The first quarter of the season is done with. It has been quite a wild one for the New York Mets. The Mets, right now, have a 22-19 record. They are 1.5 games behind the defending champs, the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Mets started off the season with beating the Cincinnati Reds, everything was great. The bullpen worked exactly as planned. Sean Green in the seventh, JJ Putz in the eighth, and Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth to get his first save fo the season.
The Mets went on to take two out of three in that opening series. After that series, the Mets' play was mediocre. They were not doing what was expected of them.
Mets fans expected the Mets to bust out of the gate and put their bad memories behind them. It seemed like they didn't, Mets fans were getting more and more aggravated. Their were some happy times, and some not so much happy times.
Like when the first ever batter at the Mets new stadium, Citi Field, Jody Gerut hit a line drive home run to right field.
That was the first home run at Citi Field, RBI, run, hit, etc. It really sucked, the Mets went on to lose their first game at Citi Field, but David Wright did hit the first Mets' home run at Citi Field.
The worst part of the season for the Mets so far was their series against the St.Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals swept the Mets to put them under 500., they were 6-9 after that series, things were getting ugly.
At the end of April, the Mets were 9-12. Things were bad big time, until the Mets really turned it on in May. They had a seven-game win streak going at one time, and they were also on top of the NL East.
The streak ended against the Braves at Citi Field in a frustrating series for Mets fans. The Mets lost two out of three, but still felt on top of the world.
After their great homestand the Mets were on their way to the west coast. It was in the west coast were the 2006 Mets noticed that they were good, it was in the west that in 2008, Mets' former manager, Willie Randolph, got a cold goodbye in the middle of the night. What would the west coast bring the Mets in 2009?
It brought them a 3-4 record in their seven games their. They won their first three, but then it all went downhill from there. They lost the final game of the series to the San Francisco Giants and got swept off their feet by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It was rough, the Mets were now 21-19 and struggling to stay over .500. Although the four game losing the streak, the Mets were only a 1.5 games behind the Phillies.
The Mets had an off day in which they made their way to Boston, to play the Red Sox in interleague play. Johan Santana was pitching for the Mets and was determined to stop the Mets' losing streak, that he did.
The Mets, as usual made some errors behind Johan, and continued their sloppy play when he's on the mound, but that didn't stop Johan from shutting down the Red Sox.
Santana went seven innings with 118 pitches, eight strikeouts, and only two earned runs. He also shut the Sox down when they had runners on base and in scoring position. The Red Sox were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position. Johan continued to be clutch.
Santana, improved his record to 6-2, but his ERA sky rocketed to, league leading, 1.50. Santana looks like the front runner for the NL Cy Young Award this year. You also can't forget that Santana does better the second half of the season. I don't know how he can be any better, we will see.
After Santana was taken out, Bobby Parnell came out and threw a scoreless eighth, ans at one point reached 100 MPH on his fastball. In the ninth K- Rod did his job and closed the door for his 12th save of the season. He's 12 for 12 in save opportunities, Brad Lidge has nothing on K-Rod.
That leads us to where we are now. A quarter into the season and the Mets are 22-19 and 1.5 games behind the Phillies. Sure, it can be better, but with all the injuries that happened this is great. Also, the bulk of the injuries might be over and the Mets can run smoothly for the rest of the season with a lot less trips to the DL.
If I were the Mets' teacher, and I was filling out their report card, this is how it would look like.
Teacher: Mr.Carlo Student: New York Mets
Offense: A-
Defense: D
Starting Pitching: B+
Clutch: B+
Teamwork: B
Injuries: D
Bullpen: A+
Overall: B
Note to parent: The Mets are doing very good in my class. I think that they will improve with the injuries and it will not get worse. Their defense is their biggest problem, and I think you (Jerry Manuel) should work with them a little bit.
Other than that, keep up the good work, things will get better.
That's it for my first quarter review of the New York Mets, I hope you enjoyed. Let me know what you think about the Mets in the first quarter of the season and how they can improve. My second quarter review will most likely be up sometime during the All-Star break. I can't to write that one, and I hope their report card will be even better.
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