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Well...it was better than advertised. The National League's reigning Cy Young Award Winner and MVP against the reigning Rookie of the Year. Clayton Kershaw, actually the winner of not one, not two, but three Cy Young Awards, took the mound with a purpose...trying to finally muster the same success in the post season as he has come to enjoy in the regular season. And Jacob deGrom, the phenom who was not on anyone's radar two years ago, climbed the Dodger Stadium mound also with a purpose...to show he was just as deserving to share the spotlight with Kershaw.
The two would put on quite a show...going head to head...strikeout for strikeout...each giving up a hit here and there...but leaving the opposing hitters shaking their heads while heading back to their respective dugouts. Daniel Murphy's fourth inning home run gave the Mets the lead and it would prove all that the Mets would need. Because as good as Kershaw was, deGrom proved to be that much better...finishing with 13 strikeouts over seven innings. He yielded five hits, two that were actually misplayed fly balls by Michael Cuddyer in left field. Kershaw struck out 11 Mets, but he tired in the seventh inning and left the game after walking the bases loaded with two outs.
It's playoff time and a lot of memories come flooding back. It's been nine years since the Mets have been here...and the only thing people can remember is the image of Carlos Beltran standing in the batter's box taking strike three from a young upstart named Adam Wainwright. And that's really unfair to Beltran...because there are so many other memories of the October events that lead to a World Series appearance.
OK...so the Mets are winners of the National League's Eastern Division. They will be playing the Dodgers in the first round of the playoffs next week. But has anyone noticed what is happening? The Mets came off a brutal homestand where they lost six of nine and went to Cincinnati to play the dreadful Reds. They ended up sweeping the Reds in the four-game series, with Game 3 the division clincher. So what do they do for an encore? They headed to Philadelphia and got embarrassed and swept in the three-game series by the lowly Phillies.
And now they get humiliated in a day-night doubleheader at the hands of the Nationals. The shame of it all is that Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey turned in the most dominating performance by a Mets duo in a doubleheader since Jerry Koosman and Don Cardwell upended the Pirates in a mid-season doubleheader in 1969. That was the famous doubleheader where both Mets starters won by a 1-0 score and each drove in the game's only run.
Ya Gotta Believe? Well...ya just gotta believe now. Watching the Mets celebrate their clinching of the Eastern Division title has to make fans feel really good about the way things have turned out. Especially when things looked rather glum in May, June, and the beginning of July. But with all of the anxiety, all of the complaining, and all of the people calling for heads to roll, the Mets have taken the first step on their way to a post-season berth for the first time in nine years.
There is a lot to figure out over the next seven games that remain for the regular season. But for now, it is a chance to revel in the victory.
OK...OK...so with Yogi passing it brings back all of the memories of his days with the Mets and leading them to an improbable World Series appearance in 1973. Of course anyone and everyone with any knowledge about the Mets recalls that 1973 was the year of "Ya Gotta Believe!" And after the first half of the season...and even heading into the latter part of July, the team hung in there, and then once reinforcements arrived, you really had to get back into the Ya Gotta Believe groove.
But since the bombardment of the Rockies in Colorado and the Phillies thereafter in Philadelphia, the team has not looked all that formidable. Even through the recent 8-game winning streak, things looked a bit shaky. That streak ended with the team losing six of the next eight games to finish a home stand at 3-6. And the way it all happened really is concerning.
Yogi Berra...the iconic Yankee...and the lovable Met...passed away at the ripe old age of 90. Not many people can be considered folklore, but you would think anyone with the name Yogi could. But he was so much more than someone with a funny sounding nickname. He was a great player, a knowledgeable coach, a caring mentor, a compassionate human being, and a true gentleman in every sense of the word.
He was a family man, his wife and children always came first. He served his country in the U.S. Navy, and even participated in one of the biggest battles in the history of this country during WWII. He was a loyal and much-loved teammate. He was Derek Jeter before there was a Derek Jeter.
The very thought of the Mets playing baseball well into October in 2015 is exciting. But if the series against the Yankees is indicative of what post-season baseball will be like, well, it will be brutal. Watching the Mets against the Yankees was like watching a Little League series. The Yankees are NOT a good team and the Mets...they were just bad.
The Mets are in the stretch run and it was the first important series against another team fighting for a post-season position. They got a taste of what the post-season atmosphere would be like in their own ballpark. And it was a bit disappointing.
