The Best and The Worst

One of the irritating things about the Mets in 2017 is that they show no particular consistency on a day-to-day basis, and often even on an intra-game basis. Tonight's game was a pretty good example of this. Zack Wheeler had nothing on this night and somehow managed to grit his way through 5 innings, but nonetheless left with the Mets trailing 5-0. The offense seemed to be pretty lifeless through those first 5 innings, as they managed nothing of consequence against Sean Manaea. It appeared to be one of those nights that would be eminently forgettable. 

Then, of course, the Mets struck for 4 in the 6th, tied the game in the 8th, and won it 6-5 on a walk-off Home Run by Wilmer Flores in the bottom of the 9th.

That's been the Mets. Alternately horrendous, lifeless and full of heart and guts. And that's what's made this season so particularly irritating, because they show all these signs of being so much better than they've been to this point.

Wheeler, of course, did nobody any favors with his poor outing, and I'm beginning to think that Wheeler may simply be hitting the proverbial wall. I mean, you can't expect too much more out of a pitcher who's missed two full seasons. At times this year, he's looked really good and as such you'd like to think he could regroup, get stronger in the offseason and come back next year ready to strike. But for tonight he didn't have much. He gave up a Home Run to the leadoff hitter Matt Joyce, he was walking guys and giving up long hits, and it sort of seemed like the Mets were buried before anyone even picked up a bat.

And for the most part this was the case, at least until the 6th inning, when they finally reached Manaea, one of these up-and-comers, and got back in the game. It figured that Jay Bruce (Home Run) and Michael Conforto (RBI double) were heavily involved in this inning. They didn't get all the way back, but at least they got it close. Then, Blake Treinen came in and, of course, stopped the rally and just to make everyone even more indignant, pitched a scoreless 7th inning as well.

Liam Hendriks entered the game in the 8th and it seemed like the Mets were going to just squander their opportunity as Jose Reyes followed a T.J. Rivera single by...hitting into a Double Play. Not Helpful. Travis d'Arnaud followed by doubling off the wall in Center, and Lucas Duda followed as a pinch-hitter. Oakland then went to Daniel Coulombe, their lone Lefthander, or at least I think he's their lone lefthander, but Duda, unperturbed, singled to Center to score d'Arnaud with the tying run.

So, after all that...the game was tied. Hansel Robles came in for the 9th and, for once, did not make me want to cover my eyes or shut off the TV, and for once did not allow the first batter to tee off and hit the ball into the second deck. In fact, had he not walked Khris Davis, perfectly acceptable given his stature, he would have had a clean inning outright. But again, not consistent for him.

Oakland then went to Simon Castro for the 9th, and at this point I was thinking which of the three batters the Mets had coming up could hit the walkoff Home Run. Asdrubal Cabrera led off. He'd hit a memorable Walkoff Home Run last year, that I witnessed. He has a penchant for this sort of stuff. So he lined out to right. Yoenis Cespedes. Saw him hit a walkoff Home Run last year too. He's got a penchant as well. Struck out. Wilmer Flores. Haven't seen him hit a walkoff Home Run, but I have seen him come up with multiple walkoff hits...And he won the Free Steak by hitting a 1-0 pitch into the Left Field seats, to finish the game and earn the ever-elusive Double "Outta Here" from Gary Cohen, capping off a game that saw the Mets dig their own grave and then dig themselves right back out of it. Go figure.

You wonder if the Mets could have gotten up off the mat like this a few more times earlier in the season, maybe they wouldn't be in this mess.

Sneaky Win

The Mets nearly snuck an entire game past me this afternoon. While I did know that they had an afternoon game, and in fact I also knew that it was a 12:10pm game, which they play on occasion in the Summer, I'd lost track of time altogether until some point much later in the afternoon and by time I'd clicked on MLB.com, the game was already in the 5th inning and humming right along.

By and large, and of course since I didn't see it I can't speak much to it, but it appeared to be a pitchers duel between Seth Lugo and Lance Lynn, or, a pair of nondescript righthanded pitchers taking advantage of an early-afternoon getaway-day game on a 95˚ afternoon. Lucas Duda hit an early Home Run but that was about it. I'd glanced away after checking in in the 5th, and of course when I looked back, it was the 7th inning and the game was tied. A little later, I checked back again and saw that Tommy Pham had hit a Home Run off of Erik Goeddel and the Cardinals had a 2-1 lead in the 8th. My thought process then went as follows:

1) Well, that's the game.
2) Figures it was lousy Goeddel that gave it up.
3) Man, I hate the Cardinals.
4) I'm going to go out and run some errands now.

So I went out and ran my errands. I was probably out for about 45 minutes and that's being generous. It may have been closer to 30. But nonetheless, I came back and checked my screen and...huh. The Mets won, 3-2.

Apparently all I needed to do was go out, because while I was out, Wilmer Flores pinch hit in the last of the 8th and hit a Home Run to re-tie the game, and in the 9th, the Mets got a couple of runners on base, and then with two outs, Jose Reyes hit a chopper behind 1st base that was knocked down by Matt Carpenter. Generally, this is a fairly routine out, except when Jose Reyes busts it down the 1st base line and Trevor Rosenthal forgets to cover the base. Then, extra innings turns into a fortuitous Mets victory and, for once, it's the Cardinals that are left holding their jocks and looking like jackasses. Couldn't happen to a better bunch.

So, after all this, the Mets split this series with the Cardinals and...surprise surprise, are still no better off than they were at this time last week. So at least they're not totally mailing it in, but the more this continues and the more the Mets just play at par, the less time remains and...oh, what's the use? Enjoy beating the Cardinals. Don't think about anything beyond that.

That Internal Fight

Something happened in the 4th inning of last night's game that kind of piqued my interest. And I don't mean Yasiel Puig taking too long to admire his Home Run and pissing off the entire Mets team, because those things tend to get overblown and players are often good at policing themselves.

It was, however, the initial source of the Mets ire that caught my attention. I know that if you make the rounds, most of the chatter involves something to the effect of "fweh fweh stupid Mets and cwybaby fwores," and "maybe don't throw a fastball down broadway stupit mutz." And in reality, I don't care much what Flores said or who he happened to be saying it to, but more that he did it. It's sort of his way of saying that he's getting a little sick of this shit. I think we're all getting a little sick of this shit, and, you know, you kind of want your players to show that sometimes. Flores has a history of not really being the "silent, methodical" type. You saw that two years ago when he was—and then wasn't—traded. And here the Mets are, getting their heads handed to them for the third day in a row, their overmatched Pitcher Tyler Pill just served another one up to an arrogant, underperforming headcase and he hot dogged it. I mean, didn't Wilmer Flores basically just do what every Mets fan wanted to do at that point?

