27.8.08

Redefining Ugly: Phillies Take Over First

13 innings to lose a 7 run lead and first place in the National League East.

I was preparing a deep breath to go into a long and lovely rant about how much the Mets suck that they could blow this game in the demoralising manner that they did, about how this defeat mirrors the choke-job of last September, about how the season is unremarkably lost because the bullpen yet again fail to do the one thing they are asked to do. Oh yeah, and how the "defensive catcher" allows a ball to skip past him and the tying run to score when by rights, Jayson Werth was going to be out by a mile and the Mets were going to squeak out of this first game alive.

But why bother?


Reyes demonstrates the Mets NL East tactic, a downward dive.

The Mets could win a game tonight and be back in first.

Words are useless in this battle. You have to sit there soaking in every millisecornd of melodrama knowing as if it is some Philly sadist rather than the Mets and Phillies writing this story, that no matter how many innings with Heilman in there that concluded with an exhale of relief, eventually, the Mets were going to drop this.

You know in the same way you knew in Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS that Kenny Rogers was going to walk the winning effin run home that somebody in this bullpen was ultimately going to spit the bit last night and the game was going to be lost.

Why do you know?

Because it's no work of genius to conclude that that which is good will be undone by that which is evil (Schoeneweiss or Ayala or Heilman or Smith or Feliciano or Sanchez what difference does it make?) someone is going to do it. Not even a 10-0 lead into the 9th can be considered safe which is why you saw Pelfrey the other night getting his arm used in a place it had no business being used since the business of the pen is to close these games out one, two, three.

But they don't.

There will be no reinventions of the wheel this week.


Easley's quasi-heroics for naught.

The bullpen sucks and the only thing the Mets can do is try and overcome it.

And not let demoralising defeats like the one last night or echoes of September 2007 get into their heads.

Starting, you would imagine, with a Johan Santana complete game shutout.

Of course, that won't happen but the Mets will bounce back to live another day this time. Just to prolong the inevitable. Keep us beating our heads against the wall.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We haved hashed and rehashed this bullpen. Same bums as last year essentially. People are saying you cannot replace the entire BP. Maybe, but why not most of them? They are not "entitled" to anything but punishment for their failings. Why not go down to the minors and get Reyes, and Parnell, and Niese, upgrade Stokes, and send the guys who lost the pennant for us last year packing. After showing some onions last night I would keep Heilman, but no save opportunities. I keep Ayala, and I keep Smith because he may thrive with some non-losers around him. He has been in a BP full of losers for two years. I send the rest of them out, via the DFA. And learn to live with our 3-4-5. They are soft. Of all of them Delgado is the toughest marshmallow and Beltran is the weakest. But Wright is a close second to Beltran in the weakest department.

Jaap said...

Maybe Ayala and Stokes are keepers. Heilman should be given a chance in the rotation before we gut and bury him. Joe Smith should have been on a bus out of here months ago - other than a fast start last season, what has he really done? Feliciano, if there's a role for "usually useless", he's earned it. Sanchez will probably be alright next season with a full year to recover. Parnell and Niese are nice to talk about but neither have had their chance to make it or break it up top just yet so they cannot be counted on. I'd like to see both of them get their shots during the pennant race if only for the experience. I'd much rather see them than some MLB retreads up from AAA getting a break.

Anonymous said...

that lis my point. these other clowns have had too many chances.....and we know they will fail