Um, riding high and ready to rock with the rivals?
How about something more like “Least inspirational sweep ever”?
Look, the Mets did their job this weekend. They swept the tanking Brewers out of Citi Field, with Noah Syndergaard applying the finishing touches Sunday afternoon en route to a 3-1 victory.
But then they left for Washington for a rematch with the Nationals, who just beat them in two out of three in Flushing — the Nationals’ one loss coming against the dominant Syndergaard, who will be exclusively an observer this time — starting Monday night at Nationals Park. Even understanding baseball’s fickle ways, how good can you feel about the Mets going into this big three-game set?
“In baseball, these types of series can hopefully maybe springboard us into that next series. I think our confidence is high right now,” David Wright said after Syndergaard allowed one unearned run in seven innings, striking out 11. “I think we’re playing pretty decent baseball. Our bullpen has been lights out. It’s nice to be able to pick up our starters.”
The captain spoke the truth about the Mets’ bullpen, which has totaled 14 ¹/₃ scoreless innings in the club’s last four games. Yet as people who root for the city’s other team can tell you, a bullpen does you good only if your other units function well enough to make the relievers relevant. The Mets’ starting rotation and offense accomplished that mission against the terrible Brewers, whom the Mets outscored by a thin, 11-7 margin over these three games.
The Mets’ National League schedule comes with a mix of chores and challenges. From the chore of Milwaukee, one of many NL tankers, comes the challenge of the Nationals (27-17), who lead the Mets (25-18) by 1 ¹/₂ games in the NL East.
The Mets will start the slumping Bartolo Colon and the Artist Formerly Known as Matt Harvey in the first two games, in rematches of last week’s final two against Washington’s Gio Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg. Hence you can understand why Terry Collins spoke of the need to get a long outing from Syndergaard on Sunday.
“We wanted to make sure we save [long reliever Logan] Verrett because we aren’t sure,” Collins said. “You’ve got to look down the road to where we might need some length here.”
If you look up “down the road” in your Collins-to-English dictionary, you’ll see that it means “the next two games.”
The Mets’ offense, meanwhile, ranks last in the NL with 60 runs in May. Lucas Duda, his back ailing, could go on the disabled list as soon as Monday — with Collins talking about being “real concerned” that the first baseman will miss an extended period — and Wright has been handcuffed by his ailing back all season. With Curtis Granderson trapped in a cold front, the Mets’ lineup has been reduced to the C+C Baseball Factory, depending largely on Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto. Kudos to Asdrubal Cabrera for scoring that hot pair with the game-winning, fourth-inning, two-run single Sunday.
That ensured that the Mets would leave town with a 4-2 homestand and a three-game winning streak. They rebounded, if not quite glowingly, from their Nationals spanking.
“We spent all last year doing the same thing,” Collins said. “We’d have a tough series. Everybody’s writing us off and we’d bounce back and play good. Win six out of eight or six out of nine or something. “
The manager spoke the truth. Myriad reasons still exist to feel positive about his club. Of course they can channel enough of those positives to enact some vengeance in our nation’s capital. If that occurs with a mere 2-1 series victory, then you’ll be feeling far better about your team than you do right now after a sweep.