Beyond that, you're starting to get a little bit of leadership out of Flores, which is important because the Mets seem to be kind of leaderless right now. David Wright probably won't be back unless some divine intervention occurs, and other guys are old, not playing well, injured, or have one foot out the door and in some cases all of the above. So it's incumbent on these younger guys to kind of make their case here. Flores to this point has had a very good season, which doesn't especially surprise me. People will listen to young guys if they're backing it up. I think you're seeing the beginning of a future leader.

This is sort of juxtaposed against an asinine article I read earlier on WFAN.com, the gist of which can be summed up as "dur dur dur stupid mets didn't sign turner and murphy and lookit them now." And, I mean, yeah. I get it. The past six games have just been a series of the Mets getting their heads bashed in by Justin Turner and Daniel Murphy, former Mets who were let go ostensibly because they hadn't proven themselves worth keeping around. I mean, Justin Turner was around for three seasons, and basically proved himself to be an inconsistent role player with a goofy personality who liked to throw pies in people's faces. At no point did he pose as a .330 hitter, because if he had, the Mets probably wouldn't have let him go. Murphy, of course, just makes me angry. Like, now, he makes me legitimately angry. I mean, think about it. We saw Daniel Murphy here for 8 years. Not a few cups of coffee. 8 years. And 8 years as a starting player. And if at ANY point in those 8 years, he'd shown that he was at all the kind of player he's turned into since he went to Washington, then the Mets would have given him a contract, and none of this would be happening, and everything would be fine. But nooooooo. We got 8 years of the anthropomorphic version of "the Yips," got tantalized by a well-timed two-week hot streak, and then an era that ended with two of the most egregious, Murphy-typifying errors in backbreaking spots in the World Series. And in case you forgot, nobody wanted him that offseason, he was probably Washington's 4th choice, and now he's Joe Fucking Morgan and the Mets are the jackasses.

Grumble. This is why it's important for guys like Wilmer Flores to get a little pissed off. It's just a reminder that these guys actually do care about this debacle of a season.

Many Happy Returns

The Mets, on Saturday, did not follow prior history on Saturday by continuing to lose games in Atlanta in June, in spite of Saturday's Day-Night Doubleheader (my favorite!) at least partly being played on one of those painfully sunny Atlanta days where the temperature looks to be no less than 115˚.

But the Mets did not lose the sunshine game. In fact, they didn't lose either game. They won both games and kind of looked like a cohesive team in doing so. It was a little more like another day-night Doubleheader they played in Atlanta (which oddly was the last time they swept a doubleheader of any kind) a few years ago that proved a harbinger of things to come—or perhaps of a time the Mets are trying to recapture.

I was out most of the afternoon, which shouldn't be of much surprise to anyone who's read this blog with any regularity, and as such I didn't see much, if any of the early game. But I did follow along on my phone as I was able, such as the case may be, and so I saw the Mets hanging on to a tenuous 1-0 lead throughout most of the afternoon. The Mets scored an early run off of Sean Newcomb, a lefty making his Major League debut—one of those things that has a tendency to bedevil the Mets—but he was matched for the most part by Robert Gsellman, who kept the Braves off the board altogether. I checked back later to see the score was 2-1 in the 8th; to that point both Mets runs had involved Wilmer Flores, who was busy quietly putting his stamp on a pretty memorable afternoon all things considered. Fortuitously, I found myself in a store with some televisions on around the 9th inning, when the Mets had the bases loaded and Yoenis Cespedes at the plate, so I saw what transpired there as Cespedes hit a Grand Slam to give the Mets a 6-1 cushion and, you know, provide the team with that little something extra that had been missing these past six weeks.

I was still out when the nightcap started at the rather odd time of 6pm, which I guess was done to accommodate a postgame concert, although they have a habit of throwing in some bizarre start times in Atlanta (I seem to remember there being a game scheduled for 5pm on Sunday of all hours some time ago), so I didn't see the early innings of the game, which essentially involved Steven Matz welcoming himself back into the fold by providing that little something extra that had been missing from the starting rotation all season and, you know, pitching economically without giving up any runs. Unfortunately, Matz was matched by Matt Wisler, who hasn't pitched especially well in general, except when he faces the Mets, and he subsequently turns into John Smoltz. So it was scoreless into the middle innings, but the Mets rallied in the 5th and Jay Bruce hit a 3-run Home Run to break the ice and more or less ice the game. Matz threw shutout ball through 7 and reminded everyone that when he's healthy, he's really good (now if only he could stay healthy). The Mets then tacked on more runs, most of them involving Wilmer Flores, who banged out 4 hits in the 2nd game to finish the day 6-for-9, and the Mets coasted home with an 8-1 victory to give the Mets a sweep of the Doubleheader at a point when things seemed to be at their most grim.

These reinforcements are nice and kind of underscore why people were so optimistic about the Mets at the outset of the season, or, more appropriately, why the spate of injuries is so infuriating. If the Mets could stay healthy...If, if, if, to the point where it's all kind of hollow. The reality is that it happened and the Mets have dug themselves a pretty major hole. I'm not certain if it's altogether too late for them to claw themselves out of it. however, stranger things have happened...

He's Still Here

I have at times felt like I'm the last Mets fan in Matt Harvey's corner. I know that we all want him to do well, and I also know that he's brought some of his issues on himself for one reason or another, but I've seen no reason why Harvey couldn't persevere, shake off his issues and regain some of the luster that he'd lost over the past year. He's already proven that he can come back from a major injury and be successful. In reality, and I've said this before, people seem to just have a problem with Matt Harvey being Matt Harvey. This Spring, while every time he took the mound seemed to be scrutinized, most people were up in arms over the fact that he was seen cavorting around Miami with a model, drinking and smoking and generally having a nice little date for himself. And because he's Matt Harvey, this gives everyone free license to point and yell about what a jerk he is, and how the Mets need to trade him because he's a distraction and a cancer.

Does not compute. We've all been on dates with models and drank and smoked, and nobody's following us around with cameras and posting photos on the internet, and people at our jobs aren't yelling about how we need to be traded. So I say baloney. I think people's dislike of Harvey is based mostly on jealousy. He projects an aura of arrogance but in reality is probably just as insecure as anyone else. The difference is he pitches for the Mets and most people do not.

So that all lines up for this evening's game at Citi Field, which was Harvey's first start since he got run off the mound last July and then went under the knife for the second time in 3 years. It was hard to know what to expect, since his Florida outings were kind of a mixed bag and he wasn't throwing with quite the same pop as he used to. And he was facing the Braves, who'd cuffed him around more than once last year. But out of the darkness, Harvey re-emerged as a pitcher, and rather than trying to blow everyone away instead used what he had, working with a fastball in the mid-90s instead of the high 90s, and dropping curves and sliders and changeups and generally inducing weak contact. He shot through the 1st inning on 6 pitches, entered the 7th having thrown only 67, and by time he departed after 6.2 innings, he'd allowed 3 hits, no walks and 4 strikeouts, while only being touched up for a pair of solo Home Runs from Matt Kemp. More importantly, by time the 7th inning started, and Harvey kicked things off by striking out Dansby Swanson and Freddie Freeman, you actually started to hear those "HAR-VEY! HAR-VEY!" chants once again.

