A New Rival

Sun

The Mets have many rivalries. The Phillies, the Braves, the Cardinals, the Yankees, the Marlins … but now there is a new nemesis that the Mets have to fight:

Mother Nature.

Here's the thing about Mother Nature though: Mother Nature doesn't need to stand on top of the plate and clap toward the Mets dugout, or make derogatory comments about fans who ride the 7 train, or call the Mets "Pond Scum". No, all Mother Nature has to do is show up, and the Mets are cooked. Not enough that by spreading out her wrath with all forms of precipitation she has forced about 30 rainouts and 28 doubleheaders this season. Now she has sent out the big gun to mess with Marlon Byrd. That's right, the sun … blinding Byrd and causing him to drop not one … but two fly balls in the fifth inning which didn't help Zack Wheeler's cause as he gave up three runs in that inning which led to a 6-2 Mets loss to Kansas City.

As for Wheeler, five walks and 102 pitches in five innings, but two of those walks were intentional and only one walk really hurt him, and that was because of the Byrd error (which really should have been the second error of the inning but the official scorer was obviously blinded by the same sun .. or off on a vision quest or something.) So take those out and you have 58 strikes out of 94 real pitches. Not great, but not horrible. But still no match for Mother Nature, who I'm sure is planning something special for the Mets in September, and it will involve a tornado, a microburst, hail the size of small dogs, all wrapped in a blizzard. But don't worry, you'll be able to leave the house because this weather system will be small enough to cover Citi Field and that's that. But why would Mother Nature bother with the Mets? They can't even beat the Marlins. They're no challenge for the sun, which should face a more formidable enemy like Godzilla. Because fighting the Mets just ain't a fair fight.

Arrow to top