Cheer up Met fans, a special Always Look on the Bright Side edition of the Met Wiki Weekly Quickie!
The Mets showed great fight this week, highlighted by two six-run comebacks. On Tuesday, a 6 run 8th turned a 6-2 deficit into an 8-6 victory. On Sunday the Mets scored six in the sixth and seventh to turn a 7-0 deficit into a 7-6 deficit, on their way to a 10-8 loss. John Maine became the first pitcher in almost 10 years to start a game by throwing 12 balls, but he established himself as the Mets number 3 starter by giving up just 8 runs in 11 innings this week. Niese and Perez combined to give up 17 runs — only 15 of them earned — in 9 2/3 over their 3 starts. Jeff Francoeur’s .083 On Base Percentage this week was only four points lower than his Slugging Percentage. Over the past month Jeff hit .125 with a .188 Slugging Percentage, with 3 walks and 23 strikeouts. That’s good news because it might be bad enough for the Mets to realize they should start somebody else at least against righties, maybe Chris Carter. 
In actual good news, for the third time in his young career Ike Davis made a nice catch falling into the dugout, this time for the final out of a Met victory. Excellent weeks for Johan Santana, Raul Valdes, Jason Bay, Alex Cora, Angel Pagan, Chris Carter, and even Gary Matthews Jr. But just nudging out Bay for the player of week, for the third week in a row, is Rod Barajas. Rod led Met regulars in hitting, On Base Percentage and OPS this week. He also had the big hit in the Mets’ victory, the game tying 2 run double, after which he scored the go-ahead run.
Mets schedule week starting May 17
The Mets head north this week, stopping in Atlanta and DC before coming to face the Yankees and then Phillies. Good news: Pelfrey and Santana pitch the next 2 games. More good news: that sets them up to face the Yankees this weekend. Even more good news: that sets them up to miss the Phillies, who hammered them a few weeks ago. Unclear who will join Maine in starting against the Phillies, but it’s a good bet that the Mets’ long relievers will get a lot of work.
It’s looking increasingly unlikely that the Mets will miss the postseason this year because of a late season collapse. By going 1 and 6 this week they dropped to 6 games back of the Phillies. Final piece of good news: all those Met fans whom we thought had no souls because they thought 2010 would be a repeat of 2009? Well, now they look like optimists, so good for them.
This has been the Met Wiki Weekly Quickie. Thanks for reading. See you next Monday.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
If the Mets can win the subway series then I will consider this a great week (it will be nice if they can also beat Washington)