Saw That One Coming

Thursday's game was of course one of those bizarre 3:40pm games, where I can't watch because I'm at work, so I have a hard time following, and because it's such an odd start time, it usually ends while I'm heading home from work so I really have no idea what's going on. But then again, when I left my office, I saw that the game was tied, in the last of the 9th, and Hansel Robles was pitching a 2nd inning and I already knew that this wasn't going to end well.

I've gone over my disdain of Robles more than enough times this season so I think you already know what I'm going to say. However, just to turn the knife a little more is this comment that Robles was complaining of numbness in his hand and yet didn't say anything or ask to come out of the game, which is pretty stupid. Or maybe it's that same stubborn ballplayer mentality that screwed up everyone else on the team this season. Either way, I'd like to imagine that if you can't feel the object you're throwing in your hand, and your job is to get Major League hitters out and try to win a game, maybe it's better to just let someone else take it from there. Particularly when you have a hard enough time getting hitters out in key situations when you CAN feel the ball. But nooooo.

The game was over before I hit 59th Street on the subway, that alert buzz F COL 5 NYM 4 came through, and I wasn't surprised Robles found a way to blow the game. Which was a shame because the Mets had done a nice job of battling back, and Rafael Montero did a nice job of not getting lit up by the Colorados, and even he had an RBI, and Amed Rosario hit his 2nd triple in as many days, but this season, it feels like every positive is counteracted by multiple negatives and, of course losses.

Now the Mets can come home and lose even more to The Hot Team, the Dodgers. That should be a delight.

New Found Energy

I realize there's not much that can be done to actually save the Mets this season, but the more you are able to find some bright spots for the future, you go with that.

Two such new faces played prominent roles in the Mets Coors Field-aided 10-5 comeback win over the Colorados on Wednesday night. The first was Chris Flexen, who may simply be in the rotation right now because he's not Tyler Pill, or Tommy Milone, or Aaron Laffey, or Chan Ho Park, or Brett Hinchcliffe, or any other such gap-filling pitcher with no particular hope. That's not to say he at this point does inspire a great deal of confidence, but if nothing else, he's young, he has a reasonably live arm and some decent chance of upside. That being said, he hasn't exactly looked ready for prime time in his first two Major League outings. I don't know just how much of it is the fact that he's two starts removed from AA ball and how much is that he's pitching in Coors Field against a strong Colorados lineup, but the 3rd inning got away from him real fast and as such, his night ended there dazed and in a 5-0 hole after a series of ringing hits.

But since it's Coors Field, 5-0 isn't impossible, even for the Mets right now. Facing Tyler Chatwood, who can be intermittently good and horrible, the Mets stormed right back and their other new face, Amed Rosario, was instrumental in pushing this along. The Mets had scored two in the 4th and Rosario came up in the 5th inning with Curtis Granderson on 2nd and lined a shot past Nolan Arenado and into the Left Field corner. Rosario flew around the bases and even though the ball was picked up by an ignorant fan, Rosario was awarded 3rd base anyway. How often do you see that? A ground rule triple. And he was home shortly thereafter as he scored on a Travis d'Arnaud groundout and very quickly, 5-2 became 5-4 almost solely because of Rosario.

The Mets then continued to attack in the 6th, scoring another 6 runs after I'd shut the game off and attempted to go to bed. Yoenis Cespedes doubled home the tying run, Curtis Granderson gave the Mets the lead with a 3-run Home Run, and the Mets continued on from there until they were the ones with the 5 run lead. Now, all they had to do was hope their bullpen could hold it, which is of course always a dicey proposition. But Paul Sewald did his job, and even Fernando Salas threw a scoreless inning, and then A.J. Ramos finished it off and the Mets had themselves a victory, one that feels primarily spurred on by this new fellow because he pushed the envelope and helped make the early deficit seem not so impossible. Or maybe it was just the rarefied air, silly!

Do Well

Presumably, when your team's top prospect ascends to make his Major League debut, you want a few things to happen. You want him to play well, and look relaxed even if he's about to jump through his uniform. You want him to get his first hit so that it's out of the way and doesn't drag out and become a thing. You want him to play well in the field and not make any errors, and not do anything to screw up the game.

We got almost all of that out of Amed Rosario in his Major League debut on Tuesday night. He looked collected and calm for the most part. He got his first hit on an 8th inning Infield Single. However, it was a mistake he made at a crucial moment in the 9th inning that opened the doors for the Colorados to score the winning run and take the series opener, 5-4.

Blame on these sorts of plays get passed out all over the place, and sure, there was probably some miscommunication between Neil Walker and Rosario on the pitch to D.J. LeMahieu. But it wasn't, as some seem to make it out to be, some egregious mistake. These things happen and, well, Jose Reyes or Asdrubal Cabrera are just as capable of doing the same thing and when they do it, they're old and creaky. Or they're old and creaky anyway.  Irregardless, it happened, and Nolan Arenado followed with a looping single to win the game for the Colorados.

All that being said, the game to that point seemed to be playing into the Colorados hands. It was one of those games that a good team will always win and a bad team will always find a way to lose and so it shouldn't be too terribly surprising. The Mets had an early lead, Steven Matz then allowed a 3-run Home Run to Arenado in the 6th. The Mets battle back to tie and then take the lead in the 8th on a Jay Bruce Home Run, and then Paul Sewald and Jerry Blevins allow the Colorados to tie the game back up. And, then, Hansel Robles enters the game and, well, Robles has inspired such confidence that when he enters a game, I often wonder not if he'll screw it up, but how. And if he doesn't walk Charlie McCharliemon to start the 9th, maybe we're not in this mess talking about a Rookie's misplay. Or maybe we're just talking about the Rookie's misplay because who wants to waste their time talking about Hansel Robles?

Don't Get Swept

The Mets somehow managed to score some runs and win on Sunday, thereby avoiding getting swept at home by the Colorados. The last time the Mets were swept at home in a 4-game series by the Colorados, the whole season fell into the abyss and signaled the continuation of Year 4 of the Six Years Of Misery. So the operative thing here was to find a way to beat the Colorados. Because when you play the Colorados, and you're at home, the one thing you need to do is NOT GET SWEPT! Otherwise, everything is terrible.

The Mets won, yes, but I'm still unconvinced that things are not terrible. There were some pretty painful things going on in this game from the get-go. First, Noah Syndergaard. I know that Syndergaard is just working through some growing pains and dealing with the increased workload and demand of his first full Major League season. But he's sort of unraveled into a little bit of Al Leiter-ness, in which he's throwing fine, but he's not putting hitters away. This was apparent from the start when he went 11 pitches deep on Charlie McCharlieman, the first batter of the game. All in all, Syndergaard somehow gritted his teeth and got through 6 innings, but in those 6 innings he snapped off 118 pitches, and I believe about 64 of them were fouled off.

