Mets 7, Orioles 1

(18-13, 1.5 games ahead of Philadelphia)

The Mets are winning, and it is fun to watch.

But first, allow me these few words on Matt Harvey:

Despite my intention to do so, Wednesday afternoon was my first time watching Harvey pitch for the Orioles this year. But I’ve been following his results pretty closely.

It was his eighth start of the year, and although the Mets got to him for 7, he has slowly been progressing from a guy who was likely to give up 4 runs in 5 innings to a guy that would give up 3 runs in 6 innings.

And I’ll chalk the Wednesday performance up to the fact that emotions (and adrenaline) were high early in this game and I’m sure that disrupted his rhythm.

But I’m not here to defend Harvey. I’m glad he got to pitch in front of Mets fans who were kind to him and showed him appreciation.

It was a little touching seeing him back on the mound at Citi Field - I’m going to go ahead and say he’s the most important Mets player so far who played his entire career at Citi Field who has had the opportunity to come back and play there. It was a nice moment.

And in the end I’m glad the Mets beat him.

(Real quick on the gnome picture: Mets fan friends of mine were getting rid of it, they asked me if I wanted it, and I said sure. Because why wouldn’t I. So he’s been living in our yard and he’s a little bit beat up and weather-worn but he’s still a functional Harvey gnome. Not unlike the real-life Harvey. Except instead of being a gnome he’s a major league pitcher.)

The Mets bats have really started to come alive - Francisco Lindor is starting to hit, and on Wednesday especially Dominic Smith started to hit.

Taijuan Walker threw another great game, following up a strong effort by Marcus Stroman the night before. The Mets pitching has been outstanding.

The Mets have now won seven in a row - they won those last two in St. Louis last week, swept three games from the Diamondbacks over the weekend, and then swept this two-game series with Baltimore.

The off-field news has been less about controversies and problems guys may or may not have with one another and more and more about how much the guys on the team like one another and enjoy being around each other.

I guess that’s what happens when you’re winning.

It’s even more encouraging when you consider the Mets are doing a lot of this while dealing with injuries - J.D. Davis and Brandon Nimmo have been out, and Jacob deGrom went on the injured list Sunday after leaving his start early. (You know things are going good for the Mets when they get deGrom a win in a game he didn’t go past the 6th inning.) The bench players (‘The Bench Mob’, they’ve taken to calling themselves) have been coming up big, but it’s good to know health and reinforcements are on the way.

The Mets are starting to look like the contenders we hoped they would be. It’s been really fun, and if they keep this up it’s going to be a fun summer of baseball.

The Mets have Thursday off before a 9-game road trip against the Rays, Atlanta, and Marlins.