For One Game, The Mets Look Like Killers

Let me be one of the last to say it: Opening Day is restorative. Even if the weather is bad, there’s hope for some sunshine soon. Even if the game stinks, it’s only one game. No matter what, nobody can be more than “1.0 GB” in the standings at day’s end. As Mets fans, we’ve been comforted over the years by the notion that whatever the predictions are for the coming year – and for the Mets, they have been uniformly bad, more times than not – Opening Day is usually a good day for the good ol’ orange and blue. Of course there are exceptions, but the Mets have the highest Opening Day winning percentage of any team around. We can wrap that around us like a warming blanket once fortunes turn paradoxically cold in the heat of August.

Even though an Opening Day win for the Mets is almost requisite, yesterday’s game stands out. Going in, it looked for all the world like GM Sandy Alderson and manager Terry Collins were tanking the game. After all, they were going with Bartolo Colon on the hill, rather than one of their young studs – Jacob deGrom or Matt Harvey — or either of the last two OD starters, Jon Niese or Dillon Gee. The move was derided even as it was being applauded. There was a certain air of crassness attached. But no matter, it was going to happen, howls of protest or not. It did look for all the world like Colon was being offered up as a sacrificial lamb on the altar of the matchup: why “waste” Harvey or deGrom when the Nationals’ new ace, Max Scherzer, is probably going to win anyway?

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men…

A 4:00 PM first pitch meant that your intrepid columnist could listen to the early goings on his ride home from work and catch the end on SNY at home. Just as he was pulling into a parking space at his local grocery store – errands are errands, Opening Day or not – Bryce Harper took a Colon fastball over the right centerfield wall leading off the fourth. “Ok, here, we go,” I thought, fully expecting to exit the store and find the Mets trailing 4-0 or so. Imagine the surprise to find out it was still only 1-0. In the long run, though, it didn’t seem to matter, because Scherzer was proving to be impregnable. Curtis Granderson had walked leading off the ballgame. Since then, Scherzer had retired seventeen straight batters before Granderson worked him for another pass in the sixth. David Wright followed with a popup between first and second that had everybody walking off the field, confident that it would be cradled easily by second baseman Dan Uggla. However, Uggla was called off the play by shortstop Ian Desmond for some unfathomable reason and the ball landed on the turf underneath Desmond’s useless mitt. Granderson was running on contact with two out, but didn’t score. The fact that Wright wound up on second anyway led to gnashing of teeth from Met fans, given the team’s woeful record with runners in scoring position and two outs in recent years. That left it up to Lucas Duda, who with a 1-2 count, pulled a base hit past a clearly rattled Scherzer, rendering Granderson’s legwork moot, as he and Wright came home with a most unlikely lead. Desmond struck again in the seventh, spiking a throw to first that let Juan Lagares reach base. He was immediately chased home when Travis d’Arnaud tickled the top of the wall with a triple, giving the Mets a two-run cushion and Scherzer a broken heart. The Mets added two more singles later on, finally sending Scherzer to the schowers.

Yes, the Mets were helped out greatly by opposition fielding miscues. Yes, seven out of nine batters in the lineup took “oh-fers.” Yes, left to their own devices, the Mets probably would have lost to Washington…again. In the end, though, none of that mattered, because the Mets seized every opportunity they were handed. They struck quickly, not allowing their runners to fester on the base paths. Detractors will say, “Ah, the Mets only won because of errors,” as if a win in that manner is unworthy, somehow, and should be thrown back. Pray tell what is wrong with taking advantage of the opposition’s mistakes? For ages, it’s been bemoaned that the Mets have lacked a “killer instinct,” whatever that is, a hallmark of their successful teams of the ‘80s and early ‘00s. They have forever been stranding runners at third, or second-and-third, leaving themselves at least one run short and a pitcher to do the heavy lifting for an ineffectual offense.

For one game, at least, the killers were on the loose.

Follow me on Twitter @CharlieHangley.