Although the mets lost yesterday, putting an en to their 8 game winning streak. BUT these Mets are only 1 game out of the wildcard. Which is crazy
Check out these ffacts: It was 8 wins in a row before yesterday. and since the all star break its been 21 wins in 28 games.. 21-7 since July 12th.
So sure a win yesterday wouldve tied us atop the wildcard in what wouldve been an insane cap to back to back extraordinary wins Friday and saturday night -- but alas we must move on ...and continue to expect the extraordinary worst.
"Extraordinary? ..but Pio ive never seen you use the word"
Exactly. ANd i dont. i choose my words wisely / and or just forget them.
Extraordinary. Extra. Ordinary. The Mets have been on an unbeliveable ripper that im sure youve all well aware of from everyone and everything other than this site. (until now)
And yes the Mets have been extraordinary. Theyve stayed true to their blue and over the last month have gone to the stratosphere. Because as of today, Monday Auggie 12th, were well into the playoff hunt. Its what we'd call Extra Ordinary. Because All you gotta do is be ordinary. But extra. Same old mets (2nd half team), slow starts, but turn the gassers on and be a little extra ordinary. Its like when you strain some pasta. All you gotta do is keep a little of the sauce water. That sauce wter is extra ordinary. Its water. But its also marinated with boilings and olive oil and salt. Pasta water
But ive warned you before and ill warn you again; as much as extraordinary can relate to this amazing streak -- the same can be said about its inevitable downfall. Which leads to this question: whats more extraordinary? all this winning andthe newfound attitude by these Mets or their ability to hurt us ?
"a knife can be used to cut bread.. as it can also be used to stab someone"
Be conscious of this extraordinary performance. We've been here before in different forms.. Its what separates us as fans from the rest. Because no one will understands what its like... or why it hurts so much. "the higher we.. high... the lower the low". And mark my words - the collapse will be even more extraordinary than this streak. Its a recipe for a crumble worthy of my nana's crumb cake.
BUT we arent there yet - so until then let's enjoy this simmer. I mean summer. This slow cook of excitement. Lets go for 3rds. Fuck it! Lets use up the rest of the parmigan and top it off with some ricotta.
So we begin on Friday night. Nats come rolling into town and our Mets have been winners of 6 straight. "Youre only beating up on shitty teams", "play someone real" the critics cried.
Were going to skip the entire game and jump into the bottom of the 9th, down 3, when the Mets found that pasta water (disclosure - Pete and JD found it earlier - Stroman had them drinking it but for this sake im trying to psyche you up here).
The Mets enter the bottom of the 9th down 3. They face Nats closer - Sean "dr" Doolittle, who did very little for his team as he continued his season long tradition of letting the Mets traditional pillage him. Because after back to back hits by Davis and Ramos to start off the inning , in comes Todd Frazier to hit a 3 run homer and tie the game.
And the Mets didnt doo little with this. We Did a lot.. It was only a few minutes after Fraziers game tying bomb where we won on a Conforto conforming accordingly rbi single. It was magnificent. That Frazier tying home run was near mythical.
So here comes Saturday night. An emotional Friday would and should create a wild Saturday night as we found ourself lining up to a beautiful sunkissed night over citi field.
I saw a fellow with a shirt saying "Shea stadium was a dump. But it was my dump"
Extra Ordinary baby.
Pat La Friedas had filled the stadium with a glorious scent of aux jeux and toasted bread, while Shake Shacks line stretched to the Mets bullpen as the 7 Line were in their glory giving eachother reach arounds and sniffing peanut shells.
It was Hawaiian shirt night and It looked like a cult had entered Citi Field -- a wave of orange tommy bahamas and the sound of wasted vacationers gave an energy to the night that allowed me to ditch shake shacks line and settle for a stale pretzel.
But the beginning of the game was quite relatable to my pretzel. Cold, stale, and in need of a kick in the ass. It needed Some Pasta Water.
Immediately the Nats took the lead on a 2 run homer and the smell of Pat La Frieda had exited the ball park. As quick she was to inflate - she deflated after Noahs' 29 pitch count at the end of the 1st.
