The Other End Tweet This Post
The other end of the broom sure feels good!
Tags: broom, Mets, san francisco giants, Sweep
Can’t Rain On This Parade Tweet This Post
Five in a row! Again! Suddenly, the sky is blue and the paths are rosy. The Mets can do no wrong, the bench players come through with big hits, the bullpen and starters don’t allow runs and the Mets win the games instead of finding ways to lose.
Nothing has changed and yet everything has changed. Pelfrey looks so good that even the Mets of next year look good! The biggest difference in my eyes has been Carlos Delgado. Delgado is finally hitting the baseball hard, laying off of bad pitches, and driving it all over the place. I think Delgado has suddenly become better than he was in 2006, where he was even streakier. His ability to hit the ball hard has changed this lineup drastically, and he’s starting to scare pitchers again. He’s suddenly gotten his batter’s eye back, and as he hits more, pitchers will pitcher him more carefully, which means he’ll be able to draw more walks and consequentially, make less outs and ground into less double plays. If he remains hitting sixth, whoever hits in front of him is going to find more pitches to hit, and do better themselves. I know Endy has been playing well, but it’s no surprise that since Delgado has started hitting, this offense has been hot and those outfield holes have looked a lot smaller. Smaller holes means less desperation for Omar to find another outfield bat, and less desperation means he can be patient and find that diamond in the rough without sacrificing prospects and the future. I look forward to see what he can do over these next three weeks.
Except for a brief euphoria after Santana’s opening game win, or the brief glee we felt in April of 2007 starting with the vengeance sweep of the Cardinals, this may be the happiest Mets fans have felt since Endy came down with that catch. There will still be rough patches; The Phillies aren’t a great team, but there offense will have more hot streaks where they win a stretch of games. This is irrelevant if the Mets continue to perform as they have, as they’ll far outclass the Phillies. There are four games left before the break, and for the first time I find myself not agonizing over having to have a certain record to match a certain record to the Phillies. Barring catastrophe, we’ll go into the break with a virtual clean slate; able to outplay the Phillies, and the Braves and Marlins and Nationals, and win this division.
Chances are the Giants will find a way to score at least one run in their trip to New York, but I have a lot of confidence in John Maine to get the job done tonight. Let’s Go Mets!
Tags: All-Star break, Carlos Delgado, Confidence, Endy Chavez, endy's catch, euphoria, Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, shut outs, win streak
No longer sinking, but rising Tweet This Post
And the Mets take three out of four from the Phillies in Citizen’s Bank Ballpark. Billy Wagner made it stressful, but when it came down to it, the Phillies offense just wasn’t that good, and they just weren’t clutch enough to get the job done. In fact, the only win they got was in walk-off fashion in the 9th inning of a game in which Johan Santana should’ve been pitching. Instead Jerry Manuel pulls the Mets ace with only 95 pitches thrown and Sanchez gives it up in the 9th.
Pedro pitched well, but in typical Pedro Martinez fashion falters after he reaches the 100 pitch mark. 
The Mets finally give former Met Killer Adam Eaton a loss, get Pedro his first win, and now are only two games out in the loss column. Billy Wagner pitched two of his bad games, and the Mets won anyway. The so-called ‘gamer’ Phillies have been bad, especially last year, after facing the Mets. Let’s hope they continue that trend, and the Mets can win in these final six games. They could even be in first by the break.
Of course, the Mets have showed signs before, particularly against average Philadelphia who they are 7-3 against. A winning record over these next six would be a big step up though. Maybe the Mets really do turn it on now, and take the division they deserve.
Whether last year, or now, the Phillies have been incapable of building or holding a division lead. When it comes down to it, they’re just not a first place team. They’re a mediocre team that can pummel some teams and get hot, and can occasionally get up to play the big game against a better team, but usually that averages out in the long run and they finish where they belong, a couple of games above .500 and in second or third.
