Mets battle back to salvage weekend
FLUSHING – Sometimes in our insulated baseball world called New York, it feels as if we are playing more than just a baseball season.
Many times, it seems if we are playing 162 one-game seasons with each night feeling as if it were Game 7 of the World Series.
The scrutiny around all of these games creates an incredible amount of pressure where losing is damn near unacceptable and losing more than three in a row can constitute a “crisis”.
For the Mets, they have played what amounts to three seasons in one. The up-and-down nature of their year has turned into nothing but one long roller coaster destined to end either with a spectacular thrill or a head first dive with far reaching franchise ramifications.
After losing a hard fought first game on Friday, the Mets recovered to win the final two games to win the season’s opening round of the Subway Series. The win pulled them one game under .500 as they attempt to battle their way out of the current logjam that is the National League East.
While the Yankees may be further out in their division to the Tampa Bay Rays (six games) than the Mets are to the Philadelphia Phillies (three and a half games), it is the team wearing orange and blue that seems to be one bad streak away from disaster.
For now, they will take it day-by-day.
When they were 4-8, there were already proclamations that the season was over.
A stunning run where they won nine of their next ten games vaulted them into first place. Happy days were back at Citi Field.
They went to Citizens Bank Park against their rivals from Philadelphia looking to send a message, but it was the Phillies sending it. They rocked Johan Santana for 10 runs in a nationally televised Sunday night game.
Two weeks ago, they were four games over, but a stretch of losing 10 of their next 13 brought another twist to their already whirlwind season.
The offense could not hit. Jose Reyes was in a severe funk. Jason Bay had a sudden power outage, aided in part to the dimensions of his new ballpark. Add in David Wright striking out nearly once every three at-bats and not getting the “big hit” and it all mixed in to make him replace Alex Rodriguez as the most scrutinized baseball player currently playing in New York.
Over the course of five days, the Mets have only two reliable pitchers. When Santana and Mike Pelfrey pitch, he gives the team their best chance to win. After that, all they can do is hope and pray. John Maine has become a mental patient. Oliver Perez is even worse, and with no fifth starter after Jon Niese’s injury, they have to dig into their minor leagues to someone, anyone who can go a few innings without “pulling a Perez or Maine”.
Yet somehow, after all of this carnage, the blame for this was going on to manager Jerry Manuel, who would have been on the firing block particularly if the Yankees swept them this weekend.
Are you serious?
Certainly, it cannot be his fault for Wright’s strikeout rate or Bay’s loss of power (before his two-homerun output on Sunday) and Reyes’ inability to get on base. Did you think he expected to have Rod Barajas to lead the team in homeruns?
Mind you that is before only having 40 percent of a rotation that one could consider “reliable” before crossing ones fingers in hopes that his overworked bullpen can get at most the final nine outs of the ballgame.
This is a team before the season had its flaws and holes not fixed during the winter. Anyone who thought Maine or Perez would be reasonable contributors considering their injury history (Maine) or complete ineptness (Perez) was doomed to failure.
A change in manager is not going to make Wright hit better. He cannot make up for Luis Castillo’s dead corpse at second base or make Bay hit more homeruns. The idea of “lighting a fire” is silly on its own merit and suggests that someone else in the dugout will flip a proverbial “switch”.
None of that is going to happen.
This weekend, it was Pelfrey and Santana who led them.
This weekend, it was Bay and Wright that provided the offensive punch previous missing for most of the season.
This weekend, it was a tired bullpen, overworked from many bad starts by the remaining three pitchers finding enough strength to get those final few outs when the Yankees attempted to rally from sizeable deficits.
This weekend, they made a stand.
For now, this is the team they are going to have for better or worse.
In the down National League, barring a complete collapse, they will be in contention for a playoff spot all season as the other contenders (whoever they may be) all are no better than the Mets are.
They will wait for the return of Carlos Beltran and see if he can be the same player he was prior to injury.
Perhaps they can swing a deal for a top-flight starting pitcher they did not get this past off-season.
Going wire-to-wire to the playoffs will not happen for this team. Instead, they will face a daily grind, with each game bringing drama.
Whether they play meaningful games in September is still to be determined. For now, they have put out another mini brush fire.
