With a divisional opponent like the Nationals coming to town for a four-game showdown, the Mets have an opportunity to really silence those early season fluke theorists and all-around doubters.
Starting with reigning rookie of the year Jacob deGrom going up against Stephen Strasburg, the Mets will look to take advantage of Citi Field’s extensive confines and keep bats like Bryce Harper, Ian Desmond, Jayson Werth, Denard Span, and Wilson Ramos at bay.
Strasburg vs deGrom is only Act I. With pitching matchups of Max Scherzer vs. Matt Harvey, Gio Gonzalez vs. Jonathan Niese, and Doug Fister vs. Dillon Gee, I’m not thinking too many souvenir balls unless they’re in foul territory.
This will really be a great opportunity for Mets pitching to compete and prove themselves as a truly formidable rotation, not that there were ever any doubts from the Flushing faithful.
As the Nationals, still dizzy from all their offseason spending, are getting their own type of criticism for such a slow start out the gate.
Which team will do the silencing this weekend? I’m willing to guess a little of both. No sweeps here, but the true victory will be not splitting the four. Should a team come out of this weekend with a 3-1 keepsake, I’m sure a consensus or two will be upheld or dismissed. Either way, the Mets will still be looking down from the top of the NL East come Sunday afternoon.
Thoughts from Joe D.
After the last home stand I wrote that we need to temper expectations but that we still have a lot to be excited about.
What I meant by that was that the Nationals and Marlins were not going to lose 100 games each this season and the Mets weren’t going to win 100. Baseball is the great equalizer and eventually things just even out.
I think we’ve see a lot of that in the past week with the Mets losing two consecutive series and our other chief divisional rivals turning things around.
The good news for the Mets is that they’ve banked some big wins which will come in handy if we hit a rut and let’s face it, all great teams do.
The other significant thing the Mets have going for them is Harvey, deGrom and Bartolo Colon. As I’ve said often, we have the luxury of not one but three stoppers, and that means no prolonged losing streaks. I doubt the Mets ever have a losing streak greater than four games all year.
Anyway, things are tightening up but it’s not totally unexpected. It’s going to be a fun and exciting season, a tough and grinding season, but in the end I believe the Mets sneak into the postseason for the first time since 2006.
