Just Mets

Watch out for these Mets. They’re the buzz of baseball right now…

It’s truly incredible what a ten-day stretch can do for the outlook of a baseball team.

Just 11 days ago, the Mets nearly fell victims to a perfect game by Clayton Kershaw at home in a game where John Mayberry Jr. and Eric Campbell were the number four and five hitters in the lineup.

What a difference a week makes.

The winds have changed dramatically since, however, as they’ve acquired an influx of talent in Juan Uribe, Kelly Johnson, Tyler Clippard and Yoenis Cespedes, in addition to the return of Travis d’Arnaud off the disabled list.

Things are different now.

This is a franchise that has been mired in mediocrity for years now, just fighting to be relevant. But now, this team isn’t only relevant, but they’re legitimate and they’re dangerous.

There’s no question this team is riding high, winners of four straight in impressive fashion. After sweeping the Nationals in front of an electric Citi Field crowd over the weekend to earn a virtual tie of first place, the Mets entered a much different environment in Miami. The Marlins are 20 games under .500 and have never had much of a fan presence at their games to begin with. After the emotional highs of the past weekend, coupled with the fact that the team didn’t even get to Miami until 4:45 AM on Monday morning, this set up for a classic letdown game.

But that’s not what happened. Not with this team.

“Getting in at four in the morning was obviously difficult,” Curtis Granderson said on Monday night. “And then coming in to another team’s ballpark, being on the road can be hard, but regardless this team did a great job of not making any excuses.”

This Mets club took the bull by the horns on Monday night, taking over sole possession of first place after thrashing the Marlins in a 12-1 victory as the Nationals lost yet again in Washington for the fourth game in a row to fall to 8-14 since July 7.

“Everybody goes through down times,” manager Terry Collins said on Monday night. “We went through ours. We held together. And we’re back.”

Indeed they are, at least it feels like they are.

This team is playing with a confidence and swagger that we haven’t seen in a long time. It’s really amazing how a handful of major league hitters could completely transform an offense, but they have. Uribe and Johnson have offered veteran leadership, experience and versatility, as both have shown the ability to start, as well as be productive players off the bench.

Cespedes, however, is a completely different animal.

SNY’s Gary Cohen has repeatably called Cespedes the Mets biggest in-season acquisitions in decades, and he’s right. He showed off exactly what the Mets hoped they were getting on Monday night, mashing three doubles, two of which were absolutely crushed and likely would’ve been home runs in any other ballpark, driving in four runs and even showing his speed and aggressiveness on the base paths, as he sprinted home to score on a short wild pitch.

This Mets lineup is suddenly vastly improved and actually formidable, their bench is a lot deeper and they have that big, legitimate bat in their lineup with Cespedes. Couple in the fact that Lucas Duda is suddenly bashing home runs, Curtis Granderson is having an extremely productive season as the leadoff hitter, Travis d’Arnaud is getting back into the groove of things, David Wright could potentially be back in the lineup before September as well and the fact that they have an incredible pitching staff and a very good backend of the bullpen…

Yeah… Watch out for these Mets…