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This is what we have come to expect at Citi Field now, that the news will start bad, get worse and by the end drain the last vestiges of hope from even diehard fans.
Before last night’s game, Ike Davis told reporters he has no idea when he will be back. In the game, Francisco Rodriguez falls apart, yet moves closer to vesting an option that will be debilitating to the 2012 Mets. After the game, general manager Sandy Alderson makes a surprise visit to the press conference room to announce David Wright is doing so well in his rehab he will unexpectedly have to stay inactive for an additional three weeks.
Well, maybe it was not a surprise. At Citi Field, you just wait for the other shoe to drop — or walking boot.
The Mets last night blew another game late, an epidemic for them at home. They lost 6-3, and that was the most tolerable body blow.
Right now, their corner infielders, two players they had envisioned as cornerstones to better days, cannot get back on the field.
Davis appeared to have a rather innocuous injury — a sprained left ankle and a bone bruise, the type of injury that in most places takes a 15-day disabled list stint to heal. But this is not most places. This is the anti-Lourdes. At this point, you can imagine every paper cut around the Mets eventually leading to infection, gangrene and amputation.
An MRI exam earlier this week revealed that Davis, injured May 10, will need to stay in his walking boot for three more weeks. He was brought to New York yesterday to get him away from the distance and ennui of Port St. Lucie. But even being around the major leagues could not get Davis closer to an actual game.
“It’s just who knows how long it’s gonna take to heal,” Davis conceded. “Hopefully it’s next week or two days from now, but I couldn’t tell you. They don’t know because it’s person by person.”
But since Davis is a Mets person, that means erase timetables acceptable in 29 other major league locales.
And Davis is not even the scariest prognosis, right now. I talked to Wright a few days ago and told him I heard his stress fracture in the lower back was near his spine and, thus, could be a problem moving forward. He said he hoped that was not the case, but did not dismiss the possibility. Still, he said, he was going stir crazy, following the rehab program precisely and was anticipating being cleared to return to baseball activities after a visit to his doctors yesterday.
Yet there was Alderson lurking in the back of the press conference room last night with manager Terry Collins at the microphone, a looming sign of more distress at Citi Field. Alderson would explain that no new tests were done and no setbacks determined, and nevertheless, Wright was being shut down for another three weeks.
Alderson expressed being “a little surprised” by the determination, suggesting yet more disconnect between the Mets and their medical people. Here was the Mets general manager saying his third baseman was “asymptomatic” and yet was having his recovery time pushed back. In other words, there was no new news except that Wright was doing better, yet his prognosis just got worse. Only the Mets.
Alderson tried some dark humor by saying, “maybe we will have David back for [Johan] Santana’s first start.”
But, of course, there is no joy in this Mudville. Only misery.
The late-inning buzz of rallying from 7-0 down to beat the Pirates 9-8 on Thursday faded quickly. In the Mets’ last six losses at home they have led in the seventh inning or later. Last night, it was 3-1 in the eighth before Chipper Jones haunted again with a homer, Jose Reyes botched a grounder, and Jason Isringhausen and K-Rod faltered. Rodriguez lost, yet still finished his 22nd game, putting him on pace for 63, well more than the 55 he needs to vest that onerous $17.5 million option for next year.
It is one thing to do that for a winning team. But the Mets are 26-31. They are without their infield corners for, well, who knows how long. It feels like owner Fred Wilpon might want to speed dial The New Yorker to vent some more or Collins might want to unload again in a postgame interview or every fan of this hexed club just might want to scream.
Because what passes for the usual at Citi is a horror show.