3 Up & 3 Down – Mets Have A Tiger In Their Tank Edition

The New York Mets were up in the Motor City this week, playing the AL Central leading Detroit Tigers. The Good Guys take the series winning 2 of the 3 games. Also the hot hitting continued on Tuesday and Wednesday night. In the three game series the Mets scored 32 runs! Since Saturday the Mets have scored a total of 54 runs in five games! To quote Tony the Tiger the Mets were “grrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaatttt!”

3 Up

1) 2 Grand Slams: Prior to Tuesday night the Mets had not had a grand slam home run in years. Tuesday they had two in one game. Jason Bay hit the first grand slam as part of a two out scoring marathon, that Josh Thole started by hitting his first home run on the season. Carlos Beltran had grand slam number two an inning later as the Mets rolled to a 14-3 win.

2) Dave Hudgens: Mets batting instructor Dave Hudgens gets the nod here at number two. I know a lot of you think that batting instructors have very little impact on the team. Well, I can’t remember the Mets having ever scored like this with Howard Johnson as batting coach. I think it will be interesting to see how David Wright performs under Hudgens’ guidance. Remember when Wright was once a feared two strike hitter? Hojo made him a strikeout king.

3) Beating Quality Teams: The Mets are in one of the hardest parts of their schedule. They just finished playing the American League West & Central division leaders. The Yankees are at Citi Field this weekend. Then its off to the west coast before the All Start break. Winning 4 of 6 against quality teams such as the Rangers and Tigers is a great way to start.

3 Down

1)  Bullpen Confusion: I’m not sure what happened on Wednesday night, but Terry Collins signaled to the bullpen to bring in Tim Byrdak, even though Byrdak was not warming up at the time. Byrdak promptly gave up a two run homer to the first batter he faced. Byrdak then slammed the ball down on the mound, was taken out of the game, and carried on like a spoiled 16 year old girl in the dugout!

2) Can’t Gain Ground: As well as the Mets have been playing, they have not been able to gain ground on either the Phillies or the Braves. Over the past ten games, both the Mets & Phillies have been 6-4, while the Braves have been smoking at 8-2. The Mets have been playing so good, its just a shame that they haven’t been able to pick up some games in the standings.

3) Yankee Doodle Weekend: The Yankees, and even worse, their fans will be out at Citi Field this weekend for part two of the Subway Series. Good news for the Mets is Captain Jeets will miss the series (sorry Yankee fans, no 3,000th hit at Citi).