- Faith and Fear in Flushing - https://www.faithandfearinflushing.com -

First, We Take Miami

If you want to swim with the sharks, you’ve got to learn to outlast the Marlins. Or something like that. And son of a Rich Renteria, Monday night we sure as Orestes Destrade did.

On the twentieth anniversary plus one day of the evening Anthony Young didn’t just not lose to but actually won [1] against then-expansion then-Florida, the 2013 Mets unbaned their existence by not just not losing but actually winning in Miami.

Will wonders ever cease? Well, perhaps by tonight we shall find out that they do. But for the time being, we are riding a one-game unbeaten streak at Monstrosity Park [2], not letting a game that was getting away fully get away, not allowing a tying run to tie it up in the ninth, not permitting a save situation to get blown to lime green smithereens.

I watched the Mets build a lead, fall behind, surge ahead and then not get caught, yet I couldn’t tell you how it happened. Sure, I could throw names like Marlon Byrd, Bobby Parnell and Ike Davis (IKE DAVIS?) at you and elaborate on their roles in the 6-5 victory, but that doesn’t explain what in the name of Bret Barberie transpired to reroute the Mets’ road to ruin.

Our boys had prepared a trap door for themselves in the ninth. Two were out. Two were on. Giancarlo Stanton was up. The Mets, improbably ahead by one, were about to slide down the chute of inevitable recriminations. For Pat Rapp’s sake, the Marlins had their primary trap door button-pusher at the ready. All Stanton had to do was give it a tap. An old foe, Juan Pierre — pinch-running for Greg Dobbs of the Bastardly Greg Dobbses — crept closer and closer to home. A new foe, Christian Yelich — 21 going on 12 by the looks of him — had used all of the veteran savvy at his disposal to work a full-count walk. Giancarlo Stanton…

C’mon. Too obvious.

Maybe that was it. Maybe the trap door had one too many glaring lime green arrows pointing to its entrance. Fool the Mets once, shame on them. Fool the Mets five times in six games played against the last-place Marlins to date at the Loriatorium this season and perhaps they get a clue. Whatever. Stanton swung at Parnell’s first offering and grounded it to Daniel Murphy. Contrary to all Metsian-Marlinian intuition, Murphy picked up the ball and threw it to Davis without incident. Apparently, the Mets forgot to lose.

What a great game to pack up and fly home from! Sadly, three more contests remain down Clevelander way before our escape from implicit doom is scheduled. Wonders will need to continue if we’re ever going to stop assuming the worst about the Mets at the Marlins. Monday night notwithstanding, they’ve provided us ample ammunition for assumption [3]. Then again, there was once a night when Anthony Young was surely headed for 0-14 inside the friendly confines of beautiful Shea Stadium, yet was rescued in the bottom of the ninth when the likes of Jeff McKnight, Dave Gallagher, Ryan Thompson and Eddie Murray (one of these names is not like the others) galloped to his aid. AY’s reward? He didn’t just not drop to 0-14. He rose to 1-13 and snapped a two-year, 27-decision losing streak in the process. When the Mets pulled it out [4] on their historically beleaguered hurler’s behalf, I thought, “I’ll be a Charlie Hough’s uncle — Young finally didn’t lose!”

Whether in 2013 when visiting the Marlins or in 1993 when wallowing through six months of shit-smelling foulness [5] you can’t even imagine, or maybe you just don’t want to, you have to revel in your redemptive triumphs where you can find them.