A batting order with Angel Pagan batting leadoff, Murph batting cleanup, Cory Sullivan hitting 6th followed by Alex Cora, the enemic Brian Schneider followed by the pitcher is hardly frightening. It's laughable. It's minor leagueish. Yet with precisely that batting order the Mets won 5 in a row before this Diamondback series and after two straight losses using a different lineup, Willie wised up and returned to that same order that was so successful earlier.
Pagan's blast kept the Mets undefeated in August, his first homer in two years.
I mean what the hell, the season has already seen its fair share of weird moments. Why shouldn't a batting order like that end up keeping the Mets afloat until all their superstars make their magical comebacks?
Last night that those four banjo hitters (excluding Murph who seems certain to bust out again before the end of the season and prove his great natural hitting skills) combined for 6 hits and 7 RBIs including Pagan's game-winning grand slam homerun in the 8th, the first of his career. In the games where Murph has hit cleanup, coincidentally the Mets have scored 45 runs going 6-0. Why would you mess with that? Especially with the feeble way the Mets have hit most of the season. Who knows why, but it works.
You might say last night's improbable 9-6 victory had little to do with the pitching, especially when Oliver Perez only barely managed to complete five innings in horrific fashion, walking 5, giving up 6 hits and 3 runs, taking 112 pitches just to get that far and confirming for the trillionth time that his potential means nothing in the face of his inconsistency. But other than K-Rod's one out save, his first since the All Star break, and Pedro Feliciano's sparkling showing, the pitching overall, was unimpressive. Stokes and Parnell both dodgy - Parnell all over the place in his inning stint and Stokes having to be pulled to make way for K-Rod with two out in the 9th. Six pitchers to hold a lousy team like the Diamondbacks to six runs. Not very impressive.
But, they won and in a miserable season like this, you've got to be grateful for every win you get. Just so the magical tease, the mad delusion that the Mets might creep up to the wild card lead with all their injured men making magical returns in time to save the franchise...it's silly, really. These Mets aren't going anywhere, not with this cast. It's admirable that they keep fighting on anyway but the reality is .500 is not only far away, but an impossibly long road to maintain.
Not sure what the Mets are thinking, not shaving til they reach .500. They might be unrecognisable by next Spring. Besides, David Wright can't grow a beard yet, can he?
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