PHILADELPHIA -- With Sunday's 11-inning victory against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Mets have now won five of six. And they're only four games out of first place in the National League East.
So are the Mets for real?
Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
With Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia and Vic Black now handling the late innings in the bullpen, and with lefty reliever Josh Edgin having rediscovered his velocity, the relief corps is far more promising than earlier this season with the likes of Jose Valverde and Kyle Farnsworth at the back end. And the starting pitching has never been an issue.
It's stating the obvious, but what will prevent the Mets from making any serious noise this season are the bats. Chris Young is hitting .202. Travis d'Arnaud is hitting .193. And, despite some recent signs of life, Ruben Tejada is hitting .226. The Mets have a collective team on-base percentage of .311 and slugging percentage of .348.
Are the Mets the worst team in the National League? No.
Are the Mets the worst team in the division? No, again. The Phillies clearly deserve that mantle, even if the Mets are playing to virtual stalemates with them.
Given the next series is against the Chicago Cubs, the Mets (27-29) may even reach .500 by the time they get to San Francisco for the final stop on this three-city trip.
Still, the fundamental flaws are the fundamental flaws. And while there clearly are building blocks for the future, the story of 2014 is going to be the failure of the bats to produce at a sufficient level to take advantage of solid pitching.