Loserino

Well, Mets fans, our dream series came true. Three games against our hated rivals, three wins, and ZERO runs allowed. The last time that the Phillies scored a run, the Celtics were good and the Superbowl was a warm weather event. The only way things could possibly be better is if the calendar said October.

But even though it's only May the sweep was Amazin'. It not only announced the Mets resurgence, it also left the Phillies thinking like losers. Take, for example, Shane Victorino's account of what the Phillies talked about during their closed-door meeting:

“We just need to play with some intensity… It’s not about losing and winning. It’s about losing the right way and conducting ourselves the right way. Basically, that was the whole brunt of the conversation, nothing more than that. There was no reaming, no yelling at anybody, just understanding to go up there and if we’re gonna lose, to lose the right way.”

Wow. I'm assuming that losing "the right way" means losing without spying on the opposing pitchers with binoculars, but I could be wrong. Either way, it looks like the tides have turned. While the Mets are running off wins and talking about the need to continue winning, the Phillies are concerned with moral victories. I guess thats what happens when you get absolutely embrarrased by your division rivals.

And just for the record, Shane, the way you and your team lost these last three games sure looked "right" to me. Keep it up.

It's All About the Pitching

Another great day to be a Mets fan. We have now taken the series against the Phils and have guaranteed ourselves to at least be tied with them on the season head to head going into tonight's battle between Pelf and that junky piece of garbage Cole Hamels. I will be in attendance tonight to boo him whole-heartedly. I will also be there to see what hopes to be another gem from Mike Pelfrey which would make it about the 6th game in a row with an excellent pitching performance by a Mets starter. Now, do we think there is a coincidence that in this little run of excellent pitching we've won every game? I don't think it's a coincidence as much as a statement.

Since the start of the Yankees series on Friday, Mets starters have had a combined ERA of 0.71. On the excellent 9-1 run our boys went on about a month ago, the starters combined for an ERA of about 1.64. It's no surprise to anyone that good pitching leads to wins, but this definitely gives some additional evidence that this team can do great things with good pitching. At the beginning of the month, the Mets went almost 2 weeks with their starters not marking a win - this we know was a dark time for the streaky Mets in 2010.

There is enough hitting talent on this team to win - especially if stars like Jose Reyes and Jason Bay are actually coming around like we've seen over the last week or two. David Wright will have his hot streaks, Francoeur will have his hot streaks, Ike Davis seems like one of the most consistent hitters on the team right now, Luis Castillo is probably our most consistent on-base guy, and we know the kind of power Rod Barajas has shown. If everyone gets hot together, we'll see some great stuff out of this club no matter what the pitching, but in order to keep winning on a consistent basis, it seems the Mets need to go out there and put a good starter on the hill.

What does this mean? It means RA Dickey is "ridiculously awesome" right now and Takahashi could keep these great performances up, but it can't be relied on. We need one more good arm. The Mets took a 4 pitcher gamble going into this season. Pelf has been stupendous. Niese has shown he can be the consistent guy we need him to be and can step up in a big spot once he comes back from the DL. Maine and Ollie have failed at this point. The team seems to be getting excited now that these distractions are not taking the hill to start every game. Takahashi and Dickey can keep being awesome starters for the Mets - if they do, we'll make the playoffs for sure. But, if you add a 3rd "no worries" arm to this rotation, this team is a playoff contender. You're telling me we're not going to win a 5 game series with Santana-Cliff Lee/Roy Oswalt - and Pelf starting the first 3 games? I'm getting giddy just thinking about it.

Mets management hopefully realizes this so the Kool-aid can keep flowing. This is that different brand of Kool-Aid, not just overly positive, but sure Kool-aid knowing that this team will be Amazin' with just a little tweak. Show me something Omar. Here's a pitcher of Kool-aid - now pour us a glass!

R.A. Stands for Ridiculously Awesome

Seaver, Gooden, Darling, Leiter. Now add Dickey to the list of Mets pitching heroes.

Last night R.A. Dickey, a 35 year old knuckleball throwing journeyman, solidified his place in Mets lore by shutting down the vaunted Phillies lineup in the first game of a pivotal series. But two things made Dickey’s performance even more amazing than the typical dominating start.

First, the Phillies should have had an advantage before the game even started. They struggled against another knuckleballer just two nights ago, so you would have thought the entire lineup would be watching game film and adjusting during their off day. Instead, it appears that Utley, Howard and Co. were too busy cavorting with their vomiting fans and checking out the latest in taser technology to study up on how to hit a knuckleball.

