Happy Sack

Well, when Jason Bay starts hitting Grand Slams off your pitchers, you know you've got problems. And boy, the Mickey Mouse Marlins have some problems. In fact, they've got so many problems, that they actually managed to out-Mets the Mets this past weekend.

I already went over what happened on Friday, when R.A. Dickey went out and blew through the Marlins like they weren't even there. Saturday, it appeared like Josh Johnson was going to pull the reverse Dickey, as he did what he usually does to the Mets: Tie them up in knots for several innings, while the Marlins pecked and scraped for their 3 runs against Jeremy Hefner. Hefner, who's slowly improved, still isn't exactly a confidence-inspirer, but he's certainly acquitted himself well enough over the past few weeks. But, when you're facing Josh Johnson, sometimes there's nothing to be done. Until he leaves the game and you can feast on the awful Marlins bullpen. Steve Cishek came in with his sidearmed slingshot delivery, and started giving up Bloop hits and walks and I think he hit a batter somewhere in there too, and then Kelly Shoppach hit a clean single up the middle to tie the game, and when Justin Rugelachiano forgot to pick the ball up, a couple more runs scored, and the Mets had themselves a nice comeback victory.

Sunday, the Mets finished off another sweep of the Marlins by sticking it to Mark Buehrle early and often, capitalizing on more bloops, more walks, and more bad Marlin defense in front of the rare sight of a Jason Bay Grand Slam, which staked the Mets to a 5-0 lead that, against the Sad Sack Marlins, even Chris Young couldn't screw up. And he didn't, putting forth one of his better starts of late, making sure that Grand Slam stood up in a 5-1 victory.

All in all, a fine weekend for the Mets, who all of a sudden have found themselves in a bit of a hot streak, winning 7 of 8 and maybe pulling themselves out of the doledrums a little bit. Now, off to St. Louis, where the Mets mysteriously have not yet played this year (Milwaukee is going to be their other random, non-division road trip this month), to hopefully keep this little run going and maybe even stick it to the Cardinals a little bit.

It's a Great Team

I guess I shouldn't have made that crack about Mets Turd Sandwich Night last night, because tonight, that's basically what I got for showing up to this crapfest.

The Ballclub was fully represented tonight, as George and I were at the game. Things certainly started out well enough. Chris Young got off to a flying start, striking out the side in the 1st inning and allowing the Colorados very little from there. Through 5, he hadn't allowed the Colorados a sniff of anything, retiring each of the first 15 men to the plate. But, Chris Young is Chris Young, and even though the Colorados are boasting a B-team lineup, nobody in the ballpark was fooled. Chris Young wasn't throwing a perfect game. Chris Young wasn't even going to throw a no hitter. In fact, with the way the Mets offense has been lighting things up, this 1-0 lead was dicey, at best.

Sometime around the 5th inning was, basically, the highlight of the night. I received a surprise visit from my Mets Ticket Rep, who came to give us a pair of field level tickets. Sweet! Free upgrade! So we hopped downstairs from 518 down to 109, and arrived just in time to see the massacre begin. Just as we settled in, Andres Torres was picked off 2nd base. Somehow, he was called safe after sneaking back in, but it seemed fairly obvious to me that he'd been tagged out. Jim Tracy came out to argue and the call was reversed. Terry Collins responded by storming out and going fairly batty, and getting himself ejected, but really, what was the point? The umpires convened and made the right call. So, fine. Back to the carnage.

It started out innocuously enough, with an infield single from Cheech LaNoseHair. Didn't seem like much, but it ended the perfect game (the ovation afforded to Young seemed more a courtesy than anything else), ended the no hitter, and more or less served as the turning point of the game because everything basically unraveled from there. Two batters later, there was Chris Young making a throw to first on a sacrifice bunt that only he or Jon Rauch might have been able to catch (whether or not Murphy alligator-armed it is irrelevant, the throw was terrible), and the lead was gone. Then, Charlie McCharlieman got a hit, the Colorados took the lead, and the game was essentially done from there. Once the Colorados pushed the lead to 3-1, you knew it was over because the Mets aren't hitting a damn thing. They couldn't hit Jhoulys (not Gustavo) Chacin, of the 7.07 ERA and just off the DL, what chance did they have to somehow catch up?

It only got worse from there, since once the Mets lost the lead, they basically decided to abandon all fundamentals. Jordany Valdespin neither caught, nor managed to field a fly ball in front of him. Wild pitches abound. Runners getting thrown out. Ike Davis makes a good play at first to start a rundown in the 9th, Thole runs D.J. Schmegeggie back towards Wright, throws to Wright...and then Wright is left to chase the runner home as Bobby Parnell is somewhere holding his jock rather than covering home. The end result? At least we had a nice view of this loss. See? There's always a silver lining. Even on Mets Turd Sandwich Night.

