No Cigar

This game will forever go into the books as a 10-8 Mets loss, simply because they couldn't overcome the 10 runs that Sean Gilmartin and Rafael Montero spotted the Phillies early in the evening. And I know that at this time of the year losses really can't be viewed as positive anything.

But the Mets did show me something in their spirited comeback on Saturday night, which is that all of these young fellows that have gone back and forth from the Major Leagues and Las Vegas, they can play. This sort of output in a mostly hopeless situation kind of underscores the depth the Mets have built for themselves through the organization, and when you have guys like T.J. Rivera, Brandon Nimmo, Gavin Cecchini and Ty Kelly really raring to get into games and break their asses, it's a positive. Teams need players like this on their roster. None of them are stars, none of them are going to light the world on fire, but they're going to go balls to the wall in every opportunity they get just to show you that they can do it at this level. And these guys, particularly Rivera and Nimmo, have been in the middle of a lot of rallies this month, and Cecchini and Kelly had their noses in plenty last night.

In the continuation of my "Summer of Long Island," I was out all day and so I didn't see any of the game, I only heard about it in bits and pieces. When I got word that Sean Gilmartin hadn't made it out of the 1st inning and allowed 5 runs, I sort of moved my thoughts to other things. This one was clearly done before it started and so whatever else was going on around the Majors was just antimatter. I'd found myself in a diner on Old Country Road at some point in the evening, when the game appeared totally out of reach, and a large group of people--multiple families, it seemed--came in. Most of them were dressed in Mets gear, which led me to believe that they'd been at the game, although based on where we were and the time of night, if they were at the game, they must have thrown in the towel after 2 innings, so perhaps we were just solidly placed in the Middle of Mets country (although for whatever reason the TV in this diner did not have the Mets game on). But at any rate, over the course of the evening, they were loudly discussing the Wildcard race and the Mets chances in a Mansplaining sort of fashion, but in no way did I want to involve myself in going over to the table and correcting them. I try to make it a point not to get involved in other people's affairs like that. They were also talking about the Home Finale coming up on Sunday and discussing how Philadelphia's scheduled starter "Was no good" and they "should beat him." I'll agree with the "should beat him" part. But I don't know enough of Jake Thompson to say that.

I know about as much of Alec Asher as I do of Thompson (SEGUE MASTER), and Asher shut the Mets down but good for 4 innings, and then allowed 4 runs in the 5th inning, but part of that was the result of a pair of errors and so none of the runs were unearned. And by this point, the Mets had emptied their bench so whatever rally they could put togther had that cosmetic feel to it, just to let everyone know they were still there and doing the best they could.

Then, of course, in the 6th, Philly went to their awful bullpen and the Mets kept ploughing away, scoring on Cecchini's first Major League hit among other things, but at this point I was still in "At least they're making it interesting" mode. By this time, we were driving again, and as it usually does when we're on the way back from Long Island, our route took us directly past Citi Field, where I noticed that the video board facing Northern Blvd didn't actually have the score on it, which I thought made no sense, but then I looked and on the top of the stadium, behind the Left Field seats, there is a board that has the score on it, and even lets you know that you can tune to WOR 710 to listen to the game. This didn't happen for reasons I've already covered, but at least I got the score.

At that point it was still 10-6, but the Mets continued to creep back against the Pu-pu platter that is Philly's bullpen. Cecchini drove home a second run in the 8th and the Mets had the tying run at the plate, but Rivera popped out and so did Nimmo. In the 9th, the Mets made one more run at it against Michael Mariot. Jay Bruce pinch hit with one out and hit a Home Run, which felt like his first hit in a Month, to make it 10-8. And by this point I'd gotten home and turned the game on, just in time to see Mariot walk Eric Campbell and Michael Conforto to bring up Lucas Duda, certainly a good candidate to fire the winning blow. But he popped out and flung his bat away in such a display out of character. Travis d'Arnaud followed and, well, he could pop one out too, but he didn't either, instead grounding back to Mariot and the Phillies hung on to win.

You try not to get too worked up about these losses, which are bound to happen when you go from the specter of Matz and Syndergaard starting games to Ynoa and Gilmartin. This patchwork rotation stuff can only carry you so far and tonight it bit the Mets in the ass. Fortunately, the Mets might be able to get through the rest of this thing with only 4 starters thanks to a well-placed off day so maybe we don't have to do this again. Either way, the Giants won, the Wildcard race is tied again, and now the Mets have one more Home Game left, and I'll be there, and I have no idea if it's going to be the last time I'll be at Citi Field for 2016. So it stands to be a really weird day all around.

