Before Friday night’s absolutely useless [1] 9-2 defeat at the hands of the Dodgers, the Mets’ record in their previous 13 games stood at 9-4. Over a span of 45 games, their mark totaled 30-15. For the season as a whole, the Mets entered Friday 76-70.
Each of the “4” in the 9-4 was presumed to have ended their year. Same for most of the “15” in the 30-15 as well as many of the 70 among the “70” portion of the largest aforementioned cohort. The Mets’ year has ended so many times, it’s a wonder it’s still in progress.
Yet it is, despite Clayton Kershaw’s traditional mastery, Noah Syndergaard’s battery-operated discomfort and the general malaise that enveloped Citi Field, save for J.D. Davis homering early. Hence, we’re stuck with 9-5 for our last 14, 30-16 for our last 46 and 76-71 for all of 2019. We’re also three games behind the Cubs with 15 games to play, though only two more of those will be against the preternaturally dominant Dodgers, with none of those versus Kershaw.
So thank heaven for small favors. And for the inability of Kershaw to pitch daily. And for resilience (or its unnecessary cousin resiliency), which has been cited in Mets wins about as often as the bullpen has been sighted imploding in the bulk of those Mets losses that ended the Mets’ year, but didn’t, because, again, it’s still going on.
There are lots of yesterdays. I revel in examining them [2], you may have noticed over time, but for the purposes of this surprisingly ongoing playoff chase [3], I have taken the position that there is no yesterday, at least in the sense that it’s worth regretfully rehashing all that went wrong in those myriad losses that seemed to end our year, and oh if only we could have back this pitch or that swing or dozens of highly questionable managerial decisions. We can’t, so don’t sweat it. We can sweat it in winter should we feel the need. Working up a good regretful sweat in the cold is what helps keep us warm.
Also, there is no tomorrow, not in the sense of “the Mets need to take ‘x’ out of ‘y’.” Don’t even. The Mets need to take 1 of 1. Concentrate on the 1 in front of us. Yes, we are the fans and not players, and no, our thoughts do not technically affect the action…but you and I know better than to think in ways harmful to our team.
To sum up then:
1) Think positive if not presumptuous thoughts for tonight’s game, the most important game there is, because it’s the only game the Mets are playing tonight.
2) Somebody get deGrom some runs.
3) Whatever will be will be.