Strange Brew?

Tomorrow marks the Mets 81st game (and my 10th of the season at Citi Field). I've made a few observations, some of which I've shared here, others which have just been brewing in my head. Here's what I've noticed.

WHAT'S GONE RIGHT:
Quite a bit, even if there haven't been an overwhelming number of individually stellar seasons, there's a lot here to work with. Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson (and as much as I hate to say it, Omar Minaya) have put together an incredibly cohesive group that plays together, plays for each other, and plays to win, and that's been evident in their 43-37 record. No, it hasn't been pretty and sometimes it's been downright disgusting. But I don't know a single Mets fan who wouldn't have signed for 6 games over .500 and 3 games out of 1st place at the halfway point.

The great performances that we've gotten, particularly out of David Wright and R.A. Dickey don't need much discussion. Each is justifiably rewarded with a trip to the All Star game next week (even though Wright was rooked out of a starting spot either because the Giants fans stuffed the ballot boxes or because the Mets fans didn't), The real MVP this season, however, is probably Johan Santana. Throwing the first No Hitter in Mets History aside, all he's done is come back from major shoulder surgery and look just as good as he did before he got injured, and sometimes even better. It doesn't matter if he can't throw 95 anymore. He knows how to pitch and he can throw whatever pitch he wants, wherever and whenever. More importantly, he hasn't missed a start and he's allowed Dickey and Niese to slide comfortably into their roles as #2 and #3 in the rotation.

The rest of the rotation hasn't been terrible either. Jonathon Niese got over some early inconsistency and has found himself in a real nice groove. Chris Young, when he's healthy, is an excellent pitcher. All he's got to do is stay healthy, however. Dillon Gee has acquitted himself reasonably well as the #5 starter, not consistent, not eye-popping, but he's done what he's needed to do more often than not.

The real question is how long the rotation will hold together. The players themselves aren't the issue here but whether or not they can hold up over the remainder of the season is. Until Young resurfaced, depth had been a bit of an issue, probably because of Alderson's hesitance to rush Matt Harvey up from AAA. It's fine to keep him there, but if there are any more injuries in the rotation, it's probably in the best interest of the team to promote Harvey to the Majors. They can't afford to hand over key starts to more Chris Schwinden types, and while Miguel Batista and Jeremy Hefner are also starter candidates, they can't be trusted over a large string of time.

Other things that have gone right: Ike Davis in June, where he seems to finally have put it together. Lucas Duda's emergence as, if nothing else, a real power threat, complete with the streakiness. Scott Hairston against Lefthanders. Kirk Nieuwenhuis came up early and earned his keep. Frank Francisco didn't throw any chairs. Ruben Tejada has shown incredible polish at the plate and his approach both offensively and defensively will make everyone forget about Jose Reyes before too long. I don't know if the power will develop with time, but his style of play seems awfully reminiscent of Edgardo Alfonzo, and if that's the kind of upside he's got, I'd say he's a keeper.

WHAT'S BEEN SO-SO:
The Jordany Valdespin experiment. He plays with such an infectious degree of energy that it makes him eminently likeable, but he has absolutely no polish and no discipline at the plate, and very little in the field. You could tell this from his first Major League at bat, which came with the bases loaded, and resulted in him swinging out of his shoes at the first pitch and popping up. Better moments would follow, but he's got a lot to learn, and at 24, I wonder if he will.

Scott Hairston playing everyday: I know this is a result of Jason Bay's injury, but the fact is that Scott Hairston isn't good enough to play every day. I know his power surge has been a nice story and he's come up with a lot of clutch hits. But he's the kind of player who kills lefties and is only passable against righties. Play him all the time and he'll get exposed.

Bobby Parnell, Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco: When they're on, they're on. When they're not, watch out. Francisco has often made you want to hide your eyes, and Jon Rauch has incinerated a few leads. Parnell is always a mystery because he doesn't seem to pitch to the level of his stuff. While I'm all for giving Parnell the closer role going forward, I can't say it inspires a ton of confidence. With the back end of the bullpen mostly rotting away and guys like Pedro Beato and Jenrry Mejia sitting in the Minors, I don't think the closer of the future exists on the Mets roster right now.

WHAT'S BEEN BAD:
Jason Bay. Not entirely his fault, but he needs to get out of New York. The sooner the better.

Mike Pelfrey's injury. Not that Pelfrey was going to light anyone ablaze, but he was at least a dependable commodity who could eat innings. His injury resulted in several weeks of the Chris Schwinden Pu-Pu Platter until Chris Young arrived.

