Monday wasn't a particularly great day in the annals of the New York Mets.
We found out during the afternoon that David Wright is going to be out for a spell because of a stress fracture in his back -- he should actually go on the disabled list Tuesday -- and then the Mets were delayed by the bad weather that promises to make our week a wet one.
The Mets then lost to the Marlins in 11 frustrating innings, which would seem to make for a night that ended with anything but a smile.
Quite the opposite, however. There are times in a long baseball season where you have to put aside the obsession with winning and losing and appreciate the absurdity.
There was plenty of absurdity in the 2-1 Marlins victory, starting with the way the Mets seemed to be doing everything short of turning on the sprinklers to get the game rained out.
The forecast for the rest of the week showed that there was a good chance of getting at least one more game ruined by Mother Nature, which meant fewer games to play without Wright or Ike Davis.
They were foiled in that pursuit which meant that the entire game was played in a misty netherworld with only a handful of diehards on hand after a 90-minute delay to enjoy the proceedings. They got their money's worth.
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They saw Mike Pelfrey pitch the mighty Josh Johnson to a standstill, with a hearty assist to Carlos Beltran for slamming a ball off of Johnson's arm and ending his night after six innings. They saw some splendid Mets defense and they saw one of the luckier bounces in history when Justin Turner's grounder with two on in the 10th bounced off Hanley Ramirez's shoulder right into Omar Infante's hand for a double play.
They saw a Marlins reliever named Burke Badenhop single home a run in the top of the 11th. It wound up being the winning run, but, really, can you get too upset when guys named Burke Badenhop are making big plays?
Not really, not when the bottom of the 11th brings Jon Niese tripling as a pinch hitter to put the tying run 90 feet away with two outs and Jose Reyes at the plate. Reyes couldn't get Niese home, but again, you've got to appreciate the absurdities.
There was even more to chew on Monday night. There was Terry Collins intentionally walking Chris Coghlan so that Francisco Rodriguez could face Hanley Ramirez with the winning run on second base.
And it worked! You can't say the same for Collins's decision to pinch hit Chin-Lung Hu for Willie Harris with the bases loaded in the ninth but you can't accuse the guy of managing by some binder.
Once you throw in a Jason Bay bunt, a caught stealing after one of his rare hits, a flurry of roster moves right after everything ended and the fact that the whole thing was played on an infield with the consistency of oatmeal, you've got yourself quite a little night for a game that featured three runs.
It's not something you'd want every night, to be sure, but once and a while you've just got to sit back and enjoy the madness.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
