Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Games 127 through 129 - Mets

Mets 5, Dodgers 2
Mets 4, Dodgers 3
Dodgers 6, Mets 2
Record: 73-56

Welcome to the working week, New York Mets.

The next seven days represent a degree of gauntlet you won't face again this season. Four games in lovely Philadelphia (in a ballpark cozier than Williamsport's) abutted by three in your home away from home that is Atlanta's Turner Field. I feel certain that the Phillies and Braves are looking at this week as their respective best good chances at making a run for the division crown. I think it goes without saying that it's imperative that you quell any such momentum. So long as your A-game isn't plucked from your travel bag along with any gels or liquids sizing more than 3 oz. or not in a Ziploc baggie, you should be fine.

Please remain calm, even as I tense up for what I can only hope is the last time before October. Stay the course, make your pitches, hit your spots, pick one out to drive, make the plays you're capable of making, and be the uber-talented team that you are. In the words my father chose to spur me on to my many successes, don't screw it up, dummy.

* * * * *

The Mets fairly well took care of business over the weekend before leaking one away against the Trolley Dodgers last night. In a game that, as I told Rob, had the kind of putrid baserunning you'd never see at the Little League World Series, the Mets' aimless saunterings 'twixt home and home were perhaps more costly. Meanwhile, after highlight-worthy defensive plays marked the first two games of the series . . . well, Jeff Conine got himself some highlights, I suppose. An ugly one, and that doesn't even include Jeff Kent getting beaned in the helmet with nary a Dodger teammate checking on his well-being.

Meanwhile, Scott Schoeneweis fanned . . . nobody, but he did fan the flames of frustration with the Mets' relievers. I guess it's just a damn good thing the Phils & Braves have bullpen issues of their own. I guess.

But the overriding feeling of the weekend was a positive one, largely in part of the waxings the Mets' opponents in the NL East continued to take. Not that that should carry over into this week. It's strap it on and duke it out time for this division.

Let's go. Game on. Play ball.

Welcome to the working week.
Oh, I know it don't thrill you, I hope it don't kill you.
Welcome to the working week.
You gotta do it till you're through it so you better get to it.