Forty-eight hours ago, which of these events would have seemed more likely to occur than the Mets scoring 21 runs in two games at Yankee Stadium?
A) Saul Katz selling his share of the Mets to Donald Sterling.
B) Yankees fans lobbying successfully for Robinson Cano to be honored in Monument Park.
C) Mark Teixeira outrunning Eric Young Jr. in a footrace.
D) All of the above.
I don’t know what the answer is. More important, it’s impossible to know what to make of the Mets’ two-day manhandling of the Yankees, capped with Tuesday night’s 12-7 victory, to kick off the 2014 Subway Series.
But the Mets surely are thrilled to cope with the question.
“I don’t know what to [take away], except we won,” manager Terry Collins said. “That’s all I can tell you. We walked 10 guys. … We hit. We got some big hits. We’ll take it, try to get some sleep and get ready fortomorrow night.”
With their third straight victory and their sixth straight over the Yankees, dating back to last season, the Mets returned to .500 at 19-19, just like the Yankees. They’ll return home to Citi Field Wednesday owning a three-game winning streak as Rafael Montero makes his major-league debut against the Yankees’ ace Masahiro Tanaka.
Consider that they began action Monday ranked ninth in the National League with 142 runs scored. Now, their 163 runs tie them with San Francisco for fourth, with a 9-7 victory Monday preceding Tuesday’s slugfest.
Upon crossing the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, will the Mets revert to their offense-starved, bullpen-deficient ways? Or will their crosstown visit prove a turning point in their season?
I’ll chicken out and vote for somewhere in the middle. This will prove more meaningful than meaningless. Yet it’s not like the Mets will now win 90 games. Finishing over .500 is realistic, what with Montero and Jacob deGrom now aboard and Noah Syndergaard perhaps a month or so away.
However, the news isn’t all rosy on the young pitching front. Tuesday’s starter, Zack Wheeler, whose development has been uneven since arriving in the big leagues last year, couldn’t even complete five innings to register a win despite being handed an 11-4 lead. Collins finally threw the white flag — at a career-high 118 pitches for Wheeler — when he allowed three of the first four batters he faced in the fifth to reach base.
You could write off Wheeler’s Yankee Stadium debut as you might a pitcher’s first time in hitter-friendly Coors Field. However, walks have been a recurring problem for Wheeler, who issued five free passes in his previous start May 7 in Miami. He established a career worst Tuesday with six bases on balls.
“We’ve got to get him back on track,” Collins said. “He can take over a game.”
With homers from Curtis Granderson and Daniel Murphy, the Mets in two days increased their season total by 27.3 percent, from 22 to 28. Yet if you’re looking for hope this offensive explosion can impact the club’s return to Flushing — not that they’ll suddenly rake every game, but that they’ll be more consistent — keep in mind how much the Mets dramatically improved their situational hitting.
After Collins looked close to blowing a fuse last weekend, as his hitters couldn’t execute in the most basic situations against the equally lousy Phillies, the visitors put on an efficiency clinic. On Tuesday, the Mets generated four “productive outs,” or outs that advanced baserunners. That included sacrifice flies by Juan Lagares in the third inning and Murphy in the fourth.
“Hopefully we can take that confidence and swing it over to Citi Field starting tomorrow,” Granderson said.
We know all too well from the prior five seasons the Mets tease not only their fans but also themselves into thinking they’re ready for some sort of leap. There needs to be far more evidence — an entire season, really, one that concludes with a winning record — than a couple of strong days in enemy territory.
Yet considering where the Mets stood on Mother’s Day, escaping by inches a three-game home sweep at the hands of the Phillies, they’ll gladly take on the challenge of proving their Yankee walloping represents more than an aberration.