The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder, so you know what that means – it’s time to pay attention to more than one ballgame at a time – the one on the field, and the ones on the scoreboard.
Oh sure, from the manager on down, they’ll quote you the proper etiquette response, that the game they play that day is the most important one, and the one to focus on, and they’re right, but as the countdown of games gets less and less, you can’t help but keep an eye on where you are in the standings. And whether or not you’re scheduled for the postseason or at the door begging to get in.
Arguably against the odds at the beginning of the season, the Mets are right there, right now, and although at the start of tonight’s second game against the Boston Red Sox, are still officially one-half game out of the postseason – thanks to their recent 7-3 road trip – they’re certainly trending in the right direction. As owners of a five-game winning streak, plus six of seven, and the past three months of winning records (48-31 for June, July, and August) that find them 10 games over .500 for the first time this year, a continuance of these positive marks will at least keep them in the race.
There still are ten games against the first-place Phillies and second-place Braves this month, and it’s not a stretch to speculate that these games can make or break them. So far, the Mets are 4-3 against the Bravos after two series in April and July. But the Mets salvaged only one game in a four-game series against the Phillies in May.
The countdown has long since begun – 24 games to go, counting tonight. Twenty-four games which can lead to an exciting October or another frustrating season.
Tonight, David Peterson took the mound against Boston, and it’s his 29th birthday, so how about that. More importantly, the Mets have gone 13-3 in his 16 starts, and the birthday boy took an 8-1 record (2.83) to the hill with him. His win total probably should have been even more impressive, but he was pulled in two wins before completing five innings, and in three other no-decisions, the Mets came back to win after Peterson left the game. He’s given up just two earned runs in all of his starts except two, where he yielded four runs.
An impressive season thus far.
It has kinda helped the Mets have scored an average 7.21 runs in support during his starts, but hey, that’s the whole idea, isn’t it, to score runs.
Interestingly, ten Mets in their history have won games they pitched on their birthday, including Ron Darling, once in 1985, and again in ’86.
Speaking of ’86, any series when the Mets are opposing the Red Sox obviously conjures up images of 1986, and the last time the Mets celebrated a World Championship.
Mets fans get a daily reminder whenever they see Darling and Keith Hernandez in the booth for SNY, and the memories come flooding back. Bobby Ojeda was “in the house” on Monday night, and Mex reminded everyone how important he was to that World Series.
After the Mets lost the first two games of the ’86 Fall Classic to Boston – at home, no less, Ojeda came back to stunt Boston at Fenway Park with just one earned run in seven innings in Game 3, which the Mets won, 7-1, and put them back on track for a ring.
This week marks the first time the Mets have hosted the Red Sox since 2021. Overall, they possess a losing record versus the Beantowners, 16-23, 7-10 at home, 9-13 at Fenway.
The OMG team, however, did what they had to this past weekend in Chicago, sweeping the woeful White Sox as they challenge the Mets’ ignoble mark of 40-120 from 1962.
There will be reams written about the comparison of this year’s White Sox to the Metropolitans of ’62, but really, there is no comparison. Even if the pale hose lose more than 120, and it sure looks like they will at 31-108 earlier today, the White Sox are an established team, with 125 years of history to have compiled a professional roster.
(Would you believe the White Sox are actually a relocated franchise? Their history began in the late 1800s as a minor league team in Sioux City, Iowa, and later transferred from St. Paul, Minnesota to Chicago around the turn of the 19th Century.)
The Mets began their life as a mish-mosh, put-together collection of rejects by the rest of the National League in 1962, so anything they accomplished was praised as “little engines that could.”
They were lovable losers, a roster filled with aging, past-their prime stars, untried rookies, and characters that would have made P.T. Barnum jealous. Led by the greatest character of all, manager Casey Stengel, they became historically bad, hysterically bad, but always fun to watch.
The White Sox are just losers, period.
They were in the playoffs as recently as 2021 (93-69 for the season), but lost to the Astros in the ALDS. But they’ve been regressing ever since, 81-81 in ’22, and reached the infamous 100-loss level last year, 61-101.
Not much “funny” on Chicago’s South Side this year.
Well, the winning streak continues, as the Mets blasted the Red Sox in front of over 29,000 announced fans, 7-2. Behind home runs by MVP candidate Francisco Lindor (#30), Mark Vientos (#22), and Pete Alonso (#31), and another brilliant pitching performance by Peterson (career-high 11 strikeouts in 6 innings, with just one walk), the Mets are now 53-31 since May 30, the best record in the majors during that span.
For the first five innings, Citi Field was Strike Out City, with the Red Sox going down ten times, and the Mets sat down eight. The only deviation was Lindor’s two-run shot to right to take the lead.
The Red Sox ended up striking out 15 times, the Mets walked back to their dugout ten times.
Lindor is now sporting an on-base streak of 32 games, and a 14-game hitting streak. And he’s now sharing the spotlight with just Alex Rodriguez and Ernie Banks as the only shortstops in baseball history to have five 30-home runs seasons. His 30th longball also puts him in the company of five other switch-hitters with five or more 30-home run seasons.
Can you name them?
We won’t keep you guessing long, but three from this group are in the Hall of Fame – Mickey Mantle (nine times), Chipper Jones (six), and one-time Met Eddie Murray (five). The others are: Mark Texeira (nine), and Lance Berkman (six).
Looks like this really might be a September to remember in Mets Land.