The Mets continued their gleeful stomp through the American League last night, pounding the hapless Indians 8–4 behind Jon Niese and two more RBIs from David Wright, who happens to lead the National League in RBIs now, with 52. The Braves won, so the Mets didn’t get to take over first place, but, jeez — that’s six wins in a row, guys. Most important: They’re pounding lousy teams. That’s the best way to prove you are not, in fact, lousy.
That might seem obvious, so let’s let Greg Prince from Faith and Fear in Flushing explain it:
This has been a fun trip to Baltimore and Cleveland. The five wins in five tries have been fun, but more than that, it’s been the height of fun to realize we are so much better than other teams, even these other teams to this point. We’re nine games over .500. Even if it’s based on beating up on teams that are, respectively, struggling under .400 and .300, it’s still lofty territory for a franchise whose final winning percentage last year was a scuffling .432. The O’s and the Tribe are on the schedule, right? It’s when you don’t beat teams like that enough that you become one of them.
Indeed. The Mets, no matter what happens the rest of this year (barring a sudden twenty-game losing streak), have at least shed the popular notion that they are one of the worst teams in baseball. They are currently the PECOTA odds leader for the National League wild-card spot, and Buster Olney from ESPN claims they’re buyers for a top-tier starting pitcher. (No offense, Buster, but we’ll believe that when we see it.) It appears disaster has been averted; now let’s see if there’s something even a little bit more.