NEW YORK -- Is there a hotter team in the majors than the New York Mets? (Well, other than the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs.)
The Mets completed a four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies with a 12-3 win on Thursday afternoon at Citi Field. With the victory, the Mets moved 11 games over .500 for the first time since June 27, 2010. The Amazin’s also opened a four-game lead on the Washington Nationals for first place in the NL East.
“We’re good. That’s it,” Michael Cuddyer said. “We’re a good team.”
Since that collapse against the San Diego Padres in the rain on July 30, when the Mets squandered a six-run lead and Jeurys Familia blew a save, they have won 11 of 13 games.
Since July 24, coinciding with the acquisitions of Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe, the Mets have scored a National League-best 100 runs -- an average of 5.3 per game. The Mets previously had been averaging 3.4 runs per game this season.
Johnson went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a homer and three RBIs in Thursday’s win.
“That first day in we scored 15, so I haven’t seen it too bad,” said Johnson, referring to a 15-2 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers. “It’s a deep roster. Guys know, for the most part, their role and the matchups -- that we’re going to be put in pretty good situations to succeed. So it’s been a lot of fun these last few weeks.”
The Mets improved to 42-18 at home, a franchise record through 60 games. And manager Terry Collins credits Mets fans for helping to fuel the team's success at Citi Field. The Mets drew 36,573 to Thursday’s matinee.
“The noise and the enthusiasm, it’s really hard to not have some energy when you take the field right now,” Collins said. “We’re playing well at home. Guys are excited about it. They like playing here.”
Noah Syndergaard did not have an exceptional outing Thursday. He was overly reliant on his fastball in the first inning while allowing a pair of solo homers. Still, Syndergaard only allowed three runs in seven innings. All four Mets pitchers in the series -- Jonathon Niese, Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Syndergaard -- completed at least seven innings.
“The Mets have four No. 1s,” Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado said. “We saw all four of them.”
The Mets overcame an early 2-0 lead with three runs in the bottom half of the first on consecutive RBIs doubles by Daniel Murphy, Uribe and Johnson.
“In the first inning, you’re down two, and the whole feeling is, ‘You know what? We’ve got a long way to go yet in this game,’” Collins said.
The Mets’ largest division lead this season was 4½ games in April. If they can expand it any further than that in coming days, it will be the largest division lead for the Mets since the early stages of their 2007 collapse, when they squandered a seven-game lead with 17 to play (they lost the lead to the Philadelphia Phillies).
“We still have 40-something games left to play,” Cuddyer cautioned. “By no means is the season over. By no means are we already in. We’ve still got a long way to go.”
