Games 146 through 149 - MetsBraves 3, Mets 2
Mets 5, Braves 0
Braves 7, Mets 4
Nationals 7, Mets 2
Record: 83-66
1st Place in NL East by ½ game over PHL (gulp)
Some sage seer predicted at several intervals this season that the divisional race in the NL East would "come down to it" between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. (Patting self on back.)
Some big dope remarked at several intervals this season that he sure hoped it would. (Punching self in eye.)
With the Mets up 3+ games last week and looking good doing it, I got optimistic text messages from relatives, nods and encouraging words from strangers when I'd don the garb about town, and a post from Rob touting the often-lopsided Case Bet as suddenly close. We'll see, said the wise man.
Now having dropped 3 of 4 and looking bad doing it, the Mets find themselves with a tenuous, fleeting lead. (And Rob is perusing beer catalogues for a case of something tasty.) I mouthed off about the crappalachian Atlanta Braves, in essence begging them to stuff it in my face. They did. Played brilliantly, Whit. Last night the woeful Nats signed and sealed Pedro Martinez's exclusion notice from any potential postseason roster. The bullpen has sprung some new leaks, just when it was looking good and epoxied. Son of bitch. Shit.
Three days from now, though, we could easily be amid another upward twist on this "down the stretch" road. Today Nick said, "Gotta love the race at this point." Of course he's right. There's a whole lot of tension and uneasiness in what is playing out in the division formerly known as the NL Least. (That the Wild Card could come from this corner of the league defies long odds.) It's what makes us crazy, but also what keeps us coming back. The fear and anxiety about what the Mets are capable of doing on any given night (in a uniform-soiling kind of way) is mitigated by the knowledge and confidence of what they're capable of doing on any given night (in a high-fiving, fist-pumping sort of way).
In the meantime, Metmen, don't look a gift mule in the mouth. Beat the fucking Nats like the league doormat they are. And hey, Braves -- if you wouldn't mind sporting the same amount of sack* against Philly this week, that'd be marvelous. It's all well and good to be fired up that the Mets are balls-deep* in a race for postseason spot at this juncture, but I don't have to be all grins as they get torched by a team the PawSox would dismantle. There's a vast difference* between being happy to be here and being ready to make it happen.
Make it happen.
*surgery recently scheduled for mid-November might be affecting my jargon...
3 comments:
'vast difference' is just a snip too far, friend.
Cut. It. Out.
Whit,
Did you know that the Nats have been drawing poorly this year? I don't have exact figures, except to say that the one time I've been in the stands, there must have been about twenty thousand empty seats. And their lack of appeal has definitely been in the news.
The new ballpark is very nice.
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