Past and Past

The day for the Mets and basically everyone who follows them kind of got off to a morose start when the word came down that David Wright was going to have surgery on his neck that would basically end his season, and for all we know could end his career altogether.

I don't especially feel this is the proper place to eulogize Wright's career, whether this happens to be it or not. That's a different story for another time. Right now, the Mets still have a season to worry about and at this point, I'm not entirely convinced that they're not better off without Wright in the lineup. Think about it. 2006 David Wright wasn't walking out of that dugout. We'd been getting creaky, old David Wright that can't move along runners, can't drive guys in, occasionally pops a Home Run and just isn't hitting those authoritative line drives that he made his name with. To say nothing of the fact that he's been a walking strikeout most of the season anyway.

I know that Wright is the captain and there's a whole morale thing at work here but there's only so much that morale can do when the guy who's supposedly providing it isn't making a meaningful contribution. The larger issue for the Mets has been the compounding injuries. It's not just Wright out that's problematic, it's him, combined with Duda, and d'Arnaud, and Walker, and Conforto and even Lagares, and all the depth in the world can't compensate for so many missing pieces. But the remainder of these guys will be back at some point. Which is why I'm comfortable saying what I said last year when the Mets didn't trade for Tulowitzki: I remain all in on Wilmer Flores.

Of course, then Flores went out and got hurt in tonight's game, leaving after getting hit by a Juan Nicasio pitch. But the Mets won anyway, and part of the reason is that two of these hurt guys, Neil Walker and Michael Conforto, hit Home Runs and Conforto actually looked like a hitter again after a few days to recoup and clear his head. This, in support of Bartolo Colon, who had his usual solid effort and even chipped in with a double that brought the house down. The game, then, seemed mere scenery from everything else going on, but that's now two days in a row where the Mets offense actually looked like an offense and scored some runs, so that's a step in the right direction. Now comes a number of games against Atlanta, so if the Mets want to cut into this deficit they've gotten themselves into, now would be a good time to do that.

Old Reliable

The saga of David Wright's mostly lost season hasn't been an especially pleasant story. But, for one shining moment, we got a little glimpse of the David Wright we once knew so well as he took a calculated gamble on a 3-0 pitch, swung, and drove home the winning run in the bottom of the 9th of the Mets 5-4 victory this afternoon.

Wright's dealings with spinal stenosis have been well-documented, but this has been building for a few seasons. Wright, without the lineup protection he had in his younger days, and with now 14 Major League seasons on his odometer isn't what he used to be. Last October, when he was reveling in the spoils of finally making it to a World Series, I noted that Wright looked old. Heck, Wright's been looking old in the Baseball sense for a few years now, but, you know, most of us look the other way because it's David Wright and he's the Mets Guy. At least one person I know feels differently. His stance is that Wright was really good early in his career, but never as good as the Mets wanted us to think he was. He'd been spoonfed to us as the Face of the Franchise for so many seasons that we just accepted it, sort of in that John Franco vein except that Wright isn't a complete ass like Franco. He also didn't like the fact that Wright was boring and a bad interview, although I personally wouldn't damn him for that. It is to the point that, when I attend games with him and Wright comes to the plate, he immediately starts screaming "RETIRE!!!"

Harsh, yes. Illogical, not so much. But with 4 years left on that contract, I'm not sure if that's actually going to happen.

Regardless, there are still little glimpses of that young fellow, and one of them happened to be this afternoon. This, after a game where the Mets appeared to literally be sleepwalking, like last night's game ended, they went home and just forgot to show up. Jacob deGrom again weaved his way through another uneven outing, this time only managing to parse his way through 5 innings while the Brewers hen-pecked him for 4 runs. Two of those runs came when Ramon Flores took him out in the 2nd inning. Another two came in the 4th, one of those irritating innings where you could see deGrom just trying to throw whatever he could past a Brewer hitter to get through the inning only to see another dunk hit fall in. Combine deGrom's issues with Harvey's issues, and you can see why a Mets fan might be apoplectic right now.

Fortunately, the Mets got off the mat and came back from this 4-1 deficit. They'd already plated a run off of Zach Davies, the Brewers' 15-year old starter, when Curtis Granderson hit a leadoff Home Run in the 1st. Asdrubal Cabrera did what he seems to do just about every day now and drove home a run with a 4th inning single. Finally, Yoenis Cespedes dragged the Mets back into the game kicking and screaming by essentially one-arming a Davies Changeup over the Left Field wall for a 2-run Home Run that tied the game at 4.

Then, of course, the rain came and I had visions of extra innings and suspended games dancing through my head, probably because that's what usually happens in instances like this. The crowd, from what I could gather on TV, seemed sparse to begin with, probably because of an ominous forecast, and thus had forsaken the allure of the pristine, eBay condition Bucket Hat to the point where I have a feeling there might have been some Bucket Hats left over at game time. And once the rain started falling that number appeared to dwindle. Sometimes, in games like this, the rain starts and the bullpens take over and the bats just decide to stop. That's basically what happened. Hansel Robles, Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia stopped the Brewers--although stopping the Brewers isn't a terribly tall order--and the Mets did nothing against Carlos Torres and others of lesser acclaim, except that the fact that they can't hit Carlos Torres is galling to me.

But then, Michael Blazek came in for the 9th and the Mets awoke, as Eric Campbell hit, and Kevin Plawecki got on with a walk, and there was a sacrifice and then an intentional walk to get to David Wright. In prior years, intentionally walking the guy in front of Wright led to imminent disaster. Now, I would have been happy if Wright managed to not hit into a DP. But Blazek couldn't find the plate and it appeared was all to happy to make this easy for Wright by nearly wild-pitching the winning run home. Nonetheless, at 3-0, you figured Wright would take, so of course he swung and lined a single to Right Field to bring home Campbell and all of a sudden it was like 2006 again, when Wright would do things like this on a regular basis. And there were no rain delays or suspended games necessary.

The Destroyer

OK. Now it feels like the Mets are finally in business. Now that they're back in the National League, playing teams in their own division, they're finally starting to stick feet in opponent's asses.

The Mets 5-2 win on Monday night started and ended with a pair of most-welcome Home Runs from David Wright, but really, the story of the game was Noah Syndergaard, because when he pitches, he's almost always the story of the game.

Prior to the game, a wonderful article by Mark Simon was making the rounds in the group of Mets fans I have a constant e-mail string with. The crux of the article wasn't so much that Syndergaard has been really good, but what's making him just be so dominant in the early going. Others have touched on it as well but it's more than just his stuff, it's the cognitive understanding he has of his talent, and the understanding he has of his role on the team. Back in 2013, when Harvey was off to his beastly start, it seemed shocking if he got touched up for 3 runs. I think when Syndergaard has an off day—and the law of averages dictates that he'll have to at some point—it's probably going to be monumentally jarring. Like the planets will have to align for this to happen. Or at least it seems that way.