Meanwhile, the Mets kind of hit against Chad Bettis, which they should do since he leads the league in hits allowed, but because it's the Mets, they hit for 3 innings, took a 3-1 lead, and then stopped. So the Colorados came back against Syndergaard and tied the game, and then took the lead in the 7th when Jerry Blevins came in and threw pitches not especially close to the strike zone. So now, the Mets were losing to the Colorados once again, and once again they were playing with a 3-man bench, because Yoenis Cespedes was out once again (and clearly the Mets couldn't cajole him into the lineup on this day) and Asdrubal Cabrera got some of Cortisone Shot Ramirez's stink on him while coming around 3rd in the 1st inning, hurt his knee, and so don't expect to see him again until Spring Training 2017. Those three were, of course, the Struggling Travis d'Arnaud, the Struggling Curtis Granderson and Justin Ruggiano, who mysteriously has appeared on the team without anyone paying much attention. So the guys in there already needed to figure this one out for themselves. They got a couple of guys on against Boone Logan, which is normal for them, but you figured it was a matter of time before someone swung out of their shoes and hit a pop fly. Neil Walker seemed the culprit with 2 on and 2 out, and he did swing, but his fly ball somehow managed to land in the seats, and not just any seats, seats behind an Outfield fence for a 3-run Home Run to give the Mets a 6-4 lead.

After a few days of not having to worry about blowing a save because there wasn't a lead to be blown, Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia worked clean innings to finish out the Colorados and salvage the series finale. And, believe me, this game was about as excruciating as it seems. But, somehow, the Mets managed to come away with a win, which is quite fortunate. This upcoming week, of course, is Baseball Shit Show Week here in New York and I wouldn't want to have to go into the 4-game Hyperbolic Chamber that is the Subway Series on a 5-game losing streak. The opposing team's fans are bad enough, but you could tell they're licking their chops to hose the Mets down given everything that's happened over the past 12 months (snort slobber drool). Regardless, I can't tell you how much I'm not looking forward to these next 4 games because of the inevitable stupid that's just waiting to happen. Much like what happens when you play the Colorados, the operative thing once again is DON'T GET SWEPT!

A Man for All Time, A Team for None

I wasn't at Citi Field last night for the retirement ceremony of Mike Piazza's number 31. I'm not proud of this fact. I do feel as though I missed out on something pretty special. Considering how many of Piazza's iconic moments I was present for, yeah, I probably should have been there. Think about it. I've gone over many times just how much Piazza is revered by all Mets fans, and just how deserving he is of the honor. I can go back to the day he was acquired on May 22nd, 1998, hearing about it as it happened on Mike & The Mad Dog, and then being there and being part of the welcome wagon that following Saturday afternoon, and being there for 27 memorable Home Runs, and being there on September 21, 2001, and being there when he hit his 352nd Home Run as a Catcher in 2004, and on his last day on October 2nd, 2005. I was even there the night he came back with the Padres and hit two Home Runs off of Pedro Martinez. Want me to keep going? Last game at Shea. First game at Citi Field. Mets Hall of Fame induction. Throwing out the first pitch at the World Series last year. Should I have gone last night? Yeah. Probably.

But as I'd mentioned yesterday, the Mets performance over the past several days just took me out of it. Plus, you know, the ceremony is readily available for viewing here. So, regrettably, I was not there.

Yeah, I'll probably hate myself a little bit for missing this piece of Mets history.

On the other hand, I won't hate myself for missing the 9-inning turd sandwich the current version of the Mets treated the sellout crowd to after the ceremonies concluded.

Usually, when the Mets hold a big ceremony, it doesn't bode well for the game to follow (or precede in the case of the closing of Shea Stadium). It's really weird. The Mets do a wonderful job of feting their conquering heroes. You can complain about a lot of things the Mets do, but when it comes to honoring champions and past heroes on the field, in front of the fans, it never disappoints. Unfortunately, juxtapose the ceremony and the honoree against what the team puts out on the field, and there's a major disconnect. The Mets do a wonderful job of throwing a really nice party, and then completely shitting the bed afterward.

Mike Piazza is and will always be remembered as a Mets hero for all times, and as he instructed us, whenever the team needs some inspiration, just look to the top of the stadium in the Left Field corner at that newly-minted 31 plaque and remember that Ol' Mikey is always there with us. Unfortunately, he can't will the team to hit right now. In fact, Mike at age 47 could conceivably do a better job of driving in some runs than half the lineup the Mets threw out there last night. Bartolo Colon on short rest didn't have it. Once again, the Mets were throttled by the Colorados and Jorge De La Rosa, who I think has made a career out of pitching to a 5.38 ERA, had no problem swatting away the Mets hitters like flies.

I seem to keep finding these weird parallels between this year's Mets team and some historic era Mets team, and right now, maybe these Mets are like the early-1998 Mets, before Piazza showed up on May 23rd. They're a nice little team with no particular direction, except that right now, there's no Mike Piazza floating around on the open market to be acquired and save everyone's hide. I know that everyone seems to be hot on Jonathan Lucroy, but the Brewers seem to want a king's ransom in return and he's already rejected a trade to the Cleveland Indians, so that's a bad sign. Plus I seem to remember hearing somewhere that he didn't want to play in New York, so there's that little wrinkle too. Regardless, for as much as Lucroy might be viewed as such, he's no Piazza. One player isn't going to fix the issues here and I wonder if the what the Mets really need is a sports psychiatrist and maybe a team-wide prescription for Lexapro or Ativan so they all relax a little bit.

Otherwise, 2016 will just dissolve into 2012, the team will fade back into obscurity and all the haters will crawl back out of their caves, pointing and laughing and screaming about how last year was a fluke and now the real Mets have come back (duh slobbuh drool see yuh next week).

(Yawn) Another Night With The Mets

I don't have tickets to the Mike Piazza number retirement ceremony tonight. I was thinking I would try to snag something on Stubhub (there are, in fact, tickets available from the Mets, but, you know, you have to be comfortable spending $250 a pop, which I am not). But after the two games I attended this week, I've decided I don't feel like going. I can watch it on TV.

I realize that yes, I'm passing on Mets history, and the honoring of an iconic player, but you know, I was also there for his first game, his last game, and his Mets Hall of Fame induction 3 years ago, and many key moments in between. I feel like I should be there. But the problem is that I can't justify spending money, and good money, on a ticket, going back to Citi Field for a 30-45 minute ceremony, and then follow that up by subjecting myself to the Mets slobbering all over themselves for another 3 hours while sitting in front of some back-seat-driver fan who's really a closeted rooter for the other NY team.

