Just Mets

That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Don’t mind that ring, just yet anyway…

Yes, it’s early. There’s a shade over 90 percent of the season remaining. But what the Mets have done over the season’s first ten percent of the season is unique.

12-3. Ten wins in a row. 9-0 on the current homestand. Electric crowds, a fuller Citi Field.

Yes, something is different about the 2015 Mets. Something unique, something perhaps special.

“I don’t have any words for it,” Terry Collins said Wednesday night. “I’ve had some good teams with good players. But I’ve never been on a team where each and every guy wants to do his part, wants to be a part of it.”

The only other time in their history they could ever say they were 12-3 was in 1986, and we all know what happened that year.

But in going over the statistics, both the standard and advanced, there’s nothing that truly tells me there’s an aberration in play which has led to this phenomenon known as Mets baseball in 2015. At least nothing truly unusual for a small sample size of data.

In fact, on paper a good argument could be made the roster is worse than it was 96 hours ago, or a week or month ago. Yet, they’ve persevered, and they keep finding a way. Every team has injuries and loss, but the Mets have had a response to every position they’ve had to fill.

Depth is bliss.

Already in this young season the Mets have had seven come-from-behind wins. They have a +23 run differential which actually suggests they should be 10-5, not 12-3. Their starting pitching – which was originally a strength and continues to pitch to those expectations – has ten of the first twelve wins of the year. Their bullpen – while makeshift thanks to injuries – has found a way to bridge the gap to Jeurys Familia, who quickly emerged as one of the most dominant relievers in baseball.

“There’s kind of a rhythm and a flow in the dugout right now that no matter what happens, we feel like we are going to win,” Daniel Murphy said after the Mets defeated the Braves on Wednesday.

That’s because winning is contagious, as Terry Collins put it last night. There’s also an unusual cohesiveness here, or, “camaraderie,” as Sandy Alderson has put it.

Yet, it’s almost impossible to believe what has transpired in the season’s first 15 games. But it has. The buzz in the stadium is phenomenal, the tone and vibe in the clubhouse and around team personnel has transformed light years from what it was just six or eight months ago. And, they’ve caught the attention of everyone in and around the game.

“I know one thing. It’s going to set the tone for the rest of the summer.” Terry Collins said Wednesday night. “When we go into play teams now, they know what they’re up against.”

Strong words. But the theme is not any different than it was in Spring Training or over the winter. And when the team is this dominant, it’s hard not to believe that, either.

Collins deserves just as much credit for their early success as anyone. He has maneuvered the lineup as best as he can despite losing David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud. Given the losses in the bullpen, he has played all of the right match ups while resting guys who have been taxed heavily early in the season.

He’s pressed all the right buttons, managing with an aggressiveness and an urgency to win every single inning of every single game. His style has been rather refreshing.

Obviously, it’s almost an impossibility they can keep up this pace. Not even the 1986 club played this well all year. But wins this time of year are critically important, and it was even more important the Mets get off to a good start against their division rivals.

But this? Not even Collins expected this.

Collins said last night he would’ve expected a 6-4 homestand before going into Yankee Stadium.

He’s got 9-0 instead, and a 12-3 mark overall, with one more to go this afternoon.