Rewriting The Story

After 6 innings on Tuesday night, I don't think any Mets fan could be blamed for being a little annoyed. Yes, a loss wouldn't have been the end of the world, particularly considering the Nationals are still very much a contending team with a ferocious lineup. But the way things were playing out was quite aggravating. First, after the whole innings limit spectacle over the weekend, Matt Harvey had a chance to go out and just shut everyone up, and he didn't do that. He didn't pitch especially poorly, but Washington reached him for 2 runs in the 1st inning and another in the 2nd before things completely unraveled in the 6th. Harvey did himself no favors by basically Daniel Murphy-ing an Ian Desmond bunt attempt with 2 on and no outs, and the resulting late throw he made to 3rd base put him in an impossible spot. Harvey got 1 of the 3 outs he needed to survive this mess, but then 14-year old Outfielder Michael Taylor rocketed a single to center field that hopped past Yoenis Cespedes, rolled to the wall, and instead of allowing 1 or 2 runs to score, 4 runs scored and a salvageable 3-1 lead turned into a 7-1 bloodbath. That was going to be the story of the night: Matt Harvey with egg on his face. When your Ace starts giving up Little League Home Runs to guys who actually look like Little Leaguers, you had to figure it just wasn't the Mets night.

Or, you know, the Mets had the Nationals right where they wanted them.

The Mets only reached Jordan Zimmermann for 1 run, a David Wright Home Run, but of course what doesn't show up in the box score is the fact that they kept making Zimmermann throw extra pitches and drove up his pitch count to the point where Matt Williams removed him from the game after 5.1 innings. I know Matt Williams has sort of become the butt of all MLB jokes because of his questionable in-game decisions, and this was sort of the theory in action. Zimmermann had thrown 100 pitches, yes. But given how awful his bullpen has been, wouldn't he have been wise to at least try to squeeze another inning out of him? Instead, Zimmermann was gone and the parade began. Just like in the 7th inning on Monday.

Blake Treinen started the 7th inning for Washington on Tuesday. Because, you know, Monday worked out so well for him. He gave up a hit to Wright, then got two quick outs, and then walked Michael Conforto. Again, no real cause for panic. Then, Treinen gave up an RBI single to Wilmer Flores. Kelly Johnson was then sent up to hit for Erik Goeddel. Again, at 7-2, there's no real need to panic or play matchups, especially with 2 outs. Naturally, Williams comes out to remove Treinen for Felipe Rivero. Because, you know, Monday worked out so well for him. Juan Uribe pinch hit for Johnson. Rivero walked him. Curtis Granderson followed. Rivero walked him. Now it's 7-3 and even though there's two outs and I'm thinking there's still no way they can screw this up, there's also that thought in the back of my head of that Friday Night in 2000 when Kerry Lightenberg and Terry Mulholland started walking everyone and all of a sudden the Mets scored 10 runs in an inning. Williams, who by this point must reflexively come out of the dugout every time someone reaches base, came out to remove Rivero. This time, he went to Drew Storen, his deposed closer.

Støren, however, has basically become Washington's Aaron Heilman. Støren blew an important playoff game three years ago, and ever since then he's mostly been a disaster. Somehow, he righted the ship this year and was having a fine season up until Washington traded for another closer and Støren was shoved to the 8th inning. That hasn't gone well. Still, Williams keeps going to him. Sort of like how Jerry Manuel kept going to Aaron Heilman when Heilman invariably would give up at least one long hit every time he hit the mound. It didn't take very long for this move to bite Williams in the ass. Cespedes greeted Støren by scalding a line drive down into the Left Field corner that cleared the bases and turned a 4-run game into a 1-run game. At this point, Williams probably should have done the prudent thing and taken Støren out of the game, because he already looked like he'd swallowed his jockstrap. But curiously, after having such a quick trigger with everyone else he threw out there, Williams sat on his hands and watched while Støren walked Daniel Murphy, walked David Wright and then walked Lucas Duda to force home the tying run. Still, Williams left him out there. Støren by now was starting to turn the kind of colors reserved for outfield wall padding. Travis d'Arnaud was next, and it wouldn't have surprised me if Støren either drilled him, or threw the next pitch into his own dugout in a blind rage. It also wouldn't have surprised me if d'Arnaud sent the next pitch into orbit. None of these things came to pass; Støren finally got it together enough to throw a strike and d'Arnaud hit it well, but also hit it right in the vicinity of Bryce Harper for an inning-ending out.

