Mets 12 Braves 2

In four innings against the Wild Card leading Braves, the Mets score double the amount of runs they mustered in four games against the previously fourth-place Nationals. Go figure.

A nice outburst, but it doesn’t really take the sting out of that four-game fold-up in Flushing.

The Mets begin their starring role as spoilers in September with a three-game set against Atlanta. Here is the lineup the Mets will send to bat against Braves pitcher Derek Lowe:

Jose Reyes – SS
Angel Pagan – CF
David Wright – 3B
Lucas Duda – RF
Jason Bay – LF
Nick Evans – 1B
Josh Thole – C
Ruben Tejada – 2B
Chris Capuano – P

A bit of a lineup juggle, with recently hot Ruben Tejada moving down to the #8 spot to protect Josh Thole. The Menudo member that wasn’t is hitting .320 in his last 7 games, while Pagan is at .240 over the same span. However, Pagan expertly avoided having a ball drop on his foot in centerfield yesterday, so I suppose this is some kind of a reward for that grace under pressure. As a fan, am I allowed to “fold it up”, and if so, how does one execute such a thing?

After a 1-8 homestand, the Mets finally appear to be playing as poorly as preseason pundits expected them to.  But there’s always 2012, or what may be even more interesting, the offseason.

Blogs away:

• Rising Apple reminds us not to forget about Jenrry Mejia when we talk about pitching prospects.
• Mack’s Mets compares two other pitching prospects, Mark Cohoon and Akeel Morris.
• Patrick Flood says the Mets might not even stack up against the Nationals next year.  Then again, they didn’t really stack up against them this year.
• Metstradamus finds himself in baseball Purgatory.  But the good news is, there are no lines at Shake Shack in Purgatory.
• Mets Fever looks at the bright side – the Mets prospects for a better draft pick are improving all the time.
• Real Dirty Mets are taking a beating from the Mets in September.

Hang in there – the offseason’s nearly here.  Check out Mets Today for all the latest developments.