I was lucky enough to be at the Mets game Monday night and see one of the most lopsided games I’ve ever attended.

Or, at least, one of the most lopsided games I’ve attended with the Mets on the winning side.

I can’t remember comparable games, but I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen a position player take the mound for the opposition.

It was a big Mets win where everything was clicking, and it came on the heels of 2 straight losses to Atlanta.

And it kind of serves as a microcosm of the season thus far.

It’s very hard to temper enthusiasm about the Mets sometimes.

They can look unbeatable one day, and then very beatable the next…like that series against Atlanta, where they took the first two and then dropped the next two.

And that can be frustrating…but it’s also unfair to expect them to win every day and put up 15 runs on 17 hits the way they did Monday night.

It’s just…they won so much of the past couple of months that we’re getting a little spoiled.

I kind of keep finding myself in a position where I’m reminding myself how far this team has come. And I am approaching the rest of this season with an incredible amount of patience that I don’t usually have for my teams: I’m so grateful for the entertainment they’ve provided me throughout June and July that if the rest of the season doesn’t work out in our favor, I won’t be too upset. (Like those back-to-back losses to Atlanta. While they were disappointing, it’s not like they lost a series. And it meant the Mets went 4-2 in the 6 game stretch against the Yankees and Atlanta. I’ll take it.)

There was no way in early June that I thought by the end of July we’d be where we are.

I was sure there would be some kind of sell at the trade deadline - even if the Mets were winning but hovering around .500. But they’ve played so well that they forced management’s hand and they are a better team with a deeper bullpen after the deadline than they were before, and all of that is just a testament to this team becoming what I believed they could be before the season started and I’m happy about that.

And it’s not that I expect problems the rest of the way. It’s just that we’re about to begin a real grind.

So let’s get to the Monthly Recap:

The Mets enter August with a record of 57-51. They’ve slipped out of the wild card playoff position, a half-game behind Arizona, but are still just a game-and-a-half behind Atlanta for the top wild card spot. And I’m tempering my enthusiasm here, but it’s worth noting because there’s been a lot of talk about it: the Mets are back to 8 games behind the Phillies for first place in the division. It’s been a while since it was that close. Here’s how the Mets have gotten to 57-51:

March: 0-3

April: 15-11

May: 9-19

June: 16-8

July: 17-10

June and July salvaged that rough May mark. August is going to be tough (see below). If the Mets can clear August with a record for the month better than .500, they should be in great shape for the final month of the season.

Player of the Month: You know, this is a little bit of a stretch, but congratulations Jeff McNeil, and welcome to the party. For three months it felt like McNeil was the automatic out. He changed his approach this last month and it worked and he made an already long lineup that much deeper.

The Month Ahead: Oh boy, I’ve had my eye on this August schedule for a while, and now’s the time to talk about it. I noticed how tough August was way back in March or April, when I started examining that front-loaded home schedule the Mets had. I guess part of that was because I had the tickets and I was looking at the second half of the season to see if there were games worth switching to. Not only are the Mets not home a lot…they have some real doozies for trips. And the trips have only gotten more complex.

The Mets go west twice this month - the first trip opens the month and goes Anaheim to Colorado to Seattle. And that’s kind of just a warm-up for the second one that closes out the month, with what are certainly going to be important playoff-positioning games in San Diego and Arizona, before maybe a reprieve in Chicago to face the White Sox. In between is a homestand against Oakland, Miami, and Baltimore.

But wait! There’s more! Because of a rainout in early May, the Mets have to go to St. Louis for a makeup game. So that’s squeezed in on Monday, in between Anaheim and Colorado, making the first trip 10 games…and to top it off, the final game of the trip in Seattle was moved to a night game for ESPN.

So, see, I told you it was going to be tough. But this team has risen to the occasion before. I trust they will do it again. Me? I don’t know that I can make some of those late nights. (I was thinking maybe the Mets should have changed their clocks to California time before the Minnesota series to get used to it and just stay on that time zone body clock through Seattle…maybe I should have done the same thing for myself.) But I’ll do my best to stay up.

Don’t forget you can check those links below and follow along on Instagram there to see how the marathon training is going. (That’s why not upsetting my sleep schedule is so important.)

Let’s Go Mets.