Tom Brennan - METS FANS PRACTICE MATH A LOT

I was really, really good at math in school.  

Maybe you were, too.

Which comes in handy as a Mets fan. 

Because we Mets fans always find ourselves calculating neat stuff, like:

How many games before we get eliminated this year, too.

I'm good at calculating that now - I've done it about 50 seasons in Mets history.

And the best part is, until the team actually IS eliminated, you can calculate how close the Mets are to being eliminated EVERY SINGLE DAY!  What a treat.

The fine Mack's Mets writer John from Albany has been trumpeting all year his desire for a team that can hustle, play D, and pitch.

He got his wish this week.

The Rays came to town.  The Rays do all that.  Well, too.

The Rays overcame a slow season start and several early pitching injuries and smoked the Al East anyway - with hustle, D, and fine pitching.

The Mets, meanwhile, got more crappy pitching, 8 runs of crappy, nothing surprising there.

And THREE homers - wheee! - but they lost by 3 anyway.  Home runs are a lot less thrilling when you don't win. (Hey, not to go all negative, so let me say: that was some bomb from Dom, half way back in the upper deck, and (gulp!) a bomb from Andres Gimenez, showing definitively he is NOT the next slap hitting Bud Harrelson).

56 games so far, 79 HRs (check), 272 runs (check), .274 (check).

Still under .500.  Way under .500.

The Big 3 (Conforto, Alonso and Smith) struck out 3 times each in this must-have game. Time for some math again...3+3+3=9.  

9 Ks from 3 players is a lot - ask any mathematician.

Pitching?  A 4.80 team ERA, despite the 2.00 combined ERA of Jake and Edwin.

Tampa? A dandy 3.64 ERA.

When I got home, the Mets trailed 4-2.  4 minus 2 meant they trailed by 2 runs, I calculated, as the Mets announcers hopefully discussed the Wild Card situation.  But to make that discussion relevant, the Mets had to WIN...but to win, when you subtract the Rays score from the Mets score, you need to calculate a positive number.  As in MORE runs than your opponent.

But the Mets were 3 runs negative.  LOOOOOSERS!

When they lost 8-5 last night, the announcer noted that the Mets had finished their home schedule and now had 7 losing seasons at home out of 12 seasons at Citifield.  

The Math Man in me was tempted to recheck those numbers, since how can any team have 7 losing home seasons out of 12, but then I realized no calculations were necessary - yes indeed, the Mets had defied all fundamental logic regarding home field advantages, by only having a winning home record in 5 of the last 12 seasons.  Last I checked, in fact, I think that would have the Mets with a worse record at home than on the road over TWELVE seasons.

Anyway, I gotta go, but Tampa finished the night # 1.  They understand DIVISION.  They're mathematicians.

The Mets' season performance, meanwhile, could best be described as # 2.   Speaking of # 2, whom will the Mets "dump" in the next few months.

Depending on whom, and whom they acquire, I may start calculating the Mets elimination next year around April 1. Why wait?