Anything's Possible for these Mets

I couldn’t be happier. The Mets are playing good baseball. They came back from oblivion to achieve a better than .500 record in the space of about 10 days. And they’re doing it with pitching, not just good relief pitching either. The starters have come on like gangbusters. Santana, Pelfrey and Niese have ben magnificent. Perez and Maine have held their own.

But it hasn’t been just pitching. It’s been the fortuitous return of Ike Davis from Buffalo. It’s been Jose Reyes flashing his speed from the third spot in the order. It’s been Jason Bay starting to hit. It’s been good baserunning, good fielding, and opportunistic hitting, even taking into account a low figure for aveage with runners in scoring position.

It must be pointed out that Mets fans had not been feeling optimistic. There was nothing to feel that good about just about 10 days ago. The angst begins with the starter of the day. With Santana, they worry he’ll relapse, with Pelfrey, they worry he’ll go to pieces with men on base, with Niese, that he’ll realize he’s young, with Maine and Perez, that they won’t totally implode.

None of those maladies befell the Mets starters in this streak of good fortune. The closest thing to a bad start was Maine’s injuring his off-arm and coming out in the fourth inning on Friday, the opener against the Braves, those same Braves that just seem to thrash the Mets at every opportunity. But Hisanori Takahashi, one of their two Japanese imports this season, struck out seven Braves in three innings.

What a game that Friday night affair was! For a long stretch there in the middle of the game, it was two Japanese pitchers facing each other, and they were both looking very effective. But, in the Mets half of the sixth, Ike Davis hit the Shea Bridge in deep right centerfield to put the Mets ahead. It was a truly majestic shot, one that seemed to pee on the Citi Field dimensions.

Then, in the seventh, as if to show that Ike wasn’t the only Met player with power, Reyes and Bay hit two triples in a row. Bay’s shot was quite a shot, just hitting the base of that long wall. Then Wright drove in Bay with still another long shot to right center to put the game away.

I say “put the game away” but when the Mets play the Braves, that never seems to be the case. But after Takahashi left the game in the 7th, Raul Valdez got the third out, Feliciano mowed the Braves down in the 8th, and K-Rod, after giving the Braves life with a walk and a single, finally closed it out after striking out two very dangerous hitters, McLouth and Prado.

That game put the Mets at 8-9. After taking 3 of 4 from the Cubs and smoking the Braves in the opener, they just had to somehow get by Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens to get to .500. Once again, Jonathon Niese got the call, and once again, he came through. He threw lots of pitches and walked more than his share, but in the end, the Braves had scored just one, thanks to some pretty fair (to put it mildly) relief from the likes of Manny Acosta and then the usual suspects, Nieve, Feliciano and K-Rod.

The Mets were .500.

It was a wonder that Sunday’s game got off at all. It had rained all day. But the Mets got a run in the first that Reyes virtually stole and Pelfrey blanked the Braves for five innings before the rains came down for real in the sixth, thus fortunately ending still another game in the Mets favor, and voila, the Mets were a winning team.

It’s easy to like this team too. They still can’t hit very much, especially early in the game, but they have come through in the stretch more often than not. Ike Davis really energized this team while the new lineup, with Reyes batting third, seems to be working too.

Jason Bay seems to have found his swing finally after three weeks of mostly frustration. Wright’s struggles continue though, and it seems he’s lost that swing from the legs that was supposed to bring his power back this season. Hopefully, he can find that swing again.

This Mets team seems complete just as it is. This team has won 7 of its last 10 and its last four in a row. If the Mets had any thoughts about trading Carlos Beltran, who seems to not want to return, this would be the time to pull the trigger, before he comes back, before encountering the risk of a bad start after a long period of injury.

Angel Pagan is no Beltran, but he is a good player and seems to hold his own. And, with Fernando Martinez in the wings up in Buffalo too, I’d think centerfield was not a worry, especially given that Gary Matthews, that second ill-advised pickup (the first being Mike Jacobs), is still with the team.

Beltran could easily bring another pitcher to Citi Field, an established pitcher who could lend some savvy and experience to that rotation, especially if it begins to show signs of faltering. With Maine and Perez, it seems almost inevitable that, somewhere down the road, another starter will be needed, especially if the Mets are still in contention in July.

In the meantime, I’ll enjoy watching these Mets as presently constructed. It’s a fiery team, a resilient team, one that’s becoming successful with great pitching, a much better defense with Ike at first base, and just enough hitting to get by, even with some potentially big bats still struggling.

Tonight it’ll be the Dodgers coming to town, with Kuroda facing up against Ollie Perez, who is winless thus far despite his 3.71 ERA. If the Mets can continue to get by his turn in the rotation, anything’s possible in the NL East, even a pennant.