Well, the first game of the rest of our lives has come and gone and absolutely nothing has changed. The Mets lost; no biggie there. [1] We didn't lose any ground. I'd argue there's no ground to lose. What hasn't changed is the Met fan reaction to anything less than eternal perfection.
I went to the game and there was a nice ovation when the Mets took the field, but eventually there was booing. Booing of Mets. Booing of the Mets. Booing of the team that just won eight in a row on the road and put away the Phillies and separated themselves irrevocably from the Braves. Booing of the team that ended Thursday with the best record in baseball and — the nerve of them — maintains the best record in the National League.
One unattractive loss to some unfamiliar opponent after a rampage across the continent requires a pass. If you'd been traveling nonstop for a week-and-a-half, would you be your sharpest the next night? Would you want someone to cut you some slack? Would you immediately point to what you've done for them lately?
Don't they have a term in golf for it…a mulligan? Give the Mets one of whatever it's called when you don't hold a mistake against somebody. Hell, we'll take the stroke penalty. It's a loss, the first one in a very long time. Suck it up and do like the people sitting in my row: buy something to eat (they bought one of everything; I love watching vendors make change instead of the pitch).
Aaron Heilman was the prime boo provocateur, giving back in the seventh the lead we squeaked out in the sixth. Didn't Aaron Heilman pitch a perfect inning the day before in a one-run ballgame against what had been our prime division rival? Didn't he help nail down a very important sweep of sweeps? And now you're letting him hear it because he sucked against the Orioles? He hasn't been a beauty lately, but hey, he's all right. Pedro has a lousy inning, he has a chance to make good. When a starter recovers, we're all “boy, you gotta get to the great ones early.” Aaron, who only gets one frame, has a lousy inning and he's the new villain in town.
Apparently we need one.