The Mets Critical Moment in Time

The Mets enter August one game out of first place and play a grueling 29 games in 31 days, including 23 games in a row from August 5-27.

John Maine might be hurt, or he might not be.

Ryan Church is still not back.

Luis Castillo is still not back.

And then there's Pedro Martinez, and he alone just might hold the key to the rest of the Mets season.

Pedro fought his way back last year, fought his way back in Spring Training, injured himself in his first start of the year, fought his way back again, came back with limited success, tweaked himself again, lost his father to cancer, and he is coming back, again, tonight.

I am particularly proud of my comma use in the above sentence, and I am worried about Pedro.

In a best-case scenario world the Mets have 5 really good starters. This presupposes John Maine comes back next week, and a healthy and moderately effective Pedro keeps the Mets in ballgames through 6 innings.

In a worse-case scenario the Mets get back a broken down former star who can only get by on guile and an increasingly slow, and hittable, array of pitches. This scenario, coupled with John Maine's injury being more serious than the Mets are letting on, would most likely put the Mets in a situation where John Niese and a lot of luck will be required to win the NL East.

Personally I'm optimistic. In his last two starts before the groin injury Pedro looked good--his arm slot was higher and he had more life on his fastball. In the "groin game" he had only allowed 1 hit through 4 innings, and I recall remarking to my friend that "looks like Petey is back."

But the realist in me says that the groin and shoulder are there lurking, waiting, and that whatever we get from Pedro at this point will have to be enough. 4 innings? 5 innings? 1 start or 10 more?

It's the great unknown.

Regardless I am, as always, the eternal Met optimist and feel good that Pedro Martinez is on the mound.

An August 1st with a healthy Pedro, Maine, Church and yes, even Castillo, would surely have been a wonderful thing. If we can have "our guys" back and healthy by next weekend, then all will be well in Met Nation.

As for now we'll watch and hope....it surely is a critical moment in time.