Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Series of the Season

An unlikely roadtrip record of 6-2 finds the Mets up by 3 games as they head back home to Shea. I would have been satisfied with a 5-3 trip, and even thought a 4-4 trip was possible. But the Mets have surprised us yet again this year.

The bullpen is the biggest surprise. After blowing the Saturday game in Florida, the bullpen has gone relatively untouched since last weekend. Carlos Beltran's bat has woken up, and Carlos Delgado continues to carry this team.

And so we find ourselves facing the biggest series of the season on Friday.

Now this is not hyperbole. It's very real. The Mets have a chance to bury the Phillies. A sweep would put us 6 games up with under 3 weeks left in the season. If you forget about last September, that lead is a significant advantage.

The Phillies realize this as they're already jockeying their starting rotation to make sure Cole Hamels is available to pitch. And I think the Mets players realize the significance of this weekend's 3 game set.

I have confidence the starting pitching will perform well. I'm not so confident the bullpen will perform as well as they did in Milwaukee, but I do think it's a very real possibility that the Mets can sweep the Phils this weekend.

We'll have to see if expectations measure up to reality starting Friday night at 7.

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