So. After all that, the game was now tied, and once again, the Mets dugout looked like a pep rally while the Nationals looked like a Gravediggers convention. But the Mets still had to survive their own iffy bullpen, although by comparison the Mets seem to have guys that look dominant. Addison Reed, who's been tossed right into the fire, came in, gave up a leadoff hit and then got the next three guys. This was a good example of Terry Collins not panicking and either trying to squeeze two innings out of Clippard or Familia before he had a lead. Instead, he just went with the guy he thought gave him the best chance and it worked. Matt Williams, on the other hand, panicked and went right to his closer, Jonathan Papelbon, in the 8th inning, in spite of not having a lead. Papelbon got the first two men out, and then, of course, gave up the Pinch Hit Home Run heard 'Round the World to Kirk Nieuwenhuis, and the Mets led for the first time all night. It figures it would be Nieuwenhuis, whose season Home Run output was concentrated to one game. Because that's what happens when you're really going well. You get weird, magical things happening like a guy who was traded, released, resigned and bounced between AAA and the Majors multiple times hitting a clutch Home Run.

Now, with the lead, the game had played right into Collins' hands. Tyler Clippard was rested after his Sunday debacle and set down the Nationals with ease. In the 9th, Jeurys Familia appeared once again and this time was not quite so clean, allowing a single to Dirtbag Pete (who in his usual classy fashion barked at Familia all the way to 1st) and later walked Harper. I, like many others, did not mind walking Harper quite so much, considering the alternative, him hitting a ball into the 3rd deck and clowning his way around the bases. Besides, it just set up Yunel Escobar to hit into the 5-4-3 Double Play to end the game and assure the Mets of leaving town with nothing worse than a 5-game advantage and chewed up one more day off the clock of the Baseball season.

Monday's game was kind of a frenetic frenzy of a game, given the way things went back and forth. Tuesday night was something different. This was one of those groundswell games, where all of a sudden a team starts getting a little momentum and they can't stop. Or their opponent just can't stop them. Or both. The story of the game went from being about how Matt Harvey failed in a big game and a bah blah blah to the Comeback Mets sticking it to the Nationals again. The kind of game that you point to as one of those watershed nights looking back on a memorable season. I still hate to seem like I'm getting ahead of myself. But it seems like there's a lot of memories yet to be created this year.

That Old Joke

I'd been out most of the day on Saturday and the game was well underway by time I arrived home, by which point the Mets had already run out to a lead and from there didn't look back. The Mets ended up hitting 4 Home Runs, knocking 21 hits and scoring 15 runs, and I was reminded of the old story from 1964 when the Mets won a game in Chicago, 19-1, and a fan called up a sports desk, saying "I heard the Mets scored 19 runs today." "Yes, that's right," replied the Operator. "But did they win?" queried the caller.

It's sort of been that way for the Mets recently, although you'd be hard pressed to find a day in which their pitching staff might get tagged for so many runs, a 15-run explosion for the Mets just seems unheard of. But that's what happened. They attacked hapless Dodger rookie Zach Lee for 4 runs in the 1st inning and went from there. Usually, when Matt Harvey pitches and wins, he's the story of the game. Matt Harvey does the job and the rest of the team just sort of does the minimum necessary, or Harvey gets fed up and drives in his own runs. Last night, Matt Harvey gave up a pair of Home Runs, probably because he was temporarily stunned from pitching with a big lead. Michael Conforto went 4-for-4 with a walk and scored 4 runs in his second Major League game. Kirk Nieuwenhuis also went 4-for-4 with 4 RBI. Lucas Duda hit a pair of Home Runs. Daniel Murphy hit a Home Run, probably the first thing he's done right in weeks. Kelly Johnson provided himself a nice "WELCOME TO NEW YORK!" moment with a Home Run of his own. Not to be outdone, Harvey himself drove in a pair of runs, the third consecutive game in which he's managed to do so.

Basically, everything clicked last night for the Mets in a way it hadn't, basically since the middle of April. You would like to think that it didn't take Terry Collins Terry Collins-puts-players-on-notice-hit-or-sit">basically threatening the hitters to start hitting to produce results like this but that's how it broke out. There are only so many ways you can get people's asses in gear and sometimes it takes going over the top to get the results you need. I highly doubt the Mets will now turn into some demented version of the Anaheim Angels, but with some new hitters who might actually hit on the roster now, perhaps it's pushed some of the borderline starters. Juan Lagares and Wilmer Flores were benched outright with Conforto and Johnson now in town, and you can expect that Ruben Tejada and Daniel Murphy might find themselves shifted around as well.