Syndergaard's clinical demolition of the Phillies, 7 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 8 strikeouts, seems to be the norm. I was late tuning in and so I didn't see just how the Phillies scored their one run, but I'd have to imagine it happened in some weird, flukish kind of way, like there were a few floaters that were well-placed and fell in. That's what happened to him against Miami last week. When he does find himself in a jam, generally he just reaches back and blows the next batter out of the box. This has happened a few times too.

Unlike last week, the Mets were able to back Syndergaard with the necessary offense to win the game. After Wright's 1st inning Home Run—which should come as a surprise to no one since Wright tends to behave in Philly as graciously as Ryan Howard does in New York—they were mostly handcuffed by Jerad Eickhoff, who relied on a vicious curveball to counter Syndergaard's heat. Again, it's these Philly pitchers that you have to watch out for. Only in the 6th when Lucas Duda drove in Cespedes did the Mets regain the lead against Eickhoff, but then in the 8th and 9th, they started banging out more Home Runs off the Phillies' awful bullpen to put the game out of reach. Duda chimed in with his 1st of the year, Neil Walker hit one, and Wright hit his second in the 9th, because Philadelphia.

Still, Syndergaard remains the story. At 3 starts in, he's run off 29 strikeouts and an 0.90 ERA and, well, it sort of seems like he's just getting warmed up. There's always the general anxiety that comes from watching a pitcher be this good with his sort of stuff but for now, I think we just have to enjoy the ride.

Well Worth The Wait

It had been 387 games spread over 29 seasons before I attended my first World Series game and based on the results, it was worth the wait. In spite of some truly horrifying early struggles, the Mets got a clutch pitching performance out of Noah Syndergaard, warming everyone up on a frigid evening at Citi Field and setting the Mets on the way to a 9-3 victory and putting them on the board in the 2015 World Series.

This game was, of course, Citi Field's time to shine on that national stage. You knew as soon as you got on the 7 train that the stadium would be packed, loud and over-the-top intense. They had to be; just given the circumstances of the first two games of the series and how deflating a loss would be, perhaps a lot of the noise was generated by nerves more than anything else.

I was late getting in, not so much because I was late, but because George was late, and while I was waiting outside on the plaza, the energy really was palpable. I found myself jogging in place just to calm down at multiple points. Gone was the Budweiser Beer Garden that had sprung up during the NLCS, replaced by a football field-sized World Series Merch tent, multiple media stages and some other stuff I couldn't quite make out since it was buried among a mass of humanity. Regardless, I hardly, if ever, show up to a game looking for merchandise outside of a program, and so when George arrived and we went inside (and I received my 4th Rally Towel of the season), I got mine from my usual vendor inside the Rotunda before heading upstairs. It was a bit of a mad dash to get up there; by this point the rosters were being announced and we really wanted to be in our seats by time the Mets starters were introduced. It's not the game, nor does it have anything to do with the game, but in terms of tradition, well, you have to be there. That's part of the point of going to the World Series. Though we were ambushed by a broken escalator, somehow we managed to make it just as Terry Collins was taking the field. So we caught that, we caught Billy Joel's National Anthem (whither Glenn Close?), Mike Piazza was there throwing out the first pitch and spurring several "Get Him in the Lineup" comments, and then it was time for a game, oh by the way.

After the Royals had handled Harvey and deGrom in the first two games, everyone knew Syndergaard had to make a statement. Whether he or someone in the media department made the call, it seemed rather fitting that he would come out to the "Halloween" theme song as opposed to his usual entrance music. Not so much because it's Halloween and the Mets are still playing, but because Syndergaard clearly went out there with the intent to intimidate the Royals. To some extent, he did. Alcides Escobar had been looking awfully comfortable at the plate in the first two games of the series and had hacked away at the first pitch both times. So, Syndergaard sent a message by sailing his first pitch high and inside and clear to the backstop at 98mph. This put Escobar on his seat (although the pitch had no chance of hitting him), got the Royals all pissy and got the crowd good and riled up. Syndergaard then blew Escobar out of the box and actually got a swing and a miss from him.

Then, there was trouble. Ben Zobrist, who probably could use a little brushing back too, doubled over Cespedes' head, Lorenzo Cain reached on an infield hit that Syndergaard for some reason didn't field, and then the Royals were on the board when Eric Hosmer hit into a Fielder's Choice that should have been a Double Play if Syndergaard and Duda weren't busy wondering who would catch the ball. This was exactly what the Royals had been doing over the first to games and here they were at it again.

However, the Royals sent Yordano Ventura, who is quite a headcase in his own right, to the mound and he didn't have a particularly good time at all. Curtis Granderson hit a ball into the shift that Zobrist managed to field, but couldn't throw Granderson out. David Wright followed and, with the crowd imploring him to do something, he did, drilling a 0-1 pitch into the Left Field seats for his first Home Run of the Postseason, the first World Series Home Run at Citi Field and basically exactly what the Mets needed at that particular moment. They hadn't been getting the big hits and finally they got one.

But the Royals were just relentless. In the 2nd, they came right back, ringing out a conga line of singles, circling the bases and making my head spin. If this kept up, there was no possible way the Mets were going to do anything, and was this really how it was going to go down? They started out with singles from Perez, Gordon and Rios, tied the game and only by some sheer stroke of luck was Gordon called out at 3rd after a well-advised challenge by Collins. Ventura sacrificed and then Escobar was up again. Syndergaard this time went after him and got ahead in the count, but d'Arnaud couldn't handle a low pitch, the ball got past him, Rios scored and everything was once again horrible. For as well as the Mets pitchers had been throwing, the Royals were continuing to fight off every 2-strike pitch, get every line drive to fall and when they weren't making line drives fall, they were getting bloop hits to fall. It was truly sickening and by that point I was having a hard time seeing where the worm would turn.

It turned when Syndergaard settled down, got his bearings and basically used his right arm to deliver the message "Enough of this fuckery." After Escobar singled and stole 2nd with 2 out in the 2nd, Syndergaard retired 12 in a row and basically restored order to a game that was starting to get out of hand. And by keeping the Royals in check, he also gave his team time to come back.

Come back they did, with a vengeance. Syndergaard served as his own rally in the 3rd by leading off with a single, and Curtis Granderson followed by drilling a pitch straight down the Right Field line and into the seats for his 2nd Home Run of the Series. This, of course, set off the fireworks and set off the noise and put the Mets ahead for good. In the 4th, the Mets chased Ventura thanks to a Lucas Duda single, a double from Travis d'Arnaud and a well-placed grounder from Michael Conforto that turned into an Infield Hit when both Zobrist and Hosmer decided to field the ball instead of cover 1st base. Yes, the Mets wasted an opportunity that inning with runners on 1st and 3rd and no outs, but they got a run and extended their lead, which was an accomplishment by itself.

