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Can’t Rain On This Parade

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!

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The City of Brotherly Love

We arrived in Philly around noon, stopped at my friend’s condo, had some lunch, and then took the transit system, SEPTA, to the ballpark. We arrived in the top of the first, and it was weird that we were actually missing the Mets at bat. This was my first time seeing the Mets away from home, and they made me proud. The first game featured probably 30% Mets fans, so we weren’t alone. The night game was sold out for fireworks, so there were less Mets fans, but we still managed to get a “Jose, Jose” chant going for a bit before we were booed. Oddly, I only heard one “Let’s go Phillies” chant the entire day. I wasn’t hassled much either. Some girls teased us a little on the train, and we got cursed at a couple of times throughout the day, but nothing major. We were in our seats in time to see the Phillies complaining about El Duque, and could tell that he was getting angry at them. Six innings later, with the Mets out to a nice lead, he had his revenge.

The Mets bats surely woke up, in both games. The second game especially, where the Mets stranded tons of runners on base, some from some nice plays by Michael Bourn in right field. They got some hits, they got some home runs, they stole some bases, and they got some hits with runners in scoring position and two outs. The Mets have won seven of eight, put the Phillies six losses back, and are again on a roll.

The bullpen make it a little difficult in the first game, and then we hurried over to Chickie’s and Petes, which is a local sports bar. They have yummy crab fries, which I, and apparently Metsradamus, highly recommend. We also had a tower of beer, which is just like it sounds. It’s two and a half pitcher’s of beer in a tall tower with a tap on the bottom to serve yourself that sits on the table. We also had some wings, paid, and headed back to Citizen’s Bank Ballpark.

Back at the stadium I made sure to get a cheesesteak, and I had a Phillies hat full of chocolate ice cream, that I didn’t smash like the Fanatic smashed a Mets cap on the field during the game. The Mets loaded the bases in the first inning, but didn’t score. That was only the start though, Beltran blasted two runs, and the Mets chased Cole Hamels early. Not before he threw behind Reyes, leading to a wild pitch and a run. Reyes had an interesting day, he was angered by Hamels, and in the first game he was called out stealing second on what was clearly a bad call. He even stood around the base, still reluctant to actually leave the base that was rightfully his. Willie came out to argue briefly, but to no avail. Wagner was summoned after Maine gave up a double to start the 9th, even though it wasn’t a save. Wagner sadly allowed that run to score, but in a measure of revenge for his only blown save of the year, he struck out Pat Burrell to end the game.

David Wright says he will be upset of John Maine is not on the All-Star team. Only Brad Penny has more wins than him at 10, and he’s fourth in the league in ERA at 2.74. At what basically is his halfway point, he has 84 strikeouts in 102 innings. To compare, Cole Hamels has the same 9-4 record as Maine, with an ERA approaching four. To think that Maine was considered one of the Mets question marks before the season, is laughable.

I do enjoy the stadium down there, but I think it’s nothing that special. It’s a nice modern park, but nothing superb. The ball travels nicely there, and all the sight-lines are good. The Mets always hit well there, and they have much better food than at Shea. Still, when I go back to Shea later this month, I’m sure I’ll have that ‘It is good to be home’ feeling.

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Fiery Ejections and Walk-off Doubles

At Shea for my usual Saturday season ticket plan, I finally got to see the Mets with two in a roll, win a series, and it was fun. The attendance was over 52,920, and it seems that many of the bloggers I read were there as well. The Faith and Fear duo, Metsradamus, and Metswalkoffs. I think they all had better seats than me too.

It was a great game, Orlando Hernandez was pitching well, and so was Joe Blanton. El Duque let up some base runners, but they always got out of it, and he battled through the 7th with nearly 120 pitches. One could think that scoring only one run is just the Mets slumping again, but that’s not the case. All the credit there goes to Joe Blanton, who pitched through eight innings. The Mets did have Ricky Ledee thrown out at the plate on a nice 2-out, runners in scoring position, double by Carlos Beltran. I think Evan Roberts really needs to rip Joe Benigno about that on their show on WFAN Monday, because he’s playing very well. He was running full-speed on Wright’s walk-off double, even though his run was meaningless. He was excited, and he came charging around third, almost catching Castro. It was a botched play in right field, as if he had played it on a hop, Castro wouldn’t have scored. It didn’t matter though, as I had faith in Delgado getting a fly-out there to score him. After struggling against Joe Blanton, as soon as he was lifted for a guy with a 0.00 ERA in 12.1 innings, they jumped all over him. Castro leads off with a double, they walk Belran to the boos, and David Wright hit’s another double the opposite way to right, game over.

The Mets win a series again, every other team in the East loses, and just like that the Mets are again three full games up on the competition. Four and five games in the loss column over Philadelphia and Atlanta. The Mets now have added another team in the A’s that they don’t have a losing record against, having tied the Cubs all-time earlier this season, also on a walk-off ninth inning hit. A pitcher’s duel, a temper tantrum with an ejection and throwing stuff on the field, and a game winning double by David Wright. What more could you ask for in a game?

I did notice a little less campaigning for Paul Lo Duca at the game today, and I wonder why. I think the Mets may have started that push a little early. Now if Paulie overtakes Martin in the voting Monday, Dodger fans will be motivated to vote hard. We should have waited until after that tally came out to push for him, and get him past the unsuspecting Dodger fans. So remember, Lo Duca still needs our votes next week, and you can vote 25 times per email address you type into that box.