It's Conforto who stole the show with his 4-hit charge, probably because that's exactly what you sort of blindly hope for when a hotshot Rookie hits the big stage. Much like the Mets won't score 15 runs again for a while, I think its safe to assume that Conforto won't bang out 4 hits every game. He shouldn't have to if the Mets actually turn this into something. What would be more helpful is if Johnson and Juan Uribe make their contributions count because they both come from winner's backgrounds. Uribe's only been on 2 World Series Champions, and he's contributed heavily to those causes and others once the calendar flips to October. Johnson has been a Met Killer for years and we've seen up close what he can do many times. The guys they're pushing are all players that just need to get the memo that they're blowing a really good chance to do something big.

"He Did WHAT!?"

What happened yesterday at Citi Field is truly a testament to just how random Baseball can be sometimes.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis has, at best, been a marginal player for the Mets. He arrived a game into the 2012 season and had some beginner's luck, and a really hot first few weeks kind of endeared him to the fans for a bit longer than it should have. Once the book on him got around the league, Nieuwenhuis regressed, ended up back in the minors by June, and by July was out for the season with a foot injury. Since then, Nieuwenhuis hasn't improved. He had a brief, shining moment in 2013 when he caused the downfall of Western Civilization, but otherwise, he's basically been one of those 4-A guys that the Mets keep calling up whenever they needed a warm body. By early this season, with no particular sign that he would ever prove to be more than this—and with his batting average below .100—the Mets finally cut bait, waiving him and eventually trading him clear across the country to the Anaheim Angels for cash considerations. The Mets couldn't even get a player for him.

Except that Nieuwenhuis proved himself to be equally inept in Anaheim, so once it became apparent that a change of scenery was not the answer, Anaheim cut bait on him as well. Not surprisingly, the Mets scooped him back up, because Nieuwenhuis clearly just seems to be one of those players that would only have a Major League job with the Mets (I've said the same of other players, like Mike Baxter, except that Baxter caught on with the Cubs). I figured after this, Nieuwenhuis was just going to be organizational depth, but a few weeks ago, here he was again; because the revolving Mets bench of Muno, Ceciliani, Mayberry, Monell, Curly, Larry and Shemp weren't hacking it, well, why not give Ol' Kirk another crack. He couldn't be much worse, could he?

Coming in to Sunday afternoon's game, Nieuwenhuis had all of 7 hits for the season. Somehow, 5 of them were doubles, but still. Even for a bench player, that's comically bad when you're at the All Star Break.

So, then, you'll agree that the Beauty of Baseball is that you never find the Moment, the Moment always seems to find you. I talked about this last year during the Postseason, but perhaps nothing defines this more than what happened on Sunday, when Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who was deemed worthless by the Mets, and even moreso by the Angels to the point where they ostensibly paid the Mets to take him back, hit 3 Home Runs against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It happened. I wasn't present to see it, but I certainly watched it on TV.

Not only did Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit 3 Home Runs in a game, he put his name in the Mets Record Books by becoming the first Met to hit 3 Home Runs in a Home Game.

Think about this for a second. The list of Mets who have hit 3 Home Runs in a game includes, for the most part, guys you would expect it from. Carlos Beltran. Gary Carter. Dave Kingman. Darryl Strawberry. Ike Davis. Edgardo Alfonzo. Not surprising names. Even Jose Reyes isn't surprising, because he always thought he was a Home Run hitter. I don't know much about Jim Hickman but he probably seems as likely a candidate as any. Claudell Washington certainly had some pop, too. Now, not only is Kirk Nieuwenhuis on this list, but he was the first to do it in a Mets Home Game! Everyone else did it on the road. The Mets' tradition of pitcher's parks really prevented this from ever happening, except now it's happened, and it happened to someone who's probably on the short list of "Guys least likely to hit 3 Home Runs in a game."

But that's Baseball. Sometimes, things happen that don't make logical sense. I guess in a season where, to this point, not much that the Mets have done has made logical sense, it's a fitting way to finish things out before we disperse for the All Star Break.

