The New York Mets finally acknowledged reality after Bryce Harper gave the Nationals a series victory in Washington Thursday afternoon – the playoffs are not a possibility this year.
But there was still quite a bit to be happy about on Friday night:
- Bartolo Colon earned his 200th career victory as the Mets defeated the Phillies 5-4 (even though the ninth inning was too much of an adventure).
- Terry Collins said he will give Wilmer Flores more playing time over the season’s final seven weeks.
- Matt den Dekker will get a shot to play left field.
On a team level, victory number 55 comes too late to matter very much – but we can still celebrate the personal milestone achieved by Colon.
Flores and den Dekker may not perform any better than Chris Young and Ruben Tejada, but it’s time to find out as much as we can about them. It’s better if they can succeed at the major league level, but if they fail, at least Sandy Alderson will should know not to count on them during his off-season planning.
PaulHadsall.com 