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Triple Play Means Its Time to Get Going

I was half paying attention to the game last night as I did other things, among them voting for Placido Polanco for the All-Star team, since he’s only 8k votes behind Robinson Cano and I really don’t want him to win. I also wrote in votes for Boston’s Kevin Youkilis, because with the year he’s having, it’s a shame he’s not even on the ballot at the position he plays. It’s a lost cause, but I’ve been voting for Endy Chavez too.

And It’s even more of a lost cause now, as he grounded out into a triple play yesterday, Reyes out at second, Chavez out at first, and Chavez’s hamstring out running down the line. Without thinking about it, it seems like losing your fourth outfielder shouldn’t be that big a deal, but we all know it is. The Mets have their star outfielder playing at about 85%, and lost their second and third outfielders to injuries, and now their fourth. Endy means so much more than that, which is almost impossible to put into words. Luckily it’s not major, and he will be back for the bulk of the end of the season to contribute the way he contributes.

I don’t even know what to say about Alou, but Green and Valentin will be back soon. Maybe between Easley, who’s also injured with tendinitis for the past two weeks, and Newhan and Johnson and Gomez the Mets can piece together that third spot for whatever time Alou needs to get healthy, as long as what he needs isn’t a time machine. It sucks for Lastings Milledge, who if he wasn’t injured would be getting a lot of chances to play. Even if the Mets don’t want to keep him, him playing here would be a great bargaining chip. I really think we need to keep Ruben Gotay around, who I liked in spring training and really have kept liking since he’s been up. Jose Valentin has played some left field before, most notably six times for the Mets last year, maybe he could fill in there too.

After their first three game losing streak, I expect the Mets to wake up from this lackluster daydream they’ve been having. I know they’ve lost practically no ground in the division race, which says loads about the Braves, but losing three games the way they’ve been playing is a disgrace. Losing Endy Chavez and the prospect of being swept at home will jolt the Mets into action.

I’ve been talking about, and waiting for this moment all year. When the Mets put together one of those swagger-filled, “You can’t touch us” streaks of great baseball. It’s coming now. The Phillies aren’t a threat, and the Mets don’t view them as part of this tough stretch of schedule. They are going to rise to the occasion to play with the best teams of 2006. I fully expect that by the time July 1st roles around, we’ll barely be able to see the next team in the rear view mirror, having put together a 17-6 stretch of games.

It’s hard to say they’ve been cruising, but they pretty much have been. Now with some serious concerns, it’ll wake them up and they’ll begin to show why they’re a championship caliber team. Who knows, maybe we can have Lo Duca start some games in left field and get Castro some at-bats.

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Power Depletion

The Mets offense was shut down for the third time this week, this time it wasn’t against a Cy Young award winner, but Doug Davis. We can lose Jose Valentin for a while, no big deal. Moises Alou goes down? Well we expected that, and we’ve got a bunch of outfield prospects we want to play with, and it’s always nice to get Endy Chavez some regular time. Shawn Green’s going on the DL? Well maybe one of these prospects actually gets hot for a while, or David Newhan prospers with some regular starts like Jose Valentin did last year. Carlos Beltran bruised his knee? Well now it’s starting to look a little darker. Our offense was very depleted this weekend, but we never made it easy. Oliver Perez and John Maine both pitched well to start, but ultimately fell off the pace before the opposing pitcher did. The Mets failed to work counts to try to get into the bullpen to find somebody hittable, and they weren’t able to capitalize on most of the few situations that presented themselves. Still, 35-20 is a great record.

The weekend can basically be summed up by the 8th inning on Sunday. The Mets had four regulars playing; Reyes walked, Wright singles, and Lo Duca walked. This shows how the Mets regular offense can manage to get on base, while the rest of the fill-ins couldn’t get them home.

Now lets get to the optimism. The Mets pitched very well. John Maine and Oliver Perez kept them in games, which is what we’ve wanted out of them. Maine’s been showing that ability all season, while Perez has a couple of meltdowns that were problematic. Him being able to stay in the game, even after some struggles is important And then there is Jorge Sosa. What a great year he’s having after not making the team. He had one poor start, which is probably the only thing that’ll keep him from winning pitcher of the month for May. The real question, while way too premature, is what happens when Pedro returns? I know the Mets signed Aaron Sele to a minor league contract, but I have no idea if that means he’s able to be optioned down to New Orleans if they wanted to switch Sosa into that role when Pedro returned. Fortunately, it’s a good problem to have, and it’s Omar Minaya and Willie Randolph’s problem to deal with. Another consideration is to shop Sosa around, but I don’t know that the Mets have any glaring holes that are desperate for filling. Getting some minor league depth in pitching or second base is always nice, but it’s not a priority or urgency in any way.

Beltran will be back Tuesday, hopefully Alou will be too. Valentin will also be back before long. It seems clear that Carlos Gomez is going down, and at least Newhan or Ben Johnson. It would also appear that Ruben Gotay will go down when Valentin returns, as you can only have so many back-up infielder bench guys, and we all know that Franco’s not going anywhere. Once the lineup starts coming back together, I expect the Mets to put together a real win streak, where they go out and dominate the competition.

I probably won’t be at Shea for the Philly series, despite being at over a third of the Met home games this season, which means my 13th Met game probably won’t be until June 23rd as part of my Saturday pack. Going three weeks without being at a game almost feels weird with the rate I’ve been in attendance over the past two years.