Second, Dickey was hit on the elbow by a line drive early yet still persevered through six shutout innings. Imagine if the same thing had happened to John Maine or Ollie Perez. Maine would have been pulled from the game, yelled at his manager for taking him out, and then been diagnosed with some sort of major injury unheard of by most of mankind. Ollie would have stayed in to pitch three more innings, gotten shelled, and then complained about how much the injury (and slight breeze) affected him.

But not R.A Dickey. Dickey proved that, despite the funny name and the fact that he has never won more than eight games in a season, he can be counted on by the Mets to win big games.

After all, he's not named Ridiculously Awesome for nothing.

The Mets-Koolaid Koolaid

It's time to get excited again folks. This blog is about to make a serious run. I mean it. So far this season, this blog has had some ups and downs. We flaked on the position by position Spring Training preview, started out pretty slow on traffic, had an amazing run of huge traffic days with lots of posts for about a 2 week span, and since then we have been lying in the weeds with some good posts at times and other days not showing up at all. Well, we're back. Things were busy, we had some distractions, enough is enough. Sure, we may be a little bit understaffed at times. We still have 2 solid writers here though even if Mets Koolaid fans think that it's time for a management change! We're ready to pledge to you at least a post a day for the foreseeable future. It's time to let the koolaid pour again!

Sound familiar?

Alright, we admit it - we've been slacking. Mike and my calendars are clearer now and that excellent performance against the Yankees this past weekend have given us a renewed spirit and a new batch of Koolaid is brewing as we enter into another crucial series with the Phils. This time, it's on our turf. What does that mean? No more popups that turn into home runs, no potential for fans to throw up on other fans or players, no potential for a mid-inning break to taze a fan.

I think the most important thing to realize going into this series is the Mets have momentum and nothing to lose. The Phillies came out and beat the Mets when we were on our best run of the season. We were in first place and they sent us down the standings. Well, now it's their turn. We have the middle of our order starting to wake up, we're at home where a battered pitching staff has the luxury of huge and deep walls to keep balls in the park, we just took 2 of 3 from the Yankees, and we're expected to lose here.

If the Mets can't beat the Phillies here, raise your hand if you'll be surprised. Okay, now explain to the person sitting next to you at work why your hand is raised. Now take a sip of koolaid and think about what this beautiful Memorial Day weekend will be like when the Mets have just come off two victorious series against our two biggest rivals and getting ready to leave on a road trip to visit the struggling Brewers. We could be sitting here next week talking about another great run that this team has gone on, except now it's for good. Some signs of life, a few wins, a quick move for another starter (out of Houston maybe?), and we're back in business. We've been saying it all along and there have been hints that this team can be good. The season is still just in its second month and it's time for a turnaround.

It's time for a run, both on this blog and on the field. So sit back, relax, and pour yourself a nice tall glass of koolaid to enjoy it. Let's go Mets!

A Thank You Letter to Oliver Perez

Dear Mr. Perez,

I would like to be the first Mets fan to thank you. For the first time in three years, you did something this past weekend that made us very happy.

You easily could have pitched your usual clunker of a game, something like 5 innings, 5 runs, and 5 walks. We would have said you stink, but it could be worse. Jerry Manuel would have told us that you just made a couple bad pitches but are very close to turning the corner. Omar Minaya would have said there is no intention to remove you from the rotation at this time.

But you are obviously a way better person than we gave you credit for. Instead of just being plain bad on Friday, you gave Mets fans the gift of an atrocious performance. 3.1 inning and 7 runs, gift wrapped with 4 homers. You made it easy for the usually stubborn Mets management team to pull you from the starting rotation, something I never thought they would do. Maybe they will even decide to pursue a decent pitcher to replace you.

So again, I say thank you. Thank you for not subjecting us fans to any more of your starts. Thank you for ending the stress of buying tickets and then praying that you are not pitching. And thank you for stopping the bleeding in my ears from hearing about the great shape you are in and the amazing bullpen session you threw.

Now, if you can possibly find more room in your kind heart, please pitch just as badly out of the bullpen for a couple of games so that management will not even think about putting you back in the rotation. Maybe you could even get dropped from the team altogether. For $36 million it’s the least you could do.

Sincerely,
Mets Kool-Aid

Santana, Warm Weather, A Chance to Win a Series

Looking at the title of this post, you'd think that it would be a nice tall glass of kool-aid going into yesterday's game, but there are all things to talk about today, even after another heart-breaking loss coming on a Fernando Nieve wild pitch in the bottom of the 9th. On this blog though, we don't look at the glass half empty, we don't even look at it as half full, we look at it as overflowing with koolaid. So here are some reasons why this series with the Marlins still has a chance to be a really big one for the Mets.

