Think about 9 p.m. on Friday. Jose Reyes has just doubled to move the Mets into a 2-2 tie with the Braves. Miguel Cairo has just doubled to put the Reds in front of the Phillies, 6-1.
Think about the possibilities at that moment. The Mets entered the weekend three games behind the Braves. A sweep would mean a first-place tie, wonderful symbolism at the All-Star break. The Phillies were reeling, having just lost a series to Atlanta and fallen into third place. If the night plays out right, the Mets are two back, the Phillies are 4½ back.
But was 9 p.m. on Friday, July 9, midnight?
R.A. Dickey had not given up a homer to the first 111 batters he faced at Citi Field this year — through two outs in the seventh Friday — and then the hardly powerful duo of Melky Cabrera and Omar Infante went deep and Atlanta won, 4-2. The even more unlikely pair of Greg Dobbs and Cody Ransom homered (Ransom’s first in the majors since 2008) to spark the Phillies to six ninth-inning runs off closer Francisco Cordero (and Mets fans thought they had the shakiest closer named Francisco). The Phils won 9-7 in 10 on Ryan Howard’s homer.
The next day the Mets did a homage to 2009 — Mike Pelfrey melting down on the mound and Jose Reyes compounding an injury he never should have played with during a 4-0 loss to Atlanta. Meanwhile, the Phillies won 1-0 in 11 innings despite being perfect-gamed by rookie Travis Woods into the ninth. The Phillies won again 1-0 on Sunday, marking the first time they had won consecutive 1-0 games in 97 years.
The Mets also won Sunday, playing very well in a 3-0 outcome. However, after playing so well at Citi Field during the first half, the Mets won just the two games started by Johan Santana on this six-game homestand against two first-place teams (Cincinnati and Atlanta).
The weekend concluded with the Braves up by four games and — just as troubling to the Mets — the Phillies having stabilized themselves behind a few hard-to-fathom wins. The team with the championship pedigree and experience at finishing strong is just a half-game behind the second-place Mets, who will begin the second half of the season with an 11-game West Coast trip.
So was 9 p.m., Friday the last great moment of this season? Or was it just the outset of a normal dip in an up-and-down campaign?
I have to admit that I don’t know. It feels like the background music for this Mets season should be The Who’s “Who Are You?” because I still really want to know, 88 games into this season.
You can feel one way about the Mets at 9 p.m. on Friday, July 9 and a completely different way by 10 p.m. What reflects the 2010 Mets better: 10 walkoff losses or a 13-5 record in interleague play?
Are they the team that can’t win a close game (10-15 in one-run outcomes) or the team that can beat anybody (28-22 against over-.500 clubs)?
It is not hard to make a case for the 2010 Mets, NL East champs: Jason Bay — like he did last year — hit 16 homers from Aug. 1 on, Bobby Parnell truly solidifies the eighth inning and Santana (one run in his last 23 innings) reconfirms that he is a second-half titan.
And it is just as easy to take them out of the race by September: The best of Pelfrey and Dickey is now in the rear-view mirror, a tight-fisted ownership does not permit a trade for a helpful starter and the Francisco Rodriguez thrill ride never ends.
“We have stayed in the race and we know who is coming Thursday,” Alex Cora said of Carlos Beltran. “He’s our best player.”
Beltran actually is representative of the team. Who is he today? Borderline Hall of Famer or brace-wearing shell of himself? Difference maker or a payroll albatross? Midseason godsend or disruption?
We will probably feel a lot of ways about Beltran — from revelation to revulsion – before this season is done. He has the talent to help make sure that what occurred after Friday, 9 p.m. was not midnight in this Mets season. He has the chance to break down again by this Friday, 9 p.m.
Beltran is the 2010 Mets: Talented enough to dream, flawed enough to dread.