Desperation is a Good Luck for the Mets

The losing streak ends with a 3-2 Sunday win.

We now know what a Game Seven would look like with Terry Collins at the helm of the Mets. 

Every out would be a matter of life and death with no pitched deemed off limits as part of the effort to get the victory. It would be all hands on deck with starters pitching as relievers to get the team home.

It would be better for everyone if we didn't know this 16 games into his first season as manager because we learned this nugget of information as Collins threw everything he had into beating the Braves on Sunday. That's what happens when you've lost seven straight, including four games in the last three days, in the first month of a year meant to start restoring faith in the franchise.

You use Chris Capuano as a lefty specialist because the prospect of another loss makes you break out into hives. You use R.A. Dickey for an inning because the thought of a second straight series sweep is just too awful to contemplate.

Those weren't the only moves that Collins pulled to try and find a victory among the charred Earth that has been their April. Josh Thole moved up to second in the order, Angel Pagan got dropped and no feelings were spared in the name of a win.

And, for once, it all worked out.

The Mets held on for a 3-2 win thanks in large part to the relief work by the starters and two runs scored by Thole driving home Jose Reyes. Dillon Gee, just up from Buffalo to replace the injured Chris Young, did respectable work in five-plus innings of one-run ball to get the victory.

Fredi Gonzalez, the Braves manager, did Collins a solid and bungled move after move to help keep the Braves from pulling off any big offensive innings. You don't want to take much away from the Mets on the rare day when they don't take it away from themselves, but it certainly felt like Gonzalez failed to do his homework when he kept trying bunts against a team prone to giving up crooked numbers.

It mattered not that the Mets continued to provide low-cost cooling for the planet by swinging and missing often enough to rack up 14 strikeouts on the afternoon. No, for this Sunday the Mets were content to allow the other side to play the role of court jesters and simply do enough to win and not nearly enough to lose.

Mama said there'd be days like this, but, honestly, we weren't quite sure that we believed her.

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.

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