Jack Flynn - Intelligence, Hustle and Guts

Look. We know better, don’t we?

We know this team has problems, Mets fans. The starting rotation is thin, the bullpen is unpredictable. The outfield situation remains unsettled and the defense all around the diamond is questionable.

But …

No. Don’t start thinking that way. The owners are bankrupt – both morally and financially – and there isn’t going to be any money for reinforcements even if this team finds a way to stay five games above .500 come July 1.

But did you see …

And don’t start talking to me about Zack Wheeler or Travis d’Arnaud, either. Wheeler needs a full season in the desert to continue honing the craft, and d'Arnaud isn’t going to hit like Mike Piazza right away, because NOBODY hits like Mike Piazza right away.

But did you see Ruben Tejada take the extra base on Kirk Nieuwenhuis’s single in the ninth inning on Sunday? And then did you see Nieuwenhuis smartly take second when Juan Pierre looped an eephus ball to try to catch Tejada at third?

Yup, I saw it. And, believe me, I’m feeling the same thing you are right now. Comeback victories in the ninth inning have a way of doing that to even the most jaded fan. And right now, it is very possible you are reading the words of the most jaded fan at Mack’s Mets.

So let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. The San Diego Padres and the Miami Marlins both have the look of last-place teams this season, and winning two out of three games against bottom-feeders at home is exactly what you’re supposed to do if you’re not going to be a bottom feeder yourself.

And yet …

And yet, six games into the season, I’m seeing some things that I haven’t seen for a few years.  When was the last time you saw even one Mets base runner making the gutsy decision to swipe an extra base at a critical time, let alone two of them?

Credit to third base coach Tim Teufel, of course, who showed that he read the scouting report on Pierre’s arm with his aggressive calls all weekend.

With the Mets, though, it has always seemed to be a case of someone – either the coach or the base runner, if not both - missing the boat on things like that.

That play never happens if both Teufel and Tejada don’t know that the base runner can go first to third there. That play never happens if Teufel suddenly goes conservative and throws up the stop sign. That play never happens if Tejada gives up too soon and takes a poor route around second base.

But Teufel was aggressive, and Tejada was aggressive. The Mets made the Marlins make a play at a critical moment, and Juan Pierre wasn’t up to the challenge.

But then …

But then, you would’ve been happy if it was just first and third and one out, right? Sure, you’d have been applauding Tejada’s smart base running and not even giving a second thought to the fact that the double play was still in order and Marlins closer Steve Cishek had a favorable matchup against Marlon Byrd, a right-handed batter.

And, the Mets being the Mets, the vision of a 5-4-3 game-ending double play very likely would have been swimming in your mind minutes later, cursing the baseball gods for your choice in baseball teams.

Instead …

Instead, Tejada’s hustle play was enhanced by one from Nieuwenhuis, who took a very aggressive turn around first when he saw that Pierre was throwing for the runner at third. Once it became clear that the throw was off-line, Nieuwenhuis dashed for second base and changed the entire complexion of the game, not to mention the early part of the 2013 season.

All of a sudden, the double play was off, a sacrifice fly would tie the game and a well-placed single would win it for the Mets. Everything had changed - because for one moment, the Mets played intelligent baseball with an extra heaping of hustle and guts.

And be honest now - when was the last time you saw the Mets combine intelligence, hustle and guts on the baseball field?

Moments later, intelligence, hustle and guts was rewarded. Marlins manager Mike Redmond pulled the infield in, somehow forgetting that he was managing a real live baseball game and not playing Strat-o-Matic with a friend on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

(Strat-o-Matic interlude – pulling the infield in at that moment actually would have made perfect sense from a gameplay perspective, as the game’s infield in charts are built to cut off a run far more effectively that that defensive alignment does in real life. Play Strat-o-Matic anyway.)

Cishek was surely forced to change his ideal approach to Byrd once the prospect of a double play was no longer there. With second and third and only one out, Cishek now had to think more about getting a strikeout and not allowing the batter to put the ball in play.

Advantage Byrd, who then chopped a ball past the drawn-in third baseman Chris Valaika, both runners scored and it was pie-to-the-face time for the right fielder.

At best, it probably would have been an infield single if the third baseman was properly positioned.  Instead, it was a Mets win that was extra sweet because of the good things both players and coach and had to do to make it happen.

So yes, we know better, Mets fans. But we also know that we haven’t seen our team play winning baseball like that very often. If it keeps happening, maybe we will find that we don’t know nearly as much as we think we know.