Good Bye First Place, Hello Wildcard

"This is like deja vu all over again."
-- Yogi Berra

So, the replay of last season's September choke continues, albeit on a lesser scale this time, only a lead half the size has been blown.


yeah, thanks Mr Team to Beat. "With (pitcher Johan Santana), now, I have no doubt that we're going to win in our division," Beltran said back in Feb. "So this year, to Jimmy Rollins, we are the team to beat."

Last night's 1-0 loss to the lowly Nats introduced a new and exciting theme. The incompetence of the bullpen was no longer an issue with the meat of the Mets order going rotten faster than Lehman Brothers. Two runs and nine puny hits against the worst team in baseball is not a slump. It's the final sign this team is gasping for air, choking to death.

2 hits in 16 at-bats for Reyes, Beltran, Wright and Delgado says it all.

“Like I’ve said all along, this is a little bump in the road,” David Wright repeated to the world like a mantra. “It does not matter what Philadelphia does. It’s about what the New York Mets do, it’s about what the guys in this clubhouse do.”

That's right. And the guys in the clubhouse must now believe the only knowable reality they face; September 2007 all over again.


I've just seen the ghost of September past!

Adding to the funeral pall was the news that Fernando Tatis is gone for the season. Tatis was hitting .323 for September and you can bet that bat can't be replaced by Chavez or the AA Double league rooks Evans or The Magical Murph.

Lannan and Odalis Pérez, two pitchers they had throttled this season, sudden masters of these Mets tells the story in stereo.

And of course the other plot line being repeated - the Phillies stretch of five victories in a row, including the comeback against the Braves last night moves them ahead of the Mets for the first time since Aug. 26.

So the Mets lead the wild card race ahead of the Brewers, bigger chokers than the Mets this season.

And taking back first is still just one win and one Phillies loss away.

If it weren't for last season you might almost believe it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
if only the mets had a guy like anderson hernandez.

tatis did a nice job this season...right up until he foolishly dove on his stupid ass and gave the game to the nationals on a pitcher's hit.
8:07 AM
Anonymous said…
I would play Murphy against lefties AND righties. He does not just hit--he WALKS. lefties for the most part don't bother him because he goes the other wyay. Our 3-4-5 hitters don't realize this, but we need base runners and SINGLES. Delgado swings at everything, Beltran swings at nothing and Wright misses what he swings at. This is Games 6 and 7 2006 all over again, why I said a long time ago that I did not like this offense. If Church would start hitting and they put Murph in there, maybe it would get a lot busier. Good job by Pelfrey, whose arm must be hanging off by now. And while I will admit that Perez was throwing well (for Perez), he is a guy we have always owned. Teams know we are soft, they smell blood. Thank God the Brewers are softer than we are.
12:29 PM
Anonymous said…
also, that pic of Reyes' face says it all. Really.

Following jdon's apt description, the Mets 1, 3,4 ,5 hitters tend to have their ice cold streaks, like menstrual cycles, match up. The offense needs another piece, this time a blue chip. Oh like Manny Ramirez who could have been gotten for Milledge a few years back, or maybe even gotten recently when the Sawx gave him away.

I agree Murph needs to be in there, spelled only occasionally by Chavez and that other little AAA squirt. Murph always seems to have calm productive at-bats, unlike David Wright.
4:18 PM
Jaap said…
IMFM, menstral cramps in the batting order, brill. agree with you and jdon, Murph has good plate discipline whilst the meat of the order is starting to press, swinging wildly, not waiting for the right pitches. Beltran...disappearing fast off the radar. but hey, tonight's another night to hope. we ent toast just yet...
6:17 PM
Anonymous said…
as far as I am concerned, we are tied for first. Until you are down in the loss column....then you cannot get the game back. Having said that, I fear our big boppers are on the merry-go-round to nowhere. Oh...and we cannot let Pedro start agiain. Niese should go ahead of him. Everyone talks about how the phillies came on strong last year and this year. The Phillies play well in September EVERY YEAR, evern when they finish 10 out. That is nothing special, unless the team in fron of you is softer than a 2 minute egg. The Phillies showed how tough they were when the Rockies pulled their pants down in front of the home fans the first two games of the playoffs. I do not want to hear about the Phillies. Win your games. Don't get behind in the loss column. That's all.
6:35 PM
katherine said…
I feel like the poor hitting and the devastating losses have become a sort of vicious cycle, where the guys are sort of freaked out, and paralyzed.

Can't Jerry figure SOMETHING out?
9:47 PM
Anonymous said…
I thought Murphy's triple was huge for the offense. It was at that time of the game that I was asking myself: have we scored our aruns for the night. As for the pitching, he cannot keep doing this. If I were he, I would rather lose with Parnell than Heilman.
1:57 PM
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