When your child is invited to a birthday party, you need to derive a plan. When do to get there?  When should you leave?  Which parents are you going to talk to?  How are you going to be able to watch/follow the Mets game?  

Well, the latter is more my concern than my wife’s. 

Fortunately, I got to watch today’s game until Michael Conforto did this:

Well, I got to watch the first one.  After that, it was time to start getting out the house and into the car. Once in the car, I got to hear how Zack Wheeler‘s Houdini act was running out of time. 

The Nationals might’ve gotten to him in the first with a Ryan Zimmerman RBI single, but they weren’t getting to him again. At least, Terry Collins wasn’t going to let that happen. 

The first four innings were tough for Wheeler. After the first, he issued lead-off walks. Somehow, he managed to escape unscathed. With the Conforto three run bomb, he has a 3-1 lead and just needed to get out of the fifth to get his win. He came so close. 

He helped erase a Jose Reyes error to start the inning by getting Bryce Harper to ground into the 1-6-3 double play. On the play, Trea Turner, who reached on the Reyes’ error, went to third. Turner then scored on the Zimmerman infield single. 

By the way, Zimmerman is getting annoying. The guy is 32 and coming off two bad years. Now, all of a sudden, he’s playing at an All Star level again even if he still can’t throw the ball.  Not only is he beating up on the Mets pitching right now, but he’s also rubbing it in because he’s having the resurgence Mets fans wanted for Zimmerman’s childhood friend and teammate David Wright. 

In any event, Zimmerman singles, and Wheeler is at 96 stressful pitches. Collins was all but forced to go to Josh Edgin at that point to put an end to the tomfoolery. For the second game in a row, Edgin did just that by getting a huge out. This time he got Daniel Murphy to line out. 

Just as Howie Rose is talking about how Hansel Robles usually blows up just as you begin to feel comfortable with him, it’s time up enter the party. Of course, Robles has been great of late not allowing a run in his last six appearances or eight innings, whichever you prefer. Nine innings including the sixth inning. 

That’s where I left off. Not the best feeling with the Mets up 3-2, and Stephen Strasburg is dealing. At that point, I’m walking into a party. 

For those that have not attended children’s birthday parties, it’s a mixture of bedlam amongst the children while you make small talk. The two goals are make sure your child doesn’t get hurt on whatever contraption is the feature of this party, and don’t get stuck in one of those conversations.  With this being a “gymnastics” party, there were plenty of pitfalls:

Fortunately, one of the better parents was there. Before I could say hello, he said to me, “Mets are still up 3-2.”  Everything about that sentence is beautiful. First, he found it more important to give a score update exchanged pleasantries.  Second, he used the word still knowing I was going to be listening to it on the way over. Finally, the Mets were leading. 

From there, it was all hands on deck.  One eye on the phone.  The other on the kids. 

The second Conforto homer sparked a conversation how bizarre it was the Mets treatment of him was. The Zimmerman homer led to conversions about him and Wright. No, the Reyes homer did not extend into a DV discussion. Rather, it was about how hot he is now at the plate, and how we hope Curtis Granderson snaps out of it once the calendar turns to May. 

With Jeurys Familia getting his first save of the season while retiring the side in order, the game was over, but the party was in full swing. 

Certainly, with the Mets having pulled out their second straight win, I was in a party mood myself.