Just When We Are Out The Yankees Pull Us Back In
I have to admit that aside from still going to games to drink and it really being my only outdoor activity, I was ready to call it a season. The last week and a half saw this team go 1-10 in 11 games, which is the first time that’s happened since 1995, and just look overall terrible. If we got the rare good start, our offense couldn’t do anything and when we would score 9 runs, someone would give up 10. You combine that with watching Prince Fielder looking talented enough to write Purple Rain against us all weekend, and there appeared to be no hope in stopping this slide until Big Mike came around again. That is until the Offensive Explosion For America™, that we all saw on Monday, and now I’m all in again on this team.
Realistically, winning this division should not be hard. Normally I make fun of the Mets for being in the worst division in baseball but this year, that’s the AL East and I’m totally fine with it. After that terrible stretch of baseball we sit half a game out of first and all tied up in the loss column with only the Rays in front of us. More importantly, we are getting good news about getting our team back with Nova only a few weeks away and Tanaka throwing rehab games. If Ellsbury can get back soon and restore the top of our order to what it was during the few weeks prior to his injury, this team will be better than what we started with.
Two keys to that are going to be Heathcott and Lindgren. I’m not sure where Healhcott is going to fit in the long run, with Ellsbury coming back and Beltran finally hitting before this flu came along, but he is young and motivated, which could be good for team chemistry. Chris Young has played great when needed, but if Heathcott is the future, it is going to be tough to send him when we are carrying guys like Garrett Jones and some of our weak hitting infielders.
Lindgren on the other hand is up in the big leagues to stay. Yesterday he showed in a small sample that he can compete at the big league level and as long as Joe can bring him along in the next few weeks to get him adjusted, he can own the 7th inning. The key for this team is to get ahead early and if our starters don’t go 7 innings, the game is still up in the air until we get to Betances and Miller. With Lindgren in place for the 7th, the game would turn into a 6 inning game and give us a better chance to win.
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Did that convince you guys, that everything will be ok? I think I convinced myself.