Offensively, the Mets again started slow, facing Jaime Garcia, the ex-Cardinal who seems oddly out of place on this Braves team. It took until the 5th for the Mets to finally break through, when Neil Walker singled, and Jay Bruce walked, and then Travis d'Arnaud doubled both of them home, a good sign since d'Arnaud hit something like .035 with runners in scoring position last year. In the 6th, the Mets extended their lead when Wilmer Flores did what he usually does against left handed pitchers and hit a 2-run Home Run, and in the 7th, the Mets put the game away with two more runs. Fernando Salas and Addison Reed then salted away the final innings of this 6-2 victory.

The story, however, will be Harvey, who embarked on a bit of a redemption of sorts and proved that although he might not be the pitcher he was two years ago, and may never again be the pitcher he was four years ago, he's still a good pitcher and he still is capable of being someone we can count on to deliver a good performance.

Everything In Its Right Place

Monday's season lid-lifter at Citi Field was about everything you could ask for as far as the results of the first game of the season. The weather, which had heretofore been kind of dicey and in April at Citi Field can be downright brutal, suddenly turned bright and sunny and warm at around 11am, right around the time I arrived at Citi Field. George was with me as per usual, marking what I believe is 11 of the last 13 Opening Day games we've been present for. Howie Rose was on the field by 12:40 to blow the Shofar and welcome us to the 2017 National League season in New York, fans warmly welcomed back our team, as well as some fondly-remembered players on the opposing side, and then it was business time. Noah Syndergaard hit the mound and pitched, well, basically the way you'd expect him to pitch, mixing things up, getting out of jams and keeping the Braves off the scoreboard until a blister forced him from the game after 6 innings. The Mets had a hard time with Julio Teheran—because they always have a hard time with Julio Teheran—until he departed in the 7th, where the Mets capitalized on a replay reversal and then bombed the Atlanta bullpen into submission and cruised home with a 6-0 victory to start their season.

It had been some time since I'd seen George; this offseason has been somewhat checkered for me and certainly from a mental standpoint, though I might not have been especially prepared for it, I was more than ready to get back to the sanctuary of Citi Field. But at any rate I spent most of the pregame discussing with him reasons why I believe now that the Mets are going to win the World Series this season, and really, what it boils down to more than anything is that it's simply their time in the arc of this era, if this era of the Mets is going to be what we want it to be. They had the near-miss, they had the regression and somehow turned it into another near-miss, so now, it's time to strike.

But that was preamble and there was still the matter of seats and ceremonies and concessions and hordes of people to work through. I'd mentioned I upgraded my seats; after four years of bouncing between sections 512 and 513, I've moved down to 418, because it's just time for a change. However, the Mets for whatever reason decided to get cute and put me in different seats for Opening Day. Different seats being Section 106, sure, it's the Field level, but it's jammed down in the Right Field Corner. Not exactly where I would have preferred to sit. For one, you can't see the field directly in front of you. Two, you can't see the scoreboard above Right Field, which is where important things like pitch count and scoring calls are generally displayed. Three, because it's the Field Level, and because of the assorted "entertainment" options down there, it seems to be more crowded than the Promenade, and for whatever reason it seems there are substantially fewer restrooms, which is problematic...

...and as you can see in this video, you're kind of displaced from the action. But on the upside I got a real good view of Syndergaard's pregame routine.

Also a lovely view of Bartolo Colon's backside as he was introduced to a roaring ovation.

And then it was time to introduce our guys...

...and get hyped...

...And, finally, get on with the show!

The game from that point was a little bit of a blur, for a few reasons. For one, I, and this should illustrate how ill-prepared I was for Opening Day, didn't eat anything before the game. I almost always get something to eat before the game but for whatever reason, I waited. At the end of the 1st inning, I got up to use the restroom, thinking it would be quick and painless. WRONG. I attempted to use the restroom by Section 103 only to find the line stretching across the concourse and in fact splitting into two lines because everyone stopped caring. So that was already a clusterfuck. Then, I decided to get something to eat while I was up, and found the most palatable line to be at the Sausage stand by Section 105. Only I got on line somewhere in the bottom of the 2nd inning and didn't return to my seat until the top of the 4th. That's a bad job by me. It's a bad job by everyone, really, because there were rumblings of credit card terminals down, but really, it was a bad job by me. That's the kind of rookie move I don't usually make.

Fortunately, in this digital age, I was able to look at my phone and catch up on my scorecard. Of course, I sat down just in time for Freddie Freeman to bang one off the Right Field fence and after Jay Bruce mangled the carom, what should have been a double was a triple and the Braves were primed to strike first. Except that Syndergaard is unmoved by these kind of things and responded by putting the Baseball version of a sleeperhold on the Braves, striking out Matt Kemp and Nick Markakis to end the threat. More trouble unfolded in the 6th when Dansby Swanson and Freeman singled and Atlanta had runners on 1st and 3rd and 1 out, but, again, Syndergaard brushed this aside by striking out Kemp again and getting Markakis to fly out, ending the threat and, of course, thanks to the infamous blister, ending his afternoon.

Still, the Mets offense was stagnant against Teheran, which as I said wasn't terribly surprising since the Mets always have trouble with him. But he too departed after 6 and the Mets attacked the Braves patently awful bullpen right away. Ian Krol was first up and he allowed a hit to Rene Rivera. Wilmer Flores followed, pinch hitting for Hansel Robles, and after being greeted with his usual standing ovation, grounded into a Fielder's choice. He then stole 2nd Base, which I suppose was his way of taking advantage of the Braves kind of falling asleep on him. Jose Reyes walked and then Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a clean single to center for his 3rd hit of the day. Flores was sent home, which if you'll recall is the play that finished his season last year, and although it seemed close he was called out at the plate. However, were I sitting in my normal seats, high up and behind Home Plate, I would have seen that Flores snuck his foot in ahead of the tag. Replay, of course, reversed the call, Flores had the first run of the season for the Mets, and the gates opened up from there. There were pitching changes, walks, more pitching changes, more walks and finally the carcass of Eric O'Flaherty was on the mound and Lucas Duda clanged one off the Center Field fence for a 3-run double that made the score 6-0 and removed any particular drama from the afternoon. Fernando Salas for the 8th, a surprise cameo by Robert Gsellman in the 9th, easy enough and off we go!