Secret Ballgame

When a ballgame happens and nobody is around to see it...

Such was the case this afternoon, when the Mets and Phillies got together in front of a hearty gathering of about 4-or-500 close friends to wage a little game of the ol' Baseball. And if you blinked, you missed it.

I blinked.

See, I knew last night that they changed the time of the game, but of course after several weeks of looking at the remaining schedule and noting that the Mets didn't have any weekday afternoon games after Labor Day, I'd conditioned myself to thinking that they were playing at 7pm and didn't bother to check the game on mlb.com to see what was going on. By time I did, it was already the 9th inning, the Mets were losing and everything was terrible.

Then again, I can't say I'm surprised. The Mets were kind of screwed before this game had even started. I believe I went to bed last night not having any idea who the starting pitcher was, since Steven Matz has come down with this random back injury that will probably develop into a case of Rayramirezitis, and since Logan Verrett was pitching in the Jon Niese spot, and since both Niese and Bartolo Colon are learning how to pitch in relief (something Niese has not quite warmed to just yet, on the other hand Colon seems ready to pitch whenever someone hands him a ball), there wasn't a real choice. Sean Gilmartin was the one who got the nod, and usually when something like that happens, it's phrased as "[Pitcher] and Staff." The kind of terminology used for 7th games of Postseason Series or rescheduled late-September games. Gilmartin pitched just fine over his 5 innings of work. Just, Jerad Eickhoff was better, probably because Eickhoff is better, although the fact that the Mets had their "C" lineup out there probably helped. Regardless, I don't know if the "A" squad would have done much better after last night.

I said last night that I can't get too worked up, and really I'm still not too worked up, but I don't like the fact that the Mets went into Philly, where they've been feeding the Phillies their lunch all season, and ended up getting swept. That's not really the statement you want to make at this point, and it's ended up costing them the slim lead they had over Los Angeles for NLDS Home Field Advantage. On the other hand, the Mets don't really seem fazed by going on the road; in fact after being a better home team when they were completely useless on offense, they have now spun this around to being markedly better on the road, when the spotlight of New York is off of them. And, quite honestly, I don't think their starting pitchers give a rat's ass where they're starting, just so long as they're starting somewhere beginning on October 9th. 

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.

Marooned

Every few years now, the Mets play one of these ridiculously extended games where they just can't seem to get out of their own way, and they get magnificent pitching for inning upon inning, and at the same time they prove themselves so comically inept on offense that when they do eventually score a run, it seems as though they did so in spite of themselves. Sunday's game was such an instance.

For 18 innings, the Mets waged a war that seemed to be more with themselves than with the Cardinals. Mets batters reached base in 17 of the 18 innings. 16 reached via hit. 13 reached via walk. One reached via Error. 3 of them scored. 25 were left on base, which tied an ignominious team record. The Mets went 1-for-47 with Runners in Scoring Position in this game. Juan Lagares was 2-for-10. Wilmer Flores was 3-for-9. Daniel Murphy seemed to be 0-for-16. Sean Gilmartin took an At Bat and got a hit. Jacob deGrom was summoned as a Pinch Hitter and walked. Mets batters saw 319 pitches in a game that lasted 5 hours and 54 minutes.

And, after all that, they won. They damn well better have given all the opportunities they were given.

I've said that once a game extends past the 11th inning, general logic of Baseball starts to be abandoned. Once you pass the 14th inning, you're entering what's basically Baseball Twilight Zone. When a game goes more than 16 innings, well, you start seeing the absolutely bizarre start to happen, generally out of desperation more than anything else. That's what we were subjected to on Sunday.

Jon Niese, if you'll remember, started the game and was brilliant, pitching shutout ball into the 8th inning, while the Mets offense did what they usually do and spend most of the afternoon acting like a bunch of Electric Football players. Niese departed in the 8th inning with the game still scoreless, as Niese received no run support in spite of the fact that Tim Cooney was ripe for the taking. Cooney, and his successors, Seth Maness, Seth Choate, Seth Tuivalala, Seth Siegrist and Seth Socolovich were all ripe for the taking, because they all managed to let Mets reach base and then stay glued to the bases while other Mets took turns popping out to 2nd base, grounding out to 3rd, or just striking out altogether. This continued on through 10 innings, and then the Cardinals turned to Mustachioed Carlos Villanueva, whose job was to basically pitch as many innings as necessary, so by this point Genius Mike Matheny was throwing the book out the window.

