MIAMI – After the Mets flushed the lead in the ninth inning again yesterday, onrushing devastation and despair didn’t follow.
Recently, they’ve blown a lot of games late. But when the Mets lose leads, they know it’s not quite time to begin commiserating.
“It’s a given. Especially this late in the season with what’s on the line,” David Wright said of shrugging off blown leads. “Nobody in here was giving up. Nobody in here was quitting.”
The Mets, crushingly, again blew a late-game lead, losing a three-run edge in the eighth and ninth innings combined, thanks to Aaron Heilman and Billy Wagner. But they still went ahead in extra innings and captured a wild, 7-6, 11-inning victory over the Marlins yesterday at Dolphin Stadium.
It was the Mets’ third straight triumph and fourth in fifth games. But yesterday’s also came with good fortune in Washington.
“We finally won a game after the Phillies lost,” Moises Alou said.
Indeed, the Phillies went down to the Nationals, and with only seven games to go in the regular season, their cushion is a little bigger. The Mets lead the Phils by 2½ games, and their magic number to take the East is down to five.
“We’ve still got a long way to go,” Wright said.
Yesterday’s game was a draining roller coaster, as the Mets came back from a 3-2, eighth-inning deficit with a four-run inning, capped by Carlos Delgado’s three-run homer. But Heilman gave up two runs in the bottom of the eighth, and Wagner – pitching for the first time since suffering from back spasms earlier in the series – blew the lead in the ninth when he served up Dan Uggla’s homer.
In the 11th though, the Mets broke the 6-6 tie. Jose Reyes opened with a walk, then moved to second on Luis Castillo’s single. Wright’s RBI single put the Mets ahead, and the shaky combination of Aaron Sele (two batters) and Scott Schoeneweis (one) surprisingly closed out the game with a perfect inning.
“This time of year, a win’s a win and it feels good no matter how you get it,” Willie Randolph said. “Obviously the baseball gods are making us pay a little bit. But I’ve been telling you guys all along that’s what it’s going to take. You’re going to have to earn it.”
One Met who is paying painfully is Carlos Beltran, who again played despite knee tendinitis but had to leave after six innings following a terrific inning-ending catch.
With two men on, Beltran jumped into the right-centerfield wall and robbed Alejandro De Aza.
“Right now I feel very sore,” Beltran said. “I was telling the guys the only way I’m not going to be there tomorrow is if they cut one of my legs.”
After the game, Omar Minaya gushed about Beltran, saying, “If anybody ever questions this guy’s toughness, you’re in the wrong business.”
In the eighth, down 3-2, Alou tied it with an RBI single, extending his hitting streak to 27 games – the longest in Mets history and the longest in the majors this year. Delgado’s homer then put the Mets up 6-3.
But Heilman entered for the bottom of the eighth, inexcusably walked the first two batters and served up an RBI double. One out later, with men on second and third, Jason Wood singled to left, a run came in and the tying run was about to.
But Alou made what Randolph called an “unbelievable throw,” firing a one-bounce peg that nailed Todd Linden at the plate to preserve the lead.
Of course, Wagner – who said he was “normal” physically – then blew it in the ninth. But two innings later, the Mets still won it.