Is it possible the Mets are heading back in the right direction? It’s not like either of the last two wins were pretty, but they were wins. Now is not the time for us to complain about how they’re doing it — every win is a plus. One day after a magnificent pitching performance by Mike Pelfrey, the Mets made it two in a row in today’s 9-8 come from behind victory over the Pirates.
This was definitely the right time for the Mets to play Pittsburgh. If I could magically alter the schedule for the Mets, they’d be playing the Nationals every day until Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran return. Until the Mets are reasonably healthy, they need to take advantage of every opportunity they get against the league’s doormats.
I’ve seen the reaction to today’s game fall into two camps:
- “Wow, what a gutty performance by the Mets! They never gave up and showed real heart! It wasn’t pretty, but all that matters is that they won.”
- “It’s nice that the Mets won, but wow, this does not look like a good team. I refuse to get excited.”
To be honest, neither of these reactions are outrageous. It’s true that there was a lot of be unhappy about in today’s game: Tim Redding looked awful, and K-Rod had a poor outing (not to mention, his two innings of work will likely make him unavailable for a couple days). On the other hand, a win is a win, and we should be happy with whatever the current Mets roster can give us. The fact that they’re hanging so close to the Phillies should give us a lot of hope, even if it’s not always fun to watch right now. Wasn’t the NL East supposed to be a strong division going into the season?
By the way, I’ve heard an argument made several times that the Mets shouldn’t make a trade at this point because one player can’t fix all their problems. While it’s true that no player they bring in will turn the current roster into a great team, that’s not the point of making a deal right now. The goal is to make the playoffs, and the Mets may not have to be a great team to do that. After nearly half a season, they stand just one game out of first place in the division, and nobody looks poised to pull away from the pack. If you don’t think that a big bat will fundamentally change the team, that’s fine (and true), but I have no doubt that a good player will make the Mets more than one game better over the second half of the season — and that might be the difference between October baseball or more disappointment.
