Seven Red

I’m hesitant to start counting chickens with thirty-four games left for the Metropolitans, including back-to-back series with the Phils and Braves, but the seven game deficit – barring some kind of sweep-sweep – would seem difficult to overcome at this point in the season. The last ten-games have been devastating for the Phils/Braves effort to up-end the NL East leaders, with the Mets going 7-3 while both contenders went 3-7. Not exactly an awe-inspiring stretch run. Moreover, the Mets bats have seemed to make up for the sorry state of middle relief (and some starters), so the collapse of Mets pitching and the consequences thereof – which seems to be becoming an August-September leitmotif in Flushing – may be overstated. I’ll withhold judgment at this point, knowing full well the devastating effect of the jinx, but I have to think that if the Mets even split each series, we’re very close to seeing a second straight NL East title. Despite the comparative nay-saying by all commentators (“This Mets team isn’t as good as last year’s,” etc.), Omar has actually assembled a pretty impressive squad. Things will be much more clear by the end of the week.

On a related note, the schedule imbalance of the last week has pretty much shut the door on the Yankees. While 7 games might be hard to overcome for the Braves and Phils, 6.5  will be impossible to overcome against this Red Sox team. Print the hats and pennants. It’s time to start counting down the Magic Number in Fenway. It’s over.

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