Tags: All-Star break, Billy Wagner, clutch, Mets, pedro martinez, Philadelphia Phillies, phillies suck
Palette Cleanser for the Phillies Tweet This Post
The best thing about the St. Louis blowout is that it set this team into a no-stress, easy going, comfortable mode that it hasn’t had since they went into the second game of the season and Pedro hurt himself. Hit the ball, beat crappy pitching, move along. Carlos Delgado looks freaking locked in. That home run he hit was just a nice, lazy, Delgado(old Delgado)like swing. That recap of the home run would fit in well in 2002, except for the Mets uniform. It was nice to see, and he’s amazing close to being on pace for a 30 HR, 100 RBI season, which you certainly would like to see him keep up at.
Jackie Robinson Rotunda Elevators
Thanks the Pelfrey and the surprisingly rejuvenated offense, there was no late inning thoughts of “How are they going to find a way to lose this one?” and just a nice, relaxing blowout going into the series of the year. Now unfortunately, the Braves suck and have halted the Phillies losing ways temporarily, but they pitched pseudo-ace Hamels against the reeling Braves, almost underestimating the Mets.
The Mets now have 10 games left until the All-Star break, and you’d like to see them be able to turn the corner, put this bad stretch behind them, and starting making confident strides towards first place and the division title. There are a couple of things they need to do that.
Beat Philadelphia. Obviously, anything but winning three or four against the Phillies leaves them right where they were, averagely struggling through the season. While a sweep is unlikely, it’s also possible, and a sweep would put the Mets with the same amount of losses as the Phillies going forward. If they win three, they need to win at least one more than the Phillies during the next six, and go into the break at worse one game out.
Get to the break above .500. If they do win the series against the Phillies, they’d be one over. Obviously a split of the final six against bad teams isn’t ideal, but right now if they could go into the the break one loss out and above .500 in anyway, it’s a good thing.
Win the final Sunday game against the Rockies. A nice solid win to finish up the unofficial first half would be a good way to cauterize the first half and just move forward with winning baseball games in the second half like a different team. Obviously it’s silly and impossible to place much importance on any single game within a 162 game season, but it’d put the team in the right mind frame for the second half.
Mets Believe Mets Fans Believe They Can Win Tweet This Post
I was at the Subway Series games this weekend, and while a lot of the juice has gone out of it, there was still excitement in the air. The lack of juice could be attributed to both teams struggling. I didn’t hear one “Jet-ers Boy-Friend” chant for A-Rod. No Hip-Hip You’re-Gay! No Captain Cologne! (Admittedly, some of these are better left unsaid) There were still a good amount of Yankees fans being positive, cheering “Der-ek Jet-er” and other assorted lame Yankees chants. Despite the Yankees being in arguably a worse position than the Mets, their fans are still more optimistic.
The argument everyone always falls back on is they’ve won in the past. But winning in the past doesn’t do anything for winning in the present. The only thing it affects is confidence, and part of that is fan confidence. Who do you think has more confidence in their team, and their own performance? Cano, or Castillo? Both are playing badly, but one guy is having his head called for constantly and booed. The other is certainly souring faces, but he’s not yet being chased out of town or having fans seriously consider releasing him. Sometimes if you tell someone that they are a certain way enough, they believe it themselves. When Delgado comes up to the plate, everyone at Shea is convinced and screaming at him that he’s going to ground out to second, so he’s thinking about grounding out to second. Just like you can’t stop thinking about the giant elephant in the room. Conversely, Derek Jeter comes up in a big spot thinking he’s going to come through because that’s what everyone always tells him he does. So he hits roughly the same ground ball, but instead it seems to go a little faster, and just seems to find that hole between second and first.
So how about we go about our business as Mets fans with a little bit of swagger and confidence. We just crushed the Yankees, winning the series 4-2. Play that way all season and the Mets would win well over 100 games. We’ve gained on the Phillies, and we’re coming with a vengeance that they should be frightened of. Even bad teams can win frequently, and whether you think the Mets are good, bad, or somewhere in between, lets go out there and root like we think and know they will win the game instead of constantly telling them how they’re going to fail and not good enough for us. Maybe they’ll start to believe it too.
Oh, and Jerry Manuel telling everyone that the it’s the Yankees town isn’t helping. All it did was give fodder to the newspapers to continue talking about the Yankees and treating the Mets like the second team.
Tags: attitude, Confidence, fans, Mets, mets rule, optimism, phillies suck, Yankees