Tonight's Loser's Theme: Encouraged By Comeback

Most night's the whipping boy can be the bullpen. Sure, they're overtaxed in some spots, simply incompetent for the job in others but by and large, the bullpen is the expert in being The Goat.

Oh well, now that I think about it, sometimes it's the inexperienced or incapable starting pitching; the Unmechanical Maine, the Pitched-Well-In-Spots Pelfrey, the Oliver Perez who occasionally channels the Ghost of Zambrano.

And yes, come to think of it, sometimes it's fielding buffoonery, sloppy baserunning, sometimes it's a lack of clutch hitting.

In fact, the Mets seem capable of losing for just about any reason, under any set of circumstances.

And if they're weren't enough excuses already, on the tail end of losing two in a row to the lowly Nats they will throw untested Phillip Humber on to the mound in the middle of a heated pennant race with a steadily dwindled NL Least lead at stake!

Well when you think of it, why not Humber?

After all, what did future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine do on the mound tonight?



He got hit early and he got hit hard.



No, not a bad dream, all too terribly true. In the middle of a pennant race with our Hall of Fame pitcher on the mound, the Nationals scored four runs in the first inning alone. Yes, that was the second worst team in the NL Least handing Glavine his first loss in two and a half months, smacking 16 hits off of 4 Mets pitchers.

That was the Nats running up a humiliating 10-3 lead in the 9th inning threatening to demoralise the lowly Mets even further.

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But aha, this time the Mets stage a furious rally, this time even in falling short the Mets are grasping at straws, this time although they were the laughingstocks for 8 innings, they did manage that bottom of the 9th near-comeback and they did manage somehow, to hold on to their trepid 2-game lead whilst the Phillies were busy getting punched out by the Braves.

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Clearly there were no real heroes pitching off the mound for the Mets but at the plate the Mets were once again demonstrating this often hoped-for offensive power that had appeared hamstrung most of the season led dramatically and nearly-heroically by Moises Alou, on one leg; extending his Mets-record 29 game hitting streak with four hits, including that three-run double in the 9th.

Or for that matter, Jose Reyes' 3-run homer in the 9th which was yet another of those wasted moments of maddening encouragement, like Chavez's miraculous Game 7 catch in the NLCS last season, that ultimately went for naught.

But for that minor flicker of hope was there the Delgado and Reyes and Sosa episode, the comedic equivilent of Tinkers to Evers to Chance, an episode that did not add to the mounting Met error count for the season but certainly did not harnass any kind of deep-rooted confidence for even the most simply batted balls.

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So what we have is another excruciating loss albeit one day closer to backing into clinching the NL Least. Another day to bemoan these horrible Mets, a team one simply cannot yet be proud of, a day when Mets fans were reduced to rooting for the Braves, doing the chop at Shea! (Just as did the fans at Wrigley Field when the Braves, 2007's ultimate NL spoilers, were beating up on the Brewers).

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So hang tight.

This isn't the post season just yet but the Mets are still one step closer to getting there and as they say, once they are there, anything can happen.