Sweep Who You Need to Sweep

It's hard to get excited about sweeping the abysmal Washington Nationals. There's really nothing to brag about. The Mets are a superior team and they're supposed to sweep the Nationals like the lowly bottom dwellers that they are. If you're going to win a pennant you're going to have to beat the teams you're supposed to beat.

This has been a major problem of the Mets over the last few seasons. For some reason they have trouble beating the bad teams. A perfect example of this is Oliver Perez's record against teams under .500. He's 7-2 with a 2.80 ERA against teams over .500, but last night was only his second win in seven outings against sub .500 teams where he has an ERA over 4.

The Nationals, the Padres, the Astros and the Pirates are all teams that we have to beat. We should sweep them, but the percentages say that it's probable the Mets will lose a game here and there so I'll accept the fact that one or two losses may be in the future.

This is an extremely important point, especially over the course of the next two weeks. The Mets have 11 games against teams under .500. The Mets will face the Pirates, the Braves and the Astros over the next 11 days and all of them are teams out of contention. I fully expect them to go 9-2, anything less is unacceptable.

Then after those 11 games, it's time to head out to see the Phillies. The Mets, oddly enough, find themselves alone in first place. Who said there's no such thing as miracles? This is the time to get some ground between them and the Phils before we gear up for the September stretch run.