Friday night was my 14th game of the season, and you know, there are years when I just have the stink on me, and I think 2016 is one of those years. Most of the games I've attended have been patently awful. Wednesday's game was bad in that having-the-rug-pulled-out-from-under-you sense. Friday's game wasn't just bad. It was boring. And I'm not the only one who felt that way. I had the sense that there were literally people falling asleep watching this team play. My poor other half came with me last night, and she spent the whole time complaining that the game was unexciting. She's been to 2 games this season in roasting heat, and she's seen the Mets score a total of 3 runs in those 2 games. Somehow, they won the first game. This one, not so much.

Steven Matz, bless his heart, did yeoman's work. The Colorados kept singling him to death and he was working at an absolute crawl, but he allowed a single run in the 1st and nothing until the 6th. In between, he gave up plenty of hits, including so many to Charlie McCharlieman that I was ready to jump onto the field, run up to him, punch him in his dopey, bearded mug and yell "STOP!" Of course the Mets responded with a James Loney Home Run in the 2nd and nothing more than that. Tyler Chatwood, who if you'll recall was the starter for the Colorados in the "NNNNNNNNEY STINK" game 4 years ago, ensured that this game would leave me with the same feeling. The Mets, going into the 6th inning, had 2 hits. Once Matz allowed an RBI single to Nick Hundley to score the second Colorados run, I knew the Mets were screwed.

The remainder of the game could have been scripted, that's how predictable it was. McCharlieman got another 4 hits. Matt Reynolds hit a Home Run in the 8th, because Matt Reynolds always hits a Home Run when I'm at a game. The Mets got 2 singles off Jake McGee to start the 8th, and then Mcgee was replaced by Scott Oberg, who proceeded to get the next 3 batters out ON THREE PITCHES! Antonio Bastardo was summoned out of the Gulag for the 9th, worked at a pace to rival Steve Trachsel, essentially put my wife to sleep, and I guess spent so much time scratching his crotch that he forgot he was on a mound, in a game, and grooved a slider for Carlos Gonzalez to hit a 3-run Home Run, at which point 75% of the people in the stadium immediately got up and left.

In the last of the 9th, my wife said one of two things would happen: Either it would end quickly, or something stupid would happen and the game would go 11 innings. I reminded her that the Mets would need to score 5 runs in the 9th to get the game to go 11 innings, and they hadn't scored 5 runs all week. Fortunately, they did not somehow muster up the 5 runs. Not that anyone actually thought they were capable of doing so.

The entire season seems to be teetering on the edge of the abyss right now. I mean, I know this happens to the Mets every season, or at least it feels like it does, but doesn't it seem so much worse this season? It was one thing when ney stank, back in 2012, because that team had no expectations. That's part of the issue here, is that the Mets are falling victim to the curse of high expectations. And I wonder if management here fell victim to the same line of thinking that bit them in the ass between 2000 and 2001, because they went to the World Series the year before and that made them believe they were good enough. I know some improvements were made, but now they need more improvements and nobody seems to be quite sure how that will be accomplished. And for some reason, I keep hearing that they need another pitcher. THEY DON'T NEED ANOTHER PITCHER! I just said yesterday how they seem to have more pitchers in the bullpen than they know how to use. The starting pitching has been excellent. I mean, excellent. It's not deGrom's fault that he threw 7 shutout innings and the Mets lost. It's not Matz's fault that this happened last night either. When your starter gives up 2 runs in 6 innings, he's given you a very good chance to win the game.

The issue lies with all these hitters that are just up there swinging out of their shoes and not doing anything useful. There was some promise in this lineup, but right now it's all evaporated. To wit: after the game, I was thinking to myself, "Hey, you know, Michael Conforto looked really good tonight, he had four solid At Bats." Conforto went 0-for-2 with two walks. And somehow, in my mind, this is a success. Compared to the rest of the lineup, sure. But this just underscores the point. Not only are the Mets boring, but this is getting depressing. I sat through a Baseball game last night and it literally felt like a majority of the crowd didn't actually want to be there watching this team. And it's bad enough that they've made me willingly skip the Mike Piazza ceremony tonight, because I just can't get up the energy to go watch this bullshit team again after what they subjected me to last night.

So, Now What?

Well, if Wednesday night's game left a bad taste in everyone's mouth, the Mets made sure it stayed there on Thursday. After a game where they displayed minimal offensive ability, they somehow managed to outdo themselves against the Colorados, once again turning over a 1-run lead to Jeurys Familia and then watched him blow it again as the Mets lost 2-1.

The only upshot to all this is that I wasn't there, and because for some reason this series against the Colorados started with a weekday afternoon game, I didn't watch it, either. Who would want to watch a game like this? I know that Jacob deGrom was awesome and threw 7 shutout innings, but that can only take you so far. Against the Colorados, who it seems every year now comes in here late in the Summer, boasting some sub-.500 record and really, looking like a team that has absolutely no business coming in here and winning games. The past few years, the Mets have handled them. Right now, the Mets can't handle themselves.

Blah, blah, blah, 1-0 lead against Tyler Anderson. Jake McGee comes in, Mets load the bases with no outs and then Scott Oberg (you know, the great Scott Oberg) comes in and retires the next three batters with not so much as a cookie. And that was the game right there. Just like on Wednesday, the Mets had boatloads of opportunities to open up a lead and cruise home, because the Colorados weren't hitting deGrom, but they're just unable to do this and I can't understand it. All season long, the Mets have insistently played shorthanded on purpose because they insistently believe in carrying a dozen pitchers, most of whom they don't bother to use (anyone seen Seth Lugo recently? Antonio Bastardo still on the team?), and leave themselves with a 3-man bench because both Jose Reyes and Yoenis Cespedes are hurt. But because the offense is so putrid, I guess Collins must have begged Cespedes to pinch hit in this stagnant rally, except that he sent him up with men on 2nd and 3rd...the perfect situation for him to get intentionally walked.

This is the problem. The problem isn't Familia blowing two Saves in two days. Closers blow saves. That's normal behavior. What isn't normal is going 1-for-34 with men in scoring position like the Mets have the last two days. What isn't normal is essentially playing with a 20-man roster when you're allowed 25 for no good reason.

17 Extra Pitches

The Mets played 27 innings of stupid over their horrible weekend in Colorado, but it seems like nowhere was it more on display than on Sunday, when the Mets afforded themselves a slim lead, but continually shot themselves in the foot and allowed the Colorados to come back on them. The end result was a 4-3 loss that the Mets absolutely deserved to have happen.

Never mind the bad baserunning, or the continually getting rooked by Umpires, or Michael Conforto's inability to figure out the Coors Field Jet Stream, nowhere was the stupid exemplified more than in the 5th inning, when Right Fielder Alejandro De Aza decided to play right-hand hitting Pitcher Tyler Chatwood as though, I can only assume, Carlos Gonzalez or Charlie McCharliemon were at the plate. I don't know much about Chatwood other than to say he probably hits like a Pitcher, and as such probably wasn't going to get around much on Jacob deGrom, but were he to put a ball in play, perhaps a flare to Right might be in order. So, that's what Chatwood did, but since De Aza was playing somewhere in Boulder, he couldn't catch up on that flare and it fell in for a hit. Harmless enough, and it didn't lead to anything, but what it did was kept the inning going, and deGrom subsequently had to slog through a long At Bat with McCharlieman, who ultimately walked, and then he had to deal with Flavor of the Week Trevor Story, and when all was said and done, that was an extra 17 pitches deGrom had to waste because De Aza wasn't playing a few steps further in.

