Back in Black

The black uni tops made their first 2007 appearance Friday night. They'd been gone long enough so they had a decidedly welcome and retro feel to them. Maybe a relic of the late '90s of Piazza and Leiter and Luis Lopez, they nonetheless looked good on Julio Franco (don't you dare call him a relic) and Mike Pelfrey (he's five) and several relievers (one more effective than the other) and, if you can forgive a little projecting, the two best players to ever wear any combination of black, white, blue and orange. Led by Reyes and Wright, the Mets are back.
Back in black.
Back in first.
Too soon?
Indeed, the final 152 are often the hardest, but still, it was a losable game to the allegedly lousy Nats — what is Ronnie Belliard doing haunting the middle of our diamond? — won on a night when the Braves got flogged by the Fish. Mike and his mechanics may have been taken in by the cold that never ends, but he never committed the full Ollie and he left affairs in a manageable state for the relief firm of Feliciano, Heilman, Shoney and Wags. Julio had made several appearances this season but had forgotten to bring his batting average. No more. It's a cool (very cool, almost icy) 1.000 after breaking the 2-2 tie. Props as well to Carlos Delgado for continuing to be unstubborn and occasionally going the other way. His summer slump didn't dissipate until he discovered left field in 2006. Bunting or hitting away, I'm glad he's rediscovered it.
Jose? He just keeps getting on and coming around. How close am I to being spoiled? When he advanced to third on a wild pitch in the first I was ever so slightly disappointed because it meant he couldn't steal the base. Pretty good batch of boxscore from J.R. doing what he does anywho: 1 hit, 1 walk, 2 runs, an eventual steal, a couple of nifty grabs in the field and one annoying strikeout to prove he's human.
David? He's built of more than wax. This two-season hit streak is beginning to feel real, real, real. Two more hits for him, a well-timed steal (coordinated with a heads-up swing from Greenie) and the run that got it won. Like every Mets fan who can handle neither prosperity nor the lack of loads of it, I'd been a little nervous since D-Dub started this skein. He may have hit in 12 straight at the end of last year, but there was a fairly ineffectual postseason after and a somewhat disappointing August before and not the most convincing of road trips recently. As 24-year-old superstars with 22-game hitting streaks go, I think he may be living up to our standards again.