Certainly, there will be plenty of bad/irritating/exasperating things to happen to the Mets over the course of the subsequent 161 games. That's Baseball. The goal, really, is to minimize the issues and keep putting forth games like this when you are clearly better than your opponent. One of the Mets larger issues in 2016, besides the fact that everyone was hurt and the replacements stopped hitting for 3 months, was their inability to handle inferior teams. I'm pulling numbers out of my ass but I believe they were something like 7-12 against Atlanta and an equivalent of bad against other non-division lousy teams, and those 7 wins were difficult wins. By and large the Mets should win more of these games this season. Yesterday was a good start.

Someone Else Again

The Mets had already broken out to a 2-0 lead before I realized the game had started on Wednesday afternoon, with both runs heavily involving Jose Reyes. Reyes hit Anthony DeSclafani's first pitch of the game into the seats for a Home Run (taking back his club record from Curtis Granderson) and in the 3rd, Reyes scored on a DeSclafani Wild Pitch.

So, last night, it was Yoenis Cespedes, today, it's Jose Reyes. Friday, it'll probably be someone else.

Noah Syndergaard was on the mound for the Mets and while he didn't exactly look his sharpest, less than sharp seems to be OK against the Reds. Irregardless, you'd like to see Syndergaard really stomp on a team like this, but then again, if he's going out there with something less than his best and still manages to throw 5 shutout innings, it's OK. Against the Reds, in front of a lukewarm, miniscule crowd that maybe thought they were showing up early for the Bengals game, we'll take it.

Later, Curtis Granderson homered and Wilmer Flores came off the bench and homered, which was good because Gabriel Ynoa came in for the 8th and nearly torched the game by loading the bases without recording an out, and requiring Addison Reed to bail him out (and Reed nearly serving up a game-tying Grand Slam to Jose Peraza), but the Reds got no closer than 5-3. The Mets tacked on a 9th inning run and Jeurys Familia finished out this 6-3 Mets win, finishing out a season sweep of the Reds for the 2nd year in a row.

This was how the Mets were winning games last year at this time, by getting contributions, and meaningful contributions, from everyone they put out there and this recent resurgence to draw themselves within half a game of the second Wildcard (and, I believe a game and a half of the 1st Wildcard) which, you know, was a pipedream about three weeks ago. But 14 wins in 18 games have brought the Mets all the way back to this point. Ostensibly, there's now 3 teams for 2 spots in the NL Playoffs, and with 22 games remaining, the Mets, in spite of their patchwork roster that now numbers 37 players, somehow have the inside track just based on their schedule. Of course, we know from prior years that the Pennant Race is an odd bird that can turn on you real quick. Especially when you have to go to Atlanta, where the Mets have turned losing key September games into an art form, and then Washington, who I'm sure would love to fuck up the Mets mojo. So, yeah, You can say easy schedule, but the Mets still have to go out and win these games.

It becomes infinitely easier when everyone is capable of making a meaningful contribution. 

Another Hero, Another Injury

The Mets put the Mickey Mouse Marlins in their place for the 3rd straight night on Wednesday, as they once again put together a late rally. Kelly Johnson's 3-run double with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th inning was the key hit the Mets had been screaming for all night, as it broke a 2-2 tie and sent the Mets on to a 5-2 win. This, coupled with a Cardinals loss and a Pirates loss, now has the Mets 1 1/2 games out of the second Wildcard spot, and two games ahead of the Marlins, who have predictably turned back into doormats now that the heat's been turned up. On the other side, the Mets have responded well to this situation, for one, because they went through it last season and, for two, because no matter how many players are injured, or not playing well, or how shorthanded they appear, they still have it in them to find a way to win games. So, for as much as the people who dismissed the Mets as an afterthought at the outset of 2015 have come back and started laughing and pointing and yelling "FLUKE!" and "OUTLIER!" at the 2016 Mets, well, laugh now. If the Mets are still right there as a contending team with every Opening Day starter having missed some significant time on the DL, well, imagine where they'd be if everyone was healthy.

Bartolo Colon took the mound for the Mets, and Colon, if you can believe it, has been the lone constant in the Mets rotation this year. Probably because he's just impervious to anything. Though three early Mets errors kind of submarined him and led to a Marlins run in the 2nd, and later he allowed a Home Run to Hamburgers Yelich in the 6th, the Marlins did little of consequence otherwise. The Marlins were supposedly starting ex-Yankee Prospect David Phelps (derp derp derp) but he mysteriously vanished before the game started and instead a fellow named Jake Esch was on the mound for Miami in what I could only assume was his Major League debut. This has a tendency to not go well for the Mets. Though Esch didn't pitch a shutout and hit a Home Run, the Mets didn't light him up either. Wilmer Flores hit a 2nd inning Home Run, and the Mets had plenty of opportunities to do other things, but multiple rallies were squandered and Esch left in the 5th inning with the game tied.

Things then continued as they were in a fashion similar to what we saw on Monday night, until twitchy, irritating A.J. Ramos came in for the 8th inning and much like they did on Monday, the Mets attacked. Cespedes led off with a single and Granderson walked, and the Mets were in business. And rather quickly they seemed out of business after Flores flied out and Jay Bruce popped out. But Travis d'Arnaud worked out a walk, in a rather crucial at bat, to set the stage for Johnson, who's found himself in the lineup a bit more with this recent rash of injuries. And, of course, we know what happened from there, as Johnson worked a deep count and finally got a pitch he could handle and nailed it down into the Right Field corner to clear the bases and set the stage for Jeurys Familia to save his 44th game of the season and finally knock Armando Benitez from the record books.

Of course, the postgame reveling was kind of dampened by the rather macabre report from Terry Collins that Neil Walker was going to have back surgery that will finish his season. This isn't good by any stretch, but at this point, what difference does another injury make? There have been so many and the Mets keep managing to cobble something together, so just figure something else out. If it just means that Johnson and Flores play more often, well, that's hardly a major dropoff. 

This series right now could not have gone any better for the Mets. The Marlins have looked like their usual sorry-ass selves, a team that's been jabbing and dipping like a bunch of ninnies, just asking their opponent to throw that haymaker at them and so far, the Mets have delivered it, and man, if they can finish off the sweep tonight, that would be really, really great.

Chugging Away

After several weeks of inconsistency combined with ineptitude, the Mets have now gotten themselves back together, it seems. The team had mostly just been existing for about 6 weeks after the All Star Break, after two months where they had been playing. And I'm not sure if I can call it anything beyond that.

But now, some of these injured guys are coming back, and getting a little more comfortable, and now after whacking the Phillies around for a 9-4 victory, the Mets have won 5 of their last 6 games and dragged themselves back into the conversation for the second Wildcard spot. Of course, there are four other teams involved in this equation and maybe five depending on whether the Giants and Dodgers can get out of each other's way, and the Mets are at the rear of this particular group.

Point is, the odds are kind of against them, but at the same time nobody has broken away from the pack, so if the Mets can continue this little hot streak while everyone else muddles around, maybe they can interject themselves further into the conversation.

