Hope for the Mets is now Hopeless.-Steve Somers
I'm again speechless. There are no more words to be said after yet another completely perpelxing, befuddling and completely unacceptable loss that the Mets have put forth tonight in Florida.
IT seems like, in a season where the Mets have pretty much loafed their way through the entire summer, it's all fallen apart on them at the worst possible time. I don't know if I'm repeating myself, or repeating things I've been writing all Summer long. I don't know. I'm just at a loss. Totally deflated, frustrated, depressed all at once. It almost seems as if the Mets just don't want it anymore. The way these losses are piling up, and how they continue to happen in the most confounding ways imaginable...How can anyone make sense of this? How can the players? How can Willie? What the hell is going on here?
Who can you blame, after the Marlins put forth a 21-hit attack, battering the Mets within and without for 10 innings, seeing the Mets lead early, fall behind, pull off a miraculous comeback and seemingly have the game well in hand in the 9th before turning around and handing the game right back to the Marlins, all while the Phillies pecked and scraped their way back against the same Nationals that the Mets just couldn't beat just a few days ago (El Guapo will kill me for just writing the longest run-on sentence in history, and quite honestly, I don't give a flying fuck).
I have the feeling that any Mets fan who doesn't drink has just been driven to do so. How on earth Willie couldn't allow Feliciano to at least try to get through the 9th inning is beyond me. Even if Cabrera hit one to the moon at that point, it's still a 1-run lead. But he continued to go to Jorge Sosa, who gutted it out heroically for 2 innings on Wednesday night, and for some reason stuck with him despite the fact that he was obviously gassed. I know the other options weren't exactly palatable, and while Dave Williams and Aaron Sele wouldn't have calmed any of us anymore, I wonder what, exactly, Willie is waiting for with Philip Humber? I know he's young and inexperienced, but in the biggest game of the year, if he's going to go to Joe Smith, and if Jorge Sosa is obviously totally spent, why not give this kid a shot and see what he has? WOULD THAT KILL YOU? HUH?!?
When it appeared that Marlon Anderson had perhaps come up with the biggest hit of the season, that was the high of highs. Text messages were flying in in celebration. And it was all too soon, and the joy all too fleeting. Is there a reason for optimism? Is there any reason to continue to believe in this team when they just keep turning around and stabbing us in the back? I felt awfully low last season, when everything came crashing down on October 19th, and I wanted to believe that this team would remember that and have it spur them on to greater things. But it seems like they can't even get out of their own way. If the collapse continues and we, as fans, are left to face the offseason with this great indignity, it will probably be the greatest disappointment in Mets History.
As a rule, El Guapo and I will always attend the final home game of the season. We may have to boycott if this continues. I feel like I'm in an abusive relationship where she continues to suck me in with the sweet talk and the great moments, and yet she always ends up leaving me flat. Kind of like my ex-girlfriend, the Phillies fan.
Is there any reason for optimism?
Well, one.
I harken back to one such September pennant race in which the Mets fell completely flat and lost 7 games in a row to Atlanta and Philadelphia, squandering a sizable lead in the Wild Card race and seemingly dooming them to another season of obscurity.
In one such loss, the Mets trailed Philadelphia 3-2 in the top of the 9th. They had the bases loaded with one out, and Rickey Henderson came to the plate. A simple fly ball, or a chopper he could beat out would have easily tied the game. A hit certainly would have given the Mets the lead.
Henderson swung at the first pitch and hit a one-hop shot right at the second baseman. Easy double play. Game over.
And yet somehow, someway, the Mets were able to rebound and win 4 of their last 5 games, coming back from the dead to force a Wild Card Play-in game, which they won, and rode the momentum all the way to the NLCS.
Right now, we're all praying that somehow, the Mets can summon that juice and pull themselves out of this mess.
If only...
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