Great expectations by shorthanded Mets

SAN FRANCISCO -- Knocking off the world champions, as the Mets did Friday night in dramatic fashion, is impressive in itself. When Scott Hairston hooked that slider from the Giants' Brian Wilson into the leftfield seats, hushing a sellout crowd of 41,028 at AT&T Park, the moment felt like a taste of October in July.

Maybe that had something to do with the opponent, yet another division leader taken down a peg by the Mets, an impetuous guest that has shown little regard for elite teams on the road lately. The Mets are 5-2 in the past two weeks as visitors to Texas, Detroit and now San Francisco. But more important than toppling the elite teams, the Mets are laying waste to the preconceptions about them heading into this season.

"I don't think there's any question we're beating expectations," manager Terry Collins said late Friday night. "Heck, even if David [Wright] and Ike [Davis] were here, the expectations were that we weren't going to be very good. That was the thought by a lot of people."

Collins could have been talking about himself, too, and in a display of how well he's handled the media attention, he quickly added, "Not anybody in this room in particular," a comment that brought some muted chuckles from reporters.

"That was the general thought when we came into spring training,'' Collins said. "If you don't pitch, you're going to have a tough time. Right now, we've got key people out -- you don't even mention Chris Young's name, who was the best starter we had at the beginning of the year. And these guys just continue to battle through it."

The day after being dominated by Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw at Chavez Ravine, the Mets rebounded to beat Ryan Vogelsong, an All-Star who was 6-1 with a 2.13 ERA heading into Friday night. They had only one hit through four innings but worked Vogelsong for four walks during that stretch before Angel Pagan took him deep for a two-run homer in the fifth.

Ultimately, the Mets pushed Vogelsong to 115 pitches through seven innings and delivered the unlikely knockout punch to the Giants' bullpen, which they harassed for three runs in the ninth. That moved the Mets back to three games over .500 (46-43) and 5-1 without Jose Reyes, who was placed on the disabled list after suffering a left hamstring strain a week ago.

In the defining road trip of last season, from July 15-25, the Mets went 2-9 at San Francisco, Arizona and Los Angeles before falling out of contention for good. This year, with the Subway Series at Citi Field sandwiched between a rough interleague trek (Texas, Detroit) and this West Coast trip, the Mets were 10-5 with two games left against the Giants going into Saturday night.

"I think that's what's pretty special about the culture of this clubhouse -- I don't think anybody in here thinks we're overachieving," R.A. Dickey said. "I think if you ask some guys, we may be even underachieving, and that's exciting because nobody's standing around pouting because we don't have Jose in the lineup, or pouting because David's not coming back right after the break.

"To a man, I think we're excited about where we are and we are optimistic that we can continue to do it."

A prime example of that was Hairston, who was batting .125 (3-for-24) this season as a pinch hitter, the specific role he was signed for during the winter. But every night brings another chance at redemption for the Mets, who seem to have swatted away the negative vibes that have buzzed around this team for the past few years.

"It's great to see," Hairston said. "It just goes to show that nobody gives in on this team. Everybody supports one another and it can be somebody else tomorrow doing the same thing."