New York Mets

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico:   This season, the Mets have not had a good time facing the Florida Marlins as the road team.

In mid-May, they got swept in four games in Miami, and they lost last night's series opener in Puerto Rico against them as the road team. The Mets are now 0-5 as the road team facing the Marlins in 2010.

It has seemed over the years the Mets just can't play the pesky team from Miami no matter where the games are being played.

David Wright's career hit a low point in 2009. 

Sure, he hit .307, but he had a career low in Home Runs (10) and Runs Batted In (72) since his first full year in 2005.

Not to mention, the Mets won under 80 games for the first time since 2004, when David Wright broke into the big leagues. 

Coming off of that awful, putrid, and just plain unlucky 2009 season, the Mets started a promotional campaign claiming "We Believe in Comebacks." 

SAN JUAN, PR-- For the first time as a Met this season, R.A. Dickey couldn't get the job done with his knuckler, getting hit around and only lasting five innings. The humidity didn't help Dickey out, and the Marlins pounced on him early and often, getting the pitcher for five runs on five hits.

The Mets got a leadoff single from Jose Reyes in the first, but couldn't produce a "Reyes run" as he was picked off by Marlins catcher Ronny Paulino.

So far this season, the Mets have played 75 games. They are currently .5 games out of first place. The Mets have been able be competitive despite that fact that they have had Carlos Beltran, a perennial All-Star, play exactly 0 games for them.

When Beltran does return to the Mets, he will be a major asset. There is no way to deny that. Despite playing only half a season last year, Beltran was able to bat .325 with 10 home runs and 48 RBI. That production would be very helpful for the Mets.

The New York Mets have been superb in June. They have become a bona fide contender in the National League East, and have solidified their position as a buyer rather than a seller before this season's trade deadline.

There have been a tremendous amount of positives which have come hand-in-hand with their overall success.

Yet, in the middle of all of those positives, there has been one surprising—and alarming—dark spot for the Mets: Johan Santana.

It's hard to be a Mets fan.  It means a lot of broken hearts and lonely Octobers.  But still we persevere. 

The Mets owe it to their fans to start taking themselves seriously and really go after a title. 

The Mets, who many believed would spend the season in the basement of the NL East, are within striking distance of the divisional lead.  And although optimism is something we Mets fans are wary of, there are undeniably good omens for this team's outlook.

According to the NewYorkMets post on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/NewYorkMets/status/17272109005 , the Mets will begin the series against the Florida Marlins in Puerto Rico with the following lineup:

1. Jose Reyes —SS  Reyes has really become hot and is the Reyes we all know and are glad to have on the Mets.

According to the New York Mets post on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/NewYorkMets/status/17271561579, the Mets have four players who are returning to their home country of Puerto Rico this week.

Those four players are Alex Cora, Angel Pagan, Pedro Feliciano and Jesus Feliciano. It should be interesting to see how much playing time those four get in this series against the Florida Marlins.

NEW YORK— The Mets completed another positive home stand today, shutting out the Minnesota Twins 6-0 on their Major League-best 11th shutout victory of the season.

NEW YORK: After starting the home stand 2-0 against the Tigers, the Mets will try to avoid a 3-3 split today when they face the Twins in the 2010 Interleague finale.

The Mets will send Jon Niese to the mound, who in his last start, got sidetracked by a rain delay. On Tuesday against the Tigers, Niese, coming off of three straight wins, held them hitless through the first three innings.