With Ventura exiting in the 4th, the Royals then went to a succession of their lesser relievers. Danny Duffy escaped the 4th inning jam, before departing in favor of Raul Mondesi Jr, who simultaneously made history and made me feel really old by making his Major League debut in the World Series. Luke Hochevar took the 5th, and Franklin Morales started the 6th, but the Mets lit Morales up completely and put the game out of reach in the process. Following Syndergaard's final great escape of the evening, getting Alexis Rios to ground out with the bases loaded, the Mets went on the attack again. Juan Lagares, who's quietly had a great Postseason, hit for Conforto and singled. Wilmer Flores was hit by a pitch, and then Juan Uribe came up to hit for Syndergaard. And if you wanted a welcome sight, well, Juan Uribe was it. Marc Anthony was blaring, fans were screaming and really, this was just what the Mets needed. Juan Uribe has made a career out of being Playoff Chosen and it wouldn't have surprised me if he put one in the seats right there. He didn't, but his RBI single to score Lagares was similarly effective; it extended the Mets lead and the Mets rally. Curtis Granderson followed by hitting a comebacker to Morales and Morales basically didn't know what the hell to do, because in the process of looking Flores back to 3rd, he lost the play at 2nd on Uribe and was fortunate to not simply heave the ball into the Outfield. That was it for Morales, he departed in favor of Kelvin Herrera, in a desperate attempt by Yost to keep the game in reach, but David Wright attacked his first pitch, nailing a 2-run single, Cespedes followed with a Sac Fly, the Mets had gone ahead 9-3 and could coast home from there. Addison Reed, Tyler Clippard and Jeurys Familia had drama-free innings and the Mets got themselves their first win in the 2015 World Series.

This was about as must-win a game as the Mets could have and maybe that took some of the "Holy Shit I'm At The World Series" out of me before the game, but once the Mets won, I think I started to appreciate the magnitude of the moment more. George did as well. The scope of our discussion afterward, while trying to make our way downstairs amid the mass of humanity, was something to the effect of "Hey, remember how the Mets were in the World Series in 2015 and we went and they won?" That's sort of what it felt like. 29 years, 387 games and finally my first World Series game and I know people say it's an experience to remember so much that it sounds kind of cliche, but it's true. It's hard to get to the World Series. You tend not to recognize it while you're in the midst of it happening, but it is. And it's even harder to get back which is why you want to take advantage of your opportunities. Well, after falling behind 0-2, the Mets have managed to get themselves back in it. Now, they have to keep it going tonight. I'll be back, by the way.

Not Quite There Just Yet

It takes 11 wins in the Postseason for a team to win a World Series Championship. The Mets are now more than halfway home.

I can't, in all honesty, say that at the beginning of the NLCS that I thought the Mets would run out to a 3-games-to-none lead in the series. But, by virtue of simply stepping on the Cubs' throats last night at Wrigley Field, that's what they did. Jacob deGrom deftly managed his way through 7 innings of work on yet another night when early on it looked like 5 innings would be a moral victory. Offensively, the Mets got their daily Home Run from Daniel Murphy, and also some key hits and clutch baserunning from Yoenis Cespedes and David Wright. The Mets continued to take advantage of a few breaks, manufactured the lead runs late in the game and held on for a 5-2 victory.

This was, once again, a game that I was late in arriving to for reasons involving prior commitments. The last time this happened, Jacob deGrom was pitching in a game of massive importance on the road, battling through some early struggles and eventually finding himself. deGrom got an early lead because the Mets came out hacking and jumped on Kyle Hendricks, one of the lesser Cubs starters, and scored one in the first when Yoenis Cespedes doubled in David Wright. deGrom, however, gave up a Home Run to Kyle Schwarber and went on to slog through a 29-pitch 1st inning. the Home Run wasn't so concerning since Schwarber happens to be one of the hottest hitters on the planet right now. Fortunately, the Mets have the equally hot Daniel Murphy, who continued this mind-boggling Postseason resurgence by swatting his 3rd Home Run of the series in the 3rd inning. But Jorge Soler re-tied the game in the 4th with another solo Home Run.

The Cubs, at this point, removed Hendricks from the game, not so much because he'd been pitching poorly, but because at this point the Cubs just needed to hold the Mets where they were if they wanted to get themselves back in the series and my guess is that Joe Maddon figured he just had to throw different looks at the Mets every time through the lineup. Thus, he began a parade of 7 pitchers for the night by bringing in Clayton Richard, the Padres castoff, and got himself through the 5th. Fat-faced Trevor Cahill entered in the 6th inning and dug his own hole by allowing Cespedes to single, move up on of all things a sacrifice from Lucas Duda, steal 3rd and then score when Miguel Montero unconscionably couldn't block an inning-ending 3rd strike on Michael Conforto. Only by sheer dumb luck did the Mets not extend their lead; Wilmer Flores' sinking line drive to right got past a diving Soler and rolled clear to the wall where it got stuck in the nefarious Ivy and ruled a ground-rule double.

That, of course, was simply the beginning of the Cubs' self-destruction. In the 7th, their entire operation just melted down completely in the sort of sequence that would have typified the Mets of a few years ago. Travis Wood came in the game to try and get the lefty sequence of hitters out and although he got Granderson, David Wright followed with a double. Murphy followed and, no, he didn't hit a Home Run, but what he did was similarly effective as his slow ground ball was fielded by Baseball Jesus, who couldn't grip the ball and that hesitation allowed Murphy to beat the play at 1st. Cespedes followed and Maddon again changed pitchers, this time bringing in Russ Mother Justin Grimm. Grimm got what he needed, a fly ball at someone, except that someone was Schwarber, who apparently plays Left Field in the style of Todd Hundley. Schwarber got a read on the ball but when he attempted to catch it, he instead allowed the ball to clank off his wrist, allowing Wright to score and Murphy to reach 3rd. Laughably, this was scored a hit. Duda followed by hitting a hard grounder right to Rizzo at 1st, and to his credit, Rizzo did absolutely everything he could to try to prevent the run from scoring, but for the 2nd time in 3 games, Montero made no effort to try to block the plate and Murphy instead simply beat the play at home.

By the way, while all this was going on, deGrom had settled down and settled in, and after allowing Soler's Home Run stopped the Cubs cold and managed to get himself some length out of a start where early on it appeared he'd be done after the 5th inning. Somehow, he willed his way through 7 sharp innings, because that's just what he does. And instead of a short outing and exposing the lesser part of the Mets bullpen, he instead bridged things straight to Tyler Clippard, who gave up a double and nothing else in the 8th, and Jeurys Familia, who in this game once again only needed to get 3 outs to finish off the Cubs and lock down this 5-2 Mets victory.

