A Defeat of Metsian Proportion

At this point, I think if anybody came out and said that the Mets don't have it—whatever it is—this season, nobody would argue with him.

It's gotten to the point with the Mets now that they don't just lose, and they don't just find ways to lose, they've truly perfected the art form of losing games in the most excruciating way possible. In fact, they've even managed to perfect winning in the most excruciating way possible, but they're really starting to take the cake with some of these losses.

It wasn't cool when they fiddled away a lead and eventually a game on Wednesday night against the Phillies, and it wasn't fun when Thursday night's game followed the exact same pattern with a different score. But last night's game took the cake. It was bad enough that they blew the lead, and it was bad enough that they lost the game. But combine the manner in which the game ended, combined with the grossly unjustified fate placed upon the pitcher on the mound, and the opponent and the magnitude of the event, multiplied by the color my face turned as a series of obnoxious phone calls and messages began pouring in and that was when I realized that the Mets just pulled off their most Metsian defeat ever.

Consider this perfect storm of circumstances:

• First game of the season against the Yankees.
• First game ever in the New Yankee Stadium.
• Packed house.
• See-saw game that saw 5 lead changes by the 9th inning.
• Sloppy game that saw the Mets score 2 runs without a hit in the 3rd.
• Typical Yankee 3 1/2 hour plus game.
• Mets take a late lead off Rivera.
• Mets go into the last of the 9th with their new closer and his unblemished record.
• Mets are one out away from once again gutting their way to a victory.

And then it All. Fell. Apart.

Can't pin this one on anybody but Castillo, and he's going to have to shoulder this one for a while, no matter what happens from here. Rodriguez gets tagged with one of history's most unjust blown saves, his first of the season. The Mets, well, they remain the Mets, and just gave the fans of the other guys fodder to beat into our heads forever. I know that this isn't the first time something like this has ever happened, but it seems like, the way this year has gone, and last year and the year before that, that it's always happening to the Mets. The Mets are going to continue to play this season out, and they're going to continue to show heart and guts, or at least something resembling that, but they're not winning anything this season. I think it's safe to say that now. The injuries and the inconsistency are proving too much to overcome. They can't get out of their own way, and right now, they're losing games based more on some bad luck and some bad calls rather than being far inferior to their opponent. They're in every game, and they're always right there until the end, which makes it even more frustrating. It's always a bad break that seems to do the Mets in, and that's the sign of a team that's not going anywhere. Winners get those breaks. The Mets always seem to manage to screw them up.