Believe What You See

If you stayed up past midnight here in New York to watch the opener of the Mets series in San Francisco, you probably saw enough odd things to make you think you might have fallen asleep and woken up in some weird alternate dimension, but it's true. These things actually happened.

First, Jon Niese, who's been at or near the top of The Ballclub's shitlist all season for his general lack of consistency, his constant moping around and his inability to perform to the level of his talent, had what was easily his best outing of the season. Niese worked 8 innings against the Giants and basically tied them up in knots all night. I know that the Giants were featured on The Biggest Game In The Galaxy last night and then had to fly cross country and play tonight, but you still have to go out there and make good pitches, and Niese did that. Sure, he had his moments, the Giants had him on the ropes in the 6th inning, but he was able to worm his way out of a bases loaded jam (no thanks to Daniel Murphy, who lollipopped a throw to 1st on Posey's 2-out ground ball that Posey nearly beat out, and if I were Niese, or basically anyone on the Mets roster, I might have had to restrain myself from choking Murphy at that particular moment) to keep his shutout intact. For the night, Niese threw 8 innings, gave up 3 hits, 2 walks and struck out 4, and as strange as it seems, for as lousy as Niese has looked at times, his ERA sits at a reasonable 3.58. So perhaps he'll pull a Lucas Duda in the second half and shut me up.

This was all well and good, but the Mets still were unable to solve Chris Heston. At least this time around, the Mets managed to get a hit off of him, which Ruben Tejada took care of with a 1st inning single. So there's that. But when it came down to a key hit, the Mets did nothing. The Giants even handed the Mets three Errors, two of which were by Heston, but the Mets wouldn't take the bait. Johnny Monell hit into a Double Play, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who mysteriously resurfaced on the roster, also did nothing of note, and Juan Lagares misjudged a Granderson pop fly that was misjudged by the entire left side of the Giants defense and was thrown out at 2nd base in a key spot.

But then, in the 9th inning of this 0-0 game, something really weird happened. First, Michael Cuddyer got a hit off of Sergio Romo after falling behind in the count 0-2. Kirk Nieuwenhuis followed, and he attempted to bunt and didn't look very good in doing so, and after falling behind 0-2, did not attempt any more bunts. But Romo couldn't throw a strike and on a 3-2 pitch, with Cuddyer running, Nieuwenhuis slapped a double past B Belt at 1st and down the right field line, giving the Mets runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. This was good, but then again the Mets seem to always managed to screw up in this situation. The next man up was Johnny Monell, who's done nothing of particular consequence in the opportunities he's had. He fell behind 0-2 against Santiago Casilla. But then he connected for a double to right to score both runs and give the Mets the lead. Two batters later, Juan Lagares singled home Monell and the Mets somehow had plated 3 in the 9th. This, in Jeurys Familia's hands was pretty much a done deal and the Mets somehow not only won this game 3-0, but also assured themselves of no worse than a .500 record on this West Coast trip.

Cuddyer! Nieuwenhuis! Monell! How do you explain that? The Mets win a game thanks to a stick in the mud, a 4-A spare part and a backup's backup. Sometimes, it's hard to believe it when the Mets pull a game out of their ass like this, but this actually did happen.

Make Your Own Bed

The Mets won last night, 4-3 over the Mickey Mouse Marlins, pulling off the oh-so-rare series win in Village Green Preservation Society Stadium, which seems rather innocuous in and of itself. Looking inside the game, you will however find that this was another one of those instances where the Mets seemed to win a game in spite of themselves. Or, more appropriately, in spite of their manager. Terry Collins peppered the game with a series of questionable moves after Jacob deGrom left the game, and although individually they did not work, the combination of these decisions did ultimately result in a victory.

We can fast-forward through the first 6.5 innings of the game. Basically, things happened normally, Jacob deGrom had a Zack Wheeler outing, where he didn't have great command, threw too many pitches too early in the game, but somehow didn't break, only allowing 1 run over his 6 innings of work and that came on an infield hit that probably shouldn't have been a hit. The Mets didn't hit, or at least didn't match their production of the last two games, but still had a 2-1 lead thanks to Kirk Nieuwenhuis' 2-run Home Run.

Then came the bottom of the 7th, when things started to get screwed up. Buddy Carlyle started the inning, which was all fine and good. But with 2 outs and a man on 2nd, Collins channeled his inner Jerry Manuel and decided it was a good time to play matchups, and it was a good time to bring in Dario Alvarez to make his Major League debut against up-and-comer Christian Yelich. Yelich singled on Alvarez's 2nd and final pitch to drive in the tying run.

