This time, Mets avoid the trap, continue to rake

Wednesday night's game against the Tigers was the classic trap game that the Mets, in recent years, always seemed to stumble into.

They get a win in the first game of the series, and face a less-than-impressive starter in game two, knowing that the opposition's ace awaits in game three.

The Mets won game one on Tuesday, then faced Phil Coke in game two, the ex-Yankee of the 1-7 record, with Cy Young candidate Justin Verlander (who was drafted by Detroit one spot ahead of the Mets, ugh) going in game three. The middle game was the winnable one, the one that would clinch the series win.

In the past, the Mets would find a way to botch this scenario, then inevitably get throttled by the ace in the final game and lose the series.

So it was great to see them hammer Coke the way they did, the offense continuing not only to hit but to hit with two outs, something they couldn't do at all in April. And pile on runs, which came in handy when the Tigers kept scratching and clawing to stay in it, until the relentless of the Mets offense — did I just type that? — became too much to overcome.

Angel Pagan had a huge night, as did Daniel Murphy, who had two, two-out, two-run singles. Of course Jose Reyes had another multi-hit game, what else did you expect? Guy is hitting EVERYTHING. Turner and Tejada also had two hits each, and Ronny Paulino, batting FOURTH, had four hits and four runs scored.

I hope Terry Collins had some time to take a ferry to Ontario for some casino action, because everything he does is coming up gold right now.

Jason Bay was 1-for-2 but drew four walks and made an incredible diving catch in left early in the game to keep the Mets comfortably in front. He also had two steals as the Mets continued to run at will on the bases, this time against the ineffective Victor Martinez.

What more can you say about how this team is playing now? They have scored a franchise-best 52 runs and amassed 69 hits in the last four games, with an RISP average of .484. Good Lord.

Enjoy the ride.

Signs of the apocalypse, or of better things to come?

You would think that hitting two grand slams in one game (in consecutive innings), when your team hadn't hit one in two years (while allowing 18 to the opposition) would exorcise plenty of demons.

Toss in the fact that one of the blasts was delivered by Jason Bay, who needed a hit like that more than anyone else on the roster, if not in the league, and Tuesday night's demolition of the Tigers could be viewed as a season-altering event.

We'd like to think so. After singling the Rangers to death, the Mets busted out the big lumber, hitting three bombs to give R.A. Dickey a month's worth of run support. The Mets chased starter Rick Porcello and then hammered Daniel Schlereth for the two grand salamis. That'll inflate the old ERA.

And what more can you say about Jose Reyes? How about this: Ty Cobb. Reyes has 98 career triples and 360 steals. The only other player in history to reach those numbers as fast as Reyes? Cobb. Wow.

I'll say it now. Pay the man. Sure, teams are valuing him on a career year that may never happen again, but understand that Reyes is entering the prime years of 28-32. That's five seasons. You're going to want Jose Reyes in his prime for five seasons. Yes, health is a rosk, but anyone can get hurt. He's healthy now, and has been healthy before (153-plus games a year from 2005-08).

And what's he worth to the team from a marketing standpoint? Many, many dollars. What is he worth to the soul of the franchise? To the fans? It's priceless.

Keep Jose.

Everything old is new again

Terry Collins, at age 62, qualifies for a senior discount at just about every restaurant and movie theater in this country. But when the National League East managers get together for their regular canasta game these days, he's the one they call "Kid."

Collins may indeed enjoy an early bird special now and then, but he's got nothing on his compatriots at the helm of the other teams in the Mets' division (well, three of them, anyway). The Phillies' Charlie Manuel is 67, new Marlins skipper Jack McKeon is 80, and running the show now for the Washington Nationals is former Mets manager Davey Johnson, who checks in at age 68.

(The Braves' Fredi Gonzalez is essentially the pool boy at age 47. His role at the canasta table is to keep Jack updated on the latest from Hialeah, and fetching Charlie Manuel's gin and tonics.)

You get the feeling that the Mets set a trend with the hiring of Collins. He'd been around a while, had success at other places, but hadn't managed a major league team in a number of years. Ditto McKeon and now Davey J., who of course had a loose hand on the rudder of the Mets' 1986 World Championship team.

Johnson's hiring was particularly reminiscent of Collins', in that he was already working for the Nationals organization as a consultant and knew the players and the system well. Those qualities have certainly seemed to have helped Collins, who has had to manage a number of former minor leaguers filling in for injured starters.

On Sunday, the Mets won another road series, this one against the defending AL champion Rangers. Like Saturday's win, the Mets piled up hits and scored a healthy number of runs without the benefit of the long ball. Jose Reyes continued to rake, getting four hits, including his 14th triple, and three runs. Daniel Murphy stayed hot with three hits, and he and Reyes both made outstanding plays in the field. Carlos Beltran had two RBI.

Dillon Gee overcame a shaky start and lasted six innings, allowing eight hits and two walks, and three runs to improve to 8-1 on the season. The bullpen of Beato, Byrdak and Izzy was perfect. Why they put in K-Rod in a non-save situation is puzzling since he's always terrible, and he made things too interesting before retiring the last three hitters.

Another game finished for K-Rod, who was quoted over the weekend saying he would set up for a contender. Someone should alert K-Rod (and the rest of the New York media, for that matter) that the Mets, even at .500, at 4 1/2 games out of the wild card lead, are, by definition, contenders.