This is, mostly, Baseball crotch-grabbing and things like this tend to happen on a regular basis, but it was pretty stark the way it threw the game down the toilet for the Mets. deGrom worked into the 7th, but allowed a hit to D.J. LeNosehair and was then removed from the game in favor of Jim Henderson. And, of course, Henderson allowed a 2-run Home Run to the Pinch Hitter Ryan Raburn, and of course, the rest is misery on toast.

And, of course, as Gary Cohen astutely pointed out, had deGrom not had to waste those 17 pitches two innings earlier, perhaps he finishes out the inning without any further damage and the Mets carry things home from there.

It's not something worth dwelling on beyond the game itself, but it certainly screwed up this game. Then again, the Mets did a good job of screwing up every game in this series, and now can go home, still in 3rd place after this 11 game road trip that felt like it was 43 games, but perhaps that was a result of all those late night starts. West Coast road trips are difficult enough, but this one felt a little too long, and the 4-7 record the Mets put up might be indicative of that. More than anything else, the team looked tired in Colorado and that's not good for anyone.

Revenge of the Torres

I didn't actually see Saturday night's game, or at least I didn't see much of it as I was out and about doing a vast assortment of deferred errands and therefore I caught about an inning or two of the game while eating dinner at an establishment somewhere in the midst of Suburbia but nothing beyond that. Only later did I Find out that the Mets not only lost in another debacle of a game at Coors Field, but that Logan Verrett had a 3rd inning meltdown that was precipitated by an egregious blown call that resulted in Terry Collins getting thrown out of the game.

And, of course, I then found out that the Umpire that ejected Collins was named Carlos Torres. Which seems fitting, because even though the Mets now have a Torres-free roster, they're still finding a way to get screwed over by a Torres.

The play, which I still haven't seen, involved C-level backup Catcher Tony Wolters, who's probably in the Major Leagues about 2 years too early, striking out on a pitch in the dirt with the bases loaded, 1 out and the pitcher on deck in an eminently-salvageable 3-1 game. For whatever reason, Torres insisted that Wolters tipped the ball. Mass chaos ensued, Collins got ejected, Verrett then subsequently gave up a 2-run double to Wolters that blew the game open and the Mets had no particular recourse. Eddie Butler, another one of these young-ish starters for the Colorados that pitches well on the road but is a mystery at home, mastered the Mets for most of the night and for the second game in a row, the Mets lost in Colorado, this time 7-4.

The Mets, it could be said, at least hit a little bit, or at least more than they had in the past few days by plating 4 runs, but still, 4 runs on most nights doesn't cut it in Colorado, so if you want to point your finger, sure, Carlos Torres is the easy target for your ire for this night, but the lack of offense on this West Coast swing that's mercifully almost over is really the best group to be annoyed with.

This series so far has just been another annoying series in Colorado against the irritating Colorados, a team that they should be handling easily but haven't done so. Handling the lesser teams is something that the Mets had been doing well in the early going this season but this has deserted them recently. As a result, their slim stay in 1st place is now over, and they've been leapfrogged by both Washington and a resurgent Phillies team that I told you was going to be a problem. They've already shit the bed for the road trip, now they have one more chance in Colorado this afternoon to prevent it from being a total debacle.

Cold Stop

Colorado has always been a nerve-wracking place for the Mets to play. I'd have to imagine that's the case for any team that has to go there, but it seems like ill happenings tend to befall the Mets in Denver moreso than most places. I'm not saying it's as bad as Atlanta or San Diego, but, then again, when every trip to Coors Field inevitably results in some mention of Dante Bichette, you know it's not exactly a happy place to be.

Last year of course was a different story as not only did the Mets come in raging hot but they also just blew the Colorados out of their own building in a 3-game sweep.

Friday night seemed to be more of every other season and less 2015. Matt Harvey regressed back to his struggling self, once again unraveling in a series of ringing hits in the middle innings and was ultimately bounced from the game in the 6th inning, leaving all sorts of questions and snibes in his wake.

Meanwhile, the Mets bats were stopped cold by Jon Gray. This isn't unprecedented; Gray pitched a rather strong, albeit abbreviated, game against the Mets last season and had them on the ropes until he was removed and the Mets came back. When the Mets saw Gray in Colorado, they ate him for lunch but again that was a different time. Gray, if you're willing to look past the fact that he pitches in Colorado half the time, is a pretty good pitching prospect.

That being said, Gray benefited from facing a Mets team that's stopped hitting, and this is a pretty inopportune time to stop hitting because on a normal Coors Field night, they probably could have figured out a way to offset Harvey's poor outing and maybe take some of the focus off of him. However, they're not hitting. They're not hitting Home Runs period and of course this gets people antsy because it seems like they've abandoned fundamentals. This isn't quite the case. The fundamentals are fine. This team just happens to hit more Home Runs than what we're used to seeing out of Mets teams.

Regardless, the Mets didn't hit Home Runs, didn't hit period and instead ended up losing the game 5-2 and now everyone's right back to asking "What's up with Harvey?" This is a question I'm sort of tired of hearing about, and I'm sure if I'm sick of it Matt Harvey must be completely apoplectic. These mechanical issues can be completely baffling but Harvey's not even alone on this staff as having to work through a mechanical issue. deGrom has at least identified his issue but identifying the problem is one thing, fixing it is something else entirely. These things take time and pitching in Colorado isn't exactly the best place to work through these issues.

Bizarro Scenario

The Mets have had a long and storied history of losing excruciating, high scoring, stupid games in Colorado going back to the very first game at Coors Field and a night we'd love to forget. The Mets go to Colorado once a year (some years it may be twice, whether planned or not) and usually what happens is they get the rug pulled out from under them. You can count on one, sometimes two games in a series in which the Mets run out to a big lead and then the Colorados come back against the bullpen and someone makes an error or someone walks in the winning run, or someone hits a Home Run clear out to Colorado Springs.

But that didn't happen this past weekend. For the first time in the 21-year mostly miserable existence of Coors Field, the Mets actually swept a series. Friday and Saturday, the Mets played typical Colorado games. They ran out to enormous leads and then had to cringe as the Colorados chipped away and hoped that the inevitable stupid play didn't happen. And Dammit, the stupid play never happened. The Mets won both games 14-9 which ought to tell you the kind of game it was.

