METS BRING BIG BATS TO LITTLE LEAGUERS

Vargas gives major league effort as Mets top Phils

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Jason Vargas has spent most of his first season with the Mets looking like he’d struggle against Little Leaguers, but the veteran southpaw suddenly resembles a legitimate major league starter again.

In Sunday night’s MLB Little League Classic at BB&T Ballpark at Bowman Field, the 35-year-old put forth his second straight strong outing to earned his first victory since May 30 in the Mets’ 8-2 win over the Phillies.

Entering with an 8.91 ERA in eight road starts this season, Vargas (3-8) — whose two-year, $16 million deal helped him remain in the rotation over 24-year-old Corey Oswalt — followed his first quality start of the season by throwing 5 ¹/3 innings and allowing two runs on six hits while striking out three and walking none. Over his past two starts, Vargas has lowered his ERA from 8.75 to 7.67.

Strangely, the sight of Vargas opening with five scoreless frames, and pick- ing up a win for the first time in eight starts, wasn’t most out of place on the humid night.

The scene at the Single-A stadium, holding a rough estimate of 2,500 fans — almost entirely comprised of Little League World Series participants, and their families — was strange, sweet, and slightly sad; so far from the standard major league experience, and so close to how every fan wishes it would be.

Exotic languages, and accents, colored the aisles and bathrooms and concession lines. Dozens of spectators watched from ob- structed-view seats on picnic blankets and folding chairs on a grassy hill outside the stadium, and beside U.S. Highway 15, peering between telephones poles, from opposite sides of an obtrusive pine tree.

Todd Frazier got dressed in a cramped clubhouse under a ceiling nearly scratching his head, watching highlights of him and his friends winning the 1998 Little League World Series on the TV across the narrow room. Alex Rodriguez, and the ESPN crew, broadcasted from behind home plate, squeezed between rows of fans.

“I thought it was a great atmosphere, definitely an unusual one, something different,” Vargas said. “We had some really cool interactions with the kids when we were in the on-deck circle, and they were having a great time.”

The lefty’s strong showing will soon be forgotten by the kids in the midst of the most incredible week of their lives, as will Amed Rosario’s three hits and three RBIs.

The kids will remember Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz watching the game from the stands,