Monday, May 3, 2010

Mets Lacking Mental Toughness

After a 9 run implosion by Johan Santana in a game which every Mets players seemed to be geared up for, the Mets rolled over and died.

They gave up. Their will was broken and it showed. Players swing at the first pitch they see. No one wanted to show some patience and try and inch their way back into the game. They made Moyer, whom they pounded early on, look like he was a virtuoso out there.

While I commented about the grit this Mets team has just a few days ago, I failed to consider the mental grit that is necessary over the course of a long season. Johan Santana is known for being a gamer, but looked like a mental midget out there last night. Now Santana will have these blow up games.He had one last year against the Yankees. He had one the year before against the Mariners when he gave up a grand slam to Felix Hernandez.

The thing about Santana is in both of the last two years, he bounced back from these outings and became virtually unstoppable the rest of the season. Will he do the same thing this year? I hope so. But even more important is for the rest of his team to bounce back...immediately.

To keep the media from piling on that April was a fluke or that reality has finally hit the Mets, they need to go out and win against the Reds. That takes mental fortitude. Something we haven't seen from this ball club in over 3 years.

1 comment:

New York Mets Blogger said...

i thought the exact same thing when i was watching the game, they just gave up.....occmetsblogger.blogspot