Sometimes it's hard to believe

I love off days following an exciting series win. For an extra 24 hours, you get to be on top of the world. So the real question for me is this: why didn't I feel that way?

Yes, we took two out of three from the Yankees and got three fantastic starting efforts in a row. K-Rod gave everyone a heart attack, but came through in the end - which he will do more often than not. Jason Bay remembered how to hit, David Wright came up with some big RBIs, and Jose Reyes seems to be playing like his old self.

But I don't trust this team. I'm fairly certain this is just a defense mechanism. In 2006, we were built to dominate the NL East for years. Somehow, one curve ball changed all that... and things really haven't been the same since. I've said before that I didn't have the same kind of confidence in the 2007 team, even though they held first place for most of the season before ultimately leading to an epic collapse. There was even less faith in 2008, and last year's Mets will always be remembered as a AAA squad masquerading as a major league team.

I just feel like we're constantly living on a dime and a dream, something that is perpetuated by statements that both Omar and Jerry have made in the past. I was never convinced that John Maine and Oliver Perez would return to the form they once had under Rick Peterson, but Omar literally shoved those guys into the starting rotation and guess what - the former landed on the DL and the latter has been banished to the bullpen. Quite honestly, Omar is lucky that Mike Pelfrey has seemingly undergone a complete transformation as a pitcher. Without Pelfrey in this rotation, Jerry Manuel would have already been fired and Omar would be taking even more criticism than usual for not exploring starting pitching options in the off season.

Maybe this is just the calm before the storm. Change is coming - whether or not it's just for change's sake remains to be seen. The more I think about it, I realize it's a difficult position for the team to be in because Jerry is the obvious scapegoat here... but should he really be blamed for a roster that he did not construct? I really believe this series with the Phillies is critical - as critical as a series can be in the last week of May. The Mets need to make a statement over the next three games. It doesn't have to be "we're the team to beat".... but a reminder of "we're here and we're not going anywhere" would be nice to see, especially since they are only five games out of first place. It's time to make a move, heat up, and just play good baseball. Hopefully, the rest will just fall into place.