Winning At Home

The Mets have not been winning at home. For some reason they like going out on the road. They love Arizona. Recently they seemed to like Atlanta. However, they're not too fond of Philadelphia.

But why is this team having some trouble winning at home? They got swept by the Phillies at home. They have trouble sweeping a series at home when they win the first two (a la Dodgers two weeks ago). I'm not going to even talk about last year's NLCS performance at home.

If you look at the batting averages of Beltran and Delgado, their averages are tremendously better away than at home. I don't have an answer as to why this is the case. You can blame it on Shea Stadium being a pitcher's park, but that's just a lame excuse.

I think it comes down to lacking a killer instinct. The Mets haven't found that instinct that allows them to put a team away, and once their put away kick 'em so they don't get up. Sure it sounds harsh, but you need that to win championships. Look at Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods and you can tell that they have that instinct.

Baseball is the ultimate team sport so it requires every player to embrace this type of attitude. I can see it in Jose Reyes. I see it in David Wright. I can also see it in Luis Castillo.

I really want to see it in our bullpen though. If they get the type of confidence that breeds a killer instinct, we'll see a vast improvement in their performance.

This is the last big home stand of the year against two big opponents (Braves/Phillies) and one who would like to be a spoiler (Astros).

Let's welcome them to the Big Apple.