Last week I said that if the Mets didn’t manage to go 5-3 in this road trip vs. the Cardinals and Phillies I was going to pretty much decide that they were a .500ish team and didn’t really have the stones to take the division. Of course, wouldn’t you know they manage to do the bare minimum required to keep me interested.

Last night was representative of this team in a nutshell. They simply don’t want to be .500. The Phillies practically forced them in to it last night. They went… kicking and screaming the whole way. You can say what you want about the ballpark but the team almost blew an eight-run lead. Eight runs. That’s not good.

The good you can take from this series with the Phillies is the simple fact that this team is now 7-3 against them. The Phillies remain, mostly, not the problem. It’s getting lazy against bad teams and being completely dominated by the Braves.

There is really no reason the Mets shouldn’t go 4-2 over the next six games. The Giants have their ace going tonight. After that… not much. Let’s pull for a tie heading in to the break. It’s not unreasonable.