Justin Turner had a fine game yesterday, showing defensive aptitude while posting a Beltran-esque 5 RBI day at the plate. It's a bit early to declare victory over the 2nd base quagmire that evolved over spring training, but at the very least a platoon of Turner and Murphy should score more runs than they cost the team.
In the meantime, the Mets have continued to quietly improve their record and they are now 19-21 and have won 7 of their past 10 games. The team has continued to show resilience, at least against the inferior teams of the league, fighting back from deficits and flashing the occasional come-from-behind win. Adversity has been endured, with the losses of Chris Young and Pedro Beato and the struggles of R. A. Dickey and David Wright.
The bullpen has been a strength as of late, which is refreshing when put in the context of the past few years. It's also been a boon to the beleaguered rotation. Hopefully Dickey, who has been sub-par all year, will regain command of his knuckleball and become more of an asset than a liability. Equally hopefully, Pelfrey has begun to settle in and will continue to produce quality starts. Other than those two, I don't expect to see much improvement from the rotation. I do still believe this team can continue to be a demonstration on "doing more with less"; as long as the rotation is able to keep the team in games, and thus far it has been, the lineup and bullpen are good enough to give the team an opportunity to win every single game.
Unfortunately, the roster simply doesn't have the kind of "lights-out" talent to compete with the top teams in their division, although I wouldn't completely rule out a wild-card berth just yet. In any case, I'd rather see the team overachieve with bit players than underachieve with aging and overpaid former all-stars.
Baseball season rolls on.
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