Collins then replaced Alvarez with Carlos Torres. Again, that's all fine and good. Torres got Donovan Solano to pop out and end the 7th inning. In the 8th inning, the Mets rallied against Mike Dunn (and as we all know, Dunn was a Yankee Prospect, so he has to be good) and somewhere down the line, Travis d'Arnaud drove in the lead run. Later, another run scored and the Mets had the bases loaded with 2 out and the pitcher's spot up; a golden opportunity to break the game open a little bit. But Collins, who was hell-bent against using Jeurys Familia for a 3rd consecutive night (a logical concern, although the Mets have an off-day today), decided that rather than pinch-hitting for Torres and bringing in one of his other pitchers, he'd be better off letting Torres, who to that point was 0-for-4 on the season and an .091 lifetime hitter, bat for himself. Torres promptly struck out, and then in the bottom of the 8th gave up a Home Run to Giancarlo Stanton. That's not so bad, since every Mets pitcher has given up a Home Run to Stanton, but Collins basically threw away a rally in order to milk an extra inning out of Torres, and it's only to his good fortune that Stanton led off the inning and didn't have anyone on base ahead of him.

Mejia then locked down the 9th and the Mets had a win, and sure, you never give a win back, but sometimes you have to question the strategy that's used in order to achieve that win. On the other hand, as I said, sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and maybe if you make enough weird moves over the course of one game, you end up with the right result. I wouldn't put this theory in motion too often, though.

Can We Stay Here?

Maybe the Mets should just stay in Arizona.

It was a quick turnaround, after flipping the mostly lifeless D'Backs and inflicting a rare beating on usual Met-Nemesis Bronson Arroyo on Tuesday night, the Mets came out on Wednesday afternoon and won again behind Dillon Gee to sweep Arizona, go over .500 for the first time this season and finish what looked like a hellacious road trip with a 6-3 record.

It helps that, as I mentioned yesterday, the Mets were going up against a pitching staff that basically had its guts cut out before the season started and a team that just generally looked more and more befuddled as each game drew on. After letting up a single run in the 8th inning on Monday night, Met pitchers allowed the D'Backs offense nothing until Jose Valverde served up a pair of Home Runs in the 9th inning this afternoon, a fine accomplishment in its own right, but one made somewhat easier by the fact that the Met offense scored plenty of runs for the pitchers to work with.

Tuesday night, with the entire roster clad in the symbolic 42 jersey in honor of Jackie Robinson (but, of course, with every bit of respect to Mr. Robinson, I still can't look past a Mets player wearing 42 and not think of Butch Huskey—which I suppose is OK considering Huskey wore 42 in deference to Robinson), the Mets cruised. Jenrry Mejia basically got to coast through his outing after the Mets ran out to a 9-0 lead after 4 innings. Things started with Eric Young, Jr. reaching base to start the game, which kicked off a sequence in which the Mets jumped on Arroyo with a ferocity, mostly swinging at first pitch fastballs and ringing hits all over the ballpark. This generally isn't how the Mets have fared against Arroyo, but on this night, the hits kept falling, 12 in all. Young had 3 of those hits, and 3 more were had by, of all people, Kirk Nieuwenhuis. Nieuwenhuis had basically become a forgotten man in the Mets system. He was shoved out of consideration by flashier or more consistent players and left to languish in the Minor Leagues after barely batting his weight last season (his only noteworthy moment for 2013 being when he caused the downfall of Western Civilization). But after the Outfield Massacre on Monday night, it was Nieuwenhuis, and not the ancient Bobby Abreu, who got the call, and given the opportunity, Nieuwenhuis took it and ran with it, driving home a run with a 1st inning hit and following up with a 4th inning Home Run that keyed a 6-run rally, sent Arroyo to the showers, Kirk Gibson to the latrine and the game mostly to bed. Mejia left after 5 innings with a blister issue (fairly benign as compared to Monday's drama) and Gonalez Germen played the Carlos Torres role from there, closing out the game with relative ease.

