There comes a point during a long baseball season that a particular game proves to be the turning point of a season. Last June that proved to be the case on the wrong side for the Mets when Luis Castillo stumbled and dropped a Alex Rodriguez pop up in a 9-8 loss to the Yankees.
Even though 2009 was lost, that one moment began a total spiral out of control that left the Mets as a franchise twisting in the wind.
Fast forward to 2010.
Mets fans are angry at their team after an offseason of virtual inactivity and a spring training filled with more injuries to Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and Daniel Murphy. Fans even booed the Mets medical team, deservedly so, on Opening Day, as well as a majority of the coaches and players, which was soon followed by a listless 3-7 start through the first 10 games of the year.
If the losing continued, Met fans would finally get their wish and Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya would be fired.
Then a 20-inning marathon happened. Needing a big performance from Johan Santana, the Mets couldn't muster a hit off of Jamie Garcia, of all people, through five innings. After seven innings both starters left with the game scoreless.
Then things got wacky. The Mets used 24 of their 25 players on the roster, the Cardinals were using position players to pitch, and had their number three starter, Kyle Lohse, in left field. Eighteen innings had gone by with the game still scoreless. The Mets finally scored in the 19th, only to have K-Rod blow the save, surrendering an RBI single to Met-killer Yadier Molina to tie it.
The Mets could have folded. Hell, they could have folded hours earlier—they didn't. The Mets took the lead in the 20th on a Jose Reyes sacrifice. Mike Pelfrey got the save. A rarity, K-Rod gets the win, Pelfrey the save.
Moments like these can make a team and a clubhouse. Since that time the Mets have gone 8-2, including six in a row. They are three games over .500 at 12-9 and are in first place! That's right, first place in the National League East. In a mediocre National League, the Mets have life! They have hope, you gotta believe!
The Mets have gotten solid pitching performances from Jon Niese and Oliver Perez—neither has killed the Mets this year. Johan Santana is starting to roll, and Mike Pelfrey is finally showing ace-like stuff.
Pelfrey is 4-0 with a 0.69 ERA. It is about time. Pelfery is 26, and entering the prime of his career. He needed to step up after a dreadful 10-12 season a year ago, and he has. He has given up only two runs and no longer appears to be a guy who panics on the mound when faced with a crisis. He is calm, cool, and collected and he is trusting his stuff right now.
If Pelfrey can keep this up, he will solidify the number two spot in the Mets rotation that looked so bare back in December when the Mets refused to pay more than $80 million to free agent John Lackey.
The bullpen which was filled with virtual unknowns outside of Francisco Rodriguez and Pedro Feliciano, has been nothing short of brilliant so far. Raul Valdes...who? Exactly! Raul Valdes has a 1.04 ERA. Jenry Mejia has a 2.00 ERA, and Hisonori Takahasi has been the anti-Masada Yoshi, pitching the Mets to two victories, and making the case that he should be in the rotation if either John Maine or Oliver Perez continues to falter.
Offensively, the Mets are not exactly Murderer's Row. Jason Bay has struggled to adjust to the spacious Citi Field, while David Wright has toiled in another season-long slump thus far. However, if the second game of the Dodgers doubleheader was any indication, perhaps Wright and Bay are coming out of it.
Bay went 2-for-6 with a homer and two RBI in the twin bill, and Wright went 3-for-3 with four RBI in the nightcap—the best output of the season for him. If those two get hot at the plate, watch out for the Mets. Bay and Wright are career .300 hitters with 30-home run power. The Mets need those two to hit, especially with Beltran on the shelf, if they are to win.
Did I mention the Mets most important contributors this season? Jeff Francoeur and rookie Ike Davis?
Davis came up when this home stand started with the hope that he could help ignite a stagnant Mets lineup. He has done just that. He's batting .333 with a homer and five RBI. He looks poised at the plate, and doesn't show even an inkling that he is a rookie. His 420-foot bomb to right-center that landed near Shea Bridge was one of the longest by a Met in the new building, and many Mets have stated in radio interviews that Davis has fit like a glove in the clubhouse.
Lets face it, the Mets have struggled to find a reliable first baseman ever since Carlos Delgado went down in the middle of last season. Daniel Murphy was not the answer. Mike Jacobs was never the answer. If you really want to go further into the Mets past, Davis may finally be that true replacement for the popular power-hitting John Olerud who manned first for the Mets in the late '90s.
It is only a week into Davis' career, teams will adjust to him eventually, and Davis will slip into a slump at some point, but the future looks really bright with him on this club.
Then there is Francoeur, who led the Mets in hitting in the first couple weeks of the season. He has cooled off since, but is still hitting .280 with three homers and 10 RBI. Ever since Francoeur came from Atlanta last season, he has been a positive influence in the clubhouse, constantly stating how much he likes the makeup of the club—a stark contrast from the days that Delgado and Billy Wagner ruled the clubhouse with their moody and divisive personalities.
At the end of the day, when looking at the Mets right now compared to the team that was decimated with injuries and heart-breaking losses the past three seasons, look no further than the clubhouse.
Remember the rumors that used to fly out of Shea Stadium like a swarm of bats out of a cave that there was unrest in the clubhouse between the latin and non-latin players? Remember Billy Wagner and Paul LoDuca stabbing the likes of Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes in the back when they told the media to speak to them after losses, "they speak English too" was their response.
There was a virus of descent that emanated through the clubhouse in those days, a virus that appears gone now. The 2010 Mets do not look as talented as other lineups right now, heck, the best lead-off man in the game, Jose Reyes, is batting third just to help the middle of the order right now. But what this team has that those past Mets teams didn't have is heart.
They seem to care about each other, and seem to be willing to back each other up, the way Takahasi backed up a struggling Ollie Perez in game two of Tuesday's doubleheader.
They showed heart when they hung with the powerful Cards in St. Louis for seven long hours on Saturday's journey into night. They have shown heart ever since, outsmarting and beating teams led by Hall of Fame managers in Lou Piniella, Bobby Cox, and Joe Torre.
And to think the Mets found their heart in St. Louis against the Cardinals—the same franchise that ripped out that heart four years ago in the NLCS.
Gotta believe? You bet, even in April.
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