By Marty Noble / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- Pardon the Mets if they arrive at the ballpark unfashionably early Wednesday. Recognize their promptness -- plus their enthusiasm and understand they come by them legitimately, though perhaps a tad naively.

Their glass is decidedly half full at this juncture, five games short of the midpoint of their season. They can't wait to get to work, can't wait to play. Understand that when chants of "Let's go Mets" begin at Shea these days, there's a good chance they have been initiated by the players.

As Davey Johnson used to say before the rest of the world picked up the phrase, "The Mets are feeling good about themselves." They may be contenders come September, they may not. But whatever they are, come Labor Day, is likely to develop from what they are this week and next.

The rallying cry of every team with a losing record and legitimate aspirations is "get to .500 and go from there." When the fifth-place Mets put a first-class whipping on the fourth-place Phillies on Tuesday, 8-3, they reached .500 -- albeit for the 15th time in 76 games.

But this stop at the median of mediocrity differs from the other 14. This time, the Mets appear "ready to go from there."

Indications of their readiness began last week in Philadelphia and carried through the weekend in the Bronx. And there were more Tuesday in the trouncing of the fading Phillies.

The most significant sign came in the fifth inning when Phillies right fielder Bobby Abreu apparently decided avoiding the right-field wall was more important than catching a fly ball struck by Carlos Beltran. The game was in mid-change at the point.

Moments earlier, Victor Zambrano had struck out Chase Utley -- no easy feat -- with the bases loaded to smother a Phillies threat. And now Beltran's fly ball was forcing Abreu to make a choice. When he took his eye off the ball to check the wall, Beltran had a sure two bases and choice of his own to make. Was 90 additional feet worth putting a strain in the right quad that had handicapped him for more than a month?

The baseball bounced off the wall and away from Abreu, and Beltran accelerated -- ran as he seemingly hadn't run in a Mets uniform. When he reached third base, safely and healthy, the Mets saw a chance to put away the Phillies for the night -- and they did, scoring four times to lead, 6-1. They also saw a chance to be the team they thought they were going to be.

This victory was largely the result of a four-run rally in the fifth inning against reliever Geoff Geary, the first pitcher to follow starter and loser Robinson Tejeda. The Mets bunched five of their 10 hits in the inning.

The beneficiary of the all that offense was Zambrano who pitched only the first five innings, but gained his fourth victory nonetheless. Zambrano (4-6) hadn't won in three starts since June 1 despite improving dramatically over his early-season work. His ERA in five starts this month is 2.48.

Zambrano allowed only four hits but he walked three, and he threw 30 pitches in the fifth inning in the sapping heat and humidity.
"I wasn't worried about his pitch count," Randolph said. "He threw a lot of pitches out of the strike zone. But I'm not going to look at this as a negative. He won, we won. And he's been pitching well, and things are going well for us.

"I think it might be our time right now."