So how about that Rod Barajas signing!? In the unaired episode of NYMetscast, I talked about how much I loved the Barajas signing. Ted was more apathetic than I was, but even I didn’t think Barajas would be this good this early.

Besides the power bat, now a team-leading seven bombs, Rod has been excellent behind the plate. Not that this is saying much, but Barajas is going to put up the best season at catcher for the Mets since the 2006 version of Paul Lo Duca.

At worst the guy is a threat at the plate and when you’re hitting eighth, you can’t expect much more than that.

Ok, now that my love fest for Barajas is done, nice game again for John Maine. Have to be encouraged by the starting pitching over the last two nights after Pelfrey and Santana stunk up the joint in Philly.

Jose Reyes is starting to come alive, which is huge for the Mets. Second straight night Reyes delivered a big hit. Hopefully this is the real start of his season.

David Wright hit a moonshot in the 4th. Looks like his power is back to where it was before 2009.

Just a huge win for the Mets tonight. It would have been a shame if the back to back homers cost them another game and extended this losing streak. After an already fragile psyche, I can’t imagine what another loss tonight would have meant to this team. But luckily thanks to Rod Barajas, we don’t have to worry about that.

Not even a second after thinking to myself, “Wow, Manny Acosta reminds me of Guillermo Mota a whole lot” Laynce Nix homered to win the game in the 11th. Like Mota, Acosta is tall, lanky and has great stuff, yet he stinks.

So another night and another devastating loss for the Mets. You really have to wonder about this team’s psyche after tonight. They were certainly frustrated after this weekend’s poor performance and maybe it was just me but they looked more focused tonight. At the same time, they looked very, very tight…especially in clutch situations. The Mets were 2-10 with RISP and blew some golden opportunities to score runs.

Besides Acosta, the pitching staff looked good tonight. Ollie Perez had a solid outing, giving up two runs in six innings. Of course for the third straight day, after the opposing pitcher gets on, he scores. The Mets really need to focus against the other teams’ pitchers. I remember writing and talking about this in years’ past too. But all in all, a solid outing for Ollie. Jose Reyes should have made that play on Joey Votto’s single anyway.

Mejia, Nieve and Feliciano were awesome. You really have to feel good about the bullpen. I can’t believe I’m saying that and a month from now I might feel the exact opposite, but for now the ‘pen is getting the job done for the most part.

If only the offense could pick it up. They had a good three days in a row, but besides that they’ve been brutal. Even during the eight-game streak, they only scored some runs in the last three of the streak.

Tomorrow night it’s Bronson Arroyo for the Reds. The guy is not very good but to no one’s surprise he destroys the Mets. Since 2007, Arroyo is 4-1 with a 2.61 ERA against the Mets.

We’ll see what the offense can do. I actually feel confident John Maine is going to be solid. The Mets can ill afford to go through a four-game slide after the nice winning streak.

What a brutal 36 hours after an incredible week and a half. As good as you felt on Friday night, you have to be very discouraged after the 21-5 beatdown the Mets have received the last two days.

Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana were not good the past two days and the most upsetting part is they both gave up monster innings when the damage should have been severely limited.

Pelfrey had some bad luck contribute to his poor inning yesterday. But Santana only has himself to blame. The Phillies scored nine runs with two outs in the fourth inning. Nine!!! And the pitcher came up and walked. Simply inexcusable. Johan has been such a stud this year but come on. You can’t blow up like that.

Equally as upsetting was the complete lack of fight the Mets showed once they fell behind the last two days. Doing nothing against Roy Halladay is acceptable, but how did they only manage one baserunner over the last five innings tonight? That’s really pathetic. I’m sorry. But good teams do their best in the next at-bat after their opposition scores. The Phillies did that twice tonight. The Mets fell asleep. Not a good sign.

No question the clubhouse is more cohesive and the team is playing harder and smarter than they have in the past. But you still have to wonder if there’s some sort of mental block that hangs over this team. It will be really interesting to see what happens in Cincinnati. The Reds are a tough team so if the Mets can win a road series, I think they will have moved on from this disastrous weekend. If the Reds steamroll through the Mets, then it’s time to be concerned again.

