NEW YORK _ The Mets appreciate the wisdom in the baseball proverb, "Don't trust what you see in March or September." They know that false impressions can pop up at those spots on the baseball calendar. But September is all they have right now and they are determined to make the most of it.
So, they embrace a night like Saturday night, a 6-1 win over the Reds at Citi Field, highlighted by another victory for Rafael Montero, standard-bearer for a team full of players fighting for their futures.
Montero pitched in and out of trouble, going five innings and earning his third win in a row and his fourth in his past five decisions. He began a string of solid pitching that included four strikeouts in 1 2/3 hitless innings by Chasen Bradford. Peak moments at bat were Kevin Plawecki's two-run homer and Asdrubal Cabrera's two doubles. On defense, Dominic Smith made a running foul-pop grab.
But the focus before and after the game _ the Mets' fourth consecutive victory _ was Montero, who had appeared hopeless earlier in the season.
It is easy to imagine what the Reds had been thinking about Montero (5-9): "Let's see him do it again." Montero had been dominant against them in Cincinnati 10 days earlier, allowing no runs in 8 1/3 innings.
"That always brings out a little more intensity on the other side: 'Hey, look we've got to get to this guy,' " manager Terry Collins said before the game.
In a sense, though, the Mets are doing the same with Montero every time. They are looking to see if he really can keep pitching well enough to be a regular in their rotation when (and if) their injured starters get healthy. Collins said that Montero has improved in being unafraid to make a big pitch in a tight spot.
"If he gets behind in the count he's not afraid to throw a ball in the strike zone," Collins said. "The fact that he has moved his fastball around has helped him immensely."
Having the wind blowing in from leftfield also helps, as Montero discovered in the fourth inning. With two outs and runners on second and third, Zack Cozart hit a deep drive to left, but it stayed within reach of Brandon Nimmo who made the catch and preserved a 2-1 lead.
That was the score when he left the game for a pinch hitter in the fifth. Collins took him out after 97 pitches to preserve his arm and his positive vibe: Montero allowed the run on four hits and five walks with five strikeouts. The pinch hitter was Phillip Evans, who drilled a two-out double down the leftfield line for his first major-league hit. First base coach Tom Goodwin requested the ball from Reds pitcher Homer Bailey (4-8) _ a rite of passage typical of September.
The Mets had the lead because Plawecki smacked a 1-0 pitch into the second deck in left in the second. Plawecki's competition with fellow catcher Travis d'Arnaud for playing time and a future also is part of the ongoing theme this September.
Collins acknowledged that the last full month in the season is not always the greatest barometer or forecaster. "You've got to be careful in September because you have guys coming up to the big leagues for the first time and they're re-energized, where the veteran players who have been major-league players for a while, they're tired," he said.
But September is all they have for now, so they celebrated Smith's run-scoring single in the sixth, Nori Aoki's two-run single in the seventh and Cabrera's double to deep center right after that. As Nimmo said after his surprising two-homer game Thursday: "For us in our situation, the best thing we can do is be positive about the rest of the season and try to finish strong. This isn't a lost season for the guys in this clubhouse."
