The Chemistry Set

How'd you like to come back to the dugout after a big hit and get high-fived by Carlos Beltran and David Wright? And finish the night in first place. Well, that's what Fernando Tatis got to experience last night. He was one of 8 different Mets producers in a game marked by some shaky pitching, some nice hitting from both sides, and comebacks, lots of comebacks.

Ten is good. Ten beats 9 and 11 would be heaven. (No, I didn't really say that). I thought the streak would end at 9. It certainly could have. They were up 2, then down 3 in a flash, then down just 1, then up by 1, then down by 2 before finally ending it up by 2. Wright, Beltran, Easley and Delgado were strong at the core of the lineup while Delgado and Tatis did their best to extend that middle. They even got something out of Nick Evans and Marlon Anderson.

So last night it was hitting. Carlos Delgado was especially impressive, I thought, not so much for his power but for his nice little dump-job single over the shortstop into short left field. If Carlos the Elder doesn't watch out, he may find himself in the National League RBI race. In the last month, he's driven in 23 runs, second only to Jermaine Dye. While he still has a long way to go, with just 55 ribbies on the season, it's conceivable that he could catch a lot of folks.

So there was a lot to be happy about....again. But there were some rough spots on the pitching side of things. Johan Santana wasn't Johan Santana last night. But Aaron Heilman reverted into, well, Aaron Heilman. Johan gave up a 5-spot in the fourth inning, including a couple of dingers, but what the heck, Jake Peavy gave up 4 home runs in his game so it was a strange night all around.

Heilman just allows too many baserunners, base hits and walks too. Last night he managed just 2/3 of an inning, and his three baserunners were inherited by Scott Schoenweis, who tried like the dickens but still wound up allowing them all to score before recording the final out.

It was interesting that Manuel replaced Heilman as soon as he did. And, even though Schoenweis wasn't able to avert the damage, it was the right move. Jerry managed his head off last night, replacing pitchers all night long. And they were the right moves. That they all didn't pan out is secondary.

Those pitching moves do a couple of things. First, they check the momentum. Second, they give the opposing batters something different to look at. But they also keep your team in the game mentally, and that showed last night too.

Who woulda thunk it? The Mets from April and May wouldn’t have come back even once. These Mets came back again and again, continuing a predilection not only for increasing leads but for coming back too. It’s something on which Manuel focused, and it’s working out for them.

Yes, the Mets are finally in first place, tied with the Phils at long last. But the Phils picked up a pretty fancy pitcher yesterday, and the Marlins aren't far back. The Mets need to keep it going, and it'll be up to John Maine tonight, who hasn't been quite as overwhelming as have battery-mates Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez, at least not lately.

Tonight will be a good test for him and the Mets as they face the Reds Bronson Arroyo, who can be very good or very bad. We’ll see whether our local boys can get another win to extend that streak, against a team that had had a fairly nice run themselves as of late, before they ran into the juggernaut. The Reds are a very respectable 10-6 since June 28^th.

Those Reds sure can hit a little bit. They were calling Adam Dunn Dave Kingman last night but he looked like more to me, as a batter anyway. He does have a little trouble keeping his feet while rounding the bases. And Ken Griffey Jr. is pretty much as advertised. Then there’s Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto, not a lineup that can be taken lightly for sure.

And baseball is a strange game. A pitcher can, all of a sudden, pitch lights out. Batters can get cold. For no reason whatsoever. And then there’s the law of averages. How many teams win more than ten in a row?

But the Mets played last night as if they really, really wanted that tenth win. They certainly didn’t play like a team resting on its laurels. From the manager to the pinch-hitter, they were definitely paying attention, as if they knew the slender thread that separates winning from losing is a very thin one, and as if they were determined to fend off that first loss, for, once losing, who knows what will be on the other side?

The Mets had every reason to lose last night. Not only was there the streak, but there was the break too. Surely they couldn’t be expected to put one more win up on the board. But they did it, in a pretty spectacular fashion too, a fact that I’m sure was not lost on the Phillies, or the Marlins, for that matter.

The Phils have already picked up Joe Blanton from the seemingly inexhaustible inventory of pitching in the Oakland A’s organization. All in all, a smart pickup for them, given that the guy eats up a lot of innings, has pitched really well in the not too far recent past, and will probably pitch better in a pennant race.

Omar Minaya may be burning up the phone lines, but somehow I don’t think so. We haven’t heard one good rumor. I suspect he’ll make a move when he feels that he has to do so. Chemistry after all is a delicate thing.

And the Mets have some right now.