So...yeah. If you're dumbfounded right now, you're not alone. Incredibly, the Mets are now one win away from not only moving on to the next round, but sweeping the Cubs outright. Of course, everything you're reading right now is talking about parallels between the Cubs and the 2004 Red Sox, and yes, in a position like this hearing about that sort of stuff scares the shit out of me. But the Mets seem to be a better put-together team than the 2004 Yankees, and the way the starting pitching has just whipped the Cubs so far makes me believe deep down that they can't come back. But, Baseball is funny and stranger things have happened. We're not there yet.

Regardless, it's hard to not be ecstatic about the way these first three games have gone. The Mets have basically played flawless baseball to this point in the series and the Cubs really haven't, particularly last night. The Mets have been able to take advantage of whatever breaks they could get and while the Cubs seem like the kind of team that could do that too, the Mets just haven't given them any breaks. Through 3 games, the Cubs have never had a lead in the series, and only tonight was the game even tied at a score beyond 0-0. The Mets have effectively buzzsawed the Cubs at every avenue and at least in this series, they seem to be playing more cohesively and cleanly than they've played at any point this season. No, we're not there yet. They still have to win one more game, whether it's tonight or any of the next four games. If we've learned anything from the past, it would be a good thing for the Mets to just wrap it all up tonight.

Is this really happening?

Smoke vs. Fire

I hadn't had much to say in the week or so leading up to, finally, the start of the Mets participation in the 2015 Postseason, primarily because I just didn't feel like there was much that needed to be said. On the surface, the Mets' objective was pretty clear: Try to steal a game against one of the Dodgers two Aces in Games 1 and 2 in Los Angeles and basically try to take it from there.

What was getting kind of overlooked amid the hype surrounding Clayton Kershaw's smoke is that the Mets have the pitchers that can hang with them. These are all guys who've been sort of flying under the radar when it comes to the consciousness of MLB outside of New York, but it's not as though the Mets were going to go in to Los Angeles and get their doors blown off. These were going to be really tight ballgames.

I had, in the 9 years intervening between the previous Mets playoff game and Friday night, forgotten just quite how much everything becomes magnified in the Playoffs. Just sitting and watching a game can't be done because it seems like everything could change on one pitch, and even in a Game 1 situation when you know that one loss isn't going to kill you—yet—I was still biting my nails and tapping my feet before the first pitch was even thrown. It didn't help that the game was scheduled for the rather asinine start time of 9:45pm in New York, making it a scene reminiscent of the 1999 NLDS, when the Mets had to play games 1 and 2 in Arizona at 11:00pm. Of course, I was in College then and didn't care so much about staying up until 2am, but now that I'm older, well, I get cranky. And antsy.

But then the game finally began and as expected, Clayton Kershaw pitched like he usually pitches, which is to say that the Mets weren't able to do much off him. But any idea that he would just cruise home to an easy victory was thrown out the window by his opponent for the good guys, Jacob deGrom. The easy choice for this Game 1 start, deGrom came out and let it fly, shooting 98mph fastballs all over the place and simply blowing Dodgers batters out of the box. Overamped? Sure. But probably not any more overamped than he might have been in the All Star Game, when he was throwing with similar flair. I'm still not sure where he hides that 98mph fastball, but he seems to have the ability to bring it out when he really needs it. But more than that, deGrom was the right guy to have out there because in this kind of a Game 1 situation, when you're trying to beat the other team's best guy in a hostile environment, you want a guy who can channel his emotions into his pitching, and deGrom seems to have the ability to do that more than most.

So, the expected pitching duel unfolds as expected, as between deGrom and Kershaw there were 12 strikeouts in the first 3 innings, with the requisite hits and walks sprinkled in sparsely. The Dodgers had a credible threat in the 2nd inning when Justin Turner hit a drive to left that clanked off of Michael Cuddyer's glove—€”and Cuddyer probably shouldn't have been in a game like this altogether, but that's another story for another time—and in the end deGrom was able to pitch around the trouble.

The Mets then broke through in the 4th when Daniel Murphy—because you figured it had to be Daniel Murphy—whacked a solo Home Run into the Mets bullpen. It had to be Daniel Murphy because of all the reasons it shouldn't have been Daniel Murphy, ranging from the lefty/lefty thing to the Daniel Murphy thing, but in the Postseason, things get wacky like that and Daniel Murphy hits a Home Run off of Clayton Kershaw. And it leads to Jacob deGrom ultimately outpitching Clayton Kershaw through those middle innings. The lead held through the 4th...5th...6th...and yeah, in the 1st game of the NLDS, I was counting outs, which means if this thing keeps on going I might pass out mid-game.

Finally, Kershaw tired in the 7th and walked 3 guys, Duda, Tejada and Granderson. The Mets had kind of been building up to that all night, because they made Kershaw work. For the number of times Mets hitters hacked at 1st pitches, there were ABs like Wright's 12-pitch walk in the 1st inning. They didn't help Kershaw and finally he was done and left a bases-loaded, 2 out spot for Pedro Baez in the 7th. I might have left Kershaw in to get out of this; even tired Kershaw is probably better than the alternative, but Mattingly felt differently and the result was that David Wright broke his Postseason Ice with a 2-run single that turned a 1-0 game into a 3-0 game and really took the pressure off of everyone. This was the sort of moment Wright had been waiting for for 9 years and dammit, he delivered when the team needed him to. That was crucial because it meant deGrom could go back out for the 7th, even over 100 pitches, and just let it fly. Where Kershaw looked spent in the 7th, deGrom was still free and easy and finished his night by blowing Joc Pederson and Chase Utley's carcass out of the box.

Still, there were 6 more outs to sweat through and Tyler Clippard made everyone sweat by allowing a double to Howie Kendrick and a run-scoring hit to Adrian Gonzalez, but as soon as there was trouble brewing, Collins had Jeurys Familia up and as soon as Gonzalez got that hit—and you knew that was coming—Familia was in the game. This is no time to screw around and Familia had been nailing down 4-out saves all season, specifically to be built up for moments like this. And yes, everyone had a heart attack when his first batter, Justin Turner, scalded a line drive to the right side, but Daniel Murphy, who seems to like this Postseason thing, picked it off to end the inning. In the 9th, Familia had a pretty easy time of it and the Mets won the 1st game of this NLDS, 3-1.

