I only want to talk about one specific at-bat here. It happened in the 9th inning, while Ryan Church was at bat. I was watching the defense and I saw before the final pitch that the second baseman and shortstop had moved in dramatically, to the front edge of the dirt. I was curious why, but then I realized. They were setting up Church for a ground ball with the bases load. Sure enough, ground ball, fielded, throw home for the force. Couldn’t someone in the dugout, or Church himself, seen this and adjusted accordingly? I’m not a baseball player but that made me see the Mets as overmatched.
Walk Off Drag Bunt
Four words that you don’t hear very often. They certainly don’t have the poetic nature of walk off grand slam, or bases clearing double. Baseball games never seize to amaze, even after over a century of play. When Reyes made out without sacrificing Green in, Mets fans were just pleading with Endy to hit one solidly, or bloop one into the outfield. When he laid down that beautiful beautiful bunt just past the pitcher, it was such a shock that you waited for the replay just because it was a “You can’t believe your eyes” type scenario. Like the wild pitch that got the Mets into a do-or-die game against the Reds in 1999, it’s exciting to win in different ways. Sure it’s fun to out-slug the opponents every game, but it’s games like this that are truly memorable. It also make opponents wary, in the same way having Jose Reyes on the bases makes pitchers wary. You never know what’s going to happen. Maybe next time the opponents remember Chavez, and don’t play as far back; and then someone bloops on right over the infielders to land just beyond their reach.
The Mets have a winning attitude, and they’re have that drive, that desire to find a way to beat you. They can find the flaws in your defense, the one bad pitch in the 30 you throw, the hole in the infield that you’re overshift exposes, or the weak arm in your outfield. When they find this things, they know how to extract runs and wins from them. That attitude and ability is what is going to enable the Mets to go far this year.