Nothing to See Here, People

Game 12 - Mets

Marlins 5, Mets 2
Record: 6-6

So endeth the streak. After six games of improved play, fortuitous unfoldings, and timely rallies, the Mets came out and laid the egg this farmer had been expecting to drop for several days. Nothing horrible to undo the striking turnaround, mind you, just a quick reminder of the looming potholes in the road ahead.

Tom Glavine re-established himself as the least liked teammate, if you judge it by the continued amount of run support and defense behind him. The hitting, which in recent days had been clutch but never white-hot, was mostly absent. The sweet spots of bat and ball crossed paths but once, on a Victor "Buenas" Diaz home run. This dearth was largely due to A.J. Burnett's sheer dominance; of course, it's an unpleasant coincidence that the Mets traded Burnett for Al Leiter once upon a time. Still, at no point was I openly frustrated with the Metmen. They'd simply built up too much good will in the week prior. Boy, that's weird to type.

The Mets won this series, evening not only their overall record but their series record. They prolonged the odd pattern of a weekly losses-wins-losses seesaw, but a quick win tonight in Philly will stop that nonsense. The Phils have been staging their own rendition of the late-inning heroics -- coupled with opponents' futility -- over the last couple of days. (Always nice to see the Braves implode, if only for a game or two.) It will be interesting to see which direction the Mets head now that their momentum was halted. They're at 6-6, alongside four other teams in the NL East; they all trail your Washington Nationals by two games, which just reinforces the notion that this season is just plain stupid so far.

The Mets could have lost in a handful of ways that would have deteriorated the promising progress they made last week. Another closer collapse, a Glavine disaster, a hideous drubbing, or a Burnett record-setter, anything that would have the press declaring last week a flukey exception to Week 1's standard of Mets suckitude. Didn't happen, though, and it was merely a harmless, inevitable dip in a long ride. We'll have plenty of time to lament the lingering problems here. Just not today.