I already mentioned that the Mets had to accomplish one thing if they were going to win this series, and now they've done that, and done so impressively. In a game absolutely owned by the pitchers—the two teams combined for 27 strikeouts—the Mets came out on top. Kershaw allowed 4 hits and struck out 11, but deGrom topped him, scattering 5 hits over his 7 shutout innings and striking out 13. 13! In his Postseason Debut! And the Mets have won that road game that they needed to take, so now, they can come back tonight and just let it roll. The Dodgers, on the other hand, may well be shitting their collective pants. True, they'll have their other Ace, Zack Greinke on the mound tonight, but the Mets counter with Noah Syndergaard.

Following the game, after deGrom was interviewed on the field by TBS, whose only upside is that they have Ron Darling as their analyst, their marblemouthed play-by-play guy Ernie Johnson said something about "Jason deGrom." Seriously? My man just lit the Dodgers on fire, outdueled Clayton Kershaw and won his first Playoff game, and you can't even remember his name? I think the Mets just might have to keep this winning thing going just to make sure you're all paying attention.

No Quarter

This, then, would be the series that we'd circled as the make-or-break point in the Mets season. It seems like, particularly for the past month, but really for a majority of the season, these three games between the Mets and Nationals at the beginning of crunch time, in September with the lights starting to really brighten, would tell us just how far the Mets had come. Certainly, the signs over the last month have been more than encouraging; after basically being the Nationals' bitches for the better part of three seasons, the Mets finally started to fight back, first by punching the Nationals in the teeth last month at Citi Field. This kick started the Mets on a furious run that saw them not just catch and pass the Nationals for 1st place, but also put the Nationals in a slumber and allowed the Mets to gain distance. Over the last week, things evened out a bit and so here we are, with the Mets coming into Washington ahead by 4 games.

The goal in another era might have been to not get swept and to not fall back into old habits. But these Mets are made of something different. Rather than play to not lose, the goal for these Mets is clearly to step on Washington's throat and bury them now. You only had to watch Monday afternoon's raucous affair to see this as truth.

I'd mentioned last week that the Nationals were clearly pinning everything on this series. They'd lined up their pitching just so, so that Max Scherzer was starting the opening game against Jon Niese, who's turned back into a bit of a weak link in the rotation. But early, it seemed apparent that neither pitcher was going to put forth a dominant, game-changing outing. Scherzer was all over the map in the 1st inning and was only fortunate to put away Murphy and Cespedes after Curtis Granderson started the game with a sun-aided double. Undaunted, the Mets charged right back after Scherzer in the 2nd, as Michael Conforto led off the inning with a Home Run, again to Left Field, and Kelly Johnson hit one of his own. In the 4th, Yoenis Cespedes hit the Mets 3rd HR off Scherzer and the Mets were off and running.

But, of course, Jon Niese had another Jon Niese outing. He was a pitch or two away from unraveling in the 3rd inning, but managed to get Bryce Harper to fly out. In the 4th, however, everything got away from him as it annoyingly seems to do. I try to be kind to Niese because it's not like he tries to perform this way, but I can't defend him after the 4th inning in this game. This was the biggest start of his life and he pitched like an asshole once again. As soon as Yunel Escobar's 10-foot ground ball didn't roll foul I knew he was screwed and of course it was Mr. Head & Shoulders, Wilson Ramos, that did him in. Niese got ahead of Ramos 0-2 and should have bounced his curve 10 feet in front of the plate. Instead, he got it over, Ramos reached out and hit it into the seats and just like that everything was horrible. To make matters worse, Niese responded by giving up two more long hits before mercifully being removed, at which point he proceeded to walk around the dugout screaming while his teammates ignored him. Nobody needs to hear it out of him. You want compassion? Pitch better.

Fortunately, Niese's teammates seem to grasp the concept of a big game and a 2-run deficit with 5 innings left to play seems to be no sweat. The paint hadn't even dried on Washington's 5 spot before Granderson doubled home Tejada in the 5th, and in the 6th, Cespedes doubled, rooked Scherzer into a balk and then scored on a Travis d'Arnaud sacrifice fly. Just like that, game tied, Niese off the hook.

In the 7th, then, the Mets finally got into the Nationals bullpen, which appears to possess the consistency of the bullpen of the 2008 Mets. Washington's bullpen has submarined them for weeks now, and there seems to be no palatable option in sight. I know the Mets have had their own issues in the bullpen, but Washington's got some next-level shit going on. Blake Treinen started the inning, gave up a hit, got an out, and was pulled for Felipe Rivero, because Matt Williams had to play matchups. Rivero predictably walked Curtis Granderson, the only guy he was in there to face. Williams then pulled Rivero for Casey Janssen, who gave up an RBI single to David Wright that put the Mets ahead. Williams again came out to remove Janssen and bring in Matt Thornton. Thornton got his guy, Daniel Murphy, out, but his fly ball was deep enough to score Granderson. By this point, 2 runs in the hole, Williams I guess just threw up his hands and left Thornton in to face Cespedes because what was the use? Though the situation was ripe for Cespedes to hit one into the Anacostia, he instead showed some temperance by just doubling to right, scoring Wright from first and allowing Wright to explode in the kind of celebration we haven't seen out of him since Shea Stadium. Thornton then got Conforto out to finally end the inning, but by that point the game had already been nuked.

Meanwhile, the Mets bullpen completely stonewalled Washington and allowed them nothing after the 4th, perhaps a further indictment of Niese. Carlos Torres put out the fire in the 4th and probably would have kept going had a balky groin or calf or whatever not acted up. No matter. Erik Goeddel came in and kept things clean. In the 6th, Harper came up with 2 outs and Dario Alvarez was summoned for his first outing of the season. I'm sure everyone had reason to be skeptical of this move seeing as how one guy is an MVP candidate and the other was a veteran of 4 Major League games, none of which were in 2015, but Alvarez kept throwing sliders and eventually struck out Harper, because that's just the way the game was going. Hansel Robles, who every so often comes out and just blows everyone away, did just that by pitching 2 perfect innings and striking out 4. And, of course, Jeurys Familia, who amazingly hadn't pitched since last Monday, came in and did his thing in the 9th and the Mets came away with a statement 8-5 victory in the first game of this series of massive importance. 

The Nationals have seen this happen enough times at this point that they were completely dazed by the 8th inning. You can tell a lot by body language and as this game progressed, the Mets dugout seemed more pep rally and the Nationals seemed tense and out of sorts. But then again, this is how it's been for weeks. The Nationals get ahead early and can't figure out a way to shorten the game. Once opposing teams figure that out, they'll keep trying harder and harder to come back. Against bad teams, you can mask it, but when the good teams come to town, eventually something has to give. This was the story of the Mets not long ago. Now, that shoe is on the other foot and the Mets are the beneficiary of someone else's issues. It's nice to feel that way for once.