Games like tonight's help, as Bartolo Colon had another typical Bartolo game, holding the Phillies in check for 7 innings, picking up two hits, including a double, and bringing down the house, and the Mets rode 4 Home Runs home from there.

The Mets were hitting early and often against Adam Morgan. Jose Reyes started things off with a Home Run, and Asdrubal Cabrera followed with one of his own. The last time the Mets had started a game with back-to-back Home Runs happened to be a game I was at, back in the forgettable season of 2007, and also involved Jose Reyes. And just to wax poetic on Reyes for a second, I know it was a lifetime ago for Reyes as a player and it feels like even moreso for the Mets as a franchise. And I know that the circumstances that brought him back to the Mets were rather shameful. And I know it may be purely nostalgia talking, but I really love having Jose Reyes back on the Mets. This just feels right.

All that being said, the Mets were riding these Home Runs and Bartolo through the game. In the 5th, Colon doubled, splitting the gap between Aaron Altherr and Odubel Herrera, if those are indeed the guys that the Phillies are trotting out these days. It was so well hit that even Colon at his glacial pace was able to make it to 2nd with ease. A few batters later, with two outs, Neil Walker rooked his way into a walk after about a 10-pitch at bat that emptied Morgan's tank to the point where the first pitch he threw to the next batter, Wilmer Flores, was parked into the Left Field seats for a Grand Slam that put the game out of reach.

The rest of the game was mostly uneventful. Cabrera hit a 2nd Home Run in the 6th. After the 7th, Colon was asked if he had another inning in him, and he coyly flashed two fingers, and of course if Colon could bang out two hits and throw a Complete Game, well, wouldn't that be something, but it wasn't in the cards as the Phillies started hitting him in the 8th. But, you know, not to the point of any concern.

So this rather crucial 10-game homestand is off to a good start. Fine. Now they have to keep it going. Everyone appears to be moving like Bartolo of late.

Two For The...?

Tuesday had the makings of total disaster for the Mets. Consider the circumstances: Out of sorts after a long road trip, playing a team that they historically have not done well against, in their own building full of fans of said opponent, playing a doubleheader that would begin with about 40 people in the stands, and so on and so forth.

The first game seemed to be the embodiment of all of these problems. Noah Syndergaard dug his own hole, first by essentially beaning Yadier Molina on a throw home to attempt a fielder's choice in the 2nd inning, and then by allowing a 2-run Home Run to Jedd Gyorko, the San Diego expatriate (who was good and then wasn't and now is a Cardinal, so just watch him hit 30 Home Runs this season), in the 3rd. The Mets best recourse was to score 2 runs on a Rene Rivera Home Run and then proceed to leave 16 men in scoring position against Carlos Martinez and others, including Tyler Lyons, Tyler Siegrist and Seung Hwan Oh. Which means that the Cardinals have decided to turn back the clock to 2006, when they similarly had a bullpen full of guys named Tyler. And then Oh. Whoever he is.

Trying to force an issue in the 9th, Curtis Granderson decided to try and tag up from 1st on a Yoenis Cespedes fly ball and got thrown out. That kind of summed up the day game, a 3-2 Mets loss where nothing went right and dumb shit happened. Oh.

So, the Mets lost the game that their best Pitcher started, which is demoralizing in and of itself, and then they had to go back out and play another game against the same Cardinals with their same dopey fans littering the building. There were only 40 people in the seats at the beginning of the 1st game, and no, I wasn't there, nor was I watching on TV, I just know what happens when you start a game at 4:10 on about 20 hours notice. Nobody shows up. Fans either decide they'll just show up for the nightcap, or they're blissfully unaware that there's a Doubleheader and they're wondering why the game is in the 7th inning when they showed up. Either way, Bartolo Colon pitched for the Mets in the nightcap and just like Syndergaard, he gave up a Home Run to Gyorko early in the game, because of course he did.

Unlike the 1st game, Gyorko's Home Run ended up being all the offense the wonderful Cardinals were able to muster off of Colon. It took the Mets a while to get going, but eventually they did reach Jaime Garcia for some runs. In the 3rd, the Mets tied the game when Asdrubal Cabrera got his first hit with a man in scoring position in about 2 months, doubling off the wall to score Alejandro De Aza. In the 4th, the Mets did not get a hit with a man in scoring position, but James Loney hit into a Double Play with no outs and Wilmer Flores on 3rd, and Flores scored to give the Mets the lead. In the 5th, Cabrera did not get a hit with 1 out and De Aza on 3rd, but he did hit a Sacrifice Fly to score De Aza and extend the Mets lead. 

Colon then did the rest, in a rather vintage Colon performance in which he just goes out, throws strikes and by time you look up he's gotten through 7 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits and strikes out 8. Addison Reed for the 8th, Jeurys Familia for the 9th, a 3-1 win and, amazingly, a split of this Doubleheader, which I guess is about as good as you can ask for.

The next thing I'd ask for, of course, would be for the Mets to break this win-loss-win-loss trend and win again tomorrow since I'll be at the game. That'd be nice.

In The Soup

I'd been feeling as though I was missing out on all the fun over the past week since I didn't go to any of the games in the Cubs series or the Marlins series. But I did go to Citi Field last night for the opener of a 4-game series against Washington, and the Mets were kind enough to cram about a week's worth of excitement into one sweaty, intense, 3 hour and 39 minute affair.

It was disgusting out at Citi Field. I've been to games on excessively hot, humid nights and they're often tough to sit through, which I'm sure is of no surprise. Usually, it's accompanied by a rather tepid matchup, or a tepid game, or a sparse crowd that's been mostly kept away because really, who wants to sit out in that kind of weather? Not that I've ever actually done this, but if I were to take a bath in a pot of steaming hot pea soup, it felt something like that. There was some threat of rain and in fact when I got off the 7 train, it was raining at Citi Field, but not especially hard and not at any kind of degree that would have caused a rain delay. So at least there was that. There were plenty of people, too, since the Mets and Nationals is now a marquee matchup and nobody seemed to want to miss this one. So, already, it was a different kind of hot night.

The game ended up getting pretty heated too, as you might have noticed. For as much as it often seemed like the Nationals were going to impose their will on the Mets, the Mets kept firing back, finding answers and eventually taking control themselves as they came back from three separate deficits to take the series opener in a 9-7 affair that immediately ranks as one of the better games I've been to in quite some time.

This one had a little bit of everything. It started innocuously enough, with Bartolo Colon, who's always entertaining by himself, surrendering a leadoff triple to Ben Revere, which wasn't quite the start anyone wanted to see. Two batters later, Revere scored on a Daniel Murphy hit. The Mets tied the game in the 3rd when James Loney singled with 2 outs against Lucas Giolito to score Yoenis Cespedes.

