UNACCEPTABLE.
This cannot happen again. The Mets now have six games remaining to prevent a second straight collapse. But so much more is at stake now than simply the infamy that would be attached to consecutive years of rolling into the fetal position.
The main core of Mets players must understand this becomes part of their permanent record. You can’t choke away the playoffs two years in a row and not have it attached to you forever. There is choking and then there is CHOKING. And two consecutive years of this would be CHOKING.
Willie Randolph is no longer the easy scapegoat. He slid joyously into second base during the closing ceremonies Sunday at Yankee Stadium. You can figure out why. He is still receiving a Mets paycheck, but no longer any of the blame. He is a Yankee again, not a ready excuse for everything that goes wrong in Flushing.
So this is about you now, Jose Reyes and David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado. If the Mets end up as playoff viewers again, the stain lasts forever. The bullpen is an easy punching bag, but GM Omar Minaya will be remembered for not fixing an area that has devastated the club since the 2006 NLCS.
Pedro Martinez, your team needs you now. Luis Castillo and Aaron Heilman bring out the worst in the Shea crowd. But who is ready to bring out the best in the Mets? Oliver Perez? Ryan Church? Brian Schneider?
Johan Santana, in particular, was imported to make sure 2007 never happened again, and he has been brilliant. Yet he might have to extend brilliance to two more starts to push the Mets into the playoffs, beginning tonight against the Cubs, who will send out their No. 6 starter, Sean Marshall.
Unacceptable.
The Mets lost 9-5 last night to the Cubs, who deployed their No. 5 starter, Jason Marquis, and – with the NL Central sealed – substituted liberally during the game. So the Mets fell 2½ games behind the first-place Phillies, who are again proving they know how to finish out a season. The Mets’ lead over the Brewers for the wild card fell to just one game.
And this is why it is so truly unacceptable. Last year when the Mets folded historically, there was at least a sizzling team there to capitalize in the Phillies. But now the 2008 Mets are essentially trying to hold off a version of the 2007 Mets, a weak-kneed group known as the Brewers.
Milwaukee has all but begged the Mets to run away, hide and start chilling the champagne. Instead the Mets have kept Milwaukee close enough to make another choke job feasible.
“If you fail once you learn from the mistake,” Wright said. “You never make the same mistake twice. If you miss two opportunities, obviously you have problems.”
Unacceptable.
The Mets lost because Jon Niese permitted a grand slam to the opposing starter, Marquis, and because they went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position, the kind of clutch meltdown that stirred the ghosts from last season.
The crowd seemed to sense the worst again, thinning quickly, booing regularly, waving hand-out white towels that took on the feel of white surrender flag as one opportunity after another fizzled. It felt too much like the last week in 2007 again.
“When you sign on with the Mets, you sign on to what happened last year,” Jerry Manuel said. “We have to exorcise those demons at some point.”
The Mets still have their chance. They still lead the wild card. Still have six games left. Still can do something to prevent this from going on all their permanent records. Still only have to figure out a way to outdo the Brewers.
Remember it is the Brewers they must outdo in this final week. Not the 1998 Yankees or even the 2007 Phillies. They have to do better than a 2008 Brewers team doing a fair impression of the 2007 Mets.
“We had failed opportunity,” Wright said. “And now we have golden opportunity.”
One historic collapse is a shame. Two in consecutive years is unacceptable.