This Is a New NY Mets Team

On Aug. 26 the Phillies hosted a game in which the Mets held a seven-run lead with 17 outs go.

Like last September, the Mets blew it.

It was at that time that New York's other team was supposed to falter, choke, gag, whatever proverb writers decided to use to describe one of the greatest collapse’s baseball has ever played host to.

But this squad is different. 3.5 games in front, this team is finding ways to win in the same ways they found to lose last year. Since that ironical loss against the Phillies, the Mets have gone 9-3, and the Phils have gone 5-7, with a do-or-die four-game set coming up against the Brewers.

Last year, the Mets were simply an overrated team. Despite holding multiple 15-game winners, there was no guy on that staff that one could point to and say, “He’s going to win this game.” Carlos Delgado was a liability in the lineup, and there was a rope tied around the player’s necks that just wouldn’t let go.

And there was Willie Randolph.

Willie is a brilliant baseball man, but let’s be honest: His style of managing did not mesh with his players. When Jose Reyes failed to run out a weak dribbler in Houston on July 6, Willie Randolph benched him. After that point, most Mets fans would agree Reyes was just not the same player.

If the players truly loved Willie Randolph, they wouldn’t have put up so many duds of games in the first few months. They would’ve taken an "us against the world" mentality that would’ve ultimately saved their manager’s job.

The core players, such as Beltran and Delgado, openly said nothing, which said everything. It was clear their players did not prefer Willie to be their manager.

The Mets had a resurgence of sorts in Jerry Manuel’s second game as interim manager, when the unhittable Francisco Rodriguez came in with a one-run lead. With two outs, David Wright hit a curveball into left field that brought in Jose Reyes for the tying run.

The next inning, Damion Easley hit the game-winning, two-run home run, and the Mets jetted off to Colorado. On that flight, Jerry told the players they could do whatever they pleased: blast the music or just mess around. With that, a sense of looseness had set in, and the Mets were off.

Sandwiched between a 10-game winning streak and the Mets' play of late was a fairly long time in which the Mets' bullpen could not record an out. During this time in the Willie Randolph era, the media could count on three things:

1.  He was going to say, before every game, that he was going to “stick with his guys” and that “his big boys” were going to come around eventually.

2.  He stuck with his big boys, only to watch them get shellacked and blow the game.

3.  After the game, he said his guys are going to come around eventually.

And so forth. This was the pattern for the last three weeks of September, and the pattern that culminated into the Big Apple disaster.

When Jerry Manuel was in a similar spot in August, things were drastically different. Billy Wagner went down on Aug. 2 and imminent chaos was predicted by the crystal ball-wannabes in the New York papers.

With the exception of a couple of disastrous outings, Jerry managed to manage his 'pen tremendously and keep all 25 guys together to compile 16-6 record before the aforementioned Phillies game.

The last two games evidence perfectly how this Mets team is different. In the course of the two-game set against the Nationals, the Mets blew three leads and won both games, which were high-scoring affairs.

Last September, the Mets played their share of shootouts with the Nats, except they lost games to the likes of 10-9 and 9-8. Heck, the last week of the season they got swept by them...at home!

Since August, there’s been a mentality heading into every single game that it is the sixth game of the World Series. Win, and live to play another day. Lose, and go home. After every win, there is no sense of content, but there is an even stronger will to dominate.

There are still issues. Pedro Martinez's health, the bullpen's ability to keep making up for the loss of Billy Wagner, and timely hitting, it all can revert back to the likes of last September with a snap of the finger.

But this Mets group is a resilient bunch. Team Tightrope, as Jerry Manuel calls it, has shown the ability to overcome anything and come out on top.