The New York Mets and June – a pairing that’s haunted fans for years. June has historically been a cruel month for the team, statistically their worst ever. Just look at their all-time winning percentage in June – a measly .486. But thankfully, this year seems different! There’s a new narrative unfolding, and the Mets are defying the odds with a strong showing so far and there’s only one thing we can thank.

The New York Mets were in the midst of a six-game homestand, and to celebrate a very special birthday, they invited a guest nobody expected. June 12th marked the birthday of Grimace, the loveable purple mascot of McDonald’s, and the Mets decided he’d be the perfect one to throw out the first pitch before their game against the Miami Marlins!

Grimace was suppose to just be a silly promotional first pitch for the kiddos but it turned out to be the chip of good luck the Mets desperately needed. The Mets are in the middle of a 5-0 hot streak since the purple monster threw the first pitch and they aren’t stopping anytime soon. After splitting the series with the Marlins the Mets swept the Padres. It was the first time the Mets had swept the Padres in 18 years. New York’s five-game win streak is just the second time all season the team has won more than three games consecutively. Back on the road again for two series with the Cubs and Rangers begin tonight agains the reigning World Series champs and doing serious damage already. Through 2 innings the Mets have put up 7 runs against Jon Gray the Rangers unlikeliest ace.

But this success cannot be attributed to Grimace, the players have been stepping up big time, the offense has poored out over the last 6 days. The Mets have beaten their opponents a score of 38-14 runs allowed. The Mets are 11-4 in their last 15 games dating back to when the Mets decided to have a team meeting after falling 10 games below .500. Now standing 5 games below .500 and only 1.5 games in the wildcard race it only makes you wonder how far these Metsies can take it to really solidify themselves as serious playoff threats.

We can really see a complete 180 in the players iniation and accountability in being a productive player in every game. From Steve Gelbs he mentioned that since the players meeting everyone has to go around in a circle explaining what and how they are going to approach the probable opponent pitcher for each and every game. And if the players deviate from explaining their approach they have to be questioned why they haven’t been already approaching pitchers that way and why they haven’t been getting better. There is more accountability and every players holds themselves to the highest ability to put runs on the board and know even if their resume highlights major acelodes if they are not perfoming they will not be in the lineup. David Stearns has made that visibly clear that if performance is not met they are not afraid to cut bait with poor players.

As I write this after David Peterson gave up 2 run home run to Robbie Grossman Brandon Nimmo fought back with his own 2 run homerun to bring back the 7 run lead back to the Mets. The Mets are being constant fighters at the plate and a big reason for this is JD Martinez who recently won NL player of the week after going .450/1.643 OPS, 3 doubles, 3 homers and 9 RBIs which shot his OPS+ 50% above league average and has OPS south of .900.

Let’s see how long the Mets can keep this hot streak going, it is always fun to see when the Mets are doing good. Ya never know if the Mets keep this up then all eyes are set on finishing this season out on a high note and the race to the playoffs truly sets off. The next month of games will be the final indication whether the Mets will be keeping this season in the run or throwing it away and selling at the deadline. If the Mets keep this up then the narrative of trading will be quickly diminished. It just is remarkable how this sudden hot streak begun with Grimace throwing out the ceremonial first pitch, ya gotta believe the Mets can keep it up and bring back faith to the New York faithful!