Mets Offense Awakens to Earn 1 1/2 Game WC Lead

Competing against the Phillies has been deflating.  Competing against the Brewers - ah, now there is a chance for the Mets to feel good about themselves.  Yesterday afternoon the Brew Crew blew a 9th inning lead for the 12th time this season, and in the most horrible fashion, as a Ryan Braun error in left field opened the door, despite a 4-run lead with two outs in the ninth, for an eventual Cub victory in 12.  That was the type of crushing defeat Mets fans have gotten used to suffering with their own team.  But the Mets have “only” blown 11 9th inning leads, one fewer than the Beermakers.  And after a Met victory, thanks to an awakened offense and the pitching of Johan Santana, elevated the Mets to a 1 1/2 game lead in the wild card and maintained their 1/2 game deficit in the division, does this symbolize the fact that they now have an emotional edge in the wild card chase?

The Mets bullpen is of course still shaky, to the extent that a 7-1 lead in the 8th inning last night honestly did not feel safe when Santana departed.  But there’s nothing like a productive offense to cover up the bullpen worries.  Carlos Beltran has been clutch, two homers Wednesday in a 9-7 victory over the Nats, and a key triple last night that resulted in a couple of big runs.  And Jose Reyes has turned it around, a leadoff homer Wednesday and a leadoff double last night have opened up the scoring column early, and Jose finished the last two games with an efficient contirbution of 4-for-9 hitting with three runs and three RBIs. 

However, lets not throw a party just yet.  This is the Nats we’re talking about.  Washington has gifted the Mets run after run in the last two games.  Both Elijiah Dukes and Lastings Milledge had awful jumps at the wall on balls that could have been caught by an experienced outfielder, but instead resulted in key triples to Beltran and Daniel Murphy.  Alberto Gonzalez, in an alltime bonehead classic, was thrown out trying to steal third base on a walk (seemed like he started advancing to third after forgetting there was no one on first and no force).  Another gift came last night in the ninth, when Nat manager Manny Acta inexplicably pulled his 4 and 5 hitters out of the lineup in the 9th inning and thereby derailed the chances of a comeback.  I know the Mets reamaining opponents, the Braves, Cubs and Marlins, will not be nearly as generous, and the Amazins will be under tremendous pressure to make their own breaks against these teams.

While Reyes, Beltran and Carlos Delgado re-awakened to make contributions the last two nights, and Brian Schneider unexpectedly contributed a pair of home runs last night, there are lingering concerns about the ice cold David Wright.  His numbers in the four games in Washington were ugly, 1-for-18 with seven strikeouts, ouch.  What’s even worse, however, is the way Wright carried his struggles into the field.  In the ninth inning Wednesday, Wright’s error opened the door for a Nat comeback when he short-armed a routine throw to first base.  Obviously Wright WANTS to succeed, but if you saw his violent helmet-throw last night then you know his ability to stay focused and let success come to him is currently in question.  Wright was robbed by his buddy Ryan Zimmerman on a couple of stellar plays by the Nat third baseman; Wright needs to have the maturity to shrug this off and say “that’s baseball.”  He hit the ball sharply both times, which is better than striking out.  Instead of making an outward display of his emotion, Wright needs to suck it up and believe that the ball will bounce his way next time.  Hopefully that is the sort if message Jerry Manuel can impart.

Tonight New York is in Atlanta where they have been 0-6 this year.  But they beat up Braves starter Jo Jo Reyes when they faced him in Shea a week ago.  The Mets look to Oliver Perez to throw a strong start and remain on the mound as long as possible, so he can keep the Mets bullpen doing what they do best, chewing on sunflower seeds and telling stories in the bullpen

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Last post (s) by Mark Reichman

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