Wednesday, Dillon Gee did most of the heavy lifting, throwing shutout ball for 7 innings and departing well before he could get himself into any particular trouble. By that point, the Mets had scraped out three of their five runs for the game, the first coming courtesy Anthony Recker's second Home Run of the road trip in the 2nd inning. Recker, who continues to play better than a backup Catcher, joined Lucas Duda as the only Met players with more than 1 Home Run. This, combined with his 13th inning lightning over the weekend and the fact that most of his Home Runs have come in similar key circumstances have led to some talk that maybe he ought to get some more playing time, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Anthony Recker's a great backup catcher, but give him 400 At Bats and he'll look like Omar Quintanilla. Nonetheless, he got the Mets started and chipped in with another rally-extending hit later on in the afternoon, and the Mets put the game away in the 9th when the D'Backs decided they'd had enough of trying to field the ball. Jose Valverde came in after not appearing since his Saturday night debacle and did his best to make things unnecessarily hairy, but the best he could do in that endeavor was to turn a 5-0 game into a 5-2 game.

So, now the Mets return home and have the high pleasure of getting to play America's Sweethearts, the Braves and the Cardinals, before Miami comes in, and they haven't exactly been a picnic for the Mets either. Last season, the Mets had this bizarre thing about winning on the road and looking stupid at home. I really hope this season doesn't hold more of the same. Especially since I have tickets to 4 games on this 10-game homestand.

Welcome Back to Major League Baseball

The results certainly don't have to be pretty for a Win to count. And Zack Wheeler's 4th Major League start tonight certainly wasn't a thing of beauty, but it was good enough to get him through 5 innings and good enough to get him his 2nd victory.

The fact that the Mets offense generated 12 runs also helps. Much of this offense came from a pair of sources that have been the subject of some vilification at one point or another this season, in Ike Davis and Kirk Nieuwenhuis.

Davis returned to the Mets tonight after a well-deserved month in the Minor Leagues. Usually, in situations like this, the guy returning is placed lower in the order. But not Ike. Ike was called right up and slapped right back into the cleanup spot, a clear challenge from Terry Collins to put up or shut up. Ike answered the bell and was central to a number of rallies, and instead of flailing wildly at off-speed pitches, instead looked a bit more steady and comfortable at the plate. The results were certainly encouraging; Ike went 3-5, drew a walk, drove in 2 runs, scored two runs, legged out a key infield hit, and one of his outs was a smoked line drive that just happened to be right at someone.

Nieuwenhuis has also had his share of critics, though his struggles were certainly not as magnified as Ike's. Nieuwenhuis has also bounced between the Mets and Las Vegas multiple times this season, after he started the season off looking as though he was unable to catch up to most Major League pitching and struggled to bat his weight. Since he's returned, he's been mostly glued to the bench in the middle of a platoon situation that hasn't been much of a platoon because a) The Mets keep facing left-handed pitching and b) Juan Lagares and Marlon Byrd have played so well of late. Nieuwenhuis hasn't especially excelled, but he's made his hits count, between the out-of-nowhere walkoff Home Run against the Cubs, and his 14th inning Home Run yesterday. The problem is, instances like that have been few and far between for Nieuwenhuis. But, tonight, given an opportunity to start, Nieuwenhuis responded with a career game, going 4-4, a pair of doubles and a triple among them, and also drove in 5 runs and drew a pair of walks.

These particular performances certainly made the game, but the Mets were also helped by the fact that the Brewers right now look even more hopeless than the Mets at times have been known to. Early on, this looked to be the kind of game that was the exact opposite of what Abner Doubleday had intended, with balls being mishandled, thrown away, booted or just flat-out dropped. Eventually, the Mets were able to get their act together. But the Brewers appeared to not be able to do so, putting forth a performance that bordered on the embarrassing, and showed just how far a cry they were from the team that was a mere couple of wins from a Pennant just a couple of years ago. Proof, once again, that teams can lose it just like that, as if that weren't already abundantly obvious to the Mets fan.

With a lead, Zack Wheeler was able to settle down somewhat. Sure, the Mets gave him 2 runs in the first inning and he immediately handed them back. Wheeler wasn't helped by an error from Daniel Murphy, but that's besides the point. The key is how does it affect you going forward. The Mets went out and got him more runs in the 2nd, and extended their lead in the 4th. Wheeler responded by keeping the Brewers in check, allowing only a Juan Francisco Home Run over the remainder of his 5 innings. The Brewers loaded the bases with 1 out in the 5th, and appeared destined for disaster, but Wheeler got tough, getting Jonathan Lucroy to pop out and striking out Francisco to finish on a high note. The numbers might not be pretty, 5 innings, 7 hits, 3 walks, 3 runs (only 1 earned) and 3 strikeouts, but he responded well in adverse moments and didn't let things get out of control. So it's something to build on.