On the Mets side, their job, since nobody seemed to want to score a run, was to just keep the Cardinals from scoring, which they kept being forced to do, and dammit, they just kept doing it. Bobby Parnell got through a quiet 9th. Jenrry Mejia nearly spit it up in the 11th, after allowing a leadoff double to Randal Grichuk, a frightening intentional walk to Jhonny Peralta and a sac fly to Mark Reynolds. This set up the Cardinals with a golden opportunity to win the game, with Yadier Molina at the plate, but Ratso Molina hasn't quite been his usual irritating self, and he bounced into a Double Play to end the inning. This was, happily, Molina's 3rd DP of the game, and each time he seemed to be moving slower and slower up that 1st base line, at a pace that would make John Olerud look swift.

Hansel Robles pitched an easy 12th, which brought us to the 13th. Curtis Granderson, who didn't start the game and yet now found himself getting his 3rd AB, looped a ball into Left field and decided he'd had enough of this fuckery and took an extra base. Kevin Plawecki followed with a single and once again, Granderson decided to take an extra base and scored the first run of the game. The Mets had a golden opportunity to extend this lead, except that once Plawecki reached 3rd on a Ruben Tejada single, the Mets remembered that they were the Mets and immediately turned back into pumpkins, popping out, striking out and stranding runners. This would loom large, because Jeurys Familia was summoned into the game after warming up no less than 4 times and ended up giving up a pop fly Home Run to Kolten Wong. Of course he did. Because this game hadn't gone on long enough.

So, we continued, through the 14th, when Sean Gilmartin came into the game, and through the 15th, where Genius Matheny had the brilliant idea to summon the next day's starter, Carlos Martinez, from the bullpen to eat a few innings, to the 16th, where Gilmartin batted and picked up his 1st Major League hit in the process—and was predictably stranded. In the 17th, the Mets once again had an opportunity, with Tejada (Tejada? Sure, why not) on 1st and 2 out, and Matheny, genius that he is, had the idea to walk Daniel Murphy intentionally to bring up the Mets latest Pinch Hitter...Jacob deGrom. So Murphy was passed, and then deGrom was up, and Martinez ended up walking him too, although this served no other purpose than to inflate the Mets futility figures since Lucas Duda subsequently struck out.

In the last of the 17th, Carlos Torres came in, which was a bad sign, although in a game like this, I guess even Torres was capable of putting up a few zeroes. Which he did, although with 2 outs, SNY went black, and then blue as a "Please Stand By" screen came up. My assumption was that this game had gone so long and become so asinine that it actually broke SNY. Fortunately, there was still audio, and Gary Cohen could call a game via smoke signals if he needed to, so I at least heard Torres get out of the inning.

The feed was still out in the 18th as Flores led off with a hit, and then fortunately returned as Granderson got a hit. Plawecki then attempted to bunt, with most of the Cardinals infield charging out of their shoes, but Martinez appeared a bit overzealous in his attempt to field the ball, ended up booting it and getting nobody out. So this meant that the Mets had the bases loaded and nobody out. But after 17 inning of this shit I'm sure nobody was particularly confident that they would manage to get a run across. Somehow, they did, if only because Ruben Tejada got just enough of a pitch to drive it deep enough to score Flores and move Granderson to 3rd, and amazingly, the Mets picked up an insurance run when Terry Collins called for a squeeze and even more amazingly, it worked. This gave the Mets 3 runs, which represented their high total for the series, and Torres fortunately made it stand up—or had the Cardinals just decided that they'd had enough by that point. I'm pretty sure I did.

So, yeah. 18 innings to score 3 runs and leave 26 runners on base as the Mets now go to Washington for perhaps their most important series of the year. And Cuddyer's hurting, and Johnny Monell was sent back to AAA, and in his place the Mets called up...Anthony Recker.

I'm not saying that a reactionary move needs to be made here, but if Cuddyer has to go on the DL, and the offense just needs a kick in the ass, and you have 3 games against the team you're chasing, well, isn't it time to give one of these hotshot kids we keep hearing about a little burn? 3 runs in 18 innings isn't going to fly against Washington. 3 runs in 18 innings isn't going to fly against anybody. It's just some bizarre dumb luck that it worked on Sunday.

deGreat deTravesty

I was out for most of Friday evening, and when I returned home, the first thing I wanted to do was take a nap. So much so, that this precluded me from flicking on the TV to see what was going on between the Mets and Braves. Instead, I opted for the radio, and the dulcet tones of Howie Rose and the slightly more-grating Josh Lewin. From what I heard, things seemed to be going just fine. The Mets had but a 1-0 lead, as once again they seem to lose the ability to hit the baseball on these road trips, which isn't good, but what was good was Jacob deGrom continuing to pitch like he's one of the best in the National League. He'd already thrown 6 shutout innings when I put the game on, and he got through 7 by retiring the Braves on 9 pitches.

deGrom's counterpart, the equally young-ish Matt Wisler, matched deGrom through the early innings, only breaking to allow a Michael Cuddyer RBI single in the 6th. For a while this looked to be the run that would beat him. But, then, the bottom of the 8th happened, and the Mets were done in by their usual assortment of team issues.

