Just Mets

Escaping with an 18-inning, 3-1 win on Sunday despite going 1-for-26 with runners in scoring position and 25 men left on base essentially summed up the Mets season to date: Stellar pitching with an awful, dysfunctional and minor league offense.

Maybe they’ve been luckier than they have been good, as their -11 run differential suggests they should be 45-47. Yet, that combination has somehow given the Mets a 48-44 record, keeping them very much alive in two playoff races.

It’s pretty remarkable when everything is taken into account. There are ten people on the 40-man roster currently on the major league disabled list, and it’s possible Michael Cuddyer could join that group in short order for an indefinite period of time as well. Among those on the disabled list are David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud, who have combined to play in only 27 games for the Mets this season.

In addition, they’ve dealt with severe under-performances from Cuddyer, Lucas Duda and Juan Lagares, a defense which has been lackluster at best, a makeshift bullpen, no speed, no power – no nothing with the bats.

But the Nationals have allowed to keep the broken New York Mets around thanks to their rash of injuries to key players such as Jayson Werth, Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg, Denard Span, Anthony Rendon plus other unexpected under-performances from guys like Ian Desmond.

It’s because the Nationals are terribly broken as well the opportunity for the Mets to overtake their division rival is alive and well, albeit mostly unforeseen.

But the Mets have to first prove they can play on the same baseball field as the Nationals, and they’ve struggled to do that in recent seasons.

They did win their season-opening series against the Nationals in Washington, but lost three out of four to the Nationals at Citi Field from April 30-May 3 including two consecutive 1-0 games to end the series. They’re now 6-27 against the Nationals over the last four years at Citi Field, losers of 18 of their last 20 games against Washington at home.

That’s just not going to play if the Mets expect to overtake the Nationals this season.

Nevertheless, the opportunity is here and now for the Mets, and they have a chance to make a big statement against their rival starting tonight. They know this – they aligned their pitching staff to pit their three best starting pitchers against Washington this week.

But aside from this opportunity facing them this week, their schedule gets remarkably soft starting in August, with only 17 of their final 57 games coming against teams which are .500 or better (as play begins today), and the Mets entering play on Monday 32-18 against teams below .500 this season.

They obviously need to successfully navigate the rest of the month first which remains a daunting task, and they really need help in order to do so. That help will need to come via outside acquisitions for the starting lineup, and perhaps the bench as well, as what they have here starting behind their pitchers everyday – which is producing 3.4 runs per game – simply is not sustainable.

In fact, as difficult as it is to believe, their offense continues to get worse with each passing week.

But all they need is, “just enough” offense to transform this club into a playoff-caliber team, and in-turn win the games they’ve been losing 2-1, 3-2, or 4-3, games they’ll need to win against the Nationals and other contenders down the stretch of the season.

Sure, the Troy Tulowitzki’s and Justin Upton’s of the world would be really nice, and a juggernaut 1-8 in the lineup would be spectacular and fun to watch. But, guys like Ben Zobrist and Gerardo Parra – players who can lengthen this lineup and do the little things to help the team score (and prevent) runs and win – could be equally as valuable in a lot of understated ways and get them to where they want to be on October 5.

The hard part for the Mets will unquestionably be getting more games beyond game 162 in 2015.

But with the opportunity and the championship-caliber pitching they clearly have right now, they should stop at nothing towards earning an invitation to the dance in October.