ATLANTA — Now that the Mets have the tough part of the schedule behind them — they are done playing the Braves for a while — they can really start considering first place, right?
In the bizarro world of the Mets, this almost makes perfect sense. You would almost expect them to arrive at Nationals Park on Monday for the start of a three-game series against their chief division rival and flip a switch that illuminates the darkness in their lineup.
Lately, there has been no “eureka” moment for the Mets. They lost 5-2 on Sunday at Turner Field, completing a stretch in which the NL’s worst team won 5-of-7 games against them in 1 ½ weeks.
The Nationals, who snapped a seven-game losing streak with a victory Sunday in Milwaukee, have been even worse lately. So anything goes over the next few days in Washington, even if Terry Collins is thinking in larger terms.
“You mean these next 14 days?” Collins said. “I just think it’s all tied in. Right after the Nats, we have got the Cubs, arguably the best team in baseball right now, so we’ve got to be ready. We’ve got to get the ‘A’ game going and maintain it. Right after that we’ve got the Marlins, who are playing very well, and then back come the Nationals again, so I think the next the 14 days are very important for us.”
The Mets had no shot at playing that ‘A’ game in their series finale against the Braves. In what seemed like a concession of sorts to have key players rested for Washington, the manager kept Curtis Granderson and Asdrubal Cabrera on the bench. Travis d’Arnaud was also rested, following 11 innings behind the plate the previous night.
Even so, you would have expected the ‘B’ squad to score a couple of runs against Bud Norris, who will never be mistaken for Julio Teheran.
But there were the Mets stuck in a 1-0 hole after Bartolo Colon had pitched seven superb innings. And then Antonio Bastardo dumped kerosene into the fire with a brutal eighth that cost the Mets any shot at a comeback victory.
Kelly Johnson, who produced the Mets’ only run Saturday with a pinch-hit homer in the 11th inning that led a 1-0 victory, was asked if he remembers the “fun” of facing the Nationals last summer.
“I hope it’s as fun as it was,” Johnson said. “It was fun because we won all of them. Hopefully we’re all passing that championship belt around and we’re having a blast.”
Johnson, who helped transform the lineup in 2015, was asked what has to occur for such a turnaround this year.
“[Yoenis] Cespedes has got to hit at least 20 homers in the next three weeks,” Johnson said. “[Brandon] Nimmo has got to do whatever [Michael] Conforto did. We’ve just got to be as a team through the lineup more scrappy I think.”
Earlier this month, it appeared as if the Nationals were ready to run away with the division. But just like Daniel Murphy isn’t going to hit .400 this season — the former Mets star has dropped to .349 after an incredible start — it seems unlikely the Nationals will turn the NL East into a rout. The Mets’ deficit has shrunk from six games to three, really all Collins could have asked over a 4-5 stretch.
“Every team is going to go through a tough time,” Collins said. “The Nats are going through one right now, the Cubs have lost [6-of-7], everybody is going to have their bad time. That is why you have to go out and play and try not to get yourself in too big a hole.
“These next [14] days are big for us. The worst-case scenario is we go to the [All-Star] break no worse than we are sitting right now.”
Just avoiding the Braves for awhile should help.