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Nothing is ever easy around the Mets, of course, so in a game in which they led 8-0 and 9-1, a game in which Phillies manager Charlie Manuel would have retroactively rested Greg Luzinski, Whitey Ashburn and Dick Allen if he could have, Francisco Rodriguez was warming up in the bullpen with two outs in the ninth, one pitch away from being summoned from the bullpen.
Pedro Beato prevented that fascinating piece of cardiac arrest from seizing the sun-drenched faithful who remained at Citi Field, striking out John Mayberry on a full count, closing the door on a 9-5 Mets victory and on a week for the ages around the team, seven days that had a little bit of everything on the field, off the field, in the owner’s suites, in negotiation rooms.
Seven days, from s****y to Citi, from the pages of the New Yorker to the rages of New Yorkers, from the bliss of .500 to the near-abyss of five-below.
Yes.
Some weeks are more interesting than others.
“Different than anything I’ve ever seen,” Mets manager Terry Collins said with a weary smile, and that was before his team allowed him to exhale with eight runs in the first two innings (though also before driving him to the Maalox bottle later on).
“I tell the players all the time there’s a little something different about playing in New York.”
Especially this side of New York, this end of the Triborough, this half of the city’s baseball duet.
Hard as it is to remember, it was only two weeks ago that the other guys were the ones caught in the crossfire, losing every day, tumbling in the standings, embroiled in loud controversy when the designated hitter refused to hit where designated in the lineup.
Then Fred Wilpon cleared his throat, peddled off a third of his baseball team, the Phillies walked into Citi and slapped the Mets around a couple of times.
“Just another week,” Jose Reyes said with a smile.
Actually, Reyes was the one Mets whose week went beyond extraordinary. Four hits and two triples yesterday mean he went 14-for-27 in the six games after Wilpon decreed him unworthy of Carl Crawford money (which may be true; he may soon be seeking a combination of Cindy Crawford and Joan Crawford money).
“When Jose sees another shortstop out there like [Jimmy] Rollins or last week with Jeter,” Collins surmised, “he really raises his game, the way All-Stars do.”
Vilification tends to be a similar motivator, a pathway toward vindication.
So Reyes has taken care of answering Wilpon’s comments, and David Wright did so the other night with his knowing and smiling non-answer answers.
The rest of the Mets, painted various colorful adjectives by their owner across the past seven days, now have seven more days to provide their own responses.
If yesterday’s win put a temporary stay on the falling sky, the Mets’ schedule from now until this time next week will either keep it intact or force the rest their world plummeting around them in a million little pieces.
“This is a huge homestand,” Collins said. “There’s no question about that. Yes, we started with two losses, but we were right there with the Phillies, inning for inning. And the message the team has to have is this: You are good enough. And soon, maybe we’ll be getting David Wright back. Maybe we’ll be getting Ike [Davis] back soon. Maybe we can scratch back to .500 or so and be right there again.”
And you know something? It’s a relief to hear Collins talking like this again.
Is it realistic to think the Mets can find themselves and take six out of seven from the red-hot Pirates and the ever-sturdy Braves with a lineup that is still compromised?
Maybe not. But it’s right and it’s good that the manager is trying to steer everyone back to baseball, away from Fred Wilpon’s big mouth and Saul Katz’ bigger … er, onions.
Why not, after all? No matter the level of dysfunction, the Mets still have a baseball season to play out. If they don’t still believe, who in their right mind would?