Tom Glavine spent five years with the Mets, so he knows why the team’s slow start to this season has gotten more attention than some others around the majors.
Now 44, the former pitcher said the Mets are “probably playing against their past a little bit,” which makes the situation even worse.
“They’ve had a tough start and guys out of the lineup and it’s the kind of thing when each day the pressure builds on the players the manager and it makes it a difficult environment,” Glavine said. “Those problems are not confined to the Mets. Unfortunately, I think they’re probably playing against their past a little bit and trying to dispel what’s happened the last two or three years and that makes it harder.”
Glavine knows that past all too well. After seeing the Mets get to the playoffs in 2006, his final game with the team came a year later, when he was unable to get out of the first inning in an 8-1 loss to the Marlins that cost them a chance at the postseason.
The solution sounds simple enough, according to Glavine.
“There’s no better way to remedy that than winning a few series or a few games in a row,” said the retired lefty, who was on a conference call yesterday to promote PitchSight, a new technology that helps pitchers and coaches evaluate pitching technique. “You can’t worry about the rest of it.”
The Mets started a six-game road trip last night in Colorado, hoping to do just that. But their shaky pitching staff and sputtering offense figured to make that a tough task — one made more difficult by the fact that Johan Santana wasn’t able to get the Mets a victory in the final game of their first homestand on Sunday.
“When you’re the ace of the rotation, you’re expected to win,” said Glavine, adding that he had no plans of getting into coaching for the foreseeable future. “And there’s that feeling of ‘Oh, gosh, I have to win every time out’ when you’re not comfortable with the four guys following you. It’s tough and there’s a lot of pressure. I always had a safety net.”
The Mets are finding out now that they might not have one.