That ended the normal part of the proceedings. Things went haywire from there.

The middle innings of the game were where things got kind of frustrating. In the top of the 4th, Bryce Harper led off by hitting a rocket of a Home Run to Center Field, and being the jackass he is, Harper shushed the crowd as he crossed home plate. That wasn't so surprising. I started getting annoyed when Clint Robinson and Anthony Rendon both hit what were essentially pop flies that, in that disgusting humid air, just kept carrying out to Left Field until they nestled themselves just barely over the fence for a pair of what appeared to be backbreaking Home Runs. This left the Mets down 4-1, the sparse assortment of Washington Fans (they exist?) blowing their kazoos and me in a real bad mood.

But the Mets seemed bound and determined to not let the Nationals kick them around again. They came back in the last of the 4th and attacked Giolito, as first Travis d'Arnaud hit a Home Run, and then two batters later, Jose Reyes delighted everyone by doing the same, launching one into the Coca Cola Porch Corner to make it a 1-run game. By this point Giolito, who I know is a really good prospect and in time will justify his hype, was really struggling. The Mets had already done a good job of making him work, pushing his pitch count to 60 after 3 innings. Curtis Granderson followed Reyes' Home Run with a double, moved to 3rd when Giolito balked, and then scored when Cespedes smoked a double of his own down into the corner, and just like that, we were tied once again, and Giolito's night was through.

But Washington came right back in the 5th, because they're annoying like that. After all the work the Mets had to do to tie the game twice, Washington kept getting people on base against Colon. Oliver Perez, who relieved Giolito, singled to lead off the inning, which was totally galling because Oliver Perez doing anything is galling. Perez moved up on a Revere single and a Jayson Werth ground out, and when Daniel Murphy hit into a Double Play—proving that he can, in fact, make an out against the Mets—he was stranded there. Except he wasn't, because after a Dusty Baker challenge, Murphy was ruled safe (and he was safe) at 1st and Perez scored. Colon, by this point, had already unraveled into fat and sweaty Colon and that overturned call basically sealed his fate for the evening. Harper singled, Wilson Ramos singled to score Murphy, who was basically skipping around the field like the spastic child he is, and that was it for Colon. Jerry Blevins followed and of course walked the one guy he was in there to get, but Hansel Robles managed to get Rendon to fly out, which was good because I was having this horrible feeling that the way the ball was flying, he was about to park one and incinerate the entire game.

Instead, the Mets did the parking, which was nice. In the last of the 5th, the Mets finally made Oliver Perez look like the schmuck he is. Asdrubal Cabrera led off with a single and Brandon Nimmo followed with one of his own. d'Arnaud struck out, but that brought up Wilmer Flores. Flores hadn't started the game, but through the machinations of things ended up at 1st Base on a double switch, which was good, because Flores had been hitting everything in sight recently. I again had the feeling like something big was going to happen, and this time it did, because Flores went after the first pitch and clanged it off the 2nd deck in Left Field. And I mean this ball was smoked. I looked at Werth and he was doing one of those courtesy runs, where everyone knows the ball is gone but he's making a half-hearted attempt to go after it. So after all that, the Mets now led 7-6, fans were bouncing off the walls like it was the Playoffs, Flores got himself a curtain call, and Oliver Perez was once again Oliver Perez.

Now with the lead, the Mets now had to hang on, which was easier said than done given the way the game was unfolding. Robles held Washington down in the 6th, in spite of giving up a double to Perez, because what the fuck. Perez hit but didn't pitch in the 6th, instead Matt Belisle came in and gave up a Home Run to Cabrera, the Mets 4th of the night (which may or may not be a personal record; I haven't had a chance to go through the scorecards of the now 391 games I've attended to check) to put the Mets up 8-6. Antonio Bastardo came in for the 7th and made his own bed, first by giving up a Home Run to Murphy because, again, what the fuck, and then later fielding an easy comebacker from Robinson and firing the ball not especially close to 1st Base. Addison Reed then bailed out Bastardo by striking out Rendon and preventing Washington from making things even more ridiculous.

In the last of the 7th, the Mets got their final run thanks to a 2-out rally against Sammy Solis that saw Reyes walk, attempt to steal 2nd, decide against it and then get picked off trying to go back to 1st. It might have been helpful if he'd stayed put, since Granderson singled, Cespedes walked and Neil Walker got the RBI hit that would have plated 2 but instead only scored one.

Reed worked a clean 8th—only the second time in the game either team went down in order—and turned it over to Jeurys Familia in the 9th. In keeping with the general vibe of the game, Familia was wild, just all over the place, and walked Werth to start the inning. He then went 2-0 on Murphy and everyone was sitting on their hands because this wasn't going well. Those visions were coming back, of Murphy hitting one into the bullpen and peeing his pants in joy. d'Arnaud went to the mound after that second ball and I can only assume said to Familia "I don't give a shit what you throw, just get it over the plate and make sure he hits it on the ground." Fortunately, this worked, and Murphy did what we're used to him doing: slapping a ground ball to the Shortstop. Cabrera got the out at 2nd, but Murphy was clearly safe at 1st, until he wasn't, because the Umpires invoked the Chase Utley rule on Utley's partner-in-douchebagginess Werth. Instead, both were out, and Werth was left grousing and groaning, and ultimately started kicking his helmet around the field like the petulant child he is while Baker demanded a futile replay. Harper followed and did no further shushing as he struck out to end the game.

Whew. That was about as exhausting to recap as it was to watch. Usually, when a game runs as late as this one did, ending close to 10:50, I'm eager to just get the hell out of the stadium and get home as quickly as possible. Not on this night. This was the kind of game that really gets you fired up, and for as long as it ran, it seemed like very few people left early. Never mind the soupy conditions, or the fact that at times it appeared like the Mets were going to end up in the soup themselves. This is one of those games where the Mets just refused to let their opponent keep the control. The Mets haven't had a string of games like this in a couple of months. But I think right now, they have That Look again.

I Forget

Wednesday's game was a good game. The Mets played well and won.

That's about all I can tell you. As usual, because it was an afternoon game and I was at work, I didn't see it and, well, I ended up somehow forgetting that the game was going on altogether until around 4pm when I got a buzz on my phone from ESPN that read: FINAL NYM 4 MIA 2. W: deGrom (5-4) L: Nicolino (2-5) S: Familia (30).

Don't need to know much more than that, do we. Wilmer Flores hit 2 Home Runs, Jacob deGrom pitched well, Jose Reyes even chipped in with a pair of doubles and, most importantly, the Mets beat the Marlins to win the series and set themselves up for what should be a contentious weekend leading into the All Star Break.

Coup de Grâce!

The Mets weekend was already a rousing success before they took the field on Sunday. They'd successfully won the series from the Cubs, and were now poised to pull off a clean 4-game sweep with Noah Syndergaard on the mound.

