Day of Reflection

Funny what a week can do. Last Monday, we were all grateful the Mets didn’t have to play baseball following a long weekend’s disaster in Pittsburgh — and not terribly distressed when Tuesday was also a washout. Now, it feels a little irritating to not be tuning in to watch them.

On Sunday the Mets battled the Yankees in what turned out to be a perplexing, frustrating finale, but one that also yielded some valuable context.

The forces of good put themselves behind the eight ball from the start, ad-libbing a bullpen game against Max Fried. That was unavoidable; some of the in-game decisions, however, were not: Why not bring in a lefty to face newly minted Met Killer Clay Bellinger? Why pitch to Aaron Judge when the worst-case scenario is anything other than a solo homer?

Those stuck in the craw, as the Mets wound up in a 5-0 hole. But they fought back, showing a quality that had been lacking during their June swoon, drawing within a single run and nipping at the well-gashed heels of the Yankee bullpen for the rest of the game. In the end, they were undone by a trio of double plays: Hayden Senger grounded into one in the sixth with the bases loaded and nobody out, Juan Soto lined into one in the seventh (more on that in a bit), and Brett Baty lined into another in the eighth. Three golden or at least potentially shiny opportunities turned to dross before our eyes in three straight innings, which is the baseball gods not being particularly subtle about telling you it isn’t your day.

The middle double play was another sign from those baseball gods: With nobody out and Francisco Lindor on first, Soto hit a seed into left that Bellinger somehow caught a whisper off the grass, the ball almost behind him. Most of the time, a ball like that skips by the left fielder, with announcers bemoaning not playing it safe once all the enemy runners have stopped pell-melling their way to the farthest base they can reach. But nope, Bellinger caught it — and had the presence of mind to spot Lindor too far off first and make a remarkable throw to double him off. That’s quite enough from you, Clay.

(Yeah, there was a ninth-inning AB by Luis Torrens that made you want to give John Bacon a cane and a tin cup. Robots umps now and all that, but it didn’t tip the game.)

Still, perspective. Here we are grumbling about not sweeping the Yankees and about how Soto isn’t an All-Star (just wait, there’s invariably roster-shuffling ahead of the event), when a week ago we were all pushing and shoving each other to see who got to be first to swan-dive off the nearest ledge.

I’m reminded of something Joe Sheehan wrote earlier this year: “A team projected to play .550 ball doesn’t go exactly 11-9 every 20 games. I keep hammering this point because it’s critical to not overreacting to every four-game winning or losing streak: Whatever you think the in-season variance of a team’s performance is, it’s higher than that. The Angels started the season 9-5, then went 9-18. The Braves followed up 5-13 with 14-8. Last year, the 121-loss White Sox had a stretch in which they won eight of 12. Back in 2023, the A’s were 12-50 when they ripped off a seven-game winning streak that included a sweep in Milwaukee over the playoff-bound Brewers.”

(BTW, you should subscribe to Joe. You’ll be a smarter fan and thoroughly enjoy the education.)

Granted, there’s no being stoic about 3-13. But while we have no idea what this year’s Mets will turn out to be, that stretch is no longer a black cloud spitting gouts of rain and bolts of lightning while we run around in frantic circles beneath it. It’s behind us and today is just a Monday, one which we find ourselves faintly bummed to discover comes without a game.