The unbalance was certainly present.
I got too comfortable with how things "were". Things had to change... And It started with getting my hands on one of those god damn hawaiian shirts. You either beat em or join them and I wanted to do both.
Wasted, I was roaming the shake shack lines, the 500 sections, the stairs, the concourses, the bathrooms, box suites, the elevators, screaming:
"Buying Hawaiians" .. "Buyin' Hawaiian'" .. "Cash, Card, Venmo, Shake Shack... You name it!" , "lets go Mets!""Jeffrey Epstein" "Fuck The Nats" ... .. Buyin' Hawaiian... families"
All of a sudden in the elevator i spy a Nats fan with a prestige unopened shirt in a bag.
"Hey, Asshole - give me that Hawaiian."
He ignored me. Was with his girl. Probably trying to impress her.
So i tried to impress her by showing off some money.
"I only got $5 dollars"
He then propsitioned $60 for the shirt
"Go to Hell" I responded and spit in his face whilst getting restrained by security as I told him the comeback will be happening.
A few minutes later I found 2 asian women so confused because they thought they had tickets to the Yankees game. One woman was using the shirt as a napkin while the other had her shirt still in the bag. Perfect targets. In my crosshairs I lowballed them - "1 nathans hot dog" and grabbed my nutsack. But apparently they werent having it. "alright" -- vegans i thought to myself.. And we all know vegans like green...
$10 dollars"
They didnt budge. Either they were master negotiators or just not fluent, so I had to dig deeper.. and me trying to not to stereotype I pulled out my phone to pretend taking photos - while them, succumbing to stereotypes began flashing the peace sign and clapping their hands.
Just kidding. I just ripped the shirt out of their hands.
And as I ran off making my get away i threw the hawaiian shirt on to blend in. And also for the sake of blending in and not because I wanted shake shack - i got in line for shake shack.
Its the bottom of the 4th inning and Jd Davis rips off a homer to spark some fire into the stadium. You think it was loud after that homer? Next batter up - Wilson hits an unprecedented back to back homerun to tie the game up. I say unprecedented because those back to back homeruns solidified a new Mets franchise record for 8 consecutive games with multi-hr's.
The place went nuts. Like a bunch of old geriatrics parrot heads at a Jimmy Buffet concert after hes played Cheeseburger in Paradise for the 3rd time. And Im celebrating like i just fucked a cheeseburger. Celebrating in my orange and blue hawaiian shirt, drenched from the spillings of beer and ketchup never had me feeling so alive.
"were a second half team!!" - screamed everyone who was in Citi field that night
This set the tone for the rest of the night. SSyynnddeeggaarrdd (i dont know which letters get double) settled down and finished out the night pitching 7 innings. Seth Lugo took over the reigns and let up a run in the top of the 8th. But apparently this extraordinary thing is real becuase bottom of the 8th comes absolutely random pinch hitter Luis Guillorme(?what?) who did the unthinkable, the unbelievable, unimaginably clutch full-count home run. 3-3 tied game. Once again our Mets have snuck in from behind like a drunk middle aged couple trying to spice things up after some shots of Jameson.
After a hillarious sacrificial/bullet line drive to the pitcher - we got Panik on 3rd with JD Davis not panicking as he sac popped out and drove him in for the game leading and game winning RBI. Play after that we got robbed of a homerun which wouldve blown Queens to smithereens.
We went back to Lugo for the top of the 9th as the rest was history and he closed out the Nats.
What a night. I hadnt pissed in 4 hours, and ended up in between two parked cars doing everything humanly possible to not piss entirely on my pants during the ol' kneel piss technique.
What. a night.
Extraordinary pasta water.
Sunday night - not so much - a few blunders and few miscues. But its ok. Lets learn from it and come back stronger. We got some home stretches coming up and if you told me a month ago this is how it'd look -- id have no problem withit whatsoever.
Lets enjoy it while we can
Energesus Christ
Pio