The Amazin's?

Amazin'ly exciting that is! Today's Mets vs. Brewers game at Citi Field was a prime example of why I love watching the Mets play - and I'm a Yankees fan. Their games are flat out entertaining. They turned a late 7-1 deficit into a thrilling finish. Their comeback started in the 7th against starter Randy Wolf who had been dealing. Ronny Paulino and Nick Evans led off the inning with a pair of singles. Then Ruben Tejada, who is filling in for MVP candidate Jose Reyes, ripped a double down the left field line to bring in Paulino. Willie Harris, pinch-hitting for the pitcher, added a sac fly and that made the score 7-3. After an Angel Pagan RBI single the Brewers signaled the end of the day for Wolf and brought in veteran Takashi Saito. He immediately walked Justin Turner to load the bases for David Wright. Wright grounded into a fielder's choice and that brought up pinch-hitter Lucas Duda. Duda got a pitch he liked a smacked it into the left-centerfield alley, bringing in Pagan and Wright to bring the Mets within one.
Then in the bottom of the 8th, against their former closer Francisco Rodriguez AKA KRod, they took the lead. With 2 outs and nobody on KRod walked Tejada to bring up pinch-hitter Josh Thole. Thole, who used to catch KRod, got a pitch he liked and drove it to deep center. Jerry Hairston Jr. could not reel it in and Tejada scored all the way from first to tie the game. Then Pagan came up and delivered an improbable 2-run blast into the Pepsi Porch in right field to give the Mets a 9-7 lead! Sadly this game would end in disappointing fashion for the Metropolitans. Jason Isringhausen came on to go for career save 301 and he was awful; he faced 4 batters, walked 3 and gave up a single. That left Manny Acosta to have to come in in a 1-run game and face the dangerous Ryan Braun with the bases loaded. Acosta got Braun to fly out to shallow right. Crisis #1: averted. Now the Brewers had MVP candidate Prince Fielder coming up. Lefty Tim Byrdak was warming up in the bullpen for the Mets and everyone was waiting for manager Terry Collins to come out and take the ball from Acosta... that never happened. Collins shockingly left Acosta in to face Fielder and Fielder made him pay for it. He hit a slider in the dirt into right past the diving secondbaseman to tie the game at 9. Acosta then gave up a 2-run single to Casey McGehee and the Mets' 2-run lead quickly turned into a 2-run deficit. They went down without a fight in the 9th and lost the game.
The Mets may have lost the game but that doesn't mean that the game wasn't thrilling. Not only was it thrilling, it was completely unexpected - just like their entire season. If you told me that the Mets would hang around the .500 mark and be contenders for the Wild Card in July/August, I would have laughed in your face. I honestly thought this team would be one of the worst teams in the entire MLB. Boy was I wrong. Talent wise they may be one of the worst, but this team has something that many teams wish they had - heart. The Mets never give up. They never quit and always put up a good fight. That's the only reason they are even competitive in the vaunted NL East. Look at the guys they are currently missing and guys that they have missed for significant periods of time this season.

Johan Santana - Their ace. Former Cy Young Award winner. Has not pitched all season.
Ike Davis - Power-hitting first baseman out since May 10th. Presumably out for the season.
Daniel Murphy - Davis' replacement. Tore his MCL in early August. Was 5th in the NL in hitting.
Jose Reyes - MVP candidate at SS. Leading the NL in hitting. 2nd stint on the DL - hamstring.
David Wright - Former All-Star third baseman. Spent 2 months on the DL - stress fracture in his back.
Carlos Beltran - All-Star outfielder. Traded to the Giants in late July.
Francisco Rodriguez - Holds the record for saves in a season. Traded to the Brewers in mid-July.
Angel Pagan - Spent a stint on the DL early in the season - oblique.
Chris Young - Former #2 starter with the Padres. Lost for the season in May with more arm trouble.

That's seven important players that they have lost at one point or another for a significant period of time. Not to mention they have had absolutely NO production from former All-Star left fielder Jason Bay, a pair of backup catchers platooning behind the plate, two starting rookie second baseman and a mess of pitching. Yet this team scratches and claws its way into ballgames and has been able to pull more then their fair share of wins out. This team is a long way away from the playoffs but with a bunch of terrible contracts off the books next season look for the Mets to finally be able to build the team they want - and that all starts with re-signing Reyes. Without him, they are doomed.