This week has been a great example of how baseball players and baseball teams have control over many things that they do, but also have no control over external influences or just the cruelty of chance that hangs over the game. Here is how it unfolded so far:
Monday night - day off. Weather was already threatening, but that is what the MLB schedule said, so no baseball was played.
Tuesday night - great opportunity. Great pitcher on the mound for the Mets, no-name rookie on the mound for the Braves. Mets came in with superior defensive numbers (OAA) and even better bats than their opponents (Mets had better OPS, Avg, and Runs than Braves). They had the momentum, coming in with the best record in baseball since June.
This was a perfect opportunity to crush the hopes of the Braves team. Then the baseball gods got involved. Dinks and dribblers, bad hops and mistakes, followed by a couple of bombs. Mets drop a disappointing 5-1 game and instead of crushing the Braves hopes, they reinvigorated a good team that just needed a reason to start playing well.
Wednesday night - more weather. MLB could have moved the game up, but the schedule said 7:20pm. By 5:00pm, the weather was not only bad but getting worse with no relief in sight for a couple days at least.
The series in Atlanta was now postponed to an after-the season doubleheader with everything at stake. Burn your best pitchers to win and you lose because there is a three game wild card series starting on Tuesday with no breaks in-between. In the most likely scenario, the Mets will play eight games in seven days in four cities.
This could only happen to the Mets. The formerly hapless Mets (that title is now owned by the Chicago White Sox) now only retain the title of unluckiest team in baseball.
My high school coach would say that you make your own luck. That is a tall order, as this team is still without Kodai Senga, and the five man rotation without him has to be good enough to win at least five of those eight games in seven days.
The starters have to go deep enough so the bullpen doesn't have to pitch more than 16-20 innings over those eight games. The offense has no time to rest except on the plane crisscrossing the country from Atlanta to Milwaukee to Atlanta to either San Diego or Milwaukee again.
If the Mets can maneuver their way through this very difficult scenario, it will be one of the most remarkable demonstrations of tenacity and will that this ball club has every made. It will be something that the coaches call upon to motivate future teams when adversity rears its head. It will be something that strikes fear into the next opponent who has never had to stand in front of a speeding freight train before.
If the Mets don't, will we look back at some of those games that slipped away and say, "If only"? Will we look back at the season and credit the club with doing more with less and overcoming many obstacles? Will we just lament the way the team played in May?
No matter how this plays out, we Mets fans were blessed with a thrilling ride this season. The early swoon and the subsequent surge. The drama of many teams vying for three wild card spots, with some eventually falling by the wayside as our team remains in the thick of the race.
The slumps and the comebacks; the streaks and the injuries and the heroes (or goats) of each game. After watching 157 games I am riveted to the screen watching every pitch of every inning to see what happens. We may wish for a championship but we thrive on the pursuit. This year has been fun!
So to the Mets and their fans that are facing into these strong headwinds that have been presented by the baseball gods themselves I say two things:
Carpe diem!
Let's Go Mets!
9 comments:
help did come last night
the team the Mets play for the next three games clinched their #3 seed, thus making the next 3 meaningless for them
win these three, reduce the magic number to 1 and let Atlanta have to win it out to get there
Good viewpoint, Mack. Hopefully, AZ will sputter, too
ATL has to play KC and their fighting for a spot and not having to face Sale and Lindor getting a couple of extra days should help but our prior history says otherwise. It would help if SD playing the Dbacks plays tough even though they are already in well it will be interesting and one hell of a ride.
SD still has to lock up the first wild card spot so they can host. That is motivation to beat the DBacks in at least the first two games.
Until I see otherwise the Braves own the Mets in a crucial end of season series. I felt like the Mets were about to get swept. This delay can only help.
yes because the beast is Sale and the Bravos have to pitch him Fri so how effective would he be Mon.
So would you line up Manaea to pitch Monday or use him in Milwaukee to get ahead?
Speaking of pitching matchups, today's Texas at Oakland game features two starting pitchers that you may recognize: Kumar Rocker vs J.T. Ginn
I don't understand where Quintana has gone . .all he has done is throw to a 0.28 ERA since August 25.
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