Buck Showalter: Mets won’t panic despite rival winning streaks
By John Buhler
Buck Showalter is not the least bit fazed by how the New York Mets’ rivals are playing of late.
New York Mets manager Buck Showalter is cool, calm and collected in mid-June, despite rival clubs being on an absolute tear.
The Mets still have a comfortable lead atop the NL East standings, but entering Sunday, the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies were riding 10 and nine-game winning streaks, respectively. Heck, even the Miami Marlins and the Washington Nationals have been able to win a handful of games in a row. All the while, Showalter said, “the sky isn’t falling. It’s only raining.”
This is why Steve Cohen made the perfect hire in naming Showalter the Mets’ newest manager.
Buck Showalter and the New York Mets need to keep focusing on themselves
Look. It is a new and exciting era of Mets baseball. Ownership is excellent. They have great players all over the diamond. Showalter has seen everything. This is a team Mets fans should be over the moon about. They have suffered enough and should be confident about the bright present and future this team has ahead of them. Don’t worry about your rivals, except for when you play them.
If the Mets win the NL East, then that’s wonderful. If they get surpassed by teams like the Braves or Phillies, it’s understandable. Atlanta has won the division the last four years and is the reigning World Series champions. Philadelphia is bound to end its NL-worst postseason drought at some point. These two, along with New York, were contenders to be one of six NL playoff teams anyway.
Even if the Mets’ lead dwindles to little more than a game, you just need to win the head-to-head tiebreaker to raise a division banner. Right now, it is all about being confident, despite the great run of late the Braves and Phillies are on. New York teams from yesterday would crumble under the slightest of pressure. But you know what? Maybe this team is different and proves us wrong?
If the Mets handle their business, they should remain one of the very best teams in all of baseball.
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