Riding The Wave

In Late August of 2007, the Mets kicked off a crucial 10-game road trip in Philadelphia, against a hard-charging, up and coming Phillies team that was out for blood. The Phillies exploited every Met weakness, got every key hit and got every break over those 4 games, swept the series and rode that wave to a Division Title. Since then, well, we know what's happened.

Now 8 years later, the shoe is somewhat on the other foot. Those up-and-coming Phillies are now a shell of the team they once were, with yet another piece of their glory years, Chase Utley, jettisoned to the Dodgers, who may as well call themselves West Phillies since they've picked up half the Phils' infield. Meanwhile, the Mets are the hard-charging, up-and-coming team that's out for blood. Since the calendar flipped to August, the switch has come on for the Mets and after 4 months of not really being able to get out of their own way, now, they're just steamrolling the lesser opponents that get in their way. The Phillies are one of those now-lesser opponents, and while the Mets had done a good job of handling them to this point, on Monday they took handling a lesser opponent to a whole other level.

It makes sense that the Mets would go into Colorado, face a team that can't pitch at altitude and score 33 runs in 3 games. But the Mets outdid themselves on Monday, setting a pair of club records with 15 Extra Base hits and a mind-boggling 8 Home Runs in a 16-7 thrashing of the Phillies. Needless to say, the game was at Steroid Field, where the jet stream was obviously blowing in the Mets' favor. This happens sometimes, though it feels like a lifetime ago that the Mets hit 7 Home Runs in a game at this same locale. The Mets also scored 16 on that night, but in that season, there was no buildup to this kind of game. There was no struggle, no trade and no resurgence, and also no sense of urgency, because that game was in the middle of April. Monday's was in the thick of a Pennant Race that continues to tilt ever so gradually in the Mets favor.

It's also worth mentioning that in the midst of this offensive barrage, the Mets overcame a 7-2 deficit in the process.

The story of this game after 3 innings was more that Jacob deGrom just didn't have anything. He gave up a pair of 3-run Home Runs to Ryan Howard's carcass and Domonic Brown and generally looked out of sorts. In what was easily his worst start of the season, deGrom was gone before he could get out of the 3rd inning. On the road, against an opponent they should be handling, and they end up getting thrashed.

But oh, they were just getting warmed up.

By this point, the Mets had already hit two Home Runs, the first off the bat of David Wright, who returned to the lineup and promptly smoked a pitch into the Upper Deck in his first AB. Juan Lagares also hit one in the top of the 3rd inning. In the 4th, Wright singled, and then Wilmer Flores and Travis d'Arnaud belted back-to-back Home Runs; d'Arnaud's being hit so far out to Center Field that it disrupted the line at the Cheesesteak factory. This got the Mets to 7-5. In the 5th, Flores attacked again, hitting his 2nd Home Run of the game, a 3-run moonshot tucked just inside the Left Field foul pole that put the Mets ahead. Two batters later, Michael Cuddyer joined the party with another Home Run. One inning later, Daniel Murphy chimed in with the record-tying 7th Home Run, a ball hit so well that Murphy did his own unique style of hot dogging.

After that, the Mets resorted to more conventional ways of scoring runs. d'Arnaud drove home the Mets 12th and 13th runs with a double, and Juan Lagares singled home a run in the 7th. It took until the 9th for the Mets to reach the seats again, although you kind of had a sense it was coming, with Adam Loewen, the Pitcher-turned-Outfielder-turned-Pitcher on the mound just trying to throw strikes and end this Philly nightmare. But Yoenis Cespedes seemed bound and determined to get in on the action. After all, if the Mets were going to set a club record for Home Runs, wouldn't something be a bit afoul if Cespedes was kept off the board? But he wasn't. His drive clanged off the front of the 2nd deck in Left Field and the Mets had their record setting Home Run.

A lot was made after the game about the Mets turning it on like this coincidentally falling on the night David Wright returned to the lineup. While it's nice to have Wright back, at least from a leadership standpoint, I don't see how Wright got everyone so juiced up that they started hitting Home Runs all over the place. They've been doing this for the past few weeks already, while Wright was beating up on A-ball pitching. Wright's presence makes an already good lineup a little deeper, but clearly the addition of Cespedes, combined with the midseason resurgence of players like Flores and the return of d'Arnaud that have really given the Mets lineup some teeth. People are now starting to notice just how good Flores in particular has played since the no-trade and that maybe there's more to him than just a sentimental cult hero who cried on the field. It's the lesser guys stepping up and playing better that's making the difference. Earlier in the season, Flores was shoved into a power hitting/run producing role that he really wasn't mentally equipped for and the performance showed. Given the opportunity to be more of a wheel-turner and he has absolutely shined.

The other unsung hero of this game, who'll get no ink at all is Sean Gilmartin, who came into a completely untenable situation after deGrom left, and all he did was pitch 3.1 shutout innings, keeping the Phillies off the board while his team came back. And he even chipped in with a single and scored on Murphy's Home Run.

Washington, of course, was off tonight and so the Mets now lead by 5 1/2 games, their largest 1st place lead of the season and the first time they've been this far ahead since the Clinton Administration, or at least it feels that way.

Guns Of April

I found myself right back at Citi Field with George on Tuesday night for my second game in as many days. The first, last and only reason I and about 37,000 other Mets fans chose this night was, of course, to welcome Matt Harvey back to Citi Field. What I was treated to was the kind of game and the kind of crowd intensity that felt more appropriate for a Mets/Phillies game from 2008, not so much from a random ragtag Tuesday night in April. Though Harvey was slightly touched up by the Phillies and the game dissolved into about 44 different kinds of weird, things still ended up in the Mets favor as they got ahead early and held on late to beat the Phillies 6-5.

But oh, what a path it was to reach that final result.

The crowd, apparently, was bouncing off the walls before the first pitch of the game was even thrown. I say "apparently," because I wasn't in the stadium yet. I'm not sure if it was just the 7pm rush of things or they're being extra thorough these days, but the checkpoint lines to get in the stadium were longer than I'd ever seen, pretty much ever. I've been to Opening Days, I've been to sold out games, I was at the first game after the Boston Marathon attacks, but I'd never seen the security lines stretching out basically to the stairs to the Subway like they were at around 7:00 last night. So, yeah. By time I was inside the building, I'd missed Harvey go charging out to the mound with the entire stadium screaming in approval, and I'd missed Harvey whipping 97 MPH fastballs to strike out Odubel Herrera and Freddy Galvis, and by time I'd crossed to the escalator to go upstairs, he was about to do the same to Chase Utley. But Utley, who's about as well liked as Saddam Hussein by Mets fans, had other ideas, and jerked a 1-2 curveball down the right field line and tucked it into the seats for a buzzkill of a Home Run. Granted, things like this will happen. Utley, though old and often hurt, is still a pro and can still get it done. But for a nearly packed house of Mets fans that expected Matt Harvey to throw a perfect game and win the World Series all at once, it was jarring. I guess it meant that this shit was on. Harvey rebounded to strike out Ryan Howard's carcass, though, and the crowd came to life once again.

