Those Mets

METS ARE DOING JUST FINE

PLAYING FAR BETTER THAN EXPECTED

How could you blame Mets fans for irrational theories? Three season-ending heartbreaks and the thorough embarrassment of 2009 could scramble the senses of even the wisest fans. But the silliest idea for fixing the Mets is to blow up a core that, supposedly, has fundamental flaws. Maybe the Mets will make the playoffs this year, maybe not. But let us recognize, for good, that the foundation of Jose Reyes and David Wright is part of the solution, not part of the problem. They showed that again on Friday in the Bronx, where the Mets dumped the Yankees, 4-0. Wright doubled and scored in the first inning, and Reyes did the same in the eighth. Then he singled in the Mets’ final run in the ninth. Wright also made the game’s critical defensive play, bare-handing a chopper by Jorge Posada with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth. He fired to first for the out, finishing Hisanori Takahashi’s night, then whirled and pumped his fist. These are fun days to be a Met, despite their usual batch of crises. The Mets have already cut their opening day center fielder and first baseman. Two members of their original starting rotation are afterthoughts on the disabled list. The team is carrying nine rookies on its 25-man roster, three more than any other team. Yet after Friday’s victory, the Mets remain just a half-game out of first place in the National League East, winners of eight in a row. They cannot stay this hot, especially with more tough competition coming next week when Detroit and Minnesota visit Citi Field. But their success so far is largely because of Reyes and Wright. Wright is tied with Troy Glaus of Atlanta for the league lead in runs batted in, with 53. When he knocks in Reyes, the Mets almost never lose. They are 26-6 this season when Reyes scores; since 2005, they are 274-110 when that happens. Reyes is giving Wright lots of chances to drive him in these days. In his past 10 games, Reyes is 19 for 44 (.432) with 10 runs scored. “When he’s at the top of the order and playing the way he is, he’s the ultimate igniter,” Wright said. “We’re a lot more explosive and energetic when he can create havoc.” Wright and his teammates have said some version of that for years, perhaps relying too much on a player who joined the Mets the day before his 20th birthday, in 2003. Reyes has grown up in the major league glare, and the growing pains have made him streaky, a tough player to rely on as a leader. But that may be changing. Reyes is 27 now, and Manager Jerry Manuel said his maturity has stood out this season. Manuel said it shows itself most on defense. “You don’t see the at-bats go to the field,” he said. “Early in his career, we always said, ‘If Jose gets a hit his first time up, we’re going to have a good shortstop tonight.’ But this year he started off slow with the bat, and he’s just really, really played a good shortstop.” Manuel has also let Reyes be himself by abandoning the 20-game experiment of batting him third. Reyes hit .207 in that role. Since leaving it on May 15, he is hitting .331. “As soon as I went back to leadoff, it clicked for me,” Reyes said Friday, adding later: “That’s my house there. I feel confident there. I’ve been hitting leadoff almost all my life in the big leagues. I know what I have to do there to get the team going.” Reyes and Wright cannot do it alone, of course. The Mets owe much of their revival to consistent starting pitching, which Wright said has allowed the hitters to relax because they are not trying to win slugfests every night. Manuel has also hit on an effective batting order with the left-handed Ike Davis slotted cleanup, between Wright and Jason Bay. “Lineup-wise, it’s been a total team effort,” infielder Alex Cora said. “When they split David and Jason, with Ike in the middle, that was a huge move for us. Now it’s a little bit harder to go through those three; sometimes they start matching up early. That was big.” Role players have made important contributions, much more than last season, when the Mets lost almost every significant player — and several reserves — to injury. Reyes never played after May and Wright lost his power stroke. It was all an aberration, it seems now — miserable and painful, to be sure, but only a blip in a stretch of six Mets seasons in which five have been competitive. If nothing else, the Mets are contenders again, which is generally what they have been since Reyes and Wright established themselves as dependable building blocks, the foundation of something good.