Relax. It’s just two games. While the Mets may have dropped two of three to the Miami Marlins after returning home from an 8-2 road trip, all is still well in Flushing.
The Mets came back to Citi Field on Monday night red hot, riding a seven game winning streak that was pushed to eight after winning the first of three. The last two nights they ran into a buzzsaw, scoring just a total of three runs and dropping the final two games of the series. As you may recall, just ten days ago the Mets dropped two of three to this same Marlins team down in Miami.
What made these last two games sting a little more was the fact the Nationals were able to gain two games on the Mets as they swept the Phillies in Philadelphia. For now the magic number remains at 10.
“We had such an emotional high going coming out of Atlanta, I think you’re seeing just a little bit of a drain of the system,” Terry Collins said after Wednesday’s game.
“If there was a day off coming, I think it’s coming at the right time. I think we need to just get away for a little bit, we’re gonna come back, it’s gonna be pretty exciting starting Friday, and we need to pick the energy level up a little bit.”
The normal thing to do as a Mets fan would be to panic. After all, the collapse of 2007 is all but engraved in every one of our heads, however, this is not the same team, not by a long shot.
Even though it sure felt like it after Monday night’s 4-3 win, the reality is that the Mets were never going to finish the season on a 26 game winning streak. Believe it or not, even after dropping these last two games to the lowly Marlins, the Mets still have MLB’s second largest divisional lead at 7.5 games, and according to Vegas have 5/1 odds of winning the World Series. Heck, I’ll take that.
While the pessimistic Mets fan will have their hand hovering over the panic button as they enter a huge series on Friday night against their cross-town rival New York Yankees, I strongly urge you to have a little faith in this Mets team. Time and time again they have shown great resiliency and an ability to quickly get back on track.
After the Subway Series, the schedule eases up again as the Mets face the Braves, Reds and Phillies, before wrapping up the season at home against the Nationals. Nine of their last 16 games are home at Citi Field, where they are 46-26.
So no matter what the Mets did these past two days, they are still in complete control of their destiny. They are too good of a team to let the ghosts of 2007 get into their heads, in fact only two of the 37 players in that clubhouse were even there.
This New York Mets team is young, super-talented, and are having too much fun to worry about a collapse that happened eight years ago. They are a focused and driven bunch. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride to the playoffs.
