This little roll through which the Mets have won six of their past seven games has produced a result that might have been unthinkable a little more than a week ago.
Meaningful games in July.
“We know we’ve got to win ballgames,” said Jacob deGrom following Friday’s 2-1 victory in Queens over the pathetic Phillies in which the stud right-hander threw seven innings of three-hit, 12-strikeout ball. “We know we have a good team. It’s a matter of doing it.”
Good is obviously a relative term, because the Mets are still five games below .500 at 37-42, 9 ¹/₂ behind the division-leading Nationals and 9 ¹/₂ games out of the second wild-card spot.
Still, given where things stood after the club’s four-game humiliation in Los Angeles during the middle of last week, there is cause to believe that maybe, just maybe, the Mets can play meaningful games at least in August, too.
“You can get as hot as you were cold,” said Terry Collins, the manager who removed deGrom after 111 pitches before turning it over to Jerry Blevins, Paul Sewald and Addison Reed for the final six outs. “We’ve talked about making a run. I think we can do it.”
There are eight games remaining before the All-Star break, two more in Queens to complete the weekend series against the team with the majors’ worst record (26-52), before three in Washington and three in St. Louis. The Mets cannot afford any slip-ups here, cannot afford a relapse in D.C. Everyone recognizes that.
“We can’t get swept in a series working our way back to .500,” general manager Sandy Alderson said. “That’s where we have to get to have a shot. We can’t do that and make up any ground.”
The Mets are still pockmarked by health issues. Michael Conforto missed a fourth straight game with a bruised right and seems headed for the disabled list. Lucas Duda was a late scratch with the flu. Neil Walker remains out for the foreseeable future and Juan Lagares’ return is nowhere in sight.
The rotation will spin without Robert Gsellman next time around, but Zack Wheeler will get the ball Saturday night after a short stay on the DL. Jeurys Familia, on the DL since May 12, could be cleared to begin a meaningful throwing regimen soon, but of course Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey remain out of the picture.
So even as Alderson talked about taking stock of the team’s situation after a couple of times through the rotation, that rotation consists of deGrom, Wheeler, Steven Matz, Seth Lugo and Rafael Montero. Will that keep the Mets on the axis?
Perhaps more to the point, will the bullpen, so pedestrian all year but keen in this one with Reed requiring just seven pitches in the ninth to nail down the save, be up to the task of stringing together the work necessary for the Mets to stay on the roll?
“I think our bullpen can always be upgraded,” Alderson, master of the understated obvious, said. “We’re always looking to upgrade the bullpen.”
Jose Reyes, who ole-ole-ole’d himself into a triple before scoring the eventual winning run in the fourth inning, has been sharper since moving back to his old stomping grounds at shortstop on June 13 when Asdrubal Cabrera went on the disabled list. The Mets have been sharper since Cabrera shifted to second base upon being reactivated on June 23.
Curtis Granderson, who lost Andrew Knapp’s flyball in the sky that fell for the Phillies’ first hit with two out in the fifth, continued his revival at the plate with a second-inning single beyond second base to drive in the Mets’ first run. As Granderson’s value to his team increases, so perhaps does his value as a trade chip.
Not that Alderson is necessarily thinking that way as of yet. Not that there is any need for the Mets to declare themselves buyers or sellers at this early date.
“There’s no trade market at the moment,” the GM said. “Maybe somebody will try to steal the market. There’s no urgency [in that regard] the next couple of weeks.”
But there is urgency for the Mets to pile up the victories. It is true that they are not exactly chasing the 1976 Reds or the 2016 Cubs in the standings, but they do have four teams between them and the second wild-card spot, and that includes the somnambulant defending champs from Chicago.
“We went to L.A. and got our teeth kicked in,” said deGrom of the four-game sweep in which his team was outscored 36-11. “After that we said, ‘Let’s go.’ We just have to go out and play ball like we know we have to play.”
And win those meaningful games in July.