It's not turning out that way, of course. The first order of business for any team with championship pretensions is to win the division. That guarantees an invitation to the tournament. Anything can happen after that.
Manuel preached in spring training that the National League East was much improved. Managers always say stuff like that. Nobody paid much attention.
Well, guess what? It's almost June and the division is the only one in baseball that doesn't have a team with a losing record. If that doesn't get the attention of the defending NL East champions, the fact that the Mets won the series that ended at Citi Field last night should. That they're in Florida tonight and then travel on to Atlanta before returning home should underscore the point.
The Mets have been an up-and-down team so far. But there are some solid reasons to believe they might have turned a corner.
Some mistakes were made coming out of Port St. Lucie. Mike Jacobs and Fernando Tatis were splitting time at first base. That was rectified 2 weeks into the season when Ike Davis was summoned from Triple A Buffalo to play every day. John Maine and Oliver Perez were handed spots in the rotation. Both are on the disabled list with no reason to expect their spots will be waiting for them when they get healthy.
Hisanori Takahashi has pitched six shutout innings in each of his last two starts, which just happened to be against the teams that met in the World Series last fall, the Phillies and the Yankees. "He's in the rotation and it will be tough to get him out," said manager Jerry Manuel.
The Marlins are always dangerous and their lineup should become more formidable in the next few weeks when they're expected to bring up superprospect Mike Stanton from Double A Jacksonville. Through 42 games, he was batting .312 with 17 homers and 44 RBI for the Suns.