First, deGrom didn't help his own cause by allowing a leadoff double to Andrelton Simmons. This is nothing new, because for whatever reason Simmons just destroys the Mets. Clearly, he's got Greg Dobbs Syndrome, because he can barely bat his weight against most teams, but when he sees the Mets, all of a sudden he's turned into Cal Ripken. This wasn't a devastating blow, because deGrom regularly gets out of these kind of jams. Eury Perez followed with a sacrifice bunt, and it sounds as though it wasn't a very good bunt, because there was ample opportunity for deGrom, who fielded the bunt, to get Simmons at 3rd...except that nobody bothered to cover 3rd. Pedro Ciriaco followed. I believe I saw Ciriaco's Major League debut at Citi Field a few years back in a game where the Mets were blowing out the Pirates. He hit a triple and singlehandedly broke up an R.A. Dickey shutout in the 9th inning, so I know he can run. I also know that he's one of those players that's more of an annoyance than an actual threat, so it didn't surprise me too much that when he grounded to Flores, and Flores took about a hair too long to look Simmons back to 3rd, he ended up beating the play to 1st.

Now in an actual jam, deGrom was removed from the game, although at that point nobody was quite sure why. Even Howie Rose questioned the move, and when he does that, you know it's probably not going to end well. Sean Gilmartin came in to face Jace Peterson, who's already provided plenty of headache over the past week, and Peterson of course ended up doubling over Juan Lagares' head in center to score both runs and give the Braves the lead.

Then, Gilmartin was gone, and I kind of nodded out. Bobby Parnell was involved and so was Jeurys Familia in finishing out that shit show of an inning, which basically sunk the Mets. Elmore Farkas Jason Grilli finished out the Mets in the 9th, the Mets lost their 3rd game in a row on the road, and instead of hearing about what a brilliant, gutsy effort the Mets got from Jacob deGrom, instead the story of the game is the preternaturally brilliant debut performance from Matt Wisler, and how he's going to lead the Barves to the promised land. And instead of picking up a win he so richly deserved, deGrom got hung with his first loss since early May and has to sit there wondering why exactly he was pulled when he was pulled, instead of being given a chance, with 97 pitches in the bank, to clean up his own mess.

Gee, A Comeback!

The Mets charged out on Sunday afternoon and for at least 4 innings looked every bit like I was right and they were completely dead in the water after Saturday's game. However, in reality, it wasn't a blown game hangover so much as a Dillon Gee hangover. After Gee was raked over the coals for 8 runs in 3.2 forgettable innings, the Mets were both dazed and down 8-3. However, from that point forward, they woke up and hit back. 4 Mets relievers combined to allow the Braves no further runs, while the offense, which has a lot more teeth now that Travis d'Arnaud and Dilson Herrera are back, blew up for 4 Home Runs (two, not surprisingly, off the bats of the two guys I just mentioned), and kicked the Barves in the teeth for Saturday's result by winning the game, 10-8.

The game had all the trappings of a Barnburner from the outset. Atlanta reached Dillon Gee for a run in the first, courtesy of a Freddie Freeman (who else) RBI single. The Mets scraped across a run of their own in the bottom of the 1st off of Mike Foltynewicz (whom I referred to as "Fidrych-like," when he appeared in last season's finale whilst pitching for the Astros, but seeing him up close I see I was mistaken, he's just a hairy guy), but then the roof caved in on Gee. Braves were reaching base, Braves were creating havoc, Gee gave up a 3-run Home Run to Jace Peterson with 2 out in the 2nd, and another 2-out RBI hit in the 3rd, and by the 4th everyone was teeing off on him, even Old Nick Markakis and Fat Juan Uribe, and he was mercifully pulled before the 4th was finished. I know that Gee is a competitor and he's been a solid, important part of the rotation for several seasons, but he needs a change of scenery now. It's not completely his fault, the Mets have kind of jerked him around this season between the Bullpen and the Rotation and not allowing him to settle into a role, but he also hasn't responded well to the adversity. He had a spot in the rotation early in the season and had he pitched better he might have hung on to it, but he got hurt and since he's returned he's been patently awful. The same thing happened to him last season, when he was usurped by deGrom. This year, he was pushed back by Syndergaard, and he responded to this by getting hit hard in San Diego and getting blasted today, and in his one relief outing last Tuesday, he basically set one up on a tee for Joe Panik to hit it into Sammy's Tire Shack across 126th Street. You don't need to be a body language expert to see he's not happy, and at this point the best thing for him would have to be a trade. I don't think there's any way about it.

