Tony Plate - Mets Take Weekend Series from Phillies

   SAFE AT THE PLATE..............WITH TONY PLATE

The New York Mets took the series from the Philadelphia Phillies this past weekend winning two out of three games and kept their wild card hopes alive. There is no quit in this team. The Mets broke their six-game losing streak on Friday when Todd Frazier hit two three-run homers to lead the team to a 11-5 victory. It was good to see Frazier bounce back and contribute the way he did after that one difficult game he had against the Atlanta Braves the previous weekend. 

 On Saturday Wilson Ramos lead the way with four hits and extended his hitting streak to twenty-four games as the Mets defeated former teammate Jason Vargas 6-3. 

The Phillies took Sunday’s game with Scott Kingery’s go-ahead bases-clearing double in the eighth inning of the 5-2 victory. The Mets remain in fourth place in their division behind the Phillies and four games out of the last wild-card spot.

The Mets will be doing plenty of scoreboard watching this month with about twenty-eight games left to go in the season. The odds are still stacked against the them. Perhaps they will have to go 20-8 the rest of the way to secure a wild-card spot. 

It sounds like an impossible task; however, anything can happen. As the great Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over until it’s over”. 

The Washington Nationals and the Chicago Cubs are currently the front runners for the two wildcard spots. In addition to the Mets and the Phillies, the Milwaukee Brewers and now the Arizona Diamondbacks are looking in from the outside.

The Mets approach should be taking it one game at a time and stay focused on what they have to do and hopefully get some wins while they shrink some leads of the other teams in front of them. Perhaps they can regain some of that swagger from how well they played after the All-Star break. 

The Mets have most of their remaining games at home which can be an advantage. The Cubs have some games left with two of their arch rivals, the St Louis Cardinals and the Brewers which can work against them.

In other baseball news, former Mets infielder TJ Rivera signed with the Washington Nationals. I thought the Mets would give TJ another chance. I was surprised when they released him. He was a good hitter when he played for the Mets. It is good to see him get another chance in the Major Leagues.