To be fair, we have to say the Washington Nationals are a nice up and coming team. With a mix of young guys, like Bryce Harper, veterans like Adam LaRcoche, some great starting pitching, and a fantastic field manager in Davey Johnson, DC baseball fans should not be making plans for October! Our Mets were in DC and they were only able to grab the last game of the three game series, so here are the 3 & 3.

3 Up:

  • R.A. Dickey: It seems like R.A. is in this position in every entry I write, but why not when the guy is 9-1 and has 24 consecutive scoreless innings in the books. During his wrap up on WFAN, Howie Rose pretty much summed it up by saying “we are running out of superlatives to describe R.A. Dickey.” It’s true, Dickey has had a wonderful, incredible, magical start to his 2012 season. Let’s hope he keeps it up.
  • Chris Young: Young returned to action Tuesday night and went 5 innings giving up three runs, (only 2 were earned). Young is a proven front end of the rotation guy, and to be honest I love the idea of Johan, Dickey and Young fronting the Mets rotation the rest of the way. Washington has good starting pitching, but with a healthy Chris Young in the mix, the Mets are right there too.
  • Resiliency: Although the Mets lost on Tuesday, and although the Mets played so sloppy, their effort on Tuesday night proved to me why this team is easy to root for. Three times in the late innings the Mets came back to take the lead. Met teams of the not so recent past would have packed it in, but not these guys. They played short handed and sloppy, but they were competitive and that’s all we can ask.

3 Down:

  • Sloppy Play: Well folks, this is what we’re going to see with a young team. I think the bashing of Daniel Murphy is unwarranted (at this point), and Valdespin is here due to the injuries to the starting and back up shortstop. Nights like Tuesday are going to happen. As the team matures the sloppiness will go away.
  • Ike Davis: I’m sorry, but I’m getting tired of watching Auto-out Ike. We’re in June now, the Mets simply don’t have the depth to wait for Davis to work it out at this level. It’s time to seriously consider sending Ike shuffling off to Buffalo for a while.
  • Bay’s Return: I’m going to put the free agent signing of Bay right up there with the trade/signing of George Foster as the worst in franchise history. Bay has been worse than a disappointment, he’s been a walking M*A*S*H unit. Here we have Bay set to return to action Thursday afternoon, but he misses the game due to “flu like symptoms.” Really? How about this, take some aspirin, take some Pepto and do what the Mets are paying you to do. The Mets should use Bay as a DH during the inter-league play, then trade him, even if they only get a couple of bats in return. The Mets have been winning and successful while Bay has been on the DL, they should continue without him. Sorry Bay fans (if there are any).

The first installment of the 2012 Subway Series begins Friday night, with Mr. No Hitter, the great Johan Santana taking the hill for the Mets. As always LGM!