Before the Diamondbacks traveled to Flushing, the New York Mets were drifting in a sea of horrible baseball. At 6-13, any promise of an improvement over the 2010 team was quickly dissipating.
Now, after two solid wins over Arizona, the Mets offense appears to be back on track. Jason Bay, Jose Reyes, and former Sun Devil Ike Davis are all batting over .300 on the season, while Carlos Beltran is showing signs of returning to his former glory.
As much as I hate to say it, the Diamondbacks have helped bring the Mets back from nearly Pittsburgh-level depths. Our hometown team has an incredible way of making bad teams look like world beaters. After beating Cincinnati four times in six tries, the hope was that Arizona would be able to take care of business against a hapless Mets team.
What is the problem with the Diamondbacks this week? Mainly, the top of the order is lacking in production. Chris Young is hitting an anemic .222 on the season, while Kelly Johnson is averaging an even lower figure.
The one thing that must be fixed is the lack of production from the first basemen. Juan Miranda, Russell Branyan, and Xavier Nady have yet to impress on a consistent basis, and the round-robin approach that manager Kirk Gibson has elected to use has not yielded the desired results.
It might be better for the team if Gibson gives one of his first basemen a whole week of starts to prove himself. Let Miranda play some innings and see if he can start producing. There's really no better way to approach this situation.
As I finish writing this, the Mets have already jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third game of the series against the D-backs. Who knew it would be this easy, Mets fans?