Cue Stewie. It’s the home opener for the Mets at Citi Field today and absolutely nothing is expected from this club. The scene from “Family Guy” already has made the rounds.
“It’s Opening Day, and here’s the first pitch . . . and the season is over.”
The Mets come home at least having won three of their first six games, and facing the Nationals, a team that has dreadful pitching, the Mets might just win their second series of the year.
The Mets already have shown us how bad they can be, and yesterday’s 11-0 loss to the Phillies and Roy Halladay, the biggest mismatch of the season so far, was an example of how low they can go.
The highlight of the day for a lot of fans today will be getting their Mr. Met bobblehead, from Stewie’s big head to Mr. Met’s big head. After that, it might be downhill.
A home opener is all about hope, though, so this will be a sellout and the Mets are hopeful of having 30,000 fans at each of the games tomorrow and Sunday.
The Mets can’t play as poorly as they did yesterday at Citizens Bank Park.
“We certainly didn’t want to end a good trip on that kind of note,” manager Terry Collins told reporters in Philadelphia. “The energy [for the home opener] will be rekindled. We’ll finally have some people cheering for us, instead of booing us.”
At least at the start, if they play like they did yesterday, those welcoming cheers quickly will turn to boos. The Mets were sloppy. That’s what happens when the starting pitcher gets whacked around for the second straight game.
Mike Pelfrey was embarrassingly bad on Wednesday in the 10-7 loss to the Phillies, lasting two innings and giving up six runs. Jonathon Niese was only a tad better yesterday, lasting four innings and surrendering six runs.
So, if you’re scoring at home, that’s six innings and 12 runs the Mets No. 1 and No. 2 starters have given up the last two games.
It is never good when the starters give up twice as many runs as innings pitched, especially the top of your rotation, but that’s how it could go for the Mets this season.
This home opener is about the future, not the present. Mets fans want to think ahead. General manager Sandy Alderson, a longtime baseball executive, leads the management team, and this year is about evaluation and eventual change. Chances are good that by next Opening Day, Pelfrey will be traded, Jose Reyes will be long gone, and there will be an entire new philosophy on how the Mets approach the game. For now, the players are in survival mode.
Same goes for the fans.
It’s fitting that knuckleballer R.A. Dickey gets the start today for the Mets against Jordan Zimmerman. Dickey is the ultimate pitching survivor and has been one of the most pleasant surprises in baseball.
If the Mets get solid starting pitching they will be fine, but that is one huge “if.” Niese had a good curveball working yesterday against the Phillies but abandoned it. The Mets couldn’t turn double plays, made two errors, and looked like a team that knew it had no chance because Mr. Cy Young was on the mound for the Phillies.
The first Mets manager Casey Stengel once asked: “Can’t anybody here play this game?” Casey’s 1962 Mets finished 40-120 and did not win a home game until April 28.
These Mets are hoping to show they can play the game, and they insist they are a united group. They had a solid spring and, considering everything, a 3-3 trip is progress. The Mets didn’t have a .500 or better road trip against NL teams last season until Aug. 18-22, so they are already ahead of the game.
At least they haven’t started this season like the winless Red Sox. Big things are expected from Boston, though. At this home opener, Mets fans are hoping for the best and expecting the worst.
