This win was simply Amazin’
Back in 1986 Vin Scully said of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, “The Mets swore they saw the face of Casey Stengel, winking his eye and uttering Amazin’”
Tonight, the Ol’ Professor may have been at it again.
Three times tonight the Mets came back in the late innings. Twice they tied the game and in the 11th Asdrubal Cabrera made sure they won “the damn thing” with a walk off homer and a 9-8 Mets win.
“Tonight’s game exactly personifies what the season is like,” manager Terry Collins said. “Up and down, up and down. You just have to keep playing.”
And play they did. The Mets did not lie down, even after losing the three straight to the Braves, including the gut-punch of a loss last night when Yoenis Cespedes was robbed by Ender Insiarte.
It was spiraling out of control and the Mets season looked like it was going to fall apart again, like the good old days when October at Shea Stadium meant apologies to the fans by the owner.
No, this is not 2007 or 2008 and this Mets team willed itself to win.
“It’s easy to forget because when you are leading in whatever be it the Wild Card or you are leading in your division, you expect perfection and you don’t realize what it takes to get there,” Collins said. “The sacrifices you make. In San Francisco not so long ago, we were two games under .500 and we sit where we are today because we are resilient.”
Cabrera ended up the hero of the night, but this was a game of many valiant efforts. Obvious, there was Jose Reyes tying the game in the ninth. Of course, there was Cespedes, who drove in another run in the seven to knot it up with two RBI on the evening, finally getting hot.
And Curtis Granderson, who for most of the season looked like he was trying to have more home runs than RBIs, put the Mets on the board.
You could even credit unsung Mets. Like Seth Lugo who kept them in the game and Hansel Robles bailing out Addison Reed.
The near misses too make it for pulsating baseball. Lucas Duda missing a walk off in the tenth by just inches before the Phillies scored two off Jeurys Familia in the 11th.
If the Mets make any noise come October, this game will be looked at as one of the seminal moments of the season, like the way the Wilmer Flores walkoff against the National propelled last year’s club and the eight run eighth inning against the Braves drove the Mets in 2000.
Those are the Amazin’ moments you hope for when you root for this team. Sure, sometimes they are few and far between but when they happen, it makes the champagne just taste that much sweeter.
There are still nine games to go and plenty can happen, but after the bad taste in the mouth the Braves left on Flushing, this win was the perfect mouthwash for the Mets and their fans.
It only can be described as Amazin’.
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