That set up Sunday and the game that everyone who's still hung up on how stupid the Mets are were screaming about all week. This, of course, was the game where Matt Harvey's turn in the rotation came up, but Harvey wasn't scheduled to pitch. Instead, Logan Verrett was summoned to the mound and I'm sure everyone who was ripping the move was waiting for the Colorados to eat Verrett alive and score 13 runs in 2.2 innings.

But that didn't happen. Verrett instead gave everyone a giant shitburger by throwing 8 brilliant innings at the Colorados and allowing just 1 run as the Mets offense, in what I guess is now an off day for them, plated 5 of their own in assorted varieties, as the Mets wiped out the Colorados for the second time in 3 weeks. The 5-1 victory was not only Verrett's first in the Majors, but it gave the Mets a 7-0 sweep of the season series over the Colorados (in stark contrast to their performances against the Cubs and Pittsburghe).

Verrett obviously isn't replacing Harvey by any stretch of the imagination. But he was given an opportunity to show what he's got and he ran with it. True, the Colorados are a mess right now. They've been playing an especially stupid brand of baseball all weekend, with myriad mental mistakes and guys getting thrown out on the bases and what have you. The kind of stuff you expect from a last place team. But they still have a fairly potent lineup and outside of a 4th inning Home Run by Carlos Gonzalez, who, again, can hit Home Runs off anybody, Verrett basically stopped the Colorados cold. Sort of like Harvey did last week. Anyone paying attention would have been happy if Verrett could have worked his way through 6 innings. But he went beyond that and gave the Mets 8, allowing 1 run and 4 hits while striking out 8. So not only did he pitch well, but he preserved the Mets bullpen, which was needless to say taxed after a pair of absurdist shit shows.

The Colorados were, of course, all too happy to help the Mets out. David Hale, a Barves castoff that had the poor fortune of landing in Denver, basically handed the Mets two runs when he and Dustin Garneau (not d'Arnaud) decided, I suppose, to just wing it and the result was a pair of really Wild Pitches that plated a pair of runs. Later, in the 6th, the Colorados had Verrett on the ropes after he hit Charlie Blackmon to start the inning. With 2 out, Nolan Arenado lined a single to right. Nothing out of the ordinary, except McCharlieman decided to be a hero and take 3rd base, where he was promptly thrown out to end the inning. This killed the Colorados in this game, but it seems that this sort of fundamental abandonment has been going on for a while. Again, the trademark of a bad team. Contrariwise, it's the sign of a good team that they can beat you 14-9 or 5-1, and right now that's what the Mets are.

Many Ways To Win

For the second night in a row, the Mets won a game over the Colorados by the score of 14-9. Both nights, the Mets raced out to large leads and then had to weather a Colorado comeback, but would ultimately hang on. On Friday, the Mets won by virtue of bombing the Colorados into submission, blasting 5 Home Runs and knocking their starting pitcher out of the game in the 3rd inning. Saturday, the Mets did things a little differently. This time, the Mets only hit one Home Run, this one coming from Juan Uribe, but balanced that by hitting 9 doubles as part of a 21-hit attack. Nonetheless, this was another one of those games that sort of typified Coors Field baseball. Not a good night if you were a pitcher, but if you were a hitter you had a wonderful time of things.

Once again, the Mets jumped out to an early lead, scoring 3 runs in the 2nd off of Chris Rusin, as Travis d'Arnaud, Ruben Tejada and Juan Lagares each hit RBI doubles. But Jon Niese handed the runs back when Kyle Parker reached him for a 3-run triple.

And then came the 3rd inning.

Uribe led off the 3rd with a Home Run, which might have been the most innocuous hit of the inning. Uribe would bat again later in the inning, which should tell you right there what went on, and his double play served to give the Colorados their first two outs of the inning. In between, well, everyone hit. The 8 hitters subsequent to Uribe's Home Run either singled, doubled or in the case of Tejada, walked, 7 runs crossed the plate, and Rusin was chased from the game after basically being forced to absorb a rather merciless beating that took the game from 3-3 to 11-3. Rusin's successor, Justin Miller, fared little better, as he survived the 4th but was then reached for 3 more runs in the 5th before departing in favor of obscure pitcher Scott Oberg. By this point the score was 14-3 and you started to wonder if the Mets club record of 23 runs in a game was in jeopardy. That didn't happen, as Oberg and other Colorados Pitchers held the Mets scoreless the rest of the game.

Meanwhile, Jon Niese struggled, probably due to trying to throw strikes while pitching with a big lead combined with Colorado. Niese gave up a run in the 5th and 3 more in the 6th courtesy of a Charlie Blackmon Home Run before departing himself, leaving what was now a 14-7 game. Eric O'Flaherty entered and immediately gave up a Home Run to Jose Reyes to make it 14-8. And once again, you got those bad Dante Bichette flashbacks because it's still Colorado, and no matter how bad the Colorados seem to be, they still have to strike a little fear into your heart because stupid things happen in this ballpark.

Terry Collins had to manage the remainder of the game with this in mind, and while under normal circumstances a 5 or 6 run lead wouldn't have necessitated the use of Tyler Clippard or Jeurys Familia, well, who wants to fuck around? Carlos Torres allowed the Colorados a 9th run in the 7th and by that point I think we'd all had enough, and Clippard and Familia finished the game out.

This, much like Friday, was another Baseball Farce. Again, you do have to go up there and hit the ball, but when the hell did the Mets turn into a team that could score 28 runs in 2 days? For that matter, how the hell did the Mets allow 18 runs in 2 days and come away with wins both times? Somehow, they've done it and while Washington has won their games, again, by simply winning and maintaining their lead in the division, they are making time evaporate. Each time the Mets win, that's one fewer game for Washington to come back. Not that they've displayed much of an indication that they plan to do so of late, but I don't think anybody is falling asleep on them right now.

Then again, nobody should be falling asleep on the Mets either.

Something In The Air

I'd mentioned a few days ago that a trip to Colorado wasn't going to do anything to help the pitching. This was the case on Friday night. The Mets won anyway, though, because the Mets offense kept up their end of the bargain and took advantage of the rarefied air in Denver. Yoenis Cespedes had one of those once-in-a-lifetime kind of games, smoking 3 Home Runs and driving in 7. Behind Cespedes, Travis d'Arnaud and Michael Conforto also wend deep as the Mets overwhelmed and then survived the opening game of their series against the Colorados, winning by the rather uncomfortable score of 14-9.

The score alone should tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the game: It was at best a total shit show where all pitching was abandoned and basically anyone who held a bat in their hand had a pretty good chance of doing something meaningful. For the Mets, this was to the tune of running out to a 7-1 lead in the 2nd inning, which was led by Cespedes, who doubled and scored in the first, and then clanged a Grand Slam in the 2nd, both hits coming off hapless Jon Gray, the Rookie who looked so impressive when the Colorados were in New York, and looked anything but impressive on Friday night. Gray failed to survive the 2nd inning and a loss on his ledger appeared imminent.

