What a Welcome

The Mets are surely expecting an easy go of it when they commence a three-game series with the cellar-dwelling Washington Nationals tomorrow evening. And after winning two of three games over the weekend from the powerhouse Boston Red Sox you can harldy blame them if that's how they feel.

The Mets entered Boston down in the doldrums, reeling after four straight losses on the left coast to the Giants and Dodgers. The Mets certainly should have expected to lose two out of three to the Red Sox in Boston. But instead, they went out, performed and surprised everyone, including (I bet) themselves in taking the series from the defending AL East Champions.

It started on Friday night when Johan Santana out-dueled Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Mets emerged as victors by a count of 5 to
Saturday night's win was certainly dramatic. Down to their last out against one of the premier relief aces in baseball, Sox closer Johnathan Papelbon, the Mets came back to win with the power of Omir Santos, the discernment of the umpiring crew, and the gloves of David Wright, Ramon Martinez, Luis Castillo and Daniel Murphy (left-to-right). (Parenthetically, I think Daniel Murphy is using Carlos Delgado's glove when playing first base. As such, perhaps he deserves the credit! I wonder if Bill James would give him a win share for the use of his glove. If so, he may be the first player ever to earn a win share while on the Disabled List.)

Sunday's game was a notably bad one for the Mets' pitching. The 12 runs they allowed tied the team's season high. The hitting was alright, including another home run for a Met catcher, this time Ramon Castro.

All in all, the Mets are 23-20, and 1.5 games out of first place, and if they want to show that they are a playoff-caliber team, they will have to take advantage of the next two weeks, when they will face the Nationals, Marlins and Pirates, all of whom are struggling.