Weekly Recap, July 30-August 5

The boys are on the way home from the west, and I'm home from a busy week, including a couple days in the Mets' epicenter: New York City. Before we get to my week, let's take a look at the team's week.

Team Record: 4-3 (53-56 overall)
July 30-August 2, Giants Series: W, 3-1
August 3-5, Padres Series: L, 1-2

The Good Stuff:

• Ronny Cedeno had one of the best weeks of his entire career, totaling 10 RBIs on 7-12 hitting, including half those RBIs on 2 doubles and a single in the final game in San Francisco. He also hit a pinch-hit 2-run homer on Sunday afternoon against the Padres to keep the Mets in the game.
• Ruben Tejada hit .375 for the week, including his first home run in more than two years (second career), a leadoff shot Wednesday night against Matt Cain of the Giants. Tejada's now hitting .323 on the season, slowly but surely approaching the team lead (for the converse of that, see Bad Stuff).
• Most of New York's starters had wonderful weeks on the mound. R.A. Dickey tossed a quality start in a Friday night loss in San Diego. Chris Young shut down the Giants on Thursday afternoon. Jon Niese survived the absolute lack of run support on Wednesday night to pick up the W. Jeremy Hefner rebounded from a rough SF outing to earn a big win in SD.

The Bad Stuff:

• David Wright struggled again as his batting average dropped to .325, just two points ahead of Tejada for the team lead.
• Matt Harvey picked up the first 2 Ls of his young major league career, managing a tough loss in San Francisco against Tim Lincecum (who has 40% of his 5 season Ws against the Mets, by the way), but getting smashed by the camo-clad Padres on Sunday afternoon.

Final Analysis:
While it didn't end the way fans would've liked, the Mets still finished the dreaded West Coast swing with a winning record: 6-5 in Arizona, San Francisco, and San Diego. Over the last couple years this trip has been the one to spell doom to previously promising first halves, and while the season had been sunk on the Atlantic coast already in 2012, at least New York used their Pacific Coast journey to stabilize their record. While the playoffs are a long shot unless the team can go '51 Giants (37-7) on the rest of the National League, one more good winning streak and .500 ball the rest of the way can still produce a winning season. The storm has been weathered, and hopefully it has passed. Because if it turns out the Mets are simply in the eye of the hurricane, it ain't gonna be pretty.

MM

New York Pics of the Week

Our room at the Pod 39 Hotel on 39th Street. Small, but affordable and comfortable.

Look who I found in a Dunkin' Donuts!

One of the team's epicenters: the Mets Clubhouse Store on 42nd Street near Bryant Park.

My (hopefully) future place of employment: the SNY headquarters at the Time-Life Building on 51st and 6th Avenue.

Riverside Church, where my grandparents used to worship when they lived in Morningside Heights and Grandpa went to Union Theological Seminary right next door.

My 5th trip to New York and I STILL haven't gotten to see him yet...Soon and very soon! (It'll have to be - Dave's getting old!)

My sister and I saw two shows when we were there: first was a revival of Harvey with Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory starring in the role Jimmy Stewart made famous in 1950.

The second was the infamous Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. The plot was so-so but the stagecraft and effects were what made the show. The Bono-and-Edge-penned music was also enjoyable.

So that was my week in the Greatest City in the World. I'll be back there again soon, and the Mets will be back there after an off day on Monday to start a series with the recently-gutted Miami Marlins. Time to start a new streak!

WD