NEW YORK -- The pitcher is still 60 feet, six inches away, and these are the same-size baseballs that made Mo Vaughn look so helpless in April and May. But as the Mets have suddenly reappeared on the wild card radar screen, it's Vaughn who's rediscovered his bat-speed, emboldening him to predict he'll finish with 30 home runs before October.

That's no small achievement, considering Vaughn hit only one homer in 45 at-bats in April, and had just four by the end of May. The first baseman wasn't just in a slump, he was over-matched, and some scouts wondered if a torn biceps, which robbed the first baseman of his 2001 season, had started Vaughn on a slow, insidious slide toward mediocrity.

	Mo Vaughn First baseman New York Mets Profile
	2002 SEASON STATISTICS GM AB HR RBI SO AVG 87 306 16 49 93 .258

But Vaughn has smashed 11 homers in his last 25 games -- including three in the last five -- and with 16 for the year, is beginning to resemble the elite, American League power hitter the Mets thought they were getting last winter from the Angels.

Vaughn's secret? Actually, he says, this small renaissance is easily explained.

"It was a matter of getting comfortable (in the batter's box) so I could get to the outside corner," Vaughn said. "I'm thinking at this rate I can hit 30 (home runs). I can do that. I'm in the right frame of mind now."

Vaughn isn't alone in his vision of a brighter future. Even after a 2-1 loss to the Expos on Wednesday night, the Mets have still won 8-of-11, and are only five games behind the Giants in the wild-card race. The recent surge has prompted the club to abandon any thought of trading away assets like Edgardo Alfonzo and Roberto Alomar -- not to mention Vaughn himself -- and brought contract talks with Al Leiter to a rapid conclusion.

The left-hander signed a two-year, $18 million deal on Wednesday that, in his words, "made sense for me because I've wanted to stay here all along."

The signing was also symbolic, in that it showed management's willingness to focus on 2002, even as the Braves have all but captured the NL East.

"We still believe we're a playoff contender," said Mets general manager Steve Phillips. "I hope a residual effect of this deal (with Leiter) is to show everyone that we believe that."

Indeed, baseball people say the Mets have made it clear, throughout the industry, there'd be no house-cleaning deals, not even the most tempting ones, like sending Alfonzo to the Dodgers. One American League GM said, "when I spoke to Steve recently, he said, "we're going for it.' "

	“	It was a matter of getting comfortable (in the batter's box) so I could get to the outside corner. I'm thinking at this rate I can hit 30 (home runs). I can do that. I'm in the right frame of mind now. ”
		— Mo Vaughn

How the Mets fare in the final two months of the season could very well depend on Vaughn's bat-speed. If he can catch up to 90-plus mph fastballs the way he did Tuesday night against Montreal's Bartolo Colon, smashing a two-run home run in the fourth inning, the Mets will at least stop worrying about their commitment to the first baseman, which runs through 2004 and costs nearly $42 million.

Acquiring Vaughn from the Angels was an enormous gamble, since it meant keeping Mike Piazza behind the plate for three more seasons. There were important questions about Vaughn's ability to adapt to a new league, not to mention recover from a serious biceps-tendon injury.

At first, it seemed Vaughn and free agent Jason Giambi would go head to head, as cross-town rivals at the same position, just the way Don Mattingly and Keith Hernandez battled for the right to be called New York's best first baseman in the mid-'80s.

Indeed, there was a new millennium symmetry between Giambi and Vaughn, but the Yankee free agent quickly assimilated, hitting home runs by mid-May. Vaughn? He was literally lost, batting just .200 in May, striking out 31 times in 100 at-bats.

Yet, Mets manager Bobby Valentine said he never lost faith in Vaughn.

"All those pitches that Mo was right on -- the ones he'd pop up or foul straight back -- I knew it was just a timing thing," Valentine said. "I was told to be patient with Mo. I knew he'd come around."

Vaughn says the first hint of a breakthrough occurred during an interleague series against the Yankees on June 28-30. During those three games, Mo was 5-for-11 with two home runs, striking out just once. He came away from that weekend in the Bronx thinking, "I'm almost there."

"Up to that point, I was hitting some balls hard, but only once every two weeks," he said. "I'm sorry it took this long, but now I'm getting it right. I'm thinking about hitting the ball, instead of worrying about where my feet and my hands are. I think we're all on the right track now."

Of course, the Mets know they'll need more than just Vaughn to catch the Giants -- or Reds or Dodgers or Diamondbacks -- for the wild card. Greater consistency from pitchers Shawn Estes and Jeff D'Amico would certainly ease the Mets' burden.

But Vaughn's home runs, and the Mets' re-entry into the wild-card race, is making life a little easier for Phillips -- but even more so for owner Fred Wilpon, who's sweating out a $102 million investment in a team that's only now earning its money.

"I thought we'd be at the top," Wilpon admitted, referring to the NL East. "To that extent, it's disappointing. But life goes on. We have to go on with what reality is."

Bob Klapisch of The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) covers baseball for ESPN.com.