It has not been a fun start to the 2017 season for Mets manager Terry Collins.
The Mets have not been off to a blazing start like the Yankees and Nationals are. They have suffered injuries with Yoenis Cespedes, Lucas Duda, Seth Lugo, Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard being on the disabled list. Now, they have to deal with Matt Harvey’s nonsense after he committed insubordination by not showing up to the game Saturday afternoon.
That’s why Monday night’s game was so refreshing. The Mets were resilient enough to come from behind and eventually, beat the Giants 4-3 at Citi Field. A win like that can forget the issues plaguing the team.
This win has the Mets winning seven out of 10 after losing five of six that put them in a position to have a losing record. Heading to Tuesday’s night game against the Giants, they are 15-16 and 5 ½ game behind the NL East-leading Nationals. When Collins looks at so many trials and tribulations the Mets endured, he has to be satisfied with where his team is, even though this is not the ideal situation.
Mets fans expected more after the Mets told them they were all in this year of winning a championship. They expected a season-free of stress this year. That was unrealistic. Every team goes through adversity, and it’s never smooth sailing for the Mets if one looks at the history of this franchise.
A 162-game season is a marathon, not a sprint. What happened in April does not mean same thing will happen in May, June, July, August or September. If it is, then the Mets were never good as we thought.
Who knows if the Mets are a playoff team this year? Who knows if they are a championship team this year? It’s going to come down to Syndergaard being healthy the rest of the season and Harvey getting his head straight. The Mets also need to trade for a starter since it’s hard to believe Matz will be healthy when one looks at his injury history.
Still, no one can deny the Amazins will be in this until the bitter end. This team is resilient enough to respond to adversity. They find ways to win when they have to get it done. It’s not just this recent stretch, but during the course of the last two seasons. The experience they had the last two seasons has them equipped to handle this year’s crisis.
It’s surprising to see Mets fans lose faith with their team after one month of bad baseball. This current stretch hasn’t changed their paradigm of the way they view their team. It’s all doom and gloom. That’s what 30 years and counting of no championship can do to a fanbase. That’s the effect a starstruck franchise can have with the fans.
The Mets have earned the benefit of the doubt to turn their season around. They have done it before, and they can do it again. They can still be a wild-card team considering there are not many good National League teams. Yes, the goal is to win the NL East, but the Mets are not good enough to win the division considering their rotation is always injury-prone and the Nationals are loaded offensively.
The wild-card will not be good enough since it’s one-game proposition while divisional round is the best-of-five that would give the Mets room for error. That’s why fans are antsy about the Metropolitans right now after last year’s wild-card loss to the Giants.
Unlike the fans, The Mets players can’t afford to be down on themselves. They are professionals. They have the responsibility of playing hard for all six months, even if they have a bad month. These guys grind and respond to Collins, so it shouldn’t be surprising they are doing it again.
Monday night served as an example of the Mets resiliency by cutting the lead to 2-1 on Neil Walker’s ground-rule double that scored Michael Conforto after responding to Hunter Pence’s two-run home run in the first inning. They tied it up at 2 in the fifth inning when T.J. Rivera’s double scored Jacob deGrom. After Buster Posey homered to help the Giants regain the lead at 3-2 in the sixth inning, reliable Curtis Granderson tied the game with his double, scoring Juan Lagares in the Mets’ sixth inning.
All of this set the stage for the ninth inning. Conforto started the inning with a walk, and Wilmer Flores got on base on an infield single, moving Conforto to second. Then, Walker sent most of the 28,453 in attendance happy by hitting a game-winning single, scoring Conforto. In the process, the Giants fans at the game left sulking.
For the Mets fans, it was a respite to everything that has hit the fan.
For the Mets, it was another day in the office.
Maybe this will give Mets fans faith. Maybe not.
The Mets don’t care. All they care is they believe in themselves, and this game validated that.
