With one series left before the All-Star Break, the Mets have a chance to finish the first half of their season on a high note. They have to play the Pirates in Pittsburgh. The Bucs had a great first half, but have struggled of late having lost 6 of 10. The Mets, on the other hand, have won 7 of their last 10.

Most recently, they wrapped up their first road sweep of the San Francisco Giants since 1994. Here’s the Mets’ roster from that strike-shortened season. (And they’re still paying Bobby Bonilla, amirite??)

What has been the difference in the Mets during this recent stretch of better baseball? The will to win? Emotion? A football mentality? Or maybe it’s just a matter of finding better players to replace the other players who weren’t performing.

Is their recent play a sign of things to come, or is it simply a blip on the radar screen?

They’ve also been much better on the road than at home this year.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking away the moments leading up to the first All-Star Game in Queens since 1964. Should Marlon Byrd have joined David Wright and Matt Harvey in the Midsummer Classic?

Harvey will likely make an appearance in the game, whether he starts or not. The Mets will skip his spot in the rotation during the Pittsburgh series. The reason for this is threefold. First, he’s on pace for 240 innings. He threw 160 total last year between the minors and majors. That’s a huge jump for most young pitchers. Second, he’s been pitching with a blister on his finger lately. And third, it will allow him to throw 25-30 pitches or so in the ASG.

And lastly, Darryl Strawberry thinks Tim Tebow is a “real man.”

That’s all for today. Happy All-Star Break, and have a great weekend.

On Saturday, the Mets more than made up for their two consecutive rainouts by playing 20 innings of baseball. They fell to the Miami Marlins, 2-1 (Box Score).

Ike Davis strikes out on Sunday during a key moment in the game.

OK, you’re probably reading the headline and thinking, “more like ‘Seven Guys Not Slumping at the Same Time is the Key to Mets Offense.'”  Yes, the Mets are not exactly the reincarnation of the 1927 Yankees.

They don’t have an ideal leadoff hitter or a steady center fielder or right fielder.  Ruben Tejada has been nearly as unspectacular with the bat has he has been with the glove this year, and Daniel Murphy, after a hot start, has slumped mightily.  On April 25th, he was batting .346/.388/.538.  Since then, he’s hit only .130/.161/.167.

It seems in late April, everyone went into a slump following their hot start.  But the Mets need a stabilizing presence in the middle of the lineup to mitigate poor performance from the rest of the team – let’s say…a power-hitting left-handed bat.  Someone like Ike Davis.

28 games are in the books in 2013 – 28 embarrassing, encouraging, disastrous, delightful, hopeless and hopeful games.  One night, a fan could go from swearing off his beloved Mets for good, while another game brings about a glimmer of hope.  But the Mets have given us no reason to believe that 2013 edition of this team will deliver anything more than a glimmer.

David Wright is not in tonight’s lineup due to what manager Terry Collins called a “real stiff neck.”  Which I suppose is worse than a fake stiff neck.  He’s officially day-to-day.

“It was bothering him at the end of the game yesterday,” Collins said. “He played yesterday. He was fine when the game started. It’s just something that happened during the game. I don’t know what it was. He doesn’t know what it was. He wanted to try to get ready today and I said, ‘It doesn’t make any sense.’ If you have those kind of muscle spasms, you can loosen them up and if you don’t be careful they can come right back. So I just wanted to give him the day.”

Justin Turner will start at third base in his stead.  Turner catches a lot of criticism, but as an occasional starter and pinch-hitter, he’s done a solid job for the Mets.  When he plays every day, as he did in 2011, his weaknesses are exposed.

So, hopefully, Wright can get back in the lineup soon, and we won’t have to worry about a scenario in which the Mets are without their best player for a long period of time.

As Collins said, someone else has to step up.  This would be a swell time for Ike Davis to find his swing.

The original Yogi.

This is the phase of Spring Training where we start to wring our hands and worry about injuries and try to predict who’s going to start on Opening Day.  Since I have enough to worry about in real life, I’m adopting a new philosophy – I’m not going to worry about baseball – at least not until the actual games are played.

Baseball is supposed to be a welcome distraction from the real world anyway – a chance to lose yourself in a sporting event for 3 hours.  So I’m just going to get into a “Lilting Flower” pose (or whatever that yoga pose is – I have hamstrings of concrete which prevent me from doing yoga anyway) and not worry about whether David Wright or Justin Turner or Richie Hebner will start at third base on Opening Day.

And I’m not going to worry about the outfield, which could be really bad, just like the 2000 outfield was on paper.  Besides, if Lucas Duda can keep hitting the ball the way he has lately in ST, maybe he can make us forget that he has the range of and Easter Island statue in left.

More importantly, what do the Mets bat weights look like this year?

Oh, and the bullpen is going to be better this year.  It’s in the Post, so it must be true.

So, Ohm and Kumbaya and let’s play ball already.

Can’t wait to see his Instagram later.

You’ll all be happy to know that Mets 2B Jordany Valdespin is fine after he got hit by a Justin Verlander pitch in the…well, I’ll let Jordany tell you.  After he was removed from the game, he told reporters that “Everything is good, working good, normally, everything is great.”

Thanks for that self-evaluation, JV.

This, of course prompted a stream of Twitter tweets using every pun in the book, including a suggestion that the term “base on balls” be redefined.

Oh, by the way, the Mets beat the Tigers 11-0.

Valdespin continues to make an impact with his bat as well, now hitting .370 with 3 home runs and 6 RBIs this spring.  If he’s truly improved his pitch recognition and can cut down on the strikeouts, he could be a valuable player for the Mets.

Meanwhile, David Wright led Team USA to two victories over the weekend, advancing the team to the next round of the World Baseball Classic. His grand slam put the Mets Americans up for good on Saturday against Mike Piazza‘s Team Italy, and his three-walk performance on Sunday helped the Americans past the pesky Canadians. Some fans have taken to calling him Captain America. That has a nice ring to it.

RHP Zack Wheeler was among the first cuts in camp this year. Wheeler tossed a couple of impressive innings in his only spring appearance. His next appearance was cut short by a tweak in his oblique, but he’s ready to work again.  I would have enjoyed seeing him pitch one more time this spring – just because he’s fun to watch – but I assume we’ll be seeing plenty of him in the near future.

That’s all for now. Have a great week and don’t forget to wear your cup.

The Official Unofficial Captain.

David Wright joined the Mets push to acquire Michael Bourn on Monday.

While the Mets engage in draft jujitsu with Major League Baseball over their eleventh round draft pick, and play a game of cat and mouse with Scott Boras, Wright contacted Bourn personally to lobby the center fielder to come to Flushing.

Wright talked, and exchanged text messages with, the speedy center fielder in an effort to sell him on the Mets.

“I just wanted to let him know that he would be a great addition here and he’d obviously be welcomed here,’’ Wright said after his first early workout at Port St. Lucie.

“I talked to him a couple weeks ago, and I told him, ‘You’re always in the right place at the right time, your work counts,’’’ Wright said. “I’ve always had great respect for him and the way he plays the game and have always kind of chatted with him when he gets to third base.”