What a ride we’re on.

The Mets certainly showed up for September baseball so far - they’re 4-0 to start the month after sweeping the Red Sox (and beating the White Sox on Sunday).

I couldn’t watch these last three games - I don’t have NESN (that’s the Red Sox version of SNY, for those of you who don’t know), and the app blacks out the games on TV here.

So it’s rare I ever watch the Red Sox on TV these days.

But Monday night Kathy and I went out for dinner and parked ourselves in front of a bar TV, and then the past couple of nights I did the old-fashioned thing - listened to the New York radio station through the app on my phone.

And I’m glad I had any kind of medium at all for the games so I didn’t miss out on the fun.

I’ve expressed this sentiment before, but if the Mets went winless from here on out, I would not be mad. (I would be shocked because that would be an unlikely scenario, but I’m just making a point here.)

This season has been so much fun. And they’ve entertained me for far longer this season than I thought they would. Usually this time of year the Mets are done and it’s the Jets turn to stomp on my heart. But the Mets aren’t done at all.

The thing that frustrates me the most about seasons like last year is that I invest so much time in this team - thinking about the games all day, watching the games at night - and it stinks when all that leads to is a lackluster loss.

This year, again, it looked that way in May. I am not gong to pretend I wasn’t resolved to them blowing it up at the trade deadline - and more than resolved, I was looking forward to it because they weren’t a fun team to watch.

And then.

And then they became the most fun to watch. It’s been a total turnaround.

And that’s what’s satisfying to me - I feel like I’m getting a pay-off for all of the time I invested in this team.

The Mets are not going to lose the rest of their games (obviously) and in fact - they seem to be hitting their stride more than at any point this year.

The nicest thing about this Red Sox series were all the games were close…until they weren’t. Other than Monday’s 4-1 win, the Mets pulled away late - which is exactly what they were not doing in games earlier this season. Which is why the bullpen blew so many tight games. (OK, a couple of bigger leads too.)

So with a day off today the Mets are currently on a 7-game winning streak, and they’ve gone from 11 games under .500 (which I’ve told you about too many times but we can’t forget how far they’ve come) all the way back to 76-64 - a whopping 12 games over.

Atlanta, Arizona, and San Diego all play today, so I’ll be scoreboard watching - it would be nice if the Mets can pick up even a half-game of ground somewhere without playing. They’ve earned that since they haven’t been able to pick up a ton of ground even though they’ve been winning so much lately.

The standings as of Thursday afternoon: The Mets are 3.5 games behind San Diego, 3 behind Arizona, and a half-game behind Atlanta for the final wild card spot. (For what it’s worth: they’re 7.5 games behind Philadelphia for the division lead.)

All three wild card spots are still up for grabs…and with 7 games left against Philadelphia, who knows what happens here.

A few other thoughts:

Francisco Lindor’s batting average is up to .274. I don’t need to get into all this again right now but it’s amazing how far he’s come. And it’s exciting to think about what he can do the rest of the way.
I just don’t see how Tylor Megill has a future as a starting pitcher. The quick hook Wednesday night got me to thinking about October though - I wonder if the Mets start using him in short bursts the rest of the way, even if he’s still starting games. He kind of has the make-up of a guy who can be a difference-maker in the playoffs coming out of the bullpen.
After this Reds series the Mets play the Blue Jays - weird September for the Jays. They just played the Phillies, they play Atlanta this weekend, and then they play the Mets. I don’t know many instances of teams playing the interleague division three series in a row. And then the Jays close out the month with the Marlins. That’s a lot of NL East for Toronto.
I was mad that the Red Sox couldn’t win more against Arizona two weeks ago. They could have really helped the Mets. But I guess it all evened out after this series.
A reminder that I’m running the New York City Marathon in just a couple of months (yikes!) and I’m running to raise money for Joe Torre’s Safe at Home Foundation, which does important work providing safe spaces in schools for children suffering from the trauma of domestic abuse. Since school is starting everywhere, this seems like a good time to ask you to donate - you can do so at this link. And you can follow along with my running journey at the Instagram link below. Thanks!

Nice to have the Mets back on east coast time for the rest of the season. It could still be a couple of months of late nights and tight games - but I’m grateful we have that possibility.

Let’s Go Mets!