They didn't just finish off the sweep, they did so in style, whacking 5 Home Runs in a game for the 2nd time this series and booted the Cubs out of the building altogether in a 14-3 pasting.

I guess you could say everyone led the charge in this one, although Wilmer Flores earned the prize for the day by hitting 2 of the Mets 5 Home Runs and collected 6 of the Mets 22 hits for the game. Flores' day placed him in the Mets record books alongside his countryman, mentor and Ballclub All-time Favorite Edgardo Alfonzo. But he didn't accomplish it himself. Curtis Granderson's 1st inning Home Run tied the game after the Cubs scored early and appeared to be nicking Syndergaard to death. Rene Rivera hit a 2-run Home Run shortly after Flores' first shot in the 2nd inning and set the stage for the Mets to basically pick away at Jon Lester until he was little more than a carcass.

In keeping with the way this series had been going, the Mets 7-run 2nd inning was basically the Coup de Grâce. Lester was basically throwing the kitchen sink at the Mets, but they hit everything he had available. He was mercifully pulled after 8 straight batters had reached base and 8 runs had crossed the plate for the Mets, by which point the game had become mostly uncompetitive.

Syndergaard, given the luxury of a big lead, was then able to settle down and make his way through 7 innings mostly unmolested, save for his difficult 1st inning, at which point the game dissolved into farce and we saw things like Miguel Montero take the mound for the Cubs and Jacob deGrom get an at bat as a Pinch-hitter.

I'm sure nobody figured on this sort of a result from this series. Based on the way the Mets were limping in, even the most optimistic of fans probably figured there would be a lot of booing, sighing and early exits. The early exits did happen, except that they were induced by rain and blowout scores on Friday night and similar reasons on Sunday. Instead of asking What do we do now?, I guess most Mets fans are saying Go Figure.

Meanwhile, I guess we can say that the Cubs have a Mets Thing right now. They certainly didn't look at all like the team that's been storming over the National League for half a season. What I saw was a team that swings far too freely, strikes out far too often and appears rather sedentary on the bases. Defensively, they appear confused, probably because Joe Maddon has guys playing different positions on a daily basis (to wit: Baseball Jesus, a natural 3rd Baseman and not a bad one from what I can tell, played a game at 3rd, a game in Left Field and a game in Right Field) for no apparent reason, and it seems to have duped the "experts" into drooling over how "wonderfully versatile" all his players are. The Cubs pitching, which has carried them, looks kind of tired; Lester's performance on Sunday was an embarrassment to a Pitcher of his stature, GOLDEN JAKE seems to be relying on nibbling, and any team could wait him out if they're willing to be patient enough, and Jason Hammel and John Lackey are what they are. This works when you play 18-19 games a year against the Reds and Brewers and all your home games are in the middle of the day when most players are out of their rhythm. It didn't work this weekend.


I don't know. Perhaps I'm saying too much, because the Cubs scouts might read this and then trade for more big names. Or maybe, just maybe, they woke the Mets up.

Toolsiness, Or Lack Thereof

8 innings of normal, run of the mill Baseball were played on Friday night in Milwaukee. I wouldn't say it was much to write home about. Matt Harvey continued his resurgence with 6 strong innings, looking, perhaps, as good as he's looked all season. True, I'm not sure if that's actually true or if I'm just saying that because Keith Hernandez deemed it so, but he gave up 1 run on 2 hits with 8 strikeouts, so I'd say that was pretty good if nothing else. The Mets, as they usually do, provided him with no run support, save for a Yoenis Cespedes bomb of a Home Run in the 6th inning off of Junior Guerra.

Otherwise, there wasn't much noteworthy about those 8 innings. Kelly Johnson, who's reappeared with the Mets this week in a deal for one-game-and-out-er Akeel Morris (and who probably shouldn't have left in the first place), made his re-debut, doubled in his first at bat and was promptly thrown out advancing later on. The Brewers made an attempt to cash in an early run but for some slick fielding and quick thinking by Asdrubal Cabrera, coupled with poor sliding by Scooter Gennett and the aiding and abetting of an Instant Replay that took too long, but, again, the follies of the game.

Yes, 8 mostly un-notable innings. Thing is, the game ended up going 11 innings. What happened in those final 3 innings was a melange of utter insanity.

Jeremy Jeffress, the Brewers closer, came in the game in the 9th inning and promptly got himself into an enormous mess. He walked Cabrera, gave up a chopper to Wilmer Flores that snuck through for a hit, and then a sharp single to Johnson, far too hard hit to bring home Cabrera. That's bases loaded, nobody out if you're keeping score. Unfortunately, this was the Mets at work here, and so in rapid succession, Kevin Plawecki popped out, Neil Walker (relegated to the bench after being punctured by a Baseball on Thursday) struck out, and Curtis Granderson grounded out to finish a perfectly Metsy inning.

Jim Henderson came in for the Mets in the 9th and got himself in a similarly sticky situation. With 1 out, he walked Jonathan Lucroy, who was pinch run for by Keon Broxton. Broxton then stole second. This is rather benign, but had Plawecki made a more accurate throw, Broxton likely would have been out. Again, not out of the ordinary. The real issue was that Johnson ole'd the throw and somehow allowed it to get through his legs, just far enough away for Broxton to get to 3rd. So, now the Brewers had their chance to win. Conventional wisdom would have had the Mets walk the next two batters just to give themselves a chance, but against the Brewers, who are mostly a bunch of walking Strikeouts, Terry Collins was having none of that strategy business. His strategy? Go get 'em. Henderson walked Chris Carter, which brought up old friend Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who, of course, struck out. Aaron Hill followed by grounding out. So after each team probably should have found a way to win the game in regulation, we were going to Extra Innings.

The Mets did nothing in their half of the 10th. Conventional wisdom would have had a different pitcher in for the Mets in the bottom half, given that Henderson usually doesn't fare well in second innings or second days in a row. Therefore, Henderson came back out for the 10th and immediately walked Ramon Flores on 4 pitches. After another ball to Miguel Maldonado, Ray Ramirez appeared at the mound. Whenever Ray Ramirez shows himself on the field, it's not good, not so much because it means that a player is injured, but that said injured player must then be treated by Ray Ramirez, who I believe holds a degree from Hollywood Upstairs Medical College. Fortunately, Henderson was simply suffering from blisters, but nonetheless was removed from the game in favor of Jerry Blevins. Maldonado sacrificed Flores over to second, and then Flores took off and tried to steal 3rd. This was a good move, because he was safe, but in his attempt to be safe, Flores made what we'll generously call an overzealous slide into 3rd and the momentum carried him off the base, while Matt Reynolds alertly held a tag on him, resulting in Flores being called out. The subsequent review only confirmed what we'd already seen. Jonathan Villar then struck out, and the game continued.

