NEW YORK _ No matter how much heat this month might put on the Mets, they always can gain perspective from the pitcher who looks like he is out there simply having a game of catch. Everything Bartolo Colon does on the field gives the confident impression of someone saying, "No sweat."
Granted, the Twins are not likely to strike fear into any ballclub, but a pennant race can. Colon set and maintained a tone in a 3-0 win Friday night at Citi Field, working seven innings and incurring only one jam, a two-out bases loaded situation in the third. No problem, he got out of it. The same with an error by Yoenis Cespedes an inning later. All told, Colon provided a calming effect on his team and a numbing one on the opposition.
Before their competitors for National League wild card berths, the Cardinals and Giants, faced each other Friday night, the Mets took care of their own business in just the way Terry Collins had implored them before they left Washington Wednesday: "Hey look, we've got 16 to go and we've got to get after it."
Colon's way to get after it is to stay cool, flipping the ball up and catching it between pitches, despite the fact each day is more pivotal than the previous one for a team in the postseason hunt.
Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera hit back-to-back home runs in the third. Cespedes helped in the seventh as he drove home a run with a single up the middle. Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia finished what Colon began.
There was an odd sort of pressure on the Mets. The thought of having three September games at home against the Twins, holders of the worst record in the major leagues, seemed like a sheer gift. But imagine how embarrassed they will feel if they lose this series.
Collins didn't have to tell his players not to take anything for granted. "I looked in the paper this morning: The Minnesota Twins just beat up the Detroit Tigers, who are in a pennant fight," he said before the game. "Baltimore got beat by the Rays. Records, this time of year, you can throw them out due to the fact that teams have got 40 players now, they don't have 25 anymore."
In other words, even the bottom-feeders have new resources with expanded September rosters. Plus, every young player has his own motivation. "As I've said before _ and I've been in this role _ there's nothing like beating a team and knocking somebody out of a pennant race," Collins said. "We've just got to get ready to play."
Colon, of course, always seems ready for anything. The 43-year-old with 19 years of big league ball and 67 postseason innings under his (sizable) belt was unfazed by the hot grounder hit back to him by Jorge Polanco in the first. He smoothly turned it into a double play.
Nor was Colon (14-7) ruffled by the error Cespedes committed when he took a casual approach to Max Kepler's liner to left in the fourth and dropped it. The pitcher promptly picked Kepler off first.
By then, the Mets starter was working with a 2-0 lead because Reyes and Cabrera hit back-to-back home runs to right against rookie Jose Berrios. It was the 11th time this season the Mets have hit successive homers. Cabrera's homer was his 20th in a stellar season and his 19th as a shortstop, tying a club record _ held by Reyes. Cabrera was removed in the ninth for "precautionary reasons," the Mets said, because of a leg cramp.
Colon made sure he kept it at 2-0 right through the middle of the seventh, when he walked off to an ovation from fans who realized he was going to be lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the inning. He left having allowed only three hits and two walks and struck out six. And not having sweated too much about anything.
