After a sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays, the Mets laid an egg in a home series against the Red, dropping all three games. The Mets needed a bounce back series against Baltimore, who has been terrific the first few months of the season.
They did just that only alowing two runs in the three games and sweeping the Orioles at Citi FIeld.
Once again the Mets show their resiliency a resiliency that they have shown all year. Being able to bounce back from tough games or being on the losing end of series sweeps have not deterred them from their mission. Thats one thing that can’t be taught, it’s something that either a team has or a team doesn’t have.
It all started on Monday night with another masterful performance by R.A. Dickey, who has taken the National League by strom with his devistating knuckleball that has “baffled” many hitters. For his second outing in a row R.A. tossed a one hitter.
At 11-1 with a 2.00 ERA, Dickey has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball, leading the majors in almost every major pitching category.
In recent memory we have all been witness to some marvelous pitching seasons. Martinez in 99′ and Lee in 08′ just to name a few. With throwing a knuckleball and controling it the way Dickey has, the case can be made that come the end of this year, his numbers will be up there with some of the greats.
Obviously this team isn’t playing the way they have solely on the knuckleball of R.A. Dickey, but it’s a combined effort from this cast of characters that have bonded together beautifully. Whether it’s been David Wright, Scott Hairston or even in recent games the young Jordany Valdespin, the Mets are showing a unique trait that winning teams need, resiliency.
Winning on a consistant basis is so hard to do over the corse of 162 game regular season. Thats why a baseball season is not about how well you play for a week or two, but how you can recover from tough losses and series and continue to plow through and keep a positive winning attitude.
Enough isn’t said about how good of a job Terry Collins has done since he took the job as manager of the Mets. He completely changed the mindset of these players. Not accepting failure or even an average effort. From a leadership perspective, being able to get into these young players heads and getting them to play like a winner.
Obviously it’s still early in the season, it’s not even July yet, but the Mets are only 3.0 out in the division and currently hold one of the two NL Wild Card spots. For a fan base that has gone through and seen it all the last five years, it has been a sweet begining to 2012 and there’s still a lot to look forward to as we head closer to the mid-summer classic.
As the season moves deeper into the summer, it will be interesting to see how this team plays. For right now though its been a real pleasure to watch this group play night in and night out.
This weekend the Yankees come into Citi Field as the Mets look to even the score after being swept by the Bombers at Yankee Stadium eariler this month.