So, with Gee done, it was now up to the Mets to try to battle back against Foltynewicz, who wasn't exactly mowing the Mets down either. In the 3rd, he'd allowed the Mets to extend a little rally long enough for Wilmer Flores to drive in two runs with a single, and in the 4th, he served up a pair of Home Runs, first to Darrell Ceciliani, who earned a pair of starts this weekend and really ran with the opportunity, coming up with multiple key hits, his 1st Major League Home Run, and some fine defensive plays, and second to Dilson Herrera, who showed his sneaky power by really blasting a no-doubt shot into the seats in Left.

This brought the Mets to within 8-5, as the Mets turned the game over to the bullpen. Sean Gilmartin, who's been mostly under the radar this season, was the first to appear. Gilmartin, of course, is the Rule 5 guy, so he's going to be here all season, and as such has been mostly spotted in low-pressure situations or mop-up duty. But here, he needed to eat a couple of innings and keep the Braves in check, and by golly that's what he did. His two innings of work were probably the two most crucial innings he'd been handed to this point this season, and he responded by allowing the Braves all of 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. Meanwhile, the Mets clawed back even further, knocking Foltynewicz out of the box after a Duda single in the 5th and finally making their way into the hideous part of the Barves bullpen. First, Brandon Cunniff entered the game and was rudely greeted by Travis d'Arnaud, who smoked a line drive Home Run down the Left Field line. d'Arnaud has done nothing but hit since coming off the DL on Wednesday night, so the power wasn't too much of a surprise here. This comes with time, but mostly it's good to see that d'Arnaud has come back with the same furor as he had before he got hurt.

One inning later, the Mets found themselves in the lead. Cunniff had departed in favor of Luis Avilan, but the Mets remained undeterred. Michael Cuddyer, given a routine day off, pinch hit for Gilmartin and singled. Granderson followed with a single of his own, setting the stage for Juan Lagares to hit a screamer down the line, towards the corner and over the wall for a 3-run Home Run, the Mets 4th in 3 innings, to drag the Mets all the way back and put them ahead for the first time. Amazingly, this team that's had trouble scoring 10 runs in a week had now managed to put up 10 runs in one game, and not only did they do that, they did it with the benefit of 4 Home Runs. Sometimes, they have these games, but it's good that they picked Sunday as a day to do it.

But now, with a lead, they had to get through the remainder of the game. Bobby Parnell entered for the 7th, and it's unfortunate to say, but Parnell looks like a shell of his former self right now. This seemed to be the case even before he had the Big Boy Surgery, but his mechanics are all out of whack. He looks much too loose with his delivery and the velocity he once had, when he regularly would throw around 100mph, is gone. Parnell with a repertoire of 91-92mph heat isn't quite so fearsome and I wouldn't expect him to close again. But unless he goes to Bartolo Colon school, he might not be long for the club in general. Still, he got through the 7th unscathed, thanks primarily to a Christian Bethancourt Double Play. Hansel Robles entered in the 8th and appeared to have recovered from his Saturday debacle, but still gave up a 2-out hit to Cameron Maybin.

At this point, nobody was in any mood to fuck around, and with Jeurys Familia back with the team, he was summoned for the 4-out Save, and he owes Dilson Herrera a dinner for getting that 1st out on Freeman, who hit a ground ball that was ticketed to Center Field until Herrera dove, gloved the ball, and then flipped the ball with said glove to Flores at 2nd base in time for the out. Familia worked through a less eventful 9th inning to pick up the Save and give the Mets probably their most rousing victory of the season, on the heels of one of their most deflating losses. What a difference a day makes.

Next in town are the Toronto Blue Jays, for two here and two in Toronto, which means the return of old friends R.A. Dickey (who won't pitch here) and Jose Reyes. It also means the return of the Canadian National Anthem, which will be performed at Citi Field for the first time this week (remember, the Blue Jays haven't played the Mets here since 2001). It also means the Mets will have the tall task of facing a team that's won 11 in a row and has been absolutely bludgeoning everyone in sight. Everyone on this team hits Home Runs with abandon, so a) It's good that the Mets offense woke up and b) Let's see if the Mets pitching can keep these guys in check.