MIAMI — The soft glow of April has faded, and the winning record has vanished, and for the first time in the building’s short history the Mets are actually pining for the creature comforts of Citi Field.
That’s how bad things have gotten — and in a hurry.
“We knew this would be a tough road trip,” David Wright said, in a clubhouse eager to evacuate Marlins Stadium, impatient to dash to the airport and put this 1-0 loss and this 2-6 road trip behind them. “I’ve been around long enough to know our history at Coors Field. And this place …”
It was the seventh time in 22 games across three seasons that the Mets have lost a game here in the Marlins’ final time at-bat, and maybe that’s a stunning statistic in a vacuum. But taken in the context of the kind of baseball the Mets have specialized in the past few years, it actually dovetails quite nicely.
They are just good enough to lose.
Usually in excruciating fashion.
“We’ve gotten ourselves in trouble the past few years because we’ve allowed things to stretch from a couple of days to a couple of weeks,” Wright said. “Hopefully we can stop this at a series or two.”
That probably isn’t the kind of honesty that the Mets’ brass would like their captain to display, but it is a candor fairly earned. And it is certainly more useful than the disingenuous pap that the Mets’ decision makers, the Cabinet of Stupid, have brought to the table.
Matt Harvey was with the Mets this week rehabbing before the public eye, so it was a good time to remember that the men who own the Mets vowed in the spring of 2013 that this was going to be the year they blew the dust off their wallets and jumped back into the game, act like they own a team based in New York City, not Oklahoma City.
And, you know: act like True New Yorkers.
Then Harvey got hurt last year and you could almost hear the audible sighs of relief coming from the suits in the corporate suites: surely, nobody would hold us to that promise now – even if, when Fred Wilpon made that sacred pledge, Harvey was just a pitcher with a world of potential, not the Dark Knight of Gotham he became.
But that was OK, because the men who run the Mets have grown used to playing their fans for fools, because for years they have insisted that all is well in their corporate coffers, and to celebrate this they have a team that cost the princely sum of $86 million this year. That would be considered shameful, but then the men who run the Mets have proven time and again that they have no shame.
And so they run out a lineup night after night that looks paltry compared to just about everyone they play. It’s the Marlins who are supposed to be the joke of the NL East, operated by con men; look at that roster and then look at the Mets’. And ask yourself: Who’s fooling whom?
Here’s the thing, though: The Mets do have just enough starting pitching to keep themselves in a lot of games. They have just enough professionals who seem to relish the underdog challenge that this big-market overdog needlessly inflicts on them. And they were 15-11 at the start of May. Easy to root for, despite their flaws. Easier to feel good about.
Except the Cabinet of Stupid couldn’t leave that alone, so it famously dispatched the Loyalty Oath letter, and followed that up with another, and another, and still can’t believe why anybody thought it was a bad idea. Honestly, there’s no correlation between the Oath and the fact that the team has gone 1-6 since hitting the “send” button.
Unless you believe in karma.
So the Mets return home now, 16-17, which is still a remarkable record given the schedule and the talent in the room, and even if a lot of Mets fans are weary of Terry Collins, it’s hard to blame the man for much of this. You can’t turn “Afternoon Delight” into “Layla” no matter how good a singer you are, after all.
And if your backup is the Cabinet of Stupid?
Well, then. Good luck to you.