You know Collins considers them contenders, and you know Davey will have the same attitude with the Nationals. McKeon has already benched Hanley Ramirez and mistaken Twitter as the name of a player's dog. Manuel? He's sitting in the catbird seat, his only worries whether Oswalt can stay healthy and what channel Matlock is on when he's on the road.

Gonzalez, meanwhile, barely looks up at the canasta game from his Nintendo DS, white earbuds blaring Arcade Fire as he wonders when these geezers are going to hit the hay so he can play Tour of Duty online without being asked to bring over a walker or light a cigar.

Taking one for the team, instead of taking one ... elsewhere

I had already shut the computer off. The tenth, the eleventh, the twelfth innings had gone by and I had thoughts of going to bed and not watching the rest of this game, filled as I was with the feeling that this was going to be a bad, bad, bad loss.

But I couldn't do it. So I decided instead to start the process of turning in while the game plodded onward. Brought the dog in. Locked the doors. Turned off a few lights. Then went into the office and shut down the computer, figuring any recap was going to be painful, and I could just as well grind that out in the morning.

The computer got turned back on.

No surprise that the Mets' first walk-off win was accomplished with Jose Reyes and "Super Ginger" Justin Turner Overdrive playing key roles. Reyes tripled and scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth before K-Rod blew his second straight save, and while Turner had only one hit, it was the run-scoring single that moved Reyes home.

Of course, Turner doesn't get up in that spot if Reyes doesn't get intentionally walked to load the bases. You can't blame Bob Melvin there. Reyes is the man, has been all season, and you're not going to let him beat you.

Turner, meanwhile, is second on the team in RBIs and while he didn't get a hit in the 13th inning, he got the run home in characteristically gritty fashion with the walk-off hit by pitch.

It was a much-needed win. R.A. Dickey was fantastic and should have gotten the win. The bullpen, aside from K-Rod, came up big, especially Beato, who needs to regain what he had earlier this season.

With the news that Ike Davis could well be lost for the season — are you kidding me?! Really?! — we're looking at an offense that is going to have to scrap and fight for runs, unless David Wright comes back at full strength and Jason Bay — who looked lost again tonight after a great game Tuesday — rediscovers his power stroke.

It's a huge opportunity for Daniel Murphy to reclaim the first base job, at least for a couple of months, or for Lucas Duda to prove to everyone that he is not a AAAA player. He was hitting bombs in Buffalo before he was called up, but hasn't done much with the big club, though he did get two hits in this game.

One of them has to step up. Only half the cavalry is coming over that hill.

The buzzards are circling. Again.

It figures when the Mets need to rattle off some home wins — against an AL team that's sub-.500 — the team coming in happens to be red-hot.

The Angels took two of three, and after a much-needed day off, the Mets dropped the opener of their series against the A's Tuesday night. Dillon Gee was due for a stinker and boy, was it bad. He's shown a lot of guts thus far, and we'll see how he bounces back. I have every confidence he will.

On the plus side, Jason Bay looked tremendous, crushing a homer and adding a triple in a three-hit night. Keith Hernandez, a couple of games back, said that breaking out of slump often doesn't require hits as long as you're making solid contact. With Bay, it seems to be a confidence game, so if Tuesday night marked not only the first day of summer but the the beginning of a new season for him, that would be huge.

After a very good road trip, the Mets are now 1-3 on this homestand and need to get things going. The .500 mark is now three games away, and with the July trade deadline getting closers every day, the media buzzards are circling.

Every day there is a story about Reyes, really saying absolutely nothing new. He won't negotiate a new contract until after the season? No kidding. He's been saying that since November.

And then there are the stories like "Mets must trade Wright," or "Mets success could cost them in the long run."

Really, guys? Ian O'Connor is the new Wally Matthews, and that is not a compliment. And Adam Rubin, again, should be covering another team. Somwhere. Anywhere but Flushing.

Actually, it was pretty fathomable

"Unfathomable!"

Hold on now, Gary Cohen, we're Mets fans. We can fathom quite a bit, thank you very much.

The Mets' habit of taking two steps forward and one step back continued Thursday night at The Ted, and of course that house of horrors wasn't going to let this team head back to Flushing with a sweep now, was it? No way, Jose.

Great comeback after Dickey didn't have it. Big homer by Hairston. A wild pitch on a strikeout in the seventh and two errors by the Braves in the eighth gave the Mets a two-run lead into the ninth, but the Mets gave it right back.

Sure, it sucks when your closer blows a save, but you could almost forgive K-Rod since he'd been perfect since April 2. So we go to extras, and how close we came to getting to the 11th.

Dioner Hernandez, who homered off K-Rod in New York, doubled off D.J. Carrasco, who was perfect the night before. OK, fine. Had Lucas Duda just allowed that ground ball to be fielded by Ruben Tejada — you know, the team's best fielder — the 10th inning is over. But no, that opens up the door for the rare walk-off balk by Carrasco, prompting Cohen's exclamation.

Unfathomable? Improbable, for sure. But hey, six out of 10 on the road ain't nothin' to sneeze at. Sure, .500 is still a game away (again), but with the Angels and A's coming to town, that homestand should (fingers crossed) leave the Mets above water. Should.

Two hits by Jason Bay, and maybe he's starting to come around. Three more hits by Reyes, who has 101 in 66 games. Wow.