SO now the Mets are in exactly the same spot entering the traditionally defined second half of the season as they were heading into the season, itself.
They are surrounded by high expectations these borne of the winning streak that reached nine with last night's 7-0 victory at Shea over the Rockies, and not merely by a move or two during the offseason.
Back in spring training, Carlos Beltran called the Mets the team to beat. For the first 10 weeks of the season, everyone in the NL took him literally and did just that, pretty regularly.
Now, on a 19-9 roll that includes the final two games of Willie Randolph's tenure, the Mets will reopen in Cincinnati on Thursday just a-half game behind the division-leading Phillies, and once again as the team to beat.
"The way we're playing is what everyone thought we'd be able to do early in the season," said Beltran, whose first-inning, three-run homer the tone for Mike Pelfrey to hum. "We didn't do it, but I believe that things happen for a reason, and right now things are coming our way in every aspect of the game.
"When you put together some wins, you begin to develop confidence. When you win nine straight, then you start to trust every player and everybody that they're going to make the right play or get the big hit or make the big pitch.
"We are in the right place now."
That right place is more than a state of mind. It's precisely the right place in the standings, too, at least according to Jerry Manuel, at least for the moment.
That's second place, by the way.
"At some point we have to back in the position of being chased, but right now we're the chasers and doing a good job of that," Manuel said. "I like the situation where we are right now, where I'm certain we're going to play well."
My, how baseball's most historic pennant-race collapse has changed everything.
Because until late last September, the Mets had spent two years as baseball's ultimate front-runners. In 2006, they were in first place every day beginning April 6. Last year, they were in first place from May 16 to Sept. 27, but not on the day that mattered.
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