WASHINGTON — By the end there were only a few scattered disciples left at Nationals Park, most of the 38,611 already bound for their homes in the suburbs, or perhaps to FedEx Field, a reminder that this remains a football town in its soul.
By the end there was a BB soaring off the bat of Bryce Harper — erstwhile baseball messiah, embattled baseball youngster — and it went flying over the left-field wall, and the Nats had themselves an exhausting 5-3, 13-inning win over the Mets, and the Mets had themselves a quiet train trek to Philadelphia.
“This was a big game for both teams,” Mets manager Terry Collins said, and he was right about that. It bought the Nats another half-game of cushion over the reeling Braves, nudged them another step closer to reclaiming the NL East.
And the Mets? Well, this was probably the last day you will spend this year thinking about them relative to the essential measurements of a season: How many games out of first, how many games out of the wild card. Those are other teams’ concerns now. The Mets are 9-11 out of the All-Star break, and if that doesn’t approximate some of the epic second-half free falls of recent vintage, it is plain enough to see this series had the effect of mercy-killing whatever pie-eyed hopes still were abounding.
“If we want to stay in the hunt,” Collins said, “we have to win some games.”
The hunt is finished, unless the subject in question is searching for long-term answers for this team. And one of the first orders of business the Mets have to address — if not now, then soon — is what’s to become of the manager.
This game offered plenty of grist for all three factions of the Managing Carousel.
If you are among the growing number of Fire-Terry believers, there was some terribly compelling evidence: a lazy, ho-hum play in left field by Eric Young Jr. that allowed the Nats to deke in a third run off Jacob deGrom, emblematic of a continuing clubhouse culture that too often allows such indifferent play to go unanswered. There was the incomprehensible decision to double-switch Juan Lagares, the Mets’ best defender, out of a tie game in the ninth.
(I asked Collins about that afterward. His reply: “His replacement made a couple of nice plays, didn’t he?” But Collins was referring to Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who already had entered the game. Lagares was double switched for — deep breath — Chris Young. It was a baffling choice.)
If you are among the shrinking coterie of Keep-Terry acolytes, there was what always has been his most compelling defense: With their season on the brink, losing late, they rallied back, forced extras, played stride-for-stride with a team that outclasses them in every way. Don’t blame Terry, this argument goes; look at what passes for a big league roster.
Then there is the third-party candidate here: the neutral argument that asks, eternally, how much does a manager really matter? For all Collins’ faux pas Thursday, after all, he wasn’t on the mound, serving up Harper’s meatball. Players still have to play, right?
This is the one thing that’s clear: If the Mets were going to fire Collins and do what undoubtedly would be the overwhelmingly popular choice — promoting old hero Wally Backman — that would have happened already. Maybe it would have if not for the 8-2 streak that temporarily rescued the season from the abyss in July. Maybe not.
But at this point it wouldn’t just be pointless from Collins’ point of view but senseless from Backman’s. He is better off trying to finish a splendid job in Las Vegas, and would have a limited ability and even less time to impress whomever he would need to impress if he moved to New York. This isn’t Bobby Valentine in 1996, promoted near season’s end with a commitment to lead the team forward. Backman would have to change some influential minds, entering the final furlong.
Collins? Too many games have played out this way, truth be told, with him making some truly head-scratching decisions. Look, if most of them worked, you would salute his gut and his guts, and he would be praised for some unconventional thinking. But that’s the chance you take. And plays like Young’s offer further evidence that Collins probably went too far to the other side after spending his early managerial years as a self-admitted tyrant. There seems little to fear inside the Mets clubhouse.
At this point, he deserves the rest of the season. He deserves another job in the organization, back in player development, where his true talent lies. But when Harper’s ball sailed over the Samuel Adams sign, it effectively ended the Mets for 2014, and put everyone on the clock for 2015. That ticking starts in the manager’s office.