HOUSTON — As the Mets embarked on the second calendar month of the season, Manager Terry Collins reiterated that he was very pleased with the way his players had overcome low expectations and injuries to achieve a 13-10 record. Still, he was under no illusion that his team was a fully polished product.
“Let’s be realistic here, this is a work in progress,” Collins said. “Let’s not get down. Let’s stay positive. Let’s continue to work.”
Collins said he sat down with his coaches Tuesday morning to analyze the team and was struck by the relative inexperience of the players in his lineup.
He recalled the discussion: “Let’s take a look at the catcher. How many years has he got? He’s got two. First baseman, he’s got two. Second baseman’s got two. Shortstop’s got two. Left fielder’s got days. Center fielder’s got four. Right fielder’s got days.”
Collins said the sign that the team was reaching a new level would be if they won games like the one they lost Monday night, when they could not capitalize on a strong start by R.A. Dickey.
“When you’ve got a guy that almost throws a no-hitter, gives up three hits, you’ve got a figure out a way to win those games,” Collins said.
And the way they would reach the next level, he said, was by learning quickly. Mistakes, in Collins’s eyes, will be digestible, as long as they only happen once.
He used a play from Monday’s loss as an example. Kirk Nieuwenhuis, playing his first professional game in left field, allowed a pop-up by Jed Lowrie to fall in front of him, extending a three-run inning. The ball was ruled a hit, but Collins said he would expect Nieuwenhuis to make the call and the catch in the future.
“This is the big leagues,” Collins said. “You’ve got to learn fast, you’ve got to adjust fast in the big leagues.”
Subway Series Cuts Some Mets players weighed in on reports that Major League Baseball might scale back the number of annual interleague games between teams designated as natural rivals, like the Mets and the Yankees.
The Astros’ move to the American League next season could mean that natural rivals would not face each other six games a season, as they do now, although no official scheduling announcements have been made.
“Fifty percent of me thinks that it’s such a fun series, and it’s so great for the city of New York,” said David Wright, who has a .314 career average against the Yankees. “The other 50 percent thinks they’re such a good team that it’s almost good if we don’t have to play those guys six times a year.”
After more thought, Wright added that the “positives probably outweighed the negatives,” because of how much he looked forward to and enjoyed playing in those games.
“You can always tell when it’s Subway Series time, walking around the city, because it seems like half the city’s in orange and blue, the other half’s in pinstripes, everybody’s got a hat on,” Wright said. “As much as the players try to think that it’s one game, the intensity level is much higher, with the fans getting into it, and I think that carries over onto the field and makes it more fun for the players, too.”
Mike Baxter, who grew up in Queens, said six games a year probably were not necessary. “Especially when the games first started, there was always so much buzz,” Baxter said. “As long they retained one series a year, I think that’s enough.”
Flu Bug Hits Lucas Duda, who came down with the flu this week, was out of the lineup for the second straight game Tuesday night after visiting a doctor earlier in the day. Mike Nickeas also had the flu, and was still at the team hotel a few hours before the game.
Nickeas’s absence forced Terry Collins to name Mike Baxter as an emergency backup catcher, as the Mets considered flying a catcher to Houston for the series finale Wednesday. Baxter played catcher during instructional league games in 2008 while trying to widen his skill set.
Baxter, incidentally, was also singled out last week by Collins as the position player most likely to pitch in a blowout loss. Before Tuesday’s game, he was handed Nickeas’s glove and catching gear, which he then proceeded to wipe with rubbing alcohol.
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