The Brewers were already having a pretty toolsy night but they outdid themselves in the 11th inning. Much like they did in the 9th, the Mets attacked early, with Cabrera singling and Flores (who's really come on of late in the kind of way we knew he would if he just got the playing time) doubled, and Johnson was intentionally walked. So, here we were again. Bases loaded, no out, Kevin Plawecki up, and I'd have to be forgiven if I wasn't optimistic after the Mets shit themselves in the same situation 2 innings ago. Plawecki did his job and popped out to 1st. Reynolds followed by hitting a sharp line drive that probably should have been caught by Villar. But Villar didn't catch it and with that, the wheels just fell off of everything. Flores, trying to not get doubled off, went back to 2nd. Villar flipped the ball to Scooter Gennett at 2nd to try to salvage an out. Flores, realizing he was in a force play situation, took off for 3rd. Johnson, who was out once Gennett stepped on 2nd, then ran back to 1st. The Umpire, Ramon DeJesus, gave a safe call, presumably because he didn't know what the hell else to do. Gennett, upon seeing Johnson wheeling back to 1st, decided to get him in a rundown, and ultimately tagged him out...thereby meaning Johnson was out for the second time on the play, which isn't a thing in Baseball. The only players who managed to get things right were Cabrera, who I assume just said "Fuck it" and bolted for home the second the ball hit the ground, and Reynolds, who ran out the ball and was safe at 1st. Oh, by the way, after everyone was done scratching their heads, the Mets had the lead.

Somehow, Gary and Keith tried to rationalize this play, but how can you explain the absurd? It's just Baseball. Sometimes weird things like this happen.

Jeurys Familia, who probably should have been in for the 10th inning, came in in the last of the 11th and restored some semblance of order to the game by retiring the Brewers in order. I'm surprised he didn't walk the first 3 batters on 12 pitches and then pull off an unassisted Triple Play, but then again I think we're all relieved that that didn't actually come to pass.

So, the Mets ended up winning this masquerade of a game 2-1, their second extra inning win in 3 days, if you can believe it. Now, they get to turn around and come back this afternoon for some more.

Ye Sloggers

The early portion of last night's Mets/Pirates game held to the script that I'd predicted. Noah Syndergaard wasn't quite at his best, and the Pirates dinged him for a pair of runs in a sweaty, 30-pitch 1st inning. Meanwhile, the Mets patchwork lineup was doing nothing against Jameson Taillon. Through 3 innings, Taillon was having a dream debut, carving up the Mets without much extraneous effort.

But somehow, the Mets fought back, and because of the nature of the game and the nature of the Mets at this particular point in time, it ended up being an unlikely source to get the big hit as Ty Kelly hit his first Major League Home Run with 2 outs in the 4th inning to tie the game. Kelly was later seen in the dugout jubilantly pumping his fists, and perhaps he was acting on behalf of all Mets fans, because finally, someone had stepped up and gotten a key hit in a spot where the Mets desperately needed one.

Still, there was a long way to go for the Mets to get through this game. Syndergaard immediately handed the lead back to the Pirates in the last of the 4th inning, but as he can sometimes do, he made up for it himself by doubling and later scoring in the 5th on a Michael Conforto Sacrifice fly.

The game remained tied into the late innings. Syndergaard and Taillon both departed after 6, and it seemed like clockwork that the Pirates immediately jumped on the bullpen as no sooner had Jim Henderson hit the mound that the Pirates scored another 2 runs to go back ahead 5-3. This is how it's been for the Mets. Try to keep it close, try to take advantage of as many opportunities as you can and yet it's still not enough. PNC Park and Pittsburgh haven't been as awful for the Mets as, say, San Diego or Atlanta, but the Mets hadn't won a game there in 2 seasons, they hadn't beaten the Pirates period in 2 seasons, and it seemed as though this game was headed down a parallel track. It was enough to make me want to go to bed right there.

Again, though, the Mets got off the mat. A.J. Schugel walked Alejandro De Aza to start the 8th, departed in favor of Jared Hughes and Conforto re-re-tied the game with a 2-run Home Run. Again, somewhat unlikely, for although Conforto will eventually be a likely suspect, he hasn't looked much the part of late. Not that it's of particular concern right now because young hitters often go through valleys like this, but then again, it's a testament to his fortitude to come up and do something like this even when he's in the midst of an extended slump.

So, 5-5 and away we go again. Addison Reed put the Pirates to sleep in the 8th and again in the 9th, while the Mets did little against Tony Watson, and so it was off to Extra Innings. After playing a Doubleheader on Tuesday. And with a flight to Milwaukee coming up immediately afterward. Extra Innings, it seems, hasn't been a winning proposition for the Mets of late, even though they've managed to avoid them altogether for the most part this season. A few years ago, it seemed like the Mets would play Extra Inning games on a regular basis, primarily because they were often only good enough to extend games before disaster hit. It happens less now, I suppose, because they're more decisive in their wins and losses. Or this is just one of those vicissitudes of Baseball. Probably that. But here we were on June 8th and the Mets were playing just their 3rd Extra Inning game of the season after having lost their first two, so one couldn't be blamed for having a kind of ominous feeling. Even after the Mets rallied against Cory Luebke and scored a run to take the lead for the first time all night on a dying quail of a hit from Wilmer Flores, I still felt uneasy.

Jeurys Familia, who for as shaky as he's often looked at times this season still hasn't blown a save, came in for the last of the 10th and immediately walked Fake Paul LoDuca. I mean, if he was going to do that, couldn't he have just saved the time and the pitches by sticking it in Cervelli's ribs like he deserved? While I was still stewing over this, Familia walked Jordy Mercer. Now he was in some shit. You could just see the gap hit coming and Cervelli doing a back flip across Home Plate in celebration. But Sean Rodriguez did what was most helpful and hit into a Double Play. So what does Familia do next? HE WALKS THE NEXT BATTER! I don't know what the hell the deal was, but Familia just seemed bound and determined to make this as difficult as possible. He was all over the place. David Freese followed and now I wasn't thinking game-winning hit, I was thinking game-tying hit and 15-inning debacle where they have to put deGrom in Left Field and Matt Reynolds pitches. But, Freese struck out, looking at the one good Slider Familia threw in the inning. Familia probably looked as bad as a closer could possibly look in a Save situation without actually blowing the Save and so, for as odd as it still sounds, remained perfect on the season in Save opportunities.

So, the Mets managed to escape Pittsburgh with their first win there in two years. I mean, sometimes you need to win a horrendous slog of a game like this in order to get yourselves back in line. A loss in the big picture probably wouldn't have been a disaster, although it would have meant 4 in a row and a legit losing streak. It would, however, have led to large amounts of panic in the press and among fans, and also meant that there would officially be a "Pittsburgh Thing" with the Mets. If nothing else, I'm glad to avoid either of those things for the moment.