The Mets Are Just Better

The less said about the footie disaster the better. Clearly, the Czechs- emblematic of real quality European soccer- are still a big step ahead of the United States. We were humbled- but I bet they dig in a little against the Italians. They're not that bad.

On to more important observations.... vacationing on the Outer Banks, I really didn’t see any of the Phillies this weekend. They seemed to play a flat, uninspired series with the Nationals- certainly, they did Sunday. But they are not the first team to come back east, from a long trip out west, and look a little dull. They had no off day on either leg of the trip- going out or coming back. And the Nats are playing better as well. But it would have been nice to split there- and turn this pretty decent six win trip in a good, solid seven win one.

That is sort of the crux of it. I don’t think you can label any long road trip that ends with more wins than losses a “bad one”. On here, I ignorantly thought the Phillies would come back with a mere four wins. So I, for one, can’t line up to kill Philadelphia for the anticlimax in Washington.

Still, the trip felt lackluster. First, the Phillies fought through the crazy travel and some suspicious rotation options to get a split with a pretty good Dodger team in Los Angeles- and then followed that up with a strong sweep on the Diamondbacks. But frankly, they kicked away a lot of that progress by not pitching or hitting well in Washington.

Second- and worse- despite the Phillies’ winning trip, the Mets picked up two more games in the standings. They are now a seven games up in the loss column. How did the Mets pick up so much ground notwithstanding the Phillies’ decent trip? Increasingly, it is hard to argue a singular base fact: they are better than Philadelphia.

My base conclusion from two weeks ago, when the Phillies left for the west coast, remains probably accurate. This trip has probably ended any real realistic chance the Phillies have of overhauling the Mets. Barring big injuries to the top of the Mets rotation, this 2006 version of the Mets is pretty clearly the class of this division.

The season is not over, by any means. But it is Wild Card focused from here on in. The Phillies to me, since day one of spring training, have felt like an 84-win team. That is not enough to keep them in the NL East race- as we’ve seen- but enough to keep them on the fringes on the Wild Card.