Stop your comeback dreaming.
Put away your calculator. Don’t even try to figure out the number of wins between 41 and 90.
Wait, what am I talking about? You’re Mets fans. You don’t need me to throw a wet blanket on your fantasies. You permanently lost your ability to fantasize the day Jerry Manuel batted Mike Jacobs cleanup in 2010.
So let’s go with this, after Jacob deGrom and the Mets outlasted the Braves Tuesday night, 8-3 at Citi Field, for their third straight win and fourth in five games: Since qualifying for the postseason and winning 90 games don’t rank as realistic goals, this franchise could at least halt its long-term bleeding by running out the schedule on a high. By competing against good teams, showing off its young talent and making a run at .500.
“We talked the other day about trying to go into the break on a positive note. So far it’s been good,” manager Terry Collins said. “We’ve still got five left. We’ve got to certainly use them to our advantage and come out of it going into the break really positive if we can. Try to get ourselves back in this thing as close as we can.”
Now the Mets are 41-49 and stand eight games behind the first-place Nationals (48-40) in the National League East, with the Braves also near the top at 49-41. Atlanta is right in the mix for the second NL wild card, so it’s not like that route to October appears markedly easier for the Mets. And to get to general manager Sandy Alderson’s “challenge” target of 90 wins, they’d have to go 49-23 the rest of the way, which seems as likely as Wally Backman winning the next United States Presidential election.
Hence the bar must be lowered to something more vague and emotional, yet with a kick: Positive vibes, and a positive record to match the positive run differential, as they now have scored 357 runs and allowed 354.
DeGrom, the rookie whom few discussed in spring training as Noah Syndergaard grabbed the headlines, tossed seven shutout innings, with his 11 strikeouts and no walks mitigating the potential damage from seven hits. And he received a plethora of run support even though he went up against Braves ace Julio Teheran. Curtis Granderson contributed another leadoff homer, and All-Star Daniel Murphy ripped a two-run double in the second and added another two-bagger in the sixth. In all, the Mets pounded 18 hits against the Braves’ pitchers. Teheran lasted just 3 ¹/₃ innings to tie a May 14 start at San Francisco for his shortest outing of the season.
Bartolo Colon should be traded this month assuming a team offers a talented young player or players for him, and the club should pick up a healthy portion of the roughly $15 million owed Colon through 2015 in order to improve that return package. The Mets should listen to offers for Murphy and base their thinking on exactly how competitive — by which we mean expensive — a club they plan to field next year. The more they intend to increase payroll, the larger their ask should be for Murphy.
And beyond that? “We just need to go out there and continue to play well,” said Lucas Duda, man of few words and five times on base (two doubles, a single and two walks) Tuesday.
Watch Granderson produce like an All-Star and continue to justify the team’s four-year, $60-million commitment to him. See Duda grow into his role as everyday first baseman and Travis d’Arnaud, who chipped in with a pair of singles and a pair of runs scored, establish himself as a bona fide major leaguer.
Enjoy deGrom’s strike-throwing ability, and ride the Zack Wheeler roller coaster and wonder if it’ll stabilize. Wait for Matt Harvey to complete his rehabilitation and monitor whether he can stop calling attention to himself with stupid public statements. Watch Syndergaard’s progress at Triple-A Las Vegas and wonder whether he can earn his first call-up in September or sooner.
The Mets must go 40-32 to finish 81-81 and avoid a sixth straight losing season, 41-31 to end on the winner’s side of the ledger. Those records will be mighty difficult to attain, yet unlike the 90-win bar, they seem doable if the team can hit capably with runners in scoring position and minimize mistakes on defense.
So much ill will, all of it justified, exists among the Mets’ fan base. The team can start the healing by copy/pasting the brand of ball they’ve played so far on this homestand. By making it OK to fantasize once again.