Right up until the next one starts back up.
Many times, it seems if we are playing 162 one-game seasons with each night feeling as if it were Game 7 of the World Series.
The scrutiny around all of these games creates an incredible amount of pressure where losing is damn near unacceptable and losing more than three in a row can constitute a “crisis”.
For the Mets, they have played what amounts to three seasons in one. The up-and-down nature of their year has turned into nothing but one long roller coaster destined to end either with a spectacular thrill or a head first dive with far reaching franchise ramifications.
After losing a hard fought first game on Friday, the Mets recovered to win the final two games to win the season’s opening round of the Subway Series. The win pulled them one game under .500 as they attempt to battle their way out of the current logjam that is the National League East.
While the Yankees may be further out in their division to the Tampa Bay Rays (six games) than the Mets are to the Philadelphia Phillies (three and a half games), it is the team wearing orange and blue that seems to be one bad streak away from disaster.
For now, they will take it day-by-day.
When they were 4-8, there were already proclamations that the season was over.
A stunning run where they won nine of their next ten games vaulted them into first place. Happy days were back at Citi Field.
They went to Citizens Bank Park against their rivals from Philadelphia looking to send a message, but it was the Phillies sending it. They rocked Johan Santana for 10 runs in a nationally televised Sunday night game.
Two weeks ago, they were four games over, but a stretch of losing 10 of their next 13 brought another twist to their already whirlwind season.
The offense could not hit. Jose Reyes was in a severe funk. Jason Bay had a sudden power outage, aided in part to the dimensions of his new ballpark. Add in David Wright striking out nearly once every three at-bats and not getting the “big hit” and it all mixed in to make him replace Alex Rodriguez as the most scrutinized baseball player currently playing in New York.
Over the course of five days, the Mets have only two reliable pitchers. When Santana and Mike Pelfrey pitch, he gives the team their best chance to win. After that, all they can do is hope and pray. John Maine has become a mental patient. Oliver Perez is even worse, and with no fifth starter after Jon Niese’s injury, they have to dig into their minor leagues to someone, anyone who can go a few innings without “pulling a Perez or Maine”.
Yet somehow, after all of this carnage, the blame for this was going on to manager Jerry Manuel, who would have been on the firing block particularly if the Yankees swept them this weekend.
Are you serious?
Certainly, it cannot be his fault for Wright’s strikeout rate or Bay’s loss of power (before his two-homerun output on Sunday) and Reyes’ inability to get on base. Did you think he expected to have Rod Barajas to lead the team in homeruns?
Mind you that is before only having 40 percent of a rotation that one could consider “reliable” before crossing ones fingers in hopes that his overworked bullpen can get at most the final nine outs of the ballgame.
This is a team before the season had its flaws and holes not fixed during the winter. Anyone who thought Maine or Perez would be reasonable contributors considering their injury history (Maine) or complete ineptness (Perez) was doomed to failure.
A change in manager is not going to make Wright hit better. He cannot make up for Luis Castillo’s dead corpse at second base or make Bay hit more homeruns. The idea of “lighting a fire” is silly on its own merit and suggests that someone else in the dugout will flip a proverbial “switch”.
None of that is going to happen.
This weekend, it was Pelfrey and Santana who led them.
This weekend, it was Bay and Wright that provided the offensive punch previous missing for most of the season.
This weekend, it was a tired bullpen, overworked from many bad starts by the remaining three pitchers finding enough strength to get those final few outs when the Yankees attempted to rally from sizeable deficits.
This weekend, they made a stand.
For now, this is the team they are going to have for better or worse.
In the down National League, barring a complete collapse, they will be in contention for a playoff spot all season as the other contenders (whoever they may be) all are no better than the Mets are.
They will wait for the return of Carlos Beltran and see if he can be the same player he was prior to injury.
Perhaps they can swing a deal for a top-flight starting pitcher they did not get this past off-season.
Going wire-to-wire to the playoffs will not happen for this team. Instead, they will face a daily grind, with each game bringing drama.
Whether they play meaningful games in September is still to be determined. For now, they have put out another mini brush fire.
Right up until the next one starts back up.
No comments:
Post a Comment