This game was something the Mets desperately needed. A 11-2 laugher that was over before you stopped feeling patriotic after the National Anthem.
Sure, this was the Marlins and sure they used a batting practice pitcher named Pablo Lopez. Not matter how you sliced it, the club needed a game like this for its mental health and well being.
“You don’t see that type of inning very often,” noted Callaway on his team’s welcomed output. “Very rare, everybody took a deep breath after that. What I was most proud of was that we kept adding on after that. It wasn’t flukey. It was a good feeling tonight, but we gotta come back tomorrow or it’s going to be meaningless. We have to go out every game and play like we did tonight.”
We shall see what happens tomorrow and the next day as the Mets look to build on this win and make a Lou Brown winning streak. Even after this past week, believe me, it has happened before. More importantly, though, the Mets are now getting to softer part of the schedule filled with Marlins, Tigers, and even the Nationals, who are proving to be as brittle as the Night King was to Game of Thrones.
The Mets need to pounce over the next two weeks to get themselves back into this race and maybe even make it interesting. Mickey Callaway’s club seems to be repeating last season, somewhat, where a good April become a mediocre May and then a horrible June. That’s not the formula for success and if it continues, Callaway’s seat will be filled by a Jim Riggleman and ultimately maybe a Joe Girardi or Dusty Baker.
Today, Callaway had a sit down with Jeff Wilpon and Brodie Van Wagenen, but the manager said it wasn’t a temperature taking third degree.
“We meet all the time,” Callaway said. “It was a standard meeting after a road trip, how can we get batter, get going in the right direction. What do we have to do to put us in a better position.”
Great and frankly you can’t entirely blame Callaway for going 1-5 against the Brewers and Padres. These are two of the better teams in baseball and in all honesty, better clubs than the one that plays in Flushing.
However, the Mets are supposed to be better than the Marlins and even the Nationals, who may be looking to punt on their second-year manager Dave Martinez very soon. The Mets need to clean up against these teams in the next 11 games, and then go all Charlie Sheen on tiger-blood.
And it comes down some players stepping up just a bit. Forget Robinson Cano, who the Mets will be thankful if he is serviceable and in all honestly Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso are rookies and shouldn’t shoulder the club.
It’s Michael Conforto’s job to step it up and he is the centerpiece of this offense. Last season, the Mets right fielder was coming back from shoulder surgery and frankly maybe came back a bit too early. Because of the way he was healing, Conforto was not totally following through on his swing and was in a deep funk the first half. Only after he was completely healed and finished his swing in the second half, Conforto’s ship was right.
Now he has no excuse to hit .265. He is a better player than that. The Mets know it and Conforto does. He needs a few days like tonight where he went 3-3 and had a homer. That’s the Mike Conforto which the Mets need and must feast on the bad pitching he will see over the next few weeks.
And then maybe the Mets will have a chance this year.
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