First and foremost, Johan Santana was dominant yesterday. For the past few years, Santana has been one of the few bright spots on the Mets and someone, as fans, we've never really had to worry about. No matter how bleak things looked, you knew every 5 days you were going to get a performance from our starter that would put the team in a position to win. Well, after Johan's last 2 starts, all Mets fans were getting very worried. In just 11.1 innings he had given up 14 earned runs including probably the worst start of his career against Philly weekend before last. Well, Johan reassured the team and the fans last night in Florida battling Josh Johnson matching his great pitching performance with 7 strong innings giving up only one unearned run and striking out 5. While the loss was unfortunate, I'd trade the win for a reassurance that Johan is not going to be an issue going forward. I think we got that last night and I'm already looking forward to his next start as I always had in the past.

Next, we send Oliver Perez to the mound tonight in a game the Mets really need to right the ship here. Normally, this would worry me a lot, but with all the talk of Ollie not pitching well in cold weather and the loud talks of him being pulled from the rotation should give Ollie more of a reason to show up big than ever before. He'll be pitching in a balmy stadium in Miami and must know this is probably his last shot before the Mets put someone like Hisinori Takahashi. There will be no excuses so either Ollie will pitch well and we'll be happy, or he won't, and we'll have a new direction to look forward to. If it was up to me, I hope he does well. We need this win and this could be something the Mets rally around going into the rest of the weekend.

Finally, even with a loss last night, this is a 4-game series and 1 loss leaves the Mets with a chance to still take the series from the Marlins. It all starts tonight. It's only 5/15 - there's no reason to get our heads down yet fans. Keep drinking the kool-aid and hope for the best.

Philthy

As you know by now, here at Mets Kool-Aid we love nothing more than serving up an ice cold glass of the blue and orange good stuff. But over the past few years, baseball followers have been subject to a different kind of koolaid, one so vile it makes you want to throw up on your fellow fan. You guessed it, I’m talking about Phillies koolaid.

All we hear from the national baseball media is how great the Phillies are. They are the class of the National League, a well run organization with passionate fans, blah blah blah.

Yes, the Phillies do have a good baseball team, as much as I hate to admit it. But it’s about time that the national media love fest for all things Phillies come to an end. We have always known that the fans are horrible. After all, only one fanbase holds the record for vomiting on an 11 year old girl and getting tasered by stadium security within a one month span.

But now we also know that the organization is not as “first class” as the Baseball Tonight crew and others would have you think. Earlier this week they were caught stealing signs from the Rockies bullpen with that extremely high tech espionage device the rest us call binoculars. Class act Charlie Manuel defended the action by saying the Rockies only complained “Because we beat them… Keep crying”, and then accused the Mets of cheating too simply based on their good home record. Somebody has been spending a little too much time with Bill Belichick lately.

The Phillies have been accused by various teams of stealing signs from the bullpen for years. And what do they get for this? The cruel “punishment” of three extra home games against the Blue Jays. That’s right, Phillies fans will have three extra chances to pull off more memorable stunts.

We can only hope more tasers are involved.

Jerry's Juice

Following yesterday's rough performance by Oliver Perez, Jerry Manuel said the following:

"The cool weather was definitely a factor with Ollie, and we will just have to figure it out. The whole thing with strike-throwing is balance and if it's windy that makes it very challenging."

As Jerry inferred, I think it is safe blame yesterdays' debacle on Mother Nature. We told you previously on this blog that Oliver Perez does NOT like to pitch in cold weather. Add in some hurricane-esque winds, and he must really hate being out on the mound. You can't expect someone to throw strikes when all they can think about is curling up in a snuggy, can you?

Don't worry though, because Ollie's next start will be in mid-May. Expect him to throw 7 shutout innings since it is sure to be 75 degrees and sunny, unless Mother Nature is a fan of whoever the Mets are playing at the time. If that's the case, we can always trade Ollie to Florida or Arizona.

Walk-off Wins Provide Cinematic Foreshadowing

What a win in 11 innings by the Mets today as Henry Blanco closed out the game with a walk-off home run - the second in as many days coming from the catcher position for the boys in blue and orange. Not only was this a great win today, but this again shows us the fight in this team. For the second day in a row, the Mets lost a lead late in the game and still found a way to win. As Mike said in his post yesterday, these are games that this team has lost in the past. I'm ready to say, this team's luck is has turned.

While luck has something to do with it, I'm a strong proponent of saying that you make your own luck. There is something we are seeing in these games at Citi Field that we haven't seen in a while...smiles. So many times last year, with the absence of Jose Reyes and the pressure David Wright seemed to feel, it didn't look like anyone on the Mets team was enjoying themselves.

