain's 2nd pitch of the game, and this started a pretty good slogfest for the Mets. They won, I'll give them that, and they're a win away from winning this 4-game series against a very good Giants team, but man, these have been some ugly, Ugly victories. Usually, when the Mets stranded 13 men on base, it was back in the days when they would also hit into about 6 double plays a game and lose games by the score of 4-2 or 3-1. Well, this time, they generated the 2, but the pitching, particularly Niese, was able to keep the Giants off the board.

Niese, who's emerged as a very solid pitcher recently, was great in an important start for him, coming off a lousy outing last weekend. Every start is important for Niese now, because two things he hasn't done in his career are 1) Finish off a season healthy, and 2) Finish off a season effectively. These are crucial things in the development process for Jonathon Niese, so each time he shakes off a 6-run outing and follows it up with a 1-run outing, it's an encouraging sign.

It's also an encouraging sign for the Mets in general when they can actually win a 1-run game. It's never going to feel secure, but at least it's possible. I still don't trust Parnell as closer (I barely trust him in general), but Francisco will be back soon I hear, so that will, hopefully, get things a little closer to normal. Maybe.

3:45 start time today, so it's going to be an afternoon in the office with Howie and Josh. This has generally been a good combination. Hopefully it holds true today.