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Thursday, May 18, 2006
Mets can hear footsteps
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
In case you haven’t noticed, the supposedly big and bad Mets still are shivering at the thought of tomahawks in the National League East. It’s just that the Mets are doing so in the strangest of ways this time. Now they are falling from ahead while the Braves are surging from behind, and you know what?
Until proved otherwise, the Braves will win the division.
Well, they should. It certainly didn’t hurt the Braves’ chances of reaching the postseason for a 15th consecutive time after they pounded the Florida Marlins 9-1 on Thursday at Turner Field for a ninth victory in their past 11 games. During that same stretch, the Mets have become the Mets again. In this case, that means what was a nine-game lead for a slightly overrated bunch from Queens has tumbled to a cozy 3 1/2 games and counting.
This is more about what the Braves are doing than what the Mets aren’t. The Braves are hitting in the clutch, for instance. That includes Jeff Francoeur, who continued to rip his way out of his early sophomore blues with a game-winning grand slam Saturday and a couple of blasts Thursday. In fact, no team has scored more this month than the Braves.
The bullpen implosions also have dwindled, and after an ugly beginning, the pitching is moving back toward the prettiness of its past. Even Jorge Sosa won a start after dropping his previous five decisions before the pitiful Marlins came to town. Plus, despite the loss of pitcher Kyle Davies for a while, the Braves are getting healthier, with a couple of relievers slated to return along with a starter.
If you add all of that to the Mets finally playing folks their own size (the Yankees and the Phillies after dropping two of three in St. Louis), various themes involving panicking, choking and the Mets are about to surface on the back pages of the New York tabloids.
“Believe it. They [Mets players] are always peeking at the standings in the papers, and they see us coming,” said veteran Brian Jordan, in his second tour of helping the Braves make others in the division wonder if the baseball gods will keep this franchise rolling into October forever. “Things are starting to turn around for us. We’re starting to look like the Braves should look. We’re doing A,B,C baseball. Getting the guy over. Getting the guy in. That’s been the turning point to where we are now.”
Yes and no. All things actually became possible again for the Braves when John Smoltz correctly mentioned 12 days ago that the most important game of the season in division was back then, when the Mets already were crowned kings of the world by the zealots of the New York media with a nine-game lead. Courtesy of Smoltz’s pitching and hitting that afternoon at Shea Stadium, the Braves roared to a 13-3 victory to keep the Mets’ lead from rising to an insurmountable 10 games.
“Insurmountable” is the correct word, by the way, which Smoltz suggested at the time and which he re-emphasized on Thursday by his locker. “Personally, if I was on [the Mets] and I was playing that third game [against the Braves 12 days ago] with a chance to get to 10 games in New York, I would want to bury them,” he said. “It’s true for any team, whether it’s the great ones of the past, or even right now with the Pistons. With the Pistons, it was like, ‘Oh, they’re the world champions,’ and then the Cavaliers came back like they did to take a 3-2 lead in the series.
“You want to bury that thought of that other team possibly coming back as quickly as you can, and everybody knows that teams have had a chance to put us away each year, and they didn’t. Then we’ve somehow won the division because of it.”
They’ll only do so this time if they discover ways to prosper on the road sooner than later. They’ve taken just nine of their first 23 games away from home, and they’ll spend the next 10 days in Arizona, San Diego and Chicago. “So us at 3 1/2 games doesn’t guarantee anything,” said Smoltz, easing into a smile and adding, “But if you’re on the other side, you can’t help but think about the last 14 seasons, thinking that they still got a chance, as long as the numbers reflect that.”
The numbers do. So does that sound of the Mets crashing back to earth.
Permalink | Comments (66) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Frenchy-haters, ‘fess up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Let’s try an audience-participation exercise. All of you who were saying Jeff Francoeur was (a.) way overrated and (b.) needed to be sent to the minors, raise your hand.
(Remember, this is cyberspace, and unless you’re an exhibitionist who feels the need to beam your every move across the Internet, we won’t see you.)
I myself have been wrong about many, many things — and will, I’m sure, be wrong about many, many more — but over the years I’ve tried to own up to my whiffs in the annual year-ending Accountability Scoreboard. For a change, I’d like for some of you faceless Net-posters do the same. (Even if I can’t actually SEE you do it.)
Back in April I wrote about Francoeur’s frustrations over his slow start and the booing he heard at Turner Field, and I was astonished at the amount of vitriol directed toward Francoeur in the comments on ajc.com. (And not much, I should tell you, surprises me anymore.) I wonder how many people would have said such things to Francoeur’s face. I likewise wonder how many people will admit posting such sentiments today.
Understand: I’m not trying to be a scold or to say, “I told you so.” I’m just wondering how many of you are willing to admit you jumped the gun, if only to yourselves. Confession, I’ve always found, is good for the soul.
Permalink | Comments (81) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