Any person who's seen any sports movie knows that teams the don't have fun get distracted and never perform to their potentials. Following a turning point, the team realizes the game should be fun, comes together, works hard, and goes on an amazing run to first place and eventually a championship. Well, here's your list:

-Lou Brown informs his team that Rachel Phelps chose them so the team would lose and she can move the team to a warm weather climate. The team goes on a crazy run eventually beating the Yankees in a one-game playoff sending them to the post season.
(Major League I)

-Henry Rowengartner breaks his arm which eventually allows his tendons to heal tight enough that he can throw a blazing fastball. He becomes the youngest kid to play for the Cubs, and eventually his joining the club reminds the team to have fun like kids even reviving the dead career for Gary Busey's well-played Chet Steadman. The team goes on to win the World Series even though their two best pitchers suffer in essence career-ending injuries in the final game of the NLSC. Why? Because they team had fun.
(Rookie of the Year)

-Billy Haywood, inherited owner of the Twins and self-made Manager and baseball wunderkind gives his team an ultimatum that he will fire himself if they play hard, have fun, and still don't win. Well, team pranks and shenanigans as well as a successful montage boosted the Twins to coming within inches of a playoff birth as Ken Griffey Jr. robs a shot hit off of Randy Johnson for the final out of a one game playoff - the fans of Minnesota stay after the game to cheer on the team in appreciation.
(Little Big League)

-Roger Bomann's dead beat dad tells him he will get the family back together when the Angels win the pennant causing Roger to pray for the impossible happening and resulting in the appearance of Christopher Lloyd and his pack of ultimate PEDs - Angels. The heavenly helpers help the team with success eventually leading them to have fun and become good ballplayers again. Tony Danza even shows the evil White Sox who's the boss as he pitches a 150 pitch game getting the Angels to the playoffs.
(Angels in the Outfield)

-Rube Baker gives a heartfelt speech about how the Indians are in the "gosh darn major leagues" in the break between a double-header where the first game displayed the entire Indians team "showing signs of life" by beating the crap out of each other. The team remembered what playing baseball was all about and went on another playoff run and making the World Series after Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn intentionally walks the bases loaded to face the best hitter in the league and struck him out. "Throw him the heater Ricky!"
(Major League II)

Now there's 5 excessively described instances where one small mid-season event can change an entire team's attitude and send them on a run into and even through the playoffs. So I say:

-The Mets struggle in a week where the team lost two bad games to their biggest division rivals and then couldn't even eek out a series win against a bad Cincinnatti team with multiple heartbreaking losses, Rod Barjas and Henry Blanco spark the team back into fun mode with back to back walk-off home runs on a weekend series with the Giants. The young stars of the Mets jump up and down at the plate as they welcome their catcher to the plate with smiles on their faces. They go on to take the sweep on Sunday with a big comeback performance by a struggling Oliver Perez and the team goes on to streak into first place passing their rivals and running full steam through the season and into the playoffs.
(2010 New York Mets)

In all my memories of the successful seasons of the Mets' past, it's always the loose, fun teams that were successful. These two games have put smiles on the faces of our players, and I'm ready for them to go on another run. It all starts tomorrow if the team can get a big performance by Ollie against Lincecum, and like the little black orphan boy said in Angels in the Outfield - "Hey, it could happen."

We Like Walk-offs

Last night, I witnessed in person one of the best Mets games in recent years. Courtesy of SNY and my roomate Adam, I was able to sit in a suite right behind home plate. The suite was incredible, but what I'll remember most is something we've never seen before at Citi Field.

Twenty five men in Mets uniforms rushed out of the dugout, surrounded home plate, and then jumped up and down as one of their teamates crossed the plate. I had seen this ritual before on tv, as recently as Wednesday, but could not recall the Mets taking part in it in a long while.

And as the stadium was rocking, it finally came back to me - this was a walk-off home run for the New York Mets!

The Mets opened up a fresh can of koolaid with the amazin' win last night. This was a game they certainly would have lost in years past, unable to get over the blown save and subsequent air being let out of the building. It would have been the game that had Mets fans swearing to not watch another game this season.

But the 2010 Mets are different, and last night they showed why. These Mets have one of baseball's clutchest hitters in Rod Barajas, who showed no ill effects from Cinco de Mayo celebrations and is quickly becoming a favorite of this blog. And they have Ike Davis, who continued to make Christian, Muslim, atheist, and especially Jewish Mets fans proud with two home runs and an incredible catch.

