Lucas Duda has clubbed nine homers in the past eight games; the golden-armed Noah Syndergaard seems he’s been transformed out of a comic book; and the ebullient Juan Uribe is exactly the right player at the right time for the New York Mets. But anybody who watched or experienced what happened at Citi Field in recent days knows that not one of those players is the real star in the Mets’ surge to first place.

No, the agents of changes for the Mets occupy the seats -- their fans, who have emerged from a restless hibernation and have shaken off their perpetual grumpiness to drive a team suddenly filled with hope, a team now in a virtual tie with Washington for first place after a sweep of the Nationals.