On the other side, the Mets were facing the relative non-entity known as David Buchanan (whom I can only assume is a long-lost descendant of our 15th President), and the fired up Harvey crowd seemed to spur on the bats, as they immediately tied the game thanks to singles from Curtis Granderson, David Wright and (by this time I'd finally reached my seat in section 418) Michael Cuddyer. In the second, Buchanan unraveled some more. He hit Wilmer Flores in the hands, got victimized by a 35-foot single by Granderson and ultimately Lucas Duda cleared the bases for a 3-run Double. Buchanan followed by hitting Cuddyer in the hands. Unlike Flores, Cuddy was forced from the game, which sort of set the stage for the bizarre portion of the game later on.

In the 3rd, Harvey was reached for a Ben Revere single. He looked to be well on his way to getting out of the inning, but a pitch in on the hands of Galvis was ruled to have hit him. From where I was sitting it certainly looked close, but whatever. Get the next guy. But Terry Collins, after some delay, came out and challenged the call. This, then, turned into some discussions going on between the umpires, then a discussion with Ryne Sandberg, then more discussions, then more discussion with the Managers, and then a safe ruling while the crowd chanted for Harvey some more. Finally, after about 4 minutes of crotch-grabbing, it was back to the game and the delay probably threw Harvey off because Utley singled on the first pitch to score Revere. One inning later, Cody Asche belted a Harvey fastball into the Pepsi Porch to cut the Mets lead to 4-3, and this was turning into one of those nights that looked like it might get away from the Mets.

Perhaps in another era, that might have happened to the Mets in the 5th inning, when things started to get really screwed up. I'd picked the bottom of the 4th as the moment to attempt to find food, but the Harvey-inspired crowd created longer-than-usual lines at just about every concession stand, so the top of the 5th inning unfolded while I was still standing on line. Fortunately, I was in front of a TV, so I could see what was going on just fine. Buchanan, who managed to settle himself down after the first two innings, led off by taking a whac-a-mole swing at a Harvey fastball and somehow poking it down the right field line for a double. But Harvey managed to rebound by getting Herrera to fly out and was helped out when Galvis decided to bunt and fouled out to d'Arnaud. This brought up Utley, who to that point was the only Philly batter who displayed any aptitude to hit Harvey, followed by Howard, who looked like a statue. Dan Warthen waddled out to the mound and a discussion was held, the end result of which I can only assume was a decision to put Utley on base. After watching two of his teammates get drilled by Buchanan and given the obvious decision to put the batter aboard, I can only assume Harvey decided to spare everyone the suspense of throwing 4 balls and instead decided to drill Utley in the back, to the delight of Keith, Ron and pretty much everyone in attendance. I guess the pitch got away from him. At least that's what he said. He then proceeded to stare daggers through Utley, just in case Utley had any wise ideas. This strategy nearly paid off as Harvey followed by gassing Howard with fastballs, but on a pitch that Howard caught up with only enough to foul off, the home plate umpire ruled Catcher's Interference. Replays proved to be inconclusive, although from where I was standing (and remember, I'm still on line at the concession stand), it looked to be a BS call. George, via text, told me "this game is stupid." Terry Collins clearly felt the same, since he argued enough to get himself thrown out of the game. After the dust settled, Carlos Ruiz popped out, I got my burger (and after a condiment discussion with George too long to go into here, I'll only say that pushcart onions on a burger is a really good, underrated idea), and finally got back to my seat.

In the bottom of the 5th, the Mets scored when Duda doubled and Travis d'Arnaud singled him home, the play unfolding in such a way that Duda had to score twice, once when he slid past Ruiz the first time, and again when the plate umpire Alphonso Marquez, who was having a hard day, didn't make a call and forced Duda to make a rather ungraceful swan dive back to touch the plate.

Harvey departed the game after an uneventful 6th inning. This was one of those games where he had to make his way through on guile and grit as opposed to just blowing people out of there. He was pitching fine, but the Phillies hit some of his better pitches and he gave up a few runs. Again, he's bound to have more than a few days like this this season. But if his bad day involves pitching 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, with no walks and 8 strikeouts and putting the Mets in position to win, well, I have no complaints.

There was still a rest of the game to be played, and it appeared it might come off without incident. Daniel Murphy became the first Met to challenge the re-reconfigured Outfield fence when he sailed a first pitch Home Run into the bullpens in the 7th inning. Sean Gilmartin pitched the 8th, clearly with the job of getting Utley and Howard out. Utley led off with his second Home Run of the game. Howard grounded back to Gilmartin. That pretty much sums up the Phillies. Gilmartin then departed in favor of Rafael Montero, who came out throwing strikes, getting two-strike counts, and then giving up multitudes of foul balls, prompting me to anoint him with a case of John Maine-itis. This led to a discussion between George and I about how many Mets we've hung our hats on that are now viewed as punchlines. Nobody seems to exemplify this more than John Maine, who was my main man way back in '07, now lost to the annals of time. George invoked the name of Jason Phillips as another such player. By this point, Montero had figured himself out and finished the inning.

In the last of the 8th, however, more strange happenings occurred when David Wright led off with a single and stole second as Duda struck out. It looked to me like he must have jammed his hand, but Wright's usually one to shake these things off. This was fortunate, because thanks to Terry Collins' short bench and Cuddyer's earlier injury, the Mets had burned through all their reserve players not named Anthony Recker, who's usually saved for specific emergencies. If Wright had to exit, then what? Who plays 3rd? Recker? Murphy? Then who plays 2nd? Juan Lagares? Jacob deGrom? Then, of course, Wright walked off and the hypothetical became reality. Recker trotted out to pinch run. As the 9th inning began, and Jeurys Familia (and his trance-club inspired entrance music) entered the game, we waited. Finally, Recker emerged with a borrowed fielder's glove to raucous cheers. Fortunately, things were done quickly; Familia was aided by a slick fielding play from Duda (!), which was fortunate because Jeff Francoeur (who for whatever reason elicits a hearty ovation from Mets fans who I guess remember his year or so here fondly) followed with the Phillies' 4th Home Run of the night to cut the Mets lead to 6-5. But Familia rebounded to strike out Herrera and Galvis and finish off the game, finally, and give the Mets their 3rd win in a row.

