swept away in Philadelphia

I think it’s lucky for me that I was teaching through all four of the games the Mets lost in Philly, because it was so hard to hear about even after the fact. I might have been crushed by actually seeing it. The Phillies completed their sweep just as I was finishing class on Thursday night, and while walking to the car and after talking to LHJ (who was enjoying the Staten Island Yankees game far, far away), I called M.

When he answered, I asked, “Are you worried yet?”

“I was just thinking about you and the same question,” he replied.

“I’m in Farmingdale [20 minutes away from M’s house]. How about I come up there, have some pork* and we discuss?”

“Good idea. I’ll put the pork in the oven. See you soon.”

So while V and JRG slept and I ate my dinner, M and I discussed the creeping fear we were both feeling about the team not playing up to their potential, and the anxiety associated with going to play in Atlanta. Though the Braves are in third place (there to stay, I reckon), the Mets have lost all four of the series the teams had played at the start of this one, and seemed unable to win at the Ted for years and years, particularly in September. We comforted each other with the certainty that we’d make it into the playoffs regardless of whether we lost first place for a few games, and with the idea that Pedro’s return would do everyone good.

We also talked about how the team has to some extent been coasting this year, it having been so easy for them last year, they seemed to be playing like a playoff berth was their right. They needed a kick in the ass. One would have hoped that two sub-.500 months in a row would have done it, but it hadn’t. Only two games ahead of the Phillies now and heading to Atlanta, M and I discussed the possible outcomes if we went 1 for 3 in Atlanta (as we had in every other series with the Braves this year). We didn’t dare to consider what the standings might look like if the Mets actually won the upcoming series.

My dad called me while I was on my way into the city on Wednesday, a couple of hours before the Mets lost their third game in Philly. “Don’t worry,” he said. “This is why you build up a six-game lead. And the pitching match-ups favor us in tonight’s and tomorrow’s games.” While his optimism about what would happen at Citizens Bank Park didn’t pan out, he was right about what leads are for. The Mets were two games ahead of Philadelphia when they got on the plane to Atlanta, even after dropping four games in a row to their division rivals for first place.

I don’t think my dad, M, or I thought the first two games in Atlanta would turn out as they did.

*LHJ and I keep a kosher home, but not kosher bodies. One of my favorite foods is pulled pork, and I bought some that I then couldn’t bring home to my own kitchen. Happily, M and V didn’t mind storing it for me in their freezer.