What a difference a week makes. Thanks to a plethora of work, family engagements and school assignments I haven’t been able to post as much but hopefully the skies are clearing and the sun is on his way out for me to be back to posting daily.
So what exactly has changed in the last week? Well, really, there are three major reasons why:
1. The pitching staff
2. Reyes in the 3 hole.
3. Playing teams at the right time.
1. Consider that the Mets starting pitching staff has a collective ERA of 1.39 over a ten game span heading into Monday’s game that got rained out. Thats pretty special. Not that the bullpen hasn’t helped. In fact, the starters have rarely gone over 6 innings. Which of course means the bullpen is logging about 3 innings on average every single day which of course isn’t good. But I suppose that was looked into when Omar Minaya began putting starters into the bullpen not so much as a safety net in case the starters get injured but also to give length in case its needed, and thus far, its been needed. I’m not too worried about the starters only going 5 innings in April. But come May and June, that problem had better be fixed. Right now only Pelfrey is going a consistent 7 innings which of course wasn’t so unexpected.
What I like most about the Mets pitching staff has been the way Jerry Manuel has handled it. Last night when he sensed Oliver Perez was about to go through one of his classic meltdowns he immediately pulled him and brought in the bullpen. Sure its the fourth inning but it was a tied game and Manuel was playing to win the game .* The bullpen, who’ve played excellent thus far, came in and did the job. Takahashi finished off the Dodgers for the next 3 innings and the rest of the way the bullpen was able to be mix-and-match.
*= Somebody get Herm Edwards in here.
2. Reyes in the 3 hole was not a surprising move considering Jerry Manuel was tossing the idea around in Spring Training. How do you turn a classic lead off hitter, someone many consider the best lead off hitter in the game, to be a 3 hitter. You’re asking a guy to change his mindset.* But here’s Reyes in the 3 hole and it makes sense for the Mets. You pack speed at the top with the first three hitters and pack power in the middle with 4-6. Its been working for the Mets especially yesterday as Wright came up to bat and cleared the basepaths. Also consider that Bay has hit 3 triples over the span of a week and has shown speed and having him hit behind Reyes who has started to hit a lot better than when he first checked back in with the Mets during the first weekend of the season. Bay is seeing more fastballs and he’s crushing them and not trying to hit home runs. Which of course brings us to Wright. Forget yesterday. His batting stance, his mindset have all been brought to question but one thing you can’t deny is that he’s a streaky hitter. He will go into prolonged slumps but he’ll also have breakout games and swing the bat better. Its all about confidence with him. Last night he had a huge 3 RBI triple with two outs. Two outs and the bases loaded and I was ready to give up hope of adding on to the Mets lead and there he was hitting a gapper that brought everyone home.
*= A hilarious moment with the guys when Reyes tried to bunt on a first pitch fastball and Keith Hernandez said “No, no, no Jose. You’re a 3 hitter now. Swing the bat. 4-0 lead, swing the bat Jose. Simple, and to the point. That’s right Reyes, swing the bat!
You can’t deny what Ike Davis’ addition has done to the club in the last week. The offense just seems to be clicking and one can say its Davis being called up or it can be just pure coincidence. Either way, the Mets have had a pretty good week and hopefully can keep the good momentum going.*
*= Another great moment was when Ike Davis hit an opposite field double and Ron Darling said it “hard to not get excited but this kid can hit.” I literally got goosebumps hearing that.
3. Luck is a factor here too folks. The Mets have played the Braves who are in such a rut that Bobby Cox might consider retiring tomorrow if this keeps up. They made some boneheaded plays over the weekend that you don’t see a team coached by Cox make. From Chipper dropping pop ups because of lack of communication and forgetting the basics of the infield fly rule*, it was a weekend that made Bobby Cox lose hair of which he has very little to begin with. They are facing a Dodger team that has to be going through a tough time with their bullpen imploding almost on a nightly basis. Yesterday they did it twice in a day. Its tough of course but what can you say, the Mets play who is listed on their schedule and they don’t have to apologize for that.
*= Ok, so I didn’t really know what was going on in that play and had to have it explained to me. Either way, the Mets win because of it.
Ok my proudest moment check this out:
My prediction: 12-9
SEASON: 12-9
That’s right folks. I’m spot on. No need for elaborate nicknames. I dont do it for the fame, I do it for the love.
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The Lazy Eye of Sports 