With all the hoopla surrounding yesterday’s events at CitiField, people almost forgot the Mets won their third game in a row Monday night in dramatic fashion. A pinch hit grand slam by much maligned Fernando Tatis in the bottom of the 8th, led the Mets to victory.

Asked whether the off field issues will affect the team, Mets manager Jerry Manuel responded with,“Once the game starts and we get to competing against the opponent, I don’t think those things for a moment factor into what we do,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said afterward. “We can’t waver for a second in what we do.”

Fernando Tatis has been a double play machine this year and I was fully expecting a double play as I sat in the promenade reserved last night. The grand slam was tremendous, followed by the ever famous, SHOW YOUR TATIS! chant, started by yours truly. Shortly thereafter, Fernando was finally pushed out for the curtain call. Classic.

Maybe, just maybe a resurgence of Fernando, could lead to the resurgence of the team in general. The Mets currently sit 6.5 games behind Colorado Rockies who they are playing the next few days in Flushing. Jeff Francoeur, who has been a RBI machine since joining the Mets, isn’t ready to give up just yet.

“It’s been a rough season, but you sit there and say we still have 60, 65 games left. We can still make a run. Nobody on this team is giving up.”

Well, I guess you never know. Last week I didn’t think I’d see a three game win streak the rest of the season. But as I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, 2 or 3 games is nothing to get too excited about when you have 7 teams ahead of you in the wild card. Come back to me when this team has gone 7-3 on this home stand or has won 19 of 28 and then we can really talk about the playoffs. Playoffs? We’re talking playoffs?

Photo: AP/ Kathy Willens