Trust Game

The Mets haven’t explicitly promised to catch me if I fall backwards in their general direction, but I trust them to, figuratively speaking. In this young season that has shown signs of early maturation and sustained blooming, I keep coming back to a single five-letter word.

Trust. I trust these Mets to win ballgames. I trust these Mets to not lose ballgames they’re winning. I trust that if they do lose a ballgame, they will position themselves to win anew when they take the field again.

It’s a good feeling, this trust in the Mets. It’s not a perennial. Some years it doesn’t come around at all. Some years, like last year, it takes a long time to blossom. This year it’s been here since Day One. We’re not exactly unstoppable, but we are shaping up as hard to hinder.

On Sunday, I trusted that the Mets would hold off the Cardinals once they had a lead. I trusted the Mets to take back a lead that briefly slipped into a tie. I trusted the Mets to build on their reclaimed lead and fully secure it. The Mets are practically a security blanket in that regard of late.

Happiness is a hot start.

Meet the new emotion, different from so many of the old emotions we associate with Mets baseball. I still get nervous, but I don’t get hopeless. I still pace the living room, but anxiety drives me less than empathy. I’m spiritually with these Mets because they’re spiritually with me.

Sunday afternoon, I was up on my feet to urge them through any late uncertainty (I understand it was a good day for having risen). Can ya get that run home? Can ya get another run home? A couple more would really set us up, do ya think maybe you could…you just did.

Our parochial vernacular tells us we gotta believe. Our brand right here prioritizes faith. Both are implicit within Mets fandom, though they also imply ample reason exists to doubt our team can overcome its obstacles. Nurturing trust indicates there is already something to trust. The 2025 Mets, coming hot on the heels of the 2024 Mets, have earned provisional immunity from crippling doubt. They have constructed expectations and they’ve stepped right up to meet them. Francisco Lindor, who recently homered to walk off, homers to lead off. Juan Soto makes something out a runner on third with less than two out. Pete Alonso stays in the park for a change yet does damage via a single. Clay Holmes protects an advantage through six, helped along by Endy Nimmo at the apex of his leap.

A little bullpen trouble? Here comes a combination of Lindor, Soto, and Nimmo again. A one-run lead a little tight for your taste? Here comes insurance through the Willie Keeleresque placement of doubles from Luisangel Acuña and Tyrone Taylor. Want further protection? Soto’s your good hands agent, ripping his own two-run two-bagger. Ryne Stanek takes it from there, filing a 7-4 victory in the books.

That made it four consecutive Met wins, all at the expense of the St. Louis Cardinals, significant in that it was the first time the Mets had swept a quartet of contests from the Redbirds in 39 years. The significant part is that 39 years ago equals 1986, and that previous four-game sweep was as stage-setting as it got, also in April, also on the heels of an invigorating preceding season. The Mets had to stick it to the Cardinals after the close call of 1985. St. Louis hasn’t resided in the NL East since 1993, but we were willing to put aside geography this weekend for old time’s sake.

Precedent like it oughta be.

Four wins in a row over any quality opponent, from wherever they hail, is a decently big deal, even in April. A swell start of 15-7, good for first place, beats the alternative. April is only the beginning, this series was just one among dozens to come. The second-place Phillies enter the Lindor’s Den next. They’re our daily peripheral concern the way the Cardinals were long ago. The satisfaction of sweeping our old archrivals will take us clear to first pitch Monday night and facing our current archrivals (give or take the last-place Braves). Then we’ll want a whole new win to sate us.

I trust the Mets can deliver. And if they don’t, there’s always the next game. That’s how every season is supposed to work. This one I trust to work very well.