Bigger Than Big

I think its cute … y’know, the motivation tactics that Terry Collins has resorted to. We as Mets fans have been clamoring for meaningful pennant race type games. This series against the Braves hardly counts, even though the Braves are in first place and the series is four games long. The math says that ten games out in the standings minus the four that the Mets could theoretically win still leaves six. But bless Terry’s heart … he’s treating this as a must win series and a must win game.

The manager said it was important for more than the game in the standings, too. The Mets had committed three errors in the eighth inning and squandered a lead last Monday at Turner Field. To have eighth-inning meltdowns in consecutive series openers against the Braves would have been demoralizing. “We needed it bad, because it was very similar to the game in Atlanta that we had a chance to win down there,” Collins said. “So it’s a big game for us to start the series with.”

That’s probably a bigger stretch than Stretch Armstrong (and his arms stretch out to here!) to say that the motivation to win this game was to not be demoralized by this combined with the last series opener. But hey, that’s how far you have to stretch to reach for a reason that Monday’s game against Atlanta was the most must of must wins. Fine. Let’s pretend that a sweep of the Braves will get us right back into the race. And while we’re at it, let’s pretend that we’re going to sweep the Braves.

Well, the Mets are a quarter of the way there after their nutty 4-3 victory over the Braves. Curtis Granderson really saved the day with his eighth inning game tying home run, which made everybody forget about the top of the inning when the bullpen turned a Daisuke Matsuzaka gem (seven scoreless) into coal by giving up three runs. The game went to the eleventh where Ruben Tejada ended it with a walk-off base hit. (Yes, I say that completely unironically.)

[mlbvideo id=”34385355″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /] I for one am happy that the Mets won the game in the 11th and not the ninth, where they caught a huge break as Juan Lagares bunted into what should have been a force play, but was called safe on review as Andrelton Simmons was off the bag to try to throw the ball to first to complete the double play. Technically, Simmons’ foot was off the bag. But it was so to complete a double play, and thus technically a “neighborhood play”.

Development in replay talks: At request of MLBPA, source says “neighborhood play” at 2B on double plays likely will NOT be reviewable.

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 16, 2014

[mlbvideo id=”34382077″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]

But it was obviously reviewable on Monday for some reason, and the Mets were the beneficiaries of the call. Fredi Gonzalez is probably still fuming over it with the hotel concierge at the LaGuardia Mariott, and with good reason. Typical Mets though … they couldn’t take advantage of the gift as they left the bases loaded in the ninth.

But that’s okay because Tejada won the game in the 11th legitimately after some good bullpen work by Carlos Torres (does he have the save the Mets every time?) and the Mets won their “must win” game. If you squint hard enough, you might be able to see Doc and Darryl and Keith and Gary out there on the field playing a real must win game. But hey, let’s enjoy this while it lasts. It may be the closest we get to seeing a pennant race this season, even if Terry had to invent it.