This was the kind of game that will probably be the norm once the Mets establish themselves as a good team again. I'd like to think, though, that some of the in-stadium issues, like the security lines and concession stand lines, will suss themselves out. Concession stand lines are inevitable, I know, but in the early going, with a pair of nearly-full or over-full houses, it seems like every stand boasts a line to rival Shake Shack. It's probably the only thing I'll miss about the Tuesday night special, when there's 15,000 people and nobody gives a shit. But so long as there's Harvey day, there will be hordes of people populating the stadium because something interesting is probably going to happen.

Deeper South

It seems that no matter what state the Barves might be in, the Mets still have a hard time going into Atlanta and winning a game.

Despite the fact that the Braves basically waited half the offseason (and signed Nick Markakis) to decide that they were going to rebuild, and despite the fact that they waited until the night before the season started to deal "unhittable" closer Craig Kimbrel to the Padres, the Braves have shot out of the gate, sweeping the Mickey Mouse Marlins and last night took a game from the Mets based on the exploits of a bunch of players I've never heard of.

I know Turner Field has a long and storied 20-year legacy as the home of the Barves, and it's going to truly be the end of an era when it closes, but I'm sure every Mets fan agrees with me when I say that they can't burn that hell hole of a ballpark down fast enough. I know I saw some stat on the Mets record at Turner Field over the years, but it said that the Mets had won something like 55 games there over the years, but that can't be right. I've seen a majority of the games the Mets have played at Turner Field and I'm pretty certain the Mets record there is about 23-145. And many of those losses seem to be of the variety of those we witnessed last night.

Once again, the game started late thanks to weather, and once again I was not anywhere near a TV at the outset. But the delay did mean the game ran late and I did manage to find myself able to catch about half an inning of the action. Unfortunately, that half inning was an excruciating half inning where everything that could have gone wrong for the Mets did.

The Mets, with Jon Niese on the mound, who now feels like kind of a non-entity on this staff, fell behind 3-0 early. Cameron Maybin, who's now on his 4th team in 8 years and still feels like a "prospect" (perhaps a perfect fit for the Barves), led off the game with a Home Run. But the Mets fought back and tied the score when David Wright and John Mayberry Jr hit back-to-back Home Runs in the 4th inning, accounting for the Mets first two Home Runs of the season. Mayberry, starting against the lefty Eric Stults, did what he's here to do, which is belt left-handed pitching. But it still seems like a bit of an incongruous platoon situation developing, as Mayberry played Left, Michael Cuddyer played 1st Base, and Lucas Duda got planted on the bench. I know, I know, it still feels weird actually advocating for Duda to still be in the lineup and maybe he should have been, but then again, the results seemed to dictate otherwise.

But I digress. The game stayed tied 3-3 into the 8th inning, Erik Goeddel and Sean Gilmartin, a pair of newcomers, held the line and turned things over to Rafael Montero, who's slid up the ladder in Jenrry Mejia's stead in this new-look Bullpen was entrusted to keep things where they were. This, of course, is where I found a TV with the game on, and where things went haywire. Certainly, a fine time to watch my first live Baseball game of the season. It started with a flare hit by Chris Johnson that Juan Lagares for all his brilliance couldn't catch up to. Montero got a strikeout, but then Andrelton Simmons (who'd already made one of his wonderful defensive plays earlier in the game and gave all of Baseball a collective orgasm) grounded a ball to Wright at 3rd. Conventional Wisdom dictates that Wright should have thrown the ball to 1st. The ball wasn't hit especially hard but still he probably had a shot to get Simmons. Instead, Wright vaporlocked and decided it a better idea to try to tag out the Pinch Runner Jace Peterson, who'd broke for 3rd. This didn't work, Peterson beat the play, and while the rest of the Mets defense stood and stared at Wright, Simmons took off for 2nd. After that, you could pretty much stick a fork in the inning. Montero admirably tried to salvage things, intentionally walking the next hitter before getting a strikeout and running a full count on Phil Gosselin or Kate Gosselin or whoever it was, but he tried to sneak one more fastball by him and Gosselin, whoever he is, punched home a 2-run single that for all intents and purposes ended the game. The 9th, with Dirks Bentley closing for the Braves instead of Kimbrel (whom as you know the Mets generally handle well because unlike most teams, they grow a pair and hit the ball when he comes in), was academic and the Mets lost another annoying game in Atlanty, while the Braves, who appear to not even be trying, ran their record to 4-0.

Such are the vicissitudes of Baseball, as we often see during the course of the season. The Mets now sit at 2-2, where the two wins came at the benefit of great pitching and advantageous opportunities, and the two losses came at the benefit of no hitting when it was needed and a bad-luck inning. The point is, at this point, we know nothing yet.

Eat and Run

I mentioned last week that Spring Training tends to proffer up very little in the way of newsworthy items in the early going. Mostly, what you get are stories of reclamation and/or human interest, with the occasional tale of internal strife that gets blown out of proportion because it's generally much ado about stuffing.

The Mets had one such story come out of camp this afternoon when, during an intrasquad game, an incident occurred when Noah Syndergaard was admonished by David Wright for taking a lunch break while the remainder of the team was in the dugout watching and/or playing in the game.

If this is the most excitement the Mets have going on, I have to say that's fine with me. For one, it means that David Wright has really taken this whole Team Captain thing to heart, and while he still may be mostly unexciting and speak in cliches, he's not just leading by example, he's actually getting on his teammate's cases in order to keep everyone focused and in line. It's a fairly minor offense; the sort of thing that would get a player hung up in Kangaroo Court were it someone of veteran status, but for a younger player who hasn't established himself on a team that's relying on a youth movement to return them to prominence, it's important to set an example of discipline and professionalism, and Wright more than anyone else understands that. Syndergaard wasn't scheduled to pitch and I assume just had a case of the munchies, but if nobody else is chowing down during the game (and I'm not sure why a ballplayer would want to eat during a game), perhaps Noah should have just popped some sunflower seeds and waited it out.

This probably wouldn't have been much of a story had it not happened in front of several members of the 4th estate, who watched and immediately pounced on the story, ready to make it into something more than it actually was. Wright spoke to Syndergaard, and apparently while the two were conversing, Wright was abetted by Bobby Parnell, who took it upon himself to clear Syndergaard's dishes right then and there, immediately ending the youngster's impromptu lunch hour. Later in the day, the press tried to blow the story up as they are wont to do, but Wright was mum on the topic, Syndergaard was contrite and admitted he was in the wrong, and pretty much all the veterans, and Terry Collins, praised Wright for vocally showing who the leader on this team is.

So, that was today's Mets news. Quite honestly, if the Mets drama needs to be artificially pumped up by the media, that's probably a good thing as far as team chemistry is concerned. By tomorrow, there will probably be plenty of jokes about it and we'll all move on.

The Forgotten Prospect

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

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

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

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

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