All in all, a fine night for the Mets, certainly a much welcomed normal game after the mess that was the Arizona series. Guys hit when they needed to, guys pitched when they needed to and the Mets were clearly helped by the fact that they were playing a team that really looks lost right now. Hopefully, the Mets can continue to take advantage of this through the weekend.

Jaws Of Defeat

The Mets and Cubs played 27 innings over the weekend (paltry compared to the 30 the Mets and Marlins played over two games last weekend), and for 26 and a half of those innings, the Mets appeared as they have pretty much every day for the past month: lifeless, directionless and hopeless.

Friday, Shaun Marcum put them in a hole ostensibly by stepping on the mound, giving up 5 runs before the Mets took the field and left them unable to respond, as they usually have been unable to, in a 6-3 loss.

Saturday, Jonathon Niese did just about everything that could have logically been expected of him, giving up only 2 runs, but, again, the Mets didn't back him up, and by the time Brandon Lyon barfed up 3 more runs, the game was basically out of reach, as Scott Feldman pretty much served as a one-man wrecking crew in yet another 5-2 loss.

Sunday, it was more of the same. Matt Garza basically bullied the Mets, although they didn't need his assistance since they did a pretty good job of looking skittish on their own. After Jeremy Hefner gave up a run in the first, the Mets decided to stage their own version of the Stateroom Scene in the 5th inning, making a perfectly Metsian 3 errors on one play (but only charged with two), allowing the Cubs a pair of runs that basically put the game out of reach, because the Mets have basically proved themselves incapable of scoring more than 3 runs in a situation where 3 runs would make a difference. Matt Garza threw at Mets batters at will, Mets pitchers offered nothing in the way of a response, and the Mets were staring at going 1-7 on a homestand that saw them lose in just about every way conceivable, from the humdrum to the excruciating, to the comical. The season continued to spiral out of control, with no hope and no help to be found.

I don't think I or anyone else has any logical explanation, then, to the results of the final half of that 27th inning. Though, I don't think anyone on or rooting for the Mets has any complaints, either.

The Cubs decided, for whatever reason, to use deposed closer Carlos Marmol as opposed to their regular closer Kevin Gregg, I suppose because Gregg had pitched two days in a row. Perhaps Dale Sveum was thinking that that the Mets hadn't hit any other pitcher, maybe it would serve Marmol good to give him an inning against the Mets. What damage could they do?

Perhaps the real question should have been what damage could Marmol do, because he basically gave the Mets life, and ultimately allowed them to steal a victory out of nowhere. Of course, the Mets still had to go out there and hit the ball. I was skeptical, particularly since they hadn't been able to do that very much to that point. Even after Marlon Byrd's Home Run, I figured that was only nice from the cosmetic standpoint of they won't get shut out. Lucas Duda walked and John Buck singled, which made it slightly more interesting, but I still wasn't allowing myself to be fooled. Quintanilla sacrificed, which meant that the stage was set for a pair of guys who hadn't inspired much confidence in anyone, being Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Collin Cowgill. Nieuwenhuis, after a great first month in the Majors last year, hadn't done anything noteworthy except for striking out a lot and picking up a season-ending injury in AAA last year. I didn't see either him or Cowgill getting the job done. But Nieuwenhuis shut me, Dale Sveum and pretty much everyone else up by launching a 3-run Home Run off the Pepsi Porch. The quintessential "Holy Shit!" moment, because who the hell thought Nieuwenhuis was going to do that? But somehow, he ran into a Marmol slider at the right moment and somehow hit it out, snatching victory from the Jaws of Defeat that appeared ready to swallow the Mets whole and spit out the bones.

This probably won't save the season and I'm pretty sure it won't spur the Mets on to a hot streak, but it might. Victories like this can juice up a team a little bit, although so can beating the Yankees 4 in a row and that didn't do anyone any good. But the Mets are off on a 11-game, 4 city road trip now and this, plus the added juice of Zack Wheeler's debut on Tuesday might actually give the Mets a little spring in their step for the next day or two. Of course, this could all go the other way if they fall on their face tonight in Atlanty.