Order goof & help Mets

the Mets a much-needed win.

“It was big,” Callaway said. “We needed that feeling to get us back kind of on track. We have a long way to go. It was a big stepping stone.”

Before the game, Callaway got something of a vote of confidence from Ricco.

“We’ve been very happy with Mickey and the things he has brought to us in the short term,” Ricco said. “Mistakes are going to happen. Not that there is any excuse for it. We’ve just gotta make sure we have processes in place it doesn’t happen. It’s one of those types of things, the coaching staff, the whole baseball operations department has accountability there and make sure we are better.”

Callaway was ultimately responsible for the gaffe, even though two former major league managers said that the lineups are almost universally printed by the bench coach, which would be Gary DiSarcina, and reviewed by the first base coach, Ruben Amaro Jr., with his signature on the official card that was handed to the umpires Wednesday.

And Callaway will be held accountable for not just the basics, like getting the lineup transcribed correctly, but getting this team back on track. That began with a meeting with his coaches about tightening up their pregame process and getting this team out of a tailspin.

“We have. We made a little bit of an adjustment, we met for 35-40 minutes the other day to make sure that we’re on top of things in the future,” Callaway said.

But Callaway also addressed the team’s recent slide. They specifically talked about ways to get their offense out of this extended slump.

“I think we’re going to make a couple adjustments the way we take batting practice. Not that we were doing anything wrong but just making some adjustments to try to help guys be a little more fresh,” Callaway said.

Sometimes one swing, like Conforto’s homer, can change the direction of a slump. Callaway has to hope so, because his success as a manager will ultimately not be judged on the basics of making sure his hitters bat in the proper order, but that they actually produce. It has to be a quick learning curve.

AP Michael Conforto, who hits gamewinning, two-run HR in ninth, celebrates with Devin Mesoraco, who follows with his first homer for Mets in 3-1 win in Philly.