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On the (W)right Track



Does it get any better than this? The Mets continue to demonstrate that they are the class of the National League East. Braves dominate the Mets? Braves won seven of nine this year? Guess not. Better luck next year Braves.

The Phillies fall another game back, and now face the Dodgers, while the Mets face the Astros. The Dodgers are a better team, but their records aren’t that far apart. Then the two teams meet up for two next week. There are no real goals; just play better than the Phillies do. I’d like them to finish with the Phillies and be further ahead then they are now.

This was one of those games where you almost expect the Mets to drop one. They’ve been hot, they can’t win them all, Pedro can be hit or miss sometimes, and the bullpen hasn’t blown a game in a couple of days. Instead, the Mets pull one out, and now have Santana on the mound tomorrow. It doesn’t matter that it’s against Oswalt.

Now only are Ace’s supposed to stop losing streaks, but they’re supposed to string together winning streaks. All of a sudden the Mets have another winning streak, and Johan has a chance to make it longer. The Mets are on pace for 90 wins for the first time in ages. Johan on the mound, an emotional walk-off win, coupled with the return of Ryan Church, and the Mets will be rolling tomorrow night.

Things have to be looking bad for the Phillies. They lost ground despite playing the Nationals and winning two of three. They’re going into another four game series against the Dodgers, against whom they were swept recently. Could the Phillies fold under the pressure and go away so soon? Only time will tell.

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Runaway Train



10 in a row, and this was certainly a game you could’ve thought the Mets would lose when Santana proved to not be up to the task today and the bullpen was iffy. But the Mets kept battling, even in the top of the 9th, and came out on top. Good to see, good to win a game like that, but lets not make a habit of it. David Wright comes through with a clutch hit, a home run that if this was two weeks ago you would’ve been sure was going to be caught. This is probably a good question for metswalkoffs, but how it seems like David Wright has a crazy amount of walk-off or game-tying hits off of opposing closers. I guess it’s logical that these kinds of hits come off of closers, but I may start calling David Wright the Anti-Save anyway.

10! in a row and tied for first place. The Phillies get Joe Blanton and even if that made them feel better, that feeling barely lasted three hours. The Mets go for history Friday night, trying to tie the franchise record for wins in a row at 11. This team has made a complete 180 since about two weeks ago, and I cannot see a catalyst for it. Players just started playing well, pitchers started pitching, and instead of finding ways to lose, they’re finding ways to win. Maybe they just flat out ran out of ways to lose games?

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On Top of the World

A huge confidence booster to end the unofficial first half on this kind of note. Win or lose tomorrow, when they resume play on Thursday it’ll be with the knowledge that they can and will beat everyone.

The Mets now control their own destiny. They are zero losses behind for the lead, so if they win, they win. It’s a good place to be, and even if they were to fall back to one out, they can go into the break relaxed and confident.

For the first time probably all year, their was optimism and confidence in the stands at Shea while I was there. And the place was virtually packed too.

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Series Two in the books

They didn’t manage to put the Phillies away, but sometimes you’re 4th/5th starter isn’t going to be great, and the bullpen isn’t always going to be spotless. They came back immediately after Utley’s three run home run (And more people need to pitch this guy inside and hit him) to tie the game, which was nice.

They’ve been playing better now, and while a week ago people were prematurely screaming about how bad this team is, suddenly they don’t look so bad. They got five games in a row, which is something they struggled to do last year, and it means that everyone in the rotation was able to keep them in the game. The bullpen has been much better than expected, the only concern I have is that it’s kind of being overworked. But so far it’s got a depth that was it’s biggest weakness last year. If they can keep Schoeneweis and Sosa well rested, I think they’ll be able to squeeze a little bit of consistency out of them, which would be nice.

So what if the Phillies didn’t have Jimmy Rollins? We didn’t have Pedro. Or Alou. Or El Duque. The injury card isn’t valid, we beat the best they could throw at us.

The Mets recalled some of 2006 with a nice streak of scoring in the first inning. This fits well with their style of aggressiveness and putting pressure on the opposition, and it has a lot to do with Reyes getting on base. Now that we’re a couple of weeks in, it’s time to settle in and see how they do over a long period of time, let the slow starters catch up and the guys that are going to be carrying the team continue to step up and produce.

On a side note, I wish I had gotten to go down to Philly with the Metsblog crowd among all the others who made the trip, but I did get to visit Cooperstown for the first time this week.