Is the Magic Back?

Have the Mets finally reached the point where we can stop worrying about them after every single loss? Maybe not. Maybe we need a win Sunday night to complete a 5-2 home stand and two series wins. Luckily Santana is on the mound going for his 100^th win, a number I'd sure love to see the Mets reach for this season. They don't even have to get there, I just want it to be a possibility on September first.

This last stretch of games has been different, the Mets have looked good, hungry, and like they're ready to have some fun. They struggled with runners in scoring position on Friday, but they won't get them all in every time. Sometimes the hits just don't happen, and when it's sandwiched with wins, it's easier to take. Even still, the game was theirs until they brought Heilman in, who apparently is trying to lend Willie and Omar a hand. Since Pelfrey and Vargas have both made cases for staying with the team, Heilman is ever so kindly offering himself up for demotion. He no longer should be allowed to pitch with runners on base, and it's getting to the point where he shouldn't be allowed to pitch at all. I don't care that the balls weren't really hit that hard, and that they just happened to find holes. He can't afford bad luck right now.

Sitting in the stands for my usual Saturday game, I was starting to feel a little sick with the Mets performance through seven innings. Not as sick as a girl a little bit to my left, who was physically sick at the sight of the Mets failing to score. More likely it was the ice cream, or something else entirely, but her actions mimicked how many of us were feeling. She stepped outside, and presumably started feeling better; probably right around the time Beltran's blast was clearing the fence. That's when something snapped. I realized the game wasn't as vomit-inducing as the usual Shea fare of food in the stands. (An aside, as much as I like the idea of restaurants displaying the calorie counts, I didn't need to know that a bag of peanuts has 960 calories or my footlong hot dog had 560, roughly one cent per calorie) Reyes made an error in the first, but Pelfrey did manage to get out of it after that, with help from a solid play at the plate. Reyes later made a terrific double-play in the game to help him out. Pelfrey buckled down and got seven strong innings, and Wagner is freaking scary good. Billingsly was apparently just pitching really well, because as soon as he left, the Mets released all their pent up aggression in the form of a go-ahead 3-run inning. The biggest deal was seeing Luis Castillo come up to pinch hit. Up until that point we all thought he was going to have to be placed on the disabled list, and we were all cringing at the idea of Easley playing any extended time there. However, it looks like Castillo is not that bad. He could pinch hit and while he didn't exactly fly, he got down the line fairly fast and didn't limp or cringe doing it. Church should be back shortly, and even Pedro will be back on Tuesday.

Speaking of Pedro, Matt Kemp was at the plate, and fouled off a pitched that bounced hard into the corner of the Mets dugout. Pedro started wagging his finger at him, gesturing that he's supposed to try to hit it between the lines. Assuming it's not just old age catching up with him, Pedro should be nice and recovered from his only leg injury ever and ready to contribute to this team again.

Do you feel that? That's the magic coming back.

Also, I don't care what anyone says, especially Joe and Evan on WFAN, who are so worried about being pro-Mets, that they overrate them at every turn, the Phillies suck. They're an 85-90 win team, just like last year, and that's just not good enough.

Tidbits from the Tatis-ed

So much to talk about after this game. It was probably the best feeling after a game in a while. That said, there is still a long way to go to restore faith and confidence.

Beltran. Metsblog.com quoted a statistic that Beltran was betting .301 in May. That's pretty good, so stop killing him. He also got a big big hit tonight, again.

Tatis. Remember when we were screaming about how we thought Tatis was going to make this team over Pagan? Not that I don't like Pagan, but maybe Omar actually does know what he's doing.

Is it just me, or is SNY making a point of showing Willie Randolph after good moments more? Also, Willie made some excellent managerial decisions tonight. If he doesn't put on the hit and run in the 12^th, the Mets very well might lose this game.

A lot of us have been down on Endy, which I think reflects our overall feelings on the team. But maybe we should lay off a bit and let Endy be Endy. Maybe Willie was right when he said he just needs to get Chavez going.

