Beating Bad Teams is TCB

TCB? Taking Care of Business. That's what the Mets have to start doing and they did just that this weekend in Baltimore.

The key to a 162 games season is beating the teams you're supposed to beat and then staying competitive against the teams who might be better than you. While the Orioles are the laughing stock of baseball, the Mets have quietly become a winning team thanks in part to a 3 game sweep of the lowly birds of Baltimore.

Pelfrey was fortunate enough to have potentially his worst performance of the season occur on a day when the Mets ignited for double digit runs. That angry stare you feel is Johan Santana. Guy can't have that happen to him.

Nice to see Bay go 4 for 4, but for me seeing David Wright bang to homers in one game was the icing on the cake as Wright has been an RBI machine over the past week.

The good news is that it's on to Cleveland. Another team the Mets should beat. Of course you can't win every game, but a 5-1 road trip would be just what the doctor ordered.

Winning makes everything better. Even a trip to Cleveland.

Everybody Loves Batlimore

The Mets have been awful on the road this year, but this particular road trip couldn't have come at a better time. The Mets are coming off a 5-1 home stand and are on a nice run. Instead of having this run end quickly with a trip to the West coast or perhaps a trek to Atlanta, St. Louis or Philadelphia, the Mets have the luxury of heading to Baltimore and Cleveland before a trip to the Bronx.

This is the best scheduled road trip of the season. The Mets need to pile up some road wins to boost their confidence and maintain their above .500 play. Baltimore has just been demolished by the Yankees and have a lineup of underachievers and lifelong role players. Cleveland is struggling as well due to injuries and a vacant starting rotation.

The Mets need this road trip. If the Mets go 4-2 on this road trip they will find themselves 6 games over .500 when they return to New York to play the Yankees. That's a position I would love to see this team in especially with the makeshift rotation, the slumping Jason Bay and the always questionable bullpen.

This is the opportunity the Mets need to make an early season run in the NL East. If they flop on this trip, there's little hope that they'll be able to have a winning road trip against more competitive teams.