But it being Coors Field and it being a night where general Baseball logic was thrown out the window, the Colorados rallied to get themselves back into the game. Bartolo Colon, who you figured was in for a rough night to begin with, had his general issues compounded when he got drilled by a pitch on the wrist while attempting to bunt in the 2nd. Colon was reached for 3 Home Runs and by time Nolan Arenado's 3-run shot left the yard in the 4th inning, the Mets 6-run lead had shrunk to 1-run, and then the Colorados tied the game in the 5th against Sean Gilmartin when Nick Hundley of all people drilled an RBI triple. This, then, was what you figured would happen in this game, because this usually seems to happen to the Mets in Colorado. They race out to a lead, their pitchers can't hold it and then something particularly stupid happens. All they needed was Dante Bichette to somehow materialize at home plate and you figured the whole blessed mess was going to go down the crapper. But instead of Bichette, the Colorados could only send up Kyle Parker, and though Parker did hit a fly ball that appeared long enough to be a Sacrifice Fly, Curtis Granderson unleashed the best throw he could possibly make and managed to get Hundley at home, or at least that's what the umpires determined. It looked to me like Hundley's trick slide beat d'Arnaud's tag, but it didn't.

From there, the Mets steadied their hand and took the game back over. Cespedes' 3rd Home Run gave the Mets the lead back in the 6th, d'Arnaud and Conforto went back-to-back in the 7th, and Flores doubled home another run in the 8th while Hansel Robles, Tyler Clippard and Jeurys Familia combined to not let the Colorados back into things and the Mets managed to escape with a bit of a hair-raising victory.

This again was not a game to revel in, given that the Colorados banged Colon around but good and were a fortuitous call at Home plate away from turning this game into something considerably different. But the Mets have shown a healthy amount of fortitude in these kinds of games and where a month or two ago we probably would be looking at another head-shaking loss, instead the Mets have been able to hit their way out of difficult situations. Yes, it's Colorado and it kind of excuses the bad pitching, but the Mets still had to hit the ball and they did that many times over.

Pole Positioning

Thursday's series finale against the Colorados was, of course, a 12:10pm game which meant that the game started without me realizing it. Only after the Colorados reached Noah Syndergaard for a pair of solo Home Runs in the top of the 1st inning and a friend texted me to let me know did I become aware that the game had begun. This isn't to say that I forgot there was a game. I knew the game was happening in the afternoon, I just lost track of what time it was. With the Mets in prime position to step on the throat of a clearly overmatched Colorado team, this wasn't an encouraging start; Syndergaard was having the kind of inning he'd been prone to on the road, not so much at home.

Then the rest of the game happened and things went back to normal. The Mets bombarded hapless Colorado rookie Eddie Butler for 6 runs in 4 innings and went on to plate runs in 6 of 8 innings. Curtis Granderson homered, Kelly Johnson homered, even Juan Lagares came off the bench and joined the Home Run fun and the Mets finished off their 4 game sweep with a resounding 12-3 victory to further prove that ney don't stink anymore.

I didn't see the game, of course, since I was at work, and as such my ability to follow along was kind of limited but what I do know, aside from what I already discussed, was that Syndergaard settled down after his early issues and managed to push himself through 7 innings on only 94 pitches after early on it looked as though 5 innings would have been tough to pull off. But part of what's made Syndergaard look as good as he's been hyped up to be is the fact that like Harvey and deGrom he's taught himself how to pitch and how to adjust on the fly when something might not be working for him. Syndergaard only managed 5 strikeouts for the game, which is telling when you know he's capable of ringing up 10 or more any time he takes the mound. But Harvey did this on Tuesday, to some extent deGrom did it and on Thursday Syndergaard dialed himself back a bit and sacrificed lighting up the radar gun and blowing everyone away in favor of making the batters hit the ball, thereby resulting in his throwing fewer pitches and keeping himself in the game longer. For a power pitcher to be able to pull this off with some regularity is impressive. The Mets now have 3 guys who can do this basically on a whim and this is important as innings limits are pushed and games become heavier and sweatier and of greater importance.

Meanwhile, as the Mets keep winning games, Washington continues to lose games (and at press time their game in San Francisco is not quite done but seems to be headed towards a favorable result), which underscores just how important it is for the Mets to continue to beat these bad teams. While Washington has had a hard time out West, the Mets are done with the California teams for one, and for two they've managed to open up a now 4-game lead. I still think Washington's got one good hot streak left in them, and case history scares the shit out of every Mets fan right now, but this is as good as it's been in a long time and the more the Mets can open up a lead and keep the pressure on Washington, the more this groundswell can continue to snowball down the stretch.

Supporting Roles

The latest Mets win, and jeez there's been many of them recently, was capped off by a blast from the most publicized Mets acquisition, Yoenis Cespedes. Cespedes, who may or may not have been spurred on by a bright yellow bird that had been flapping around Citi Field most of the game, capped off a 3-0 Mets victory by slamming his first Mets Home Run in the 8th inning. Before that, though, it was the exploits of one of their lesser acquisitions that was having himself a fine evening.

Juan Uribe, who looks nothing like what you would consider to be a ballplayer, found himself in the thick of several key moments in Wednesday's game. His 4th inning double over everyone's head plated Juan Lagares with the game's first run, and when Michael Cuddyer subsequently singled, Uribe pushed the envelope, in spite of the fact that he moves with the grace of a Semi, attempted to score and forced a lousy throw from Charlie McCharlieman that bounced off the mound allowing Uribe to score. An inning later, with Jacob deGrom in a rare jam, Jorge De La Rosa hit for the Colorados with men on 1st and 3rd and 1 out, and attempted to lay down a bunt and maybe bring home a run in the process. D.J. LeMahieu, the runner on 3rd, essentially followed Uribe down the 3rd base line as he attempted to field the ball, but Uribe then pulled some bizarre looky-loo act, managed to fake LeMahieu out of his cleats, and by time he then wheeled and threw to 1st to get the sure out, LaNosehair had basically decided to give up and go back to 3rd when he probably could have walked home. How many 3rd Basemen have the wherewithal to do that? Uribe didn't do anything particularly noteworthy here but somehow his body language totally rooked LeMahieu out of a run and essentially ran the Colorados out of their best scoring chance of the night. And to top it all off, Uribe had Citi Field bouncing off the walls, singing along to his anthemic Marc Anthony at-bat music.

This has sort of been Juan Uribe's career. He's not a Hall of Famer. He's at best a role player at this late point in his career and even when he was younger, he sort of looked old and fat. But he wins. And he keeps on winning. Everywhere he stops, he wins. He's landed on two World Series Champions already (and played enormously important roles on those teams) and found himself in the thick of the action on other playoff teams as well. He was never a star, but he just seems to be one of those wily veteran players that bounces around to a lot of teams and manages to make everyone around him better. All he's done since he landed in New York has come up with a bunch of key hits, make some good defensive plays and aid the Mets to a bunch of victories as they've moved into 1st place and last night only underscored that some more.

