Sometimes great teams need a big hit from the last guy on the roster. The Mets have had no problem being good this season, but great seems like an arm's length away.
This weekend, though, the Amazin's showed flashes of what they were last year: a great team that scored often enough and sprinkled in a little luck along the way.
Chip Ambres was in the right place at the right time Sunday afternoon and put an exclamation point on one of the Mets' best series in two months. The 27-year-old outfielder, who has had only two Major League at-bats since 2005, drove in Lastings Milledge from third with two outs in the top of the 10th inning to give the Mets a 5-4 lead, which would end up being the final margin of victory.
With the win, New York takes three out of four in Los Angeles against a team jockeying for first place in the NL West.
It might have been Ambres' last game with the Mets until September - Moises Alou is due back Tuesday against the Pirates. But the former Kansas City Royal certainly made it count. Milledge and Carlos Beltran had back-to-back two-out singles off D.J. Houlton and, after a David Wright fielder's choice, Ambres trickled a single past Nomar Garciaparra at third into left field.
If not for the unlikely heroics, it would have been two encouraging wins to start the series against the Dodgers followed by two disheartening losses to finish up the road trip.
The offense seemed to show life on the West Coast. It exploded for 13 runs in a victory Thursday night after scoring six runs in the first inning. That kind of start to games was a staple of the 2006 Mets. They gained an early lead Saturday, too, with four runs in the first two innings.
"I feel we, as an offense, are getting better and better at jumping on teams early and continuing to apply that pressure through nine innings," David Wright told the New York Daily News on Saturday.
But there were major bumps in the road despite the quick starts. Tom Glavine couldn't get out of the fourth inning Thursday night and the Mets had to hold on for a 13-9 win. They couldn't hold on Saturday, though. Jorge Sosa gave up six runs in four innings and Ruben Gotay botched a double play to allow for the Dodgers to win, 8-6.
"Sosa has done a nice job for us," Willie Randolph told the Daily News on Saturday. "He's been really pretty good at nailing his pitches. But [Saturday] was a classic example of when you don't, you get hurt on it. We really didn't play real good defense, either. We didn't catch the ball. Some crucial plays we had to make, we didn't make."
Two steps forward, two steps back. It's been the story of the Mets' season since June 1. They're 21-24 since then and have only strung together a win streak of three games or more once in that span.
It seems like the Mets are waiting for something, some kind of spark. It could have been Lastings Milledge, who drove in the team's first run Sunday. But his future is up in the air with the impending return of Moises Alou on Tuesday night. Most Mets fans would cringe at the idea of Shawn Green getting playing time over Milledge, but that could very well be the case when Alou takes his rightful place in left field.
Alou played for the Brooklyn Cyclones on Sunday and had a hit and an RBI.
Another guy who could be out of a job soon is Sosa. The right-hander was the surprise of the first half, but since then has been plagued with inconsistency. Mets brass is still expecting Pedro Martinez to return in August.
"As a pitcher, when you make those kind of mistakes, and you face a team like the Dodgers that leads the National League in hitting, you're going to pay," Sosa said. "They hit the ball well."
In his first seven starts, he was 6-1 with a 2.64 earned run average. Since then, Sosa is 1-4 with a 6.90 ERA. Mike Pelfrey, who will probably get another chance at his first Major League win of the season during a doubleheader with the Nationals on Saturday, could also be kept on instead of Sosa.
Both have been unreliable at times and inconsistent. Sounds like the Mets.
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