Finally Getting It

I'm a Mets fan and I couldn't be happier! How many times has anyone heard THAT this mostly sorrowful first half of the 2008 baseball season ?

As late as the fourth of July, the Mets were showing good signs but were still 5 1/2 out. Since then they've scored, if my counting is accurate, 54 runs and allowed just 13. That translated into 9, count'em, 9 straight wins, almost a fortnight of steadily increasing fortunes as our local heroes won game after game after game. WOW!!

They got it from unlikely guys. They got it from the stars. They got it on the mound. They got it in the field. They got it at the plate. They got it from the pen. They got it from the starters. Well, you get the idea. Jubilation !

Last night it was the Mike Pelfrey show. The day before, it was seemingly everybody on the field, Reyes and Beltran and five stingy pitchers. For their first game in Colorado, there was Ollie Perez throwing in 6 good innings behind Reyes and Easley.

Before that, their final game in San Francisco, Fernando Tatis and those relievers bailed out a somewhat shaky John Maine. Johan Santana showed what he could do the day before, he and that relief staff shutting out those Giants while Ramon Castro went 2-4 and delivered a big home run. Mike Pelfrey outpitched Lincecum before that with the steady Carlos Beltran hitting the big one.

But it all started in Philadelphia. The Mets had lost the opener of that four game set 3-2 but had won the next two before that final game in Philly. That game would decide whether the Mets were content to just split with the division leaders. They were not.

Although the Mets staff was belted around for 9 runs in that one, the Mets were one better. The top of the lineup, Reyes and Chavez and Wright, wouldn't be denied and Billy Wagner bailed out centerfielder Carlos Beltran from taking too much heat for what had been viewed as a questionable decision to throw a man down at third base. (It was a great throw and it would have been the third out and the end of the game). That was the biggest game of all in this unlikely streak, the one where the Mets showed some real grit against a determined and talented bunch.

But another true Mets believer might point to that third game in Philly, the one that Wagner let get away from Oliver Perez but Fernando Tatis saved, delivering a huge two-run homer in the top of the 12th to bail the embattled Billy out. John Maine pitched a good one the day before to take that second game in Philly, the Mets coming alive in the eighth and ninth behind guys like Easley and Delgado, Schneider and Chavez.

That's just an overview though. Much more could be said. You could point to the Mets new-found ability to tack on runs to early leads, something their new skipper had pointed out to them. You could point to their prowess in the field as guys like Easley and Tatis, Chavez and even a rook named Evans made light of the absence of more established players named Church and Alou and Castillo.

But the most overpowering feeling of all about these Mets is that they are just getting it, feeling it, or whatever way you’d choose to characterize a team that feels comfortable with itself, and that’s having fun, happy with its new direction and what very probably is a lighter feeling around the clubhouse.

For Jerry Manuel can actually be funny and usually is. At the same time though, he’s thoughtful and comes up with new ideas, things they’d either never heard before or just forgot. Here’s a guy who’s light enough for Reyes to deal with, and yet heavy enough to yank even the great Pedro off that mound when required.

Whatever the actual chemistry behind this Mets resurgence, man, is it ever welcome! You have to feel the Mets have turned the corner, and maybe they’ll never have to look back. Even with the break coming on, a break that might and probably will spell the end of the winning streak.

For the Mets have been getting outstanding performances from some very unlikely sources, guys out of the past like Easley and Tatis and Chavez, and guys from the future like big Nick Evans and still another speedy Reyes named Argenis. At some point, these wunderkinds may begin to falter.

But that’s the “glass half empty” side of things. Why shouldn’t they continue to perform? Easley and Tatis have done this baseball thing for a lot of years, and who says they can’t view this as their swan song, a chance to finally come out of the shadows. And isn’t it a good thing that what had once been viewed as a tired, old team has been re-energized with some talented and spirited youth?

The “glass half full” side of me says that these guys don’t really have to do it forever. Second baseman Luis Castillo returns from the disabled list after the break. And right fielder Ryan Church, who outperformed everybody before getting hurt, might be returning. It turns out that his recent headaches weren’t lingering concussion symptoms at all, but more related to migraines.

Manuel’s biggest challenge of all might be his management of these returning players into the lineup. It’s sort of an old baseball adage that guys don’t lose their positions due to an injury. Will Manuel sit Easley for Castillo? Or will he be able to spot Easley at the other infield positions? Will Chavez sit again when Church comes back?

As difficult as it may be to manage the return of the regulars, you get the feeling Manuel will handle it. He’s been there before, for Expos and Marlins and White Sox and you just know he’ll manage it. And so does his team