I think that the acquisition of Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson is a good start to get spare parts and shore up the bench and give Terry Collins some needed flexibility. They are proven veterans who have been in pennant races before and have been clutch. However, the need for a BIG bat is overwhelming.
I would be less concerned if Lucas Duda were being as productive as he was in the first month of the season or the second half of last season. Wilmer Flores has quieted down and Daniel Murphy has been a shell of himself. So NOBODY is hitting.
Frustration must be running rampant with the Mets...especially in the last 24 hours. The Mets started the series off against the Marlins with a huge distraction. The "Matt Harvey innings limit saga" suddenly became an issue just when the team is trying to sort things out with their starting rotation, trying to keep everyone fresh, and ensuring that everyone makes it to the post season healthy. Then they go ahead and lose a heart-breaker in 11 innings after the team fought back twice from deficits...the last time with two outs and nobody on in the ninth inning. The lead was blown again by the middle relief corps and the game was lost in the 11th...again by a reliever whose name is not Clippard or Familia. So it is no wonder that the old man, Bartolo Colon, would want to do it all by himself.
Just when you thought it was too good to be true...you find out it IS too good to be true. The Mets are finally playing meaningful games in September with an eye on October baseball for the first time in almost a decade. Even with the infusion of the exciting Yoenis Cespedes and key veterans Juan Uribe, Kelly Johnson, and Tyler Clippard...all of whom have made major contributions since their respective arrivals...there are still major concerns with the team. Lucas Duda is still on the DL, Daniel Murphy and Michael Cuddyer are now sidelined with injuries, and...oh...yeah...the middle innings relief situation is providing many with a reason to head to their physicians for a prescription for Xanax.
The calendar turned, it's September 1, and that means the rosters expand. The Mets will be getting some extra bodies in the clubhouse to aid in the stretch run.
Welcome back Steven Matz...Kevin Plawecki...Eric Campbell...Kirk Nieuwenhuis...Erik Goeddel. Lucas Duda and Bobby Parnell will be back as soon as they are feeling 100% from their stint on the disabled list. Logan Verritt will return once the allotted time is over for his stay in Las Vegas. And Eric Young, Jr. has been brought back to the organization to provide some much-needed speed. It will all make for some exciting September baseball and an intriguing decision on how to construct the post season roster.
I love going to baseball games...I really do. But sometimes it can literally be such a painful experience. It is hard to coordinate schedules because of everone's busy lives so every so often I am able to drag my wife, begrudgingly, kicking and screaming, to a Mets game. She doesn't understand anything about baseball...rather...she is an old-fashioned rock and roller. Our brains work so differently. The wife will have music playing and point out the intricacies of a piece and say, "Did you hear that...did you hear that unbelievable transition?" And I just sheepishly reply, "Uh...well...that was niiiiiiiiice?" Admittedly, I don't even pretend to be able to hear what she hears. But then, she will not see, or understand, all of the intricacies of what is happening during a baseball game...all of the things you can't possibly see going on when you are watching on television instead of seeing everything happening before your eyes.
There is a lot of excitement building around the Mets. Not since the mid to late 1980's has the focus been on the Mets rather than the Yankees. Sandy Alderson kept promising that 2015 would be the year that the Mets would be significant. In late June, everyone was calling for the man's head and screaming, yet again, for the Wilpons to sell the team. Late June...hmmm.
You can almost sense something special IS actually happening. After a horrible first-half road record, the Mets had a hugely successful road trip of 8 wins and only 1 loss, completing a four-game sweep of the Phillies after grabbing three straight from the Rockies. But what is so glaring is HOW they are doing it.
Alan Karmin is an award-winning journalist and author. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and spent most of his life growing up in the New Jersey suburbs. Alan's family were avid Brooklyn Dodgers fans and when the Dodgers moved west, the Mets became the team to root for. The Mets have always been a true focal point, Alan even wrote a term paper in high school to analyze what was wrong with the Mets. While at the University of Miami, Alan honed his craft covering the, gulp, Yankees during spring trainings in Fort Lauderdale for a local NBC affiliate, as well as the Associated Press and UPI. He broadcasted baseball games for the University of Miami, and spring training games for the Baltimore Orioles and Montreal Expos. New York Mets Mania is a forum for Alan to write about his favorite team and for baseball fans to chime in and provide their thoughts and ideas about New York's Amazin' Mets.