The Mets picked the perfect time to play their best game of the season. There were so many encouraging things to take from tonight and I’ll try to keep it brief or else I’ll just keep going on and on.

Really for the first time all season, I suddenly feel like maybe, just maybe, this team has a shot to do something special this season. I know everyone talks about chemistry being overrated and I agree, but there is something different about this team and Jenry Mejia proved why.

After two Mets were drilled with pitches, Mejia retaliated by bruising Chase Utley with a fastball in the 8th inning. The past few years I was screaming about how the Mets never did this kind of stuff. Now they finally are. And then Mejia completely overpowered Ryan Howard to end the inning. It was a sweet exclamation point.

And it’s not just that. There’s a certain toughness about this team that we haven’t seen in a while. Guys are hustling and playing really strong defense. Jeff Franceour is a man. I’m not saying he’s better than Carlos Beltran, but no way Beltran stays in the game after colliding with the wall like Frenchy did in the 2nd inning. Franceour might not be the greatest player in the world, but he’s gritty and the Mets need that because they have talent elsewhere.

Jon Niese was dominant tonight. That was the best secondary stuff I’ve seen from any of the Mets pitchers. His off speed pitches were filthy.

I like Rod Barajas. I know the dude swings at everything, but he’s a great defensive catcher and he’s at least a power threat at the plate. He might hit .200 over the course of the season but he’ll get you 20+ homers.

I’m really excited for tomorrow’s game. Pelfrey vs. Halladay should be a terrific matchup. It will be interesting to see who steps up tomorrow. Pelfrey has been baseball’s best pitcher this season, but Halladay is considered the best in the game. Things got testy at the end of tonight’s game. It’s going to be a great way to start May.

I can’t believe the Mets have  just won six in a row and might be in first place when I wake up tomorrow morning.  A week ago this team looked like absolute garbage.  And somehow right now they’re 12-9 and riding a 8-1 homestand against three teams that were projected to be pretty good when the season started.

Obviously the pitching staff deserves massive praise for being the catalyst behind this streak.  Over Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana’s last three starts each, they’ve given up a combined one run.  That’s pretty ridiculous.  Forty percent of the games the Mets are playing they are giving themselves an excellent chance to win.  And clearly Pelfrey’s progress so far has been the best part of this season.

The bullpen has also continued to be real solid.  I thought the Igarashi injury would hurt them a lot, but they’re getting by with Nieve, Feliciano and a super steady Takahashi.  The Mets seemed to go with Ted’s theory of throw a bunch of stuff against a wall and see what sticks and so far it’s worked like magic.  Even Mejia has looked better although I’d still prefer to see him starting down in the minors.

Ike Davis has been a huge lift for this team too.  I know it looks like a coincidence that the team has gone on its hot streak right as Davis was called up, but just think about it.  Before he was on the team, the Mets arguably had the worst offensive and defensive first basemen in all of baseball.  That’s a pretty tough position to be terrible at because you expect some offense from first base.  Now, Davis provides average production offensively and defensively and that makes a big difference.  I fully expect Davis to hit .270 with a .350 OBP and 15-20 HRs along with 75 RBI.  He really extends the depth of the lineup.

The rest of the lineup has picked it up, but it hasn’t been great.  David Wright was awesome tonight, but he had really been struggling lately.  Jason Bay has been better recently, but he still doesn’t have a homer.  Jose Reyes has been all right.  But honestly if this team is going to stay above .500 until Carlos Beltran returns (and who knows when that will be) the offense will have to be much, much better.

I don’t want to sound like a negative nellie.  This team deserves all the praise it’s been getting thanks to this streak.  They’re playing really sound baseball and the pitching staff has been consistently solid.  But they’ve also gotten really lucky and the teams they’ve been playing have looked like little league teams at times.  That won’t keep up.  Although I’m really looking forward to seeing what will happen this weekend in Philadelphia.  That will be a true test for the Mets.  Maybe Reyes, Bay and Wright really turn it on and the pitching does enough.  That would be awesome, but I honestly think they need Beltran back if they have any hopes of October baseball this season.