It's good to talk about Uribe in that sense because in reality, if you watched the game, Uribe was a sideshow and the real story was Jacob deGrom, who basically had what's become the normal deGrom outing: 7 innings, no runs, 3 hits and 10 strikeouts, except that he walked 4 so apparently he didn't have anything working for him. How terrible. Guess meat needs to go back to the Minors for some more seasoning. But at any rate, how much more can be written about deGrom that hasn't already been said? He's been doing this for months now and for what it's worth, he actually hasn't had his best stuff in his last few outings, but this seems to matter very little to him.

And if this embarrassment of riches didn't seem like enough, the Mets can now go for the kill this afternoon with Syndergaard on the mound and maybe put some more distance between themselves and the Nationals.

Sanctuary

After everything that's gone on for me personally over the past couple of weeks, I really needed a Mets game. I'd missed my last game for the most sorrowful of reasons. But I knew my next scheduled game was last night and to say I absolutely needed to be there probably goes without saying. I needed to be there and I needed to see a Mets win, and I really liked my chances of that happening when I saw that Matt Harvey was scheduled to pitch.

There are certain games, in the now 378 that I've attended, that hold a particularly warm place for me for sentimental reasons, not necessarily because they were great games or part of a great season, but just because that particular game was one that I remember fondly, and last night's game certainly has to be counted among them. It was, of course, the first game I'd been to since my Father passed away and although as I'd mentioned Baseball was not a connector between us, what it represents to me is often a temporary escape from the mishigas of life. I've needed that escape quite a bit and the Mets have been kind enough to respond by going on a real good hot streak, but there's always something much more personal about being at a game as opposed to watching it on TV.

So that was the stage that was set for me on Tuesday night, with Matt Harvey on the mound, whom I always seem to miss by a day or two, but not tonight, which was good because Harvey had one of those nights where he basically treated his opponent as a minor annoyance. He didn't win by blowing the Colorados out of the box with heat; in fact by my watch his velocity seemed a tick low, but instead he just placed his pitches exactly where he wanted, which happened to be in spots where Colorado hitters would make just enough contact to hit a slow ground ball or a lazy fly ball of no particular consequence. Rinse, repeat and for 8 innings Harvey made a reasonably good Colorado lineup look silly. For his efforts, he allowed no runs, walked no batters, only struck out 4 and allowed 4 hits, although I'd hesitate to call 3 of those 4 hits since they were little more than well-placed ground balls. One was a ball that Juan Uribe double-clutched on and threw too late. The second was overturned on replay. The 3rd was bobbled by Uribe outright and was only charitably scored a hit. Only in the 7th did the Colorados get a legitimate hit, a ringing double by Mr. Moustache Ben Paulsen (whose publicity photo belies his true mutant facial hair), but Paulsen promptly atoned for this particular malfeasance by getting himself doubled off when Pete LaNosehair lined out to second.

Harvey was so dominant that it wasn't too concerning that the Mets were having no luck scoring against Chris Rusin. It wasn't for lack of effort; they'd managed to get men on base, but not a key hit until the 6th inning when Michael Cuddyer singled and Travis d'Arnaud reached on an infield hit, and with 2 outs, Ruben Tejada, who somehow continues to back into good fortune, inside outed a pitch to right field to score Cuddyer.

That right there was probably enough for Harvey, and with his pitch count at merely 97, the sentimental sap in me, which was out in full force last night, was hoping the Mets would go down quickly and give Harvey the opportunity to finish out the CGShO. There was no good reason to think he wouldn't do so, although given that 2 of the Colorados best hitters were due up on the 9th, Collins couldn't be blamed for not wanting to push it. Still, if the Mets had managed to score an insurance run before Harvey's spot in the lineup came around, maybe he would have stayed in. But that didn't happen. John Axford only succeeded in loading the bases and then departed for Boone Logan when Curtis Granderson was announced as a Pinch Hitter. Logan and Granderson squared off in the same situation they'd found themselves in on Monday and the result was basically the same. This time, Logan walked Granderson to force home an insurance run and then allowed a 2-run double to Juan Lagares that had me bouncing off the walls and tilting the game squarely in the Mets favor, so much so that Jeurys Familia sat down altogether in favor of Eric O'Flaherty. O'Flaherty allowed a double to Jose Reyes (5 years ago that's a triple for Jose without question) but that was about it.

I know most Mets fans of my ilk (and there aren't an overwhelming number of us) know what I'm talking about when I talk about the idea of games that are sentimental favorites. We all have our share, I'm sure. On a night when I really needed to be at a Mets game, and on a night when I really needed to see a Mets win, just to lift my spirits a little bit, Matt Harvey went out and delivered that for me. This wasn't anyone's definition of a memorable game in the Baseball sense and Harvey himself probably wouldn't think of this game beyond "I pitched well and should have finished the job," and he'd probably never see this but I hope he knows that this particular game and his performance will stick with me.

In Better Times

The Colorados make their annual visit to Citi Field this week, and once again it's some weird 4-day weekday series and of course I have a ticket to one of the games (Tuesday). But for whatever reason, and at least now I can laugh about it because the Mets are doing well, every time the Colorados come in to town I have to think about the time they came in in August of 2012, with a record of 46-73, when their entire team was on the DL and they literally were running relief pitchers out to start games and pitch 3 innings, and they somehow swept the Mets 4 games because the Mets forgot that they were an actual Major League Baseball team and they should play as such. It was such an overwhelming debacle that I deemed the game I attended "Turd Sandwich Night," but more noteworthy, it inspired perhaps the most epic Mike Francesa meltdown of all time, where he came on the air after the final game and literally screamed his head off for 10 minutes, punctuating his tirade with a phrase that has stuck with me ever since: "NNNNNNNEY STINK!" At the time, yes, he was right. Ney did stink.

Fortunately, now, ney do not stink and the Colorados are in a rebuilding mode so the Mets, if they know what's good for them, ought to fare well in this series. Although if you look up and down the Colorados lineup they do have some legitimate talent, particularly since Carlos Gonzalez has stayed healthy and Nolan Arenado's bat has caught up with his glove. Also, guys like D.J. LeMahieu and Nick Hundley have managed to find themselves flirting with .300 but perhaps it's the rarefied air.

Regardless, none of them fared especially well against Jon Niese, who once again had a fine outing, allowing only a 2-run Home Run to Gonzalez in the 4th inning, which I'll give him a pass on even if it's a lefty/lefty spot because Gonzalez has been destroying everything lately. This particular inning then nearly unraveled into a Jon Niese Inning because these things happen, and perhaps back in 2012 when ney stank it would have, but Niese instead decided he'd better stone up and fix his own issues, and he did.

