The Mets have some meteorological explaining to do.
They called a game on Tuesday night well ahead of the first pitch and then sat down to watch the rumored rain storm never materialize. With even more rain on the docket for Wednesday, the conspiracy theorist inside us assumed they were trying to do everything in their power to avoid playing as many games as possible while Ike Davis and David Wright were out of the lineup.
But then they went out and played on Wednesday night in the kind of conditions that (CLICHE ALERT) usually have people building arks instead of playing baseball. Or watching baseball for that matter.
We offer a hearty pat on the back to the handful of fans who stuck it out at Citi Field, although we also have even more reason to worry about the mental well-being of the rare breed known as Mets fans after watching them sit there through conditions that ducks consider a bit too extreme. Perhaps, like us, they just kept waiting for Terry Collins to come out and let us know that he didn't think the heavy stuff was going to come down for a while yet.
It's a good thing that the Mets wound up playing, though. They got a great start from Jon Niese, Justin Turner continued his hot streak with two more RBIs and the Nationals generally looked like they would rather be anywhere else on the planet -- up to and including a screening of "Water for Elephants" -- during the 3-0 win.
Niese's performance was the most surprising development of the evening. He struck out seven over seven innings in what was his best start of the season by a healthy margin.
Given how well he did on Wednesday, maybe he should think about decamping to Seattle when free agency comes his way?
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Or not, as the last of those innings could have been a real disaster. It looked like a movie scene rather than an actual major league game because only in the movies do they play on fields that look like they are about to turn into flood plains that wash away everyone in a terrific rush.
Niese was throwing waterlogged balls hither and yon and the Nats were hitting them to unpredictable places whenever they could actually see through the deluge long enough to make contact. It all seemed like the most ridiculous thing to ever happen in the game of baseball, right up to the moment that the Mets wound up as winners.
The victory doesn't make it much easier to comprehend the decision to play the game in the first place, but it certainly beats the alternative. Let's just hope it is the last time the Mets decide it is better to play in the middle of a monsoon instead of a perfectly lovely May evening.
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.
