Tolo Deals, Nats Collapse - Mets Lead Is 6.5 As We Hit September First
Matt Williams strikes again in DC. Bartolo strikes out 9 over 8 innings as the Mets beat the Phillies for the 500th time this season. And bingo bango its a 6.5 game lead on September 1st for the New York Mets. To be honest I dont even want it to hit 7 or 7.5. I’d rather sit right at 6.5 or jump to 8. Seeing a 7.5 game lead in September might make me puke.
But here we are. Winners of 10 of their last 13. 20-8 in the month of August. Rosters expanding today to bolster the bullpen. Another ace returning from injury. And 22 of their remaining 31 games are against the Braves, Reds, Marlins, and Phillies. The Mets have done everything the needed to do to put themselves in the position to win this division the final month of the year. They weathered the storm early on. Their pitching staff put the team on their back and carried them for the 3-4 months when their lineup was the worst in franchise history. They made the right moves (and non moves) at the deadline to turn this offense around. And they are doing what good teams do in order to win pennants: they are beating the shit out of bad teams. Nobody is saying they’re the best team in the league. Nobody is saying the NL East is the premier division in baseball. Nobody is saying they are gonna win the World Series. But completely discounting what the Mets have done up until this point in the season because they got swept a few times by teams in the Central or because they’ve played the Rockies and Phillies recently is just lazy. Its been lazy hate for the Mets all year long, right from the get go when they had their 11 game winning streak to start the season in April. Its gone from “Its APRIL bro” to “Didn’t know you could win the World Series in May” to “Its June. Calm down.” to “Mets fans are so cute. Getting excited in July.” to “Its August, talk to me in October.” Cant wait to win again tomorrow night and hear all you losers say “Early September games dont matter!” Its September 1st dude, come talk to me on September 15th.” Today I actually saw someone chirp at me “The Mets will be playing golf in late October.” I mean are you guys fucking serious? Thats what its come to? Just discounting “early October” games? At what point do you give the Mets some sort of credit? Do they actually have to win a World Series before you just give a little respect? I know people are used to the Mets being bad and they’re uncomfortable with them not being a joke. I know people like to see me miserable and dont want to give any of my teams credit. But at some point you gotta realize the lazy arguments and citing seasons from 7 and 8 years ago are both just lame.
Still got 6 head to head with the Nats and until they’re up 6 with 5 to play I won’t relax. And neither should this team. Pedal to the metal. Get me to the finish line.