Out-of-this-World Streak Reaches Nine
Right in the middle of last night’s Mets-Braves games, the SNY cameras cut to shot of a fast-moving object in the night sky that Keith Hernandez identified as the Space Station. It was visible here to in Bethlehem too, a kind of mechanical Halley’s Comet. That celestial body has been known as a harbinger of major events. The poet in me wonders if this flyover might have a similar portent for our orange and blue heroes. BTW Halley’s last appearance was–wait for it, 1986.
Meanwhile, back on earth, the extra-terrestrials that currently inhabit Mets uniforms laid a 7-1 beating on the deflated-looking Atlanta Braves. I know it is only April, but I felt this was a huge game for the Mets to win, coming off the devastating news of the Travis d’Arnaud and Jerry Blevins injuries on Sunday. A series loss now, especially right before the initial Subway Series set with the Yanks, would have started the speculation that injuries have finally caught up with the Mets.
Instead, Kevin Plawecki and Alex Torres filled in nicely for their two injured counterparts. Plawecki had two hits and Torres struck out Met-killer Freddie Freeman to snuff out the last hope for Atlanta. Curtis Granderson had four RBI and winning pitcher Jon Niese lowered his ERA to 1.50.
We haven’t had much to cheer about recently, so I am thoroughly enjoying this streak. I humbly submit that you all just take this in and ride it for as long as it lasts. I haven’t felt this good about the Mets in quite a while and I am crossing my fingers that maybe, just maybe this is the start of an upswing. I still think we will be hearing from the Washington Nationals, but the rest of the division looks to be buried already. Philadelphia is a last-place team, Miami may have some better players than the Mets but their lack of depth has hurt them badly. (Speaking of depth, Dilson Herrera is certainly making a case for a promotion). Atlanta looks like an incomplete collection of parts. I haven’t seen enough of the rest of the NL yet to get a real sense of who is a contender or not. But perhaps the dreams of contention and the much-maligned meaningful games in September is a reality for us this year.
One game at a time, I know. How about you? What has been your impression so far?
Torres starts by throwing 2 balls. By the way, this is the reason I haven’t warmed up to Alex Torres, the control issues bother me. At 2-0, Freeman looked to be looking for a fastball as he took a change up right down the middle and up in the strike zone At 2-1, still looking for a fastball, he’s way in front of a slider down and out of the zone. At 2-2, he takes a fastball down and in for strike 3, apparently looking for something else.
If Freeman had been looking for offspeed and taken that 2-0 hanging change out, or if he’s been looking for a fastball and taken that 2-2 pitch out, a pitch down and in to a lefty, we may not be praising Torres as much. But as it is, everything is going the Mets including individual matchups.
Great win, keep it rolling.
It’s only the NL East, correct. But good teams beat up on bad ones. Really good teams go at least .500 against good and great ones – that remains untested. If they’re more than 8 games over .500 a month from now, I might have something substantial to believe in. For now, I’ve given myself permission to enjoy it.
I’m just sorry Joe J. isn’t around. Curious to know if the recent performance has shaved a few degrees of curmudgeon off him.
What’s with Murphy though? Herrera could replace him soon, but let Murph start hitting, so he can be traded.
Flores is hitting the ball and playing serviceable defense. Put another way, it’s defense you can live with if he continues to hit.
I am looking to razz Janish but he has seemingly gone underground. In the witness protection program perhaps?