The Team, The Time

An article by Former Writers    6 Comments

After the Mets started the second half of the season by losing 3 of 4 to Atlanta, and then 2 of 3 to Washington, I felt that the season was pretty much over. If the fat lady wasn’t singing, she sure was humming pretty loud. Then the Mets went down to Houston, to play the Astros. An Astros team that had been playing pretty good baseball. A team that was at the .500 mark when the Mets came to town. Then much to my surprise the Mets took 2 of 3 from the Astros. Including an unusual comeback from behind win on Sunday.

Heading into the Rockie series, and this home stand, I felt that for the Mets, the playoffs had begun. While its way to early to write off the division title, its more than likely the Mets will have to settle for the wild card if they want to make the playoffs. To win the wild card, the Mets still have some heavy lifting to do. They have a bunch of teams to climb over, and of course they need to continue to play the way they played these last six games. For now, for the Mets its all about winning series. Splitting the four games with the wild card leader Rockies would not have been acceptable. The Mets need to gain ground, not tread water.

Looking at the upcoming schedule, the Arizona Diamondbacks are in for four games this weekend and Monday. The Mets need to take three of these games. The Cardinals are in for two midweek, before the Mets head out west to see San Diego and Arizona. Again we’ll take what we can against the Redbirds, but the Mets need to dominate the Padres and D’Backs next week.

We’ve seen just how good this team can play in recent days. Whether it was the embarrassment in Washington, or whether its the fresh energy Jeff Francoeur has injected into the clubhouse, the Mets are once again playing good baseball. But lets not fool ourselves. Last week at this time the Mets looked to be in bad shape. If the Mets have another bad week, it may too late to recover.

One final upbeat note. By the time the Mets return from the west coast trip, we should have a real idea of when Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Delgado are expected to be back. Wouldn’t it be great to have those three guys back when the Mets return to play their NL East rivals?

The Mets look good. They look re-energized. LETS GO METS!!