Just Mets

To borrow a quote from Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, “R-E-L-A-X.” The Mets lost two of three–capped off by a mistake riddled loss on Sunday–to the Yankees this past weekend. Yeah, it’s a little disappointing, specifically because of the way they performed, but let’s step off of the ledge for a moment, shall we?

The loss of a single series has got some people in a tizzy, and has even incited a “The Mets Are a Train Wreck” headline in today’s copy of the New York Daily News. Am I missing something? The Mets are 14-5. Fourteen wins, five losses.

Not only does this team have a 4.5 game lead in the National League East and have the best record, not only in the National League, but in all of baseball. Not only that, but the Mets have a seven-game lead over the Washington Nationals. This may not seem like a big deal to most people, as it’s still April, but let’s not forget how the Nationals were viewed just a few short weeks ago. Of 88 baseball experts on ESPN, 85 of them picked the Nationals to win the NL East, while two picked the Marlins and just one chose the Mets.

While you do expect the Nationals to turn it on to some degree at one point, let’s take a moment to look one fairly damning statistic. Via the Wall Street Journal, from 2000-2014, 49 teams in baseball found themselves seven games or more out of first place after their first 19 games. Of those 49, just one those teams came back to win their division–the 2000 San Francisco Giants.

These are not the Mets of old. Not only is this team 14-5 but they’re coming off of an 11-game winning streak and 10-0 homestand last week. These are not the feats of a bad baseball team. The 11-game win streak was just the 5th in Mets history, the others coming in 1969, 1972, 1986 and 1990. All four of those seasons the Mets finished with a winning record, they missed the playoffs in 1972 (83-73) and 1990 (91-71), and the two years they did make the postseason, they went on to win the World Series.

The following list shows the number of 10-0 homestands the Mets have had in their 53-year franchise history: 2015. That’s it. This team has notoriously struggled at home since Citi Field opened in 2009, finishing with a winning record at home just twice, in 2009 and 2010, and having had a record of 143-181 at Citi since coming into this year.

This team is different. They’re exciting, they’re young, they’ve fought through tons of adversity already, and most importantly, they keep winning.

I won’t lie to you and tell you that losing to the Yankees didn’t bug me, because yeah, sure, it’s annoying, but at the end of the day who cares? People are so fixated on who “owns” New York City, but does that really matter? All I care about is who owns the best record, and right now, it’s the New York Mets.