Prophetic win

 The just completed Florida series charecterizes the Mets 2006 team, and may be a preview of their post-season chances.  What happened in this series is a good predictor of what the Mets will do in the post-season.

The Mets should win in the post-season - as they did win this series.  Anything can happen, though, and they came awfully close to losing this rubber game in the Florida series.  To extract things even further, the 9th and 11th innings of the 9/13 win in Florida typify the Mets of 2006.

 The Mets won because they were "lucky".  In the 9th inning, Delgado tied the game on two outs on an ugly ground ball poke that just made it through.  Pure "luck".  BUT that was set up by David Wright starting off the inning with a single, and Cliff Floyd gutting out a walk.  Randolph made a smart move, pinch-hitting Delgado for Milledge.  (By the way, the game would not have been a one-run game if Milledge hadn't flashed some leather earlier in the outfield, while also getting a couple of hits plus getting robbed once).  Credit also goes to Mets management, who went out and got Delgado, along with the rest of the supporting cast - especially the bullpen (who got the "W" last night).  The guy that Delgado replaced at first - Mike Jacobs - was struck out in the bottom of the 9th inning by Heilman, who was busy pantsing the Marlins line-up in his two stellar innings.  So this inning demonstrated the Mets depth, the results of the good moves made by management, some smart in-game management by Willie Randolph, some clutch hitting by the clean-up hitter Delgado, a key supporting hit by Wright and a key walk by Floyd, and stellar bull-pen pitching.  

 In the 11th inning, we have another clutch contribution by another Met who has been bringing it all year - Jose Valentin.  He started with a double (due to his hustle).  New Met Shawn Green got hit on the toe by a pitch - making a positive contribution.  To support my point, I am going to ignore Ledee's failed attempt to ground into a double play.  Ledee barely counts anyhow.  

Then, with Valentin on third - the Mets having put themselves in a position to win - more "luck" occurred in the form of a wild pitch.  Also typical of the 2006 Mets, they seized this opening and finished the job when Reyes came through AGAIN in an RBI situation, as did LoDuca.  Then, with a three-run lead, in came Wagner to nail the lid shut.  Plenty of luck - most of which the Mets made for themselves.

 So - they CAN win, they SHOULD win - BUT they can also lose.  They came close last night.  THIS is the 2006 Mets.  I'll take my chances with them, and I'm looking forward to October.