However the Mets could manage nothing against Jon Gray, the rookie pitcher who undoubtedly has an uphill climb as a member of the Colorados and may be ruined by altitude but nonetheless was drafted but one slot after Baseball Jesus so he can't be all bad. But the Colorados are protective of their young investment and thus he was finished for the game after 6 innings and 75 pitches in spite of the fact that the only hit he'd allowed was a Travis d'Arnaud Home Run.

Gray was replaced by Justin Miller, who succeeded only in allowing the Mets to load the bases, and when Walt Weiss then relieved Miller with Boone Logan, Logan made things worse by hitting Curtis Granderson to bring home the tying run, and then giving up a 2-run single to Daniel Murphy to bring home the lead runs. The bullpen then brought it home from there and the Mets got themselves back on track with a 4-2 win to open the series.

This was, certainly, the kind of game the Mets wouldn't have won when ney stank. Terry Collins said as much. Were it back then, Granderson, or whoever Granderson's 2012 equivalent would be, maybe Andres Torres or worse, Jordany Valdespin probably would have jumped out of their shoes to swing at a slider 4 feet off the plate and either popped out or struck out and the Mets wouldn't have gotten a hit the rest of the game. It's nice when ney don't stink.

Too Much Sense

Yeah, I know, the Mets traded for Tyler Clippard earlier on Monday, which is a helpful move to shore up the bullpen and more evidence that the Mets aren't just going to sit idly by and let a huge opportunity go to waste.

But then came this late night, out-of-nowhere blockbuster trade between the Blue Jays and the Colorados. After months, or perhaps years of speculation, the Colorados finally dealt Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays, along with old friend LaTroy Hawkins, and in return received what I can only assume is a hefty load of prospects, as well as one Mr. Jose Reyes.

For the Colorados, a team that's clearly in rebuild mode, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for them to deal away Tulo's massive contract and then take on the similarly hefty price tag Reyes carries.

So what, then, does this have to do with the Mets?

Well, Slapenfield, quite a bit. The Tulo-to-the-Mets talk was going on all offseason until it finally died down. But apparently it heated up again somewhere over the last few days, until it once again became apparent that there just wasn't a match to be had. Tulo's contract right now is probably a bit much for the Mets to bear, seeing as how he's still signed through 2020 (with an option for 2021) and owed upward of $90 million with no opt-out in sight. Moreover, the haul Colorado probably wanted in return was more than the Mets were willing to give up, which is probably the real reason a deal like this didn't happen in the offseason, and it didn't happen again now, because Colorado probably never came off of their asking price. And the Mets were probably right to not meet that price since it likely would have meant dealing a pitcher that they shouldn't be dealing at this point in time.

HOWEVER...Jose Reyes, while still owed quite a bit of money, is due about half of what Tulowitzki is owed, with a deal that expires after the 2017 season, which seemed so far away when he left to sign his "Godfather" deal with Jeffrey Loria and instead ended up with a dead fish in his locker. So to that end, it's not as onerous a contract to take on now that it's more than halfway complete. What's more important is that while Reyes will probably command a prospect of some acclaim in return, he does not command the mother lode that it would have taken to acquire Tulowitzki.

So maybe I'm reading between the lines too much, but this seems to be more than just a little coincidental. Mets need a SS. Colorados are trying to deal their SS. Mets and Colorado cannot agree on mutual terms as Colorado is asking too much. Colorados then deal said SS to another team to pick up a talented, but less expensive SS that they have little to no intention of keeping. Colorado and the Mets re-open discussions? The prodigal son returns home when the Mets need him the most?

This now stands to be a very interesting next few days.

The Forgotten Prospect

Few Mets might be quite as forgotten in the way this season has played out as Rafael Montero. Montero, who began the season at the forefront of our consciousness as the top of the second tier of Mets prospects, behind Harvey, Wheeler and Syndergaard, but ahead of deGrom, Matz and others, ascended in May, struggled, went back to the Minors, returned in August and was eventually shifted to a bullpen role before earning another start last night against the Colorados. One thing that's worked against Montero is that Jacob deGrom has been so good over the past few months while Montero got lit up but good a couple of times, particularly his last time up against Washington. But given a chance against the Colorados and their stripped-down lineup, Montero thrived, striking out 7 in a 5.1 inning effort in which he didn't allow a run and only 3 hits (4 walks didn't help). In the process, Montero picked up his first Major League win as the Mets held on for their second consecutive 2-0 victory over the Colorados.

The story before the game was, of course, the ensuing lineup shifting that came about due to last night's news that David Wright would be lost for the remainder of the season with the shoulder injury that hasn't let him go most of the season. There's not much to be said on this front, other than it's just as well; Wright has been patently awful this year and clearly it's because he insistently played through this injury rather than getting the rest he needed and the result is that his 2014 season ended up looking about as bad as his 2009 or 2011 season, years that were also derailed for him by injury. While some wishful thinkers might like to point out that the Mets, who are now only 4 games under .500 for the season at 71-75 and in 3rd place in the division, are only 5.5 games out of the second Wildcard spot, let's be realistic: The chances of the Mets making that deficit up and leapfrogging the several teams ahead of them to grab it are pretty slim and given that, there really wasn't much to argue about when it comes to Wright taking the remaining 16 games in 2014 off.

The discussion, then, turned to who would replace Wright for those 16 games. Certainly, both Eric Campbell and Josh Satin had experience playing 3rd base, but last night, the nod went to Daniel Murphy, who also had experience at the hot corner, though never at the Major League level, as far as I can remember. The thought process, I assume, is that it allows the Mets to showcase Murphy for a potential trade while at the same time allowing Dilson Herrera to remain in the lineup at 2nd Base to get his feet wet. It's a fine plan as far as I'm concerned and if anyone really wants to complain about it, well, you may need to re-evaluate certain aspects of your life.

Then, there was a game, which was pretty boring for a 2-0 game. The Mets scored a run in the 2nd on an Eric Young, Jr RBI triple and a second run in the 6th (I think) on a Juan Lagares Sac Fly against Tyler Matzek and a few other lesser Colorado Pitchers (ie Yohan Flande). Montero navigated through the Colorado lineup and after he left the game, Dario Alvarez, Carlos Torres and the Jeurys Familia/Jenrry Mejia report followed up and finished the job without much of a peep from the Colorados. Mejia shook off the mess he'd created for himself last night and this evening had a nice, peaceful inning that he didn't need to be rescued from, and the Mets finished off their sweep of the Colorados, the second year in a row that they've taken all three games in New York (and thank God for that).

But, for the three games they won, the Mets managed to score all of 7 runs. This works against a team like the Colorados who came in here with their entire starting lineup on the DL. It will be a different story against Washington, who generally start their games at Citi Field up 4-0. Fortunately, I don't plan on subjecting myself to any of these games in person.