So, the Mets swept the Yankees for the first time in their regular season history. Sill kind of hard to believe that conceivably the biggest wins of the season came before June started, but that the way it seems.
What? Oh, yes there is what happened 40 summers ago, but that was due to a lot of early injuries, and slumps to key offensive players, and the strength of some darn good pitchers, including one of the all-time great all-time greats, keeping the Mets up with the rest of the pack. Teams like that, and more contemporary ones that had great postseason success despite squeaking into the postseason with a barely .500 record, such as the 2006 Cardinals (sorry, had to remind you), and the 1987 Twins did have star power on their roster, and some good grade pitching.
Matt Harvey has been solid, and while the Yankees have made the rest of the staff look like the 1973 crew, that is kind of the point. The Yankees are pretty much throwing a AAAA lineup out there, so eventually a team will of an outlier of a series played against them. Not to mention Ike Davis is still batting .160, John Buck seems to have gotten back to Earth, the outfield is still in flux, and Ruben Tejada is about to hit the DL.
Not to mention the schedule is going to be rough coming up. Yes there are six games against Miami coming up, but there are fourteen games next month against the three teams ahead of the Mets in the standings; Braves for a four game set (including a double header) in Atlanta, which is then followed by a three game weekend set in Philadelphia, and six games against the Nationals, hitting up Washington after the upcoming Miami series, and closing out the month with the Nats at Citi Field.
In between there is a homestand featuring the Cardinals and Cubs. Okay, the Cubs have the same amount of wins as the Mets and one more loss, but the Cardinals are leading the Central. And interestingly, the backend of the roadtrip that starts with Atlanta and Philadelphia includes a two game set on the South Side of Chicago to play the White Sox, and a one game “series” as it will against the Rockies to make up for the April 17th postponement.
Quite a road to haul in the first month of the summer, while it is doubtful the Mets will completely fall apart, and have a historically bad month (i.e. count the win total on one hand), but it is the type of stretch that can provide a cold splash of reality after a quick bright spot in a dreadfully mediocre season.
That’s not to say one shouldn’t be joyous over sweeping The Evil Empire, it is always nice to hold something over the cross-town rivals, even if they have a certain World Series to throw back at you. But a four game sweep in late May of an other wise seven games under .500 season should not be used as an indicator for a possible turnaround.
“rough schedule”?
When the best thing you can say is you’ve “only” lost 29 games, there is no “easy” part of the schedule. It’s all uphill from 22-29.
But let’s rephrase. If the Mets can best the Marlins, Nats and Phillies and simply draw even with the Braves – yeah, so what? I said it – then the Mets become the tough part of the schedule for the Nats and the Phillies.
One at a time. Let’s take 3 of 4 here and then Atlanta can come to us, worrying about beating a 9-1 Mets team.
If they can’t take the series against the Marlins and revert back to their lackadaisical play then yes you have seen the high point a lost season. So what? What were you expecting with the starting rotation and bullpen with so many questions?