Paul Goldschmidt hits a walk off home run and we brace ourselves. David Wright’s hamstring blows up and we get into the fetal position. The Marlins sweep the Mets and we rent a fallout shelter. It’s Met fan nature. We’re conditioned. Most of us learn from history … rooting for the Mets is like constantly touching a hot stove. Oh we’ll still touch it and burn ourselves, but we’ll put gloves on now … which is the equivalent of asking ourselves when the fifteen game losing streak is coming.
The Mets taught me long ago that there’s no such thing as momentum. Bad Mets teams win a huge game on a walk-off or a last at-bat bomb or a one-hitter and go out and lose the next five. Hell, look what the Mets did after sweeping the Yankees … they lost three to the Marlins and there went your precious momentum. But that was a different team, one without Zack Wheeler and outfield speed. Now, these Mets could lose a game where Dillon Gee pitches a complete game and then go sweep a doubleheader. Now they could lose a 15 inning game and win five out of the next six. Now they could lose on a walk-off home run and win the next two. These Mets are helping me break bad habits while teaching me that while there is no “momentum”, they’re doing their very best to avoid the opposite of momentum: the death spiral.
Sunday’s 9-5 victory featured a welcome back to Jon Niese, who outside of one or two radar blips courtesy of Aaron Hill, was more than adequate in his return. It featured some good fortune in the form of a Paul Goldschmidt three run error which helped ruin the day of a pitcher whose name I thought was Zeke Squirrel. (I was medicated … and it’s Zeke Spruill, stupid.) It featured a big three run HR by Andrew Brown, which lends credence to the theory that we’re starting to have “a different hero every night” (which is less of Merlin’s magic and more the product of good roster management.) And it also featured Wilmer Flores’ first major league dinger. Ironic that a guy who has outgrown shortstop hits his first home run off a guy whose ERA has outgrown most major league stadiums, Heath Bell.
As much as I loathe lazy crutch statements and thoughts such as “low-risk high-reward”, I have to admit this “different hero every night” schtick is starting to grow on me. The more “heroes” we have means the more halfway capable players are around. Still plenty to go, but remember this: The Mets are 29-22 since the end of Western Civilization. If the bottom is going to fall out, it better do it soon because the bottom is running out of time.
The bottom thought might have fallen out for Jeremy Hefner, who was optioned to Las Vegas before the revelation that Hefner pitched most of the year with elbow discomfort due to a liner off his elbow hit by Carlos Beltran (yet another thing we can blame him for.) This means that his recent downturn can’t be explained by injury. But it also means that his hot streak which was as hot as anyone’s best in baseball while it lasted is that much more impressive. If Hefner lands on the DL, his Vegas option is canceled, which I’m sure Jordany Valdespin is thrilled about.
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