Offensive production from Catcher: Though Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas have proven perfectly capable defensively (particularly having to deal with a knuckleball every 5 days), they have been mostly non existent offensively. Thole can handle the bat reasonably well, but he has no power and drives in no runs. Nickeas is even worse and yet mysteriously has driven home 12 runs this season to Thole's 10.

The Back end of the Bullpen: Batista isn't an 8th inning man. He's a mop up man. Ramon Ramirez is woefully inconsistent. I've already mentioned Rauch and Parnell and though they're not the total dregs, they're only a slight step up. Other guys like Robert Carson, Elvin Ramirez and that Egbert fellow, and whoever this Justin Hampson is either aren't ready, aren't capable, or possibly both, otherwise they might have gotten a little more use. Better depth is out there, even though finding a dependable relief pitcher is sort of like throwing horse manure at a wall and hoping it sticks.

IN SUMMATION:
The Mets have managed to overachieve this year without anybody really overachieving (I wouldn't call Dickey overachieving since his numbers were pretty damn good to begin with the last couple of seasons, I think he's learned more consistency which is why he's getting these results). One thing that's helped is that the rest of the NL East, and, in fact, the NL in general, hasn't had any real breakaway great team. The Phillies have come back to earth with a thud and now that they're talking about dealing away Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino who knows what will happen to them. The Marlins, like any "superteam" are having trouble gelling. Washington has won with outstanding pitching. Atlanta is a complete mystery. I don't know how this will play out ultimately, but the Mets are, in reality, a good reliever and probably a right-handed Left Fielder with power away from throwing a major wrench into everyone's plans.

What Troubles?

Funny game, that Baseball. That's a recycled comment.

After getting swept by the Yankees and looking rather miserable in the process, it certainly looked as though this was when the Mets would turn back into pumpkins and fall off the proverbial cliff into nowheresville and out of relevance for the Summer. Going off to Tampa, to play the Rays and their plethora of great pitching and excessively potent offense, things certainly appeared grim.

So, of course, the Mets go out and set a season high for runs in support of Chris Young, who escaped imminent disaster in the 1st and settled down afterwards in a solid 5.2 innings. Young handed things off to the much-maligned bullpen (only now are people starting to scream things like "THIS IS THE WORST BULLPEN IN THE LEAGUE!!! THEY ARE WHAT WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!!!") who kept the Rays quiet the rest of the way, while the Mets put the game away behind a 4-RBI performance from Jordany Valdespin (maligned for screwing up last week) and Ike Davis (maligned for screwing up all season) chipped in with his first Home Run in over a month. All in all, a once again unexpected lively effort from the Mets, who continue to rebound when a rebound victory is needed most.

Admittedly, I didn't get to see much of tonight's game for one reason or another, and by time I did get home and get to put the game on, things were pretty much settled at 9-2 Mets. By that point, I already knew that things had been going rather well. What I didn't know was who had been supplying the production for the Mets, and under what circumstances. First, Jordany Valdespin, who's appeared somewhat overmatched by the Majors at times, had his best performance since his HR in Philly last month. After last week's debacle of a performance at Shortstop, I feel like people were beginning to get a little fed up with him. Problem is, until the 12 injured middle infielders start to come back, we're going to have to go to the whip with him and hope for the best. I like Valdespin's energy and the talent is certainly there, but he's got an often horrible approach at the plate, to go with a general lack of polish. I suppose it will come with seasoning, but then again, he's already 24. But I digress. He could have just been getting his sea legs. He's looked markedly better with the bat over the past week, and his hits on Sunday and tonight led to some runs, so, all the better. Then, there was Ike Davis, who's been hitting .160 pretty much all season, and hasn't been able to build on anything positive. He's had to dodge rumors and fans clamoring for a platoon or a demotion, and perhaps the fact that there's really no good replacement for him has been keeping him afloat. But, tonight, in addition to his HR,  he cleverly dropped down a bunt for a hit against the overshift. Who knows what it will lead to, but sometimes, that's all it takes.

Then, there were all these 2-out runs. For years, it seems, the Mets had this annoying problem of never being able to drive in runs with 2 outs. I'm rather certain that the last time the Mets had a 2-out RBI was sometime in 2006, and that's probably not far from the truth. But for some reason, this year, the Mets seem to have the 2-out touch. Of the Mets season-high 11 runs tonight, 9 were scored with 2 out. 9! What's more, the talk after the game has been about how the Mets lead the league in 2-out RBIs.

So, yes. The Mets aren't dead quite yet. Of course, having to face David Price tomorrow night isn't exactly a favorable matchup, but then again, R.A. Dickey hasn't been a favorable matchup for anyone lately. Should be worth being home for.