It was the type of win and celebration that can bring a team together and pump up the fans. Citi Field was buzzing again, and this time it wasn't just because of Shake Shack burgers or that song they play after Take Me Out to the Ballgame that everyone pretends to know the words to.

It was because everyone realized that good, exciting baseball is back in Flushing.

Rod Barajas is Electrifying!

In Hebrew, "Baruchas" means blessings, and to the Mets, "Barajas" should mean just the same. Rod Barajas has definitely been a blessing for the Metropolitans this season most recently hitting a game winning home run in the 9th inning last night to lift the Mets over the Reds and get them back on track after a tough weekend in Philly and extra-inning loss on Monday.

Last night's homer marked Barajas's fourth knock in as many games for him including his second multi-homer game of the season on Friday night against he Phillies. The shot also put Barajas not only in the team lead for home runs this season, but also tied him for 13th in the majors and first among catchers overall. That's right, Rod Barajas is tied with Albert Pujols right now for home runs. He also has more homers than defending AL MVP Joe Mauer and cross town catching superstar Jorge Posada.

I took a look back at Mike Piazza's stats as a Met to this point in the season and only 3 times did he have 7 home runs by May 5th - that was in 2000, 2001, and 2002. In those season, Piazza ended up with 38, 36, and 33 home runs respectively. If we see that kind of production out of Barajas by season's end, we'll have to add him to the end of this list, if I may quote myself from our preseason catcher preview post, "From Grote to Carter to Hundley to Piazza to LoDuca, the Mets seem to thrive when they get good production from behind the dish."

As he keeps this up, he's going to electrify this Mets lineup better than a Citizens Bank Park security guard and get our boys in blue and orange back to the top of the NL East standings before you know it. Stay excited folks, drink it up, and Let's Go Mets!

Jerry's Juice

With the Mets recently putting together a long winning streak, it's been a while since the last "Jerry's Juice" (Remember, they only come after losses). Here is a double dose, and hopefully the last two we see for a while:

When asked what he thought about Matthews, Tatis, and Catalanotto, Manuel said the following:

"That's a real tough one. I think the thing that would be somewhat encouraging to them is that it's still May and they have accumulated some at-bats, probably haven't been as successful as you'd like to have been."

Jerry is absolutely right, folks. Sure, neither Matthews, Tatis, or Catalanotto has been any good for a few years, but it is still only May. It will only be a matter of time before all three have heated up to at least the Mendoza line. And they have to be encouraged that their manager thinks they PROBABLY haven't been AS successful as we would have liked, rather than not successful at all. All told, things are looking up for these three valuable bench players.

"The weather was good for him. It was warm. He likes this weather. He let some pitches go, and that's what we needed to see from Ollie."

Again, Jerry's words give us reason to believe. Ollie likes warm weather, and it will be getting warmer the next few months. Put two and two together, and what you get is a big summer from Ollie Perez. We can only hope that once the cooler days of September and October come around, he will still be dominating opposing hitters.

Phillies in First? Big Deal.

Phillies fans don’t really know anything, but they were right about one thing – it’s still very early in the season. Last week, all we heard from the Phlunkies was that success in late April means nothing. Well, it’s still only May 3^rd, so Mets fans can for once take the advice of their vomiting-on-each-other rival fans and not overreact to these last two early season losses.

Sure, the games were disappointing, but they add up to just a slight bump in the road during what still promises to be a great season for the Mets. There is no way that Pelfrey and Santana, two of the best pitchers in baseball, will be that bad in any other starts this season. The Phillies were just lucky to catch them on off days. Philly was also fortunate that Jerry Manuel basically gave them the rubber match by playing the B squad lineup and sitting Angel Pagan and Ike Davis. Congrats, Phillies, you beat a team consisting of Garry Matthews Jr. and Fernando Tatis. But giving a day of rest to the starters is sure to pay off for the Mets in the long run.

Even in the losing series there were plenty of positives for Mets fans to take away. John Niese showed he is better than any Phillies pitcher not named Roy Halladay. The offense continued to rake, hitting six homeruns in just three games. Rod Barajas proved once again that he is the best catcher the Mets have had since Mike Piazza. And Jason Bay and Jeff Francoeur played outstanding defense in the corner outfield positions.

So don’t worry, Mets fans. The season is still way too young to put too much stock in a couple of losses, especially when those losses were basically flukes. Santana and Big Pelf returning to their dominating ways is as certain as death and taxes. Phillies fans will probably gloat all day, but all that really matters is that the Mets are looking down at the Phillies when the calendar turns to fall.

Like that obnoxious guy in the Utley jersey told you last week, pennants are won in September, not May.