Sanchez gained some velocity today which Amezaga was able to turn around on him and hit over the fence, but it's still nice to see Sanchez building his strength up. It was also terrific to see him run hard on his sacrifice bunt.

Speaking of energy, if it ever was really gone, it's also definitely still there. Beltran was pissed when he popped up the first pitch late in the game. Sanchez had some drive and energy. Tatis couldn't have looked more excited as he ran around first. Reyes looked a little more relaxed today. There were signs of life all over the place.

Hanley Ramirez's lame little pseudo-Reyes home run dance with Amezaga was pathetic. I'm really growing to hate that guy.

And of course, finally a nice come from behind win. Twice.

I'm not going to try to over-analyze this game and claim the Mets have turned a corner. They certainly have turned a corner, but they are still at the beginning of the maze.

Subway Series loses some luster, but the Mets gain some

The Subway Series this year was very subdued. I'm still a fan of it, I like how it takes over the city and the general feel of it, but most of the novelty has worn off. It's certainly no longer a David versus Goliath type match up like it was when it started, or when it reached what I think was it's peak in 2000. It's no longer a competition to see who is the better team, but who isn't the worse team. Both clubs had issues to work out, and the opponent at the moment wasn't important enough to matter. The fans, excepting when trying to shout down opposing chants and cheers, were almost quiet. I only saw half a dozen fights at the Stadium Sunday night. I'm sure a lot of that atmosphere was due to the game being a blow out, but it was more important that the Mets won, than it was who they beat.

And they did beat them. They played better baseball; hitting, fielding, and pitching. Derek Jeter, who always does well in these competitions, did well with the bat, but was average at best everywhere else. He failed to make the only high-caliber move he has at shortstop, his leaping throw to first, early on Saturday. He also got thrown out trying to stretch a single in that game. On Sunday he couldn't keep his foot on the bag while fielding a bad throw from Giambi during the Mets first rally.

The Mets, particularly Church, played great defense, hit the cut offs and made great plays. They hit, Reyes hit, Wright hit, and they scored 18 runs. They also pitched well, Santana to Wagner on Saturday and Perez went as far as Santana before giving the ball to Smith and Schoeneweis.

More importantly, whether a result of a team meeting or something else, the Mets played with enthusiasm. They played with energy and heart and they really came alive during these two games. Wright was already on the mound encouraging Perez by the time Matsui's ball went over the fence, everyone was excited when they got hits and scored runs. Maybe the Mets fans' unwillingness to boo their own players in the hostile environment of Yankee Stadium helped, and maybe the Mets can go and put together a nice streak of games over the next seven so that when they return to Shea, there isn't a single person we want to boo....besides Hanley Ramirez of course.

it's 2008 and the Mets win

Last night's game had questionable managing decisions, some poor plays, some inability to hit in the clutch, or to execute in certain situations at the plate, and even some base-running issues. The Phillies had all of these problems, and they lost because of it. It was a rough and tumble series, but the Mets take two of three. Naysayers may want to question how they won them, but that doesn't matter, just that they did. If you want to go back to last year.. And I really don't want to go back to last year, it doesn't help anything. Just as going back to 2006 didn't help the 2007 team. If you go back to last year, plenty of those games against the Phillies could've gone on the other way on some very minor things.

It's the bullpen that's important, and despite Wise's home run, despite Heilman's struggles, it looks like the Mets have started trying to take the right steps into addressing this issue. The bullpen was the strength in 2006, and we need more consistency out of it this year. Part of this is getting starters deeper into games, but part of it is also one or two more guys stepping up and being able to execute when Willie calls on them. Did the Mets lack fight last year? I don't know that they did, there were plenty of games where they came back two or three times in a game, only to have the bullpen blow it again and again. That can be mentally exhausting, just like amping yourself up for a fight and having your pitcher pitch you into a deep hole in the first inning can do. This isn't an excuse by any means, but the Mets have the tools, the attitude, the leadership and the drive to win, and they've had it all along; You just have to know where to look.