Mets fans aren’t alone.
It has been nearly eight years since Carlos Beltran looked at the last strike of the 2006 NLCS, nearly six since the Mets missed out on the playoffs on the last day of the season for the second straight year.
And sometimes, Jose Reyes can’t help but look back and wonder how the pennant that was well within reach always managed to slip through their grasp.
“Sometimes, it goes through my mind, yeah. I say, ‘How [do we not] make at least one World Series with the ballclub that we had?’ ” Reyes said before the Blue Jays’ 3-1 loss Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s hard to think about. The closest we got was 2006. We’re one hit away to go to the World Series, but we weren’t able to get it done.
“We had a couple years in New York we should’ve at least made it to the World Series one or two times and we weren’t able to do that. We had three straight years with an unbelievable ballclub and we weren’t able to do anything. It’s a little bit disappointing because as a player you work so hard to get to the playoffs. … It is what it is. In baseball you never know what’s going to happen.”
Reyes leading off Tuesday’s game with a home run on the first pitch he ever saw from Masahiro Tanaka certainly fell within baseball’s unpredictable element.
“I had that in mind before the game I was going to swing the first pitch if it’s right there in the middle of the plate because it’s hard to hit Tanaka with two strikes,” said Reyes, who went 1-for-4 with a strikeout. “He can throw all his pitches for strikes, any count … he’s one of the best in the game right now.”
Reyes, whose shot to right field was his fifth of the season and 20th leadoff homer of his career — also the team’s MLB-best 93rd home run — has been a big reason for Toronto’s ascension in the AL East, following a slow start to the season.
Since May 8, Reyes is batting .333, reaching base in 41 of his past 43 games and hitting safely in 17 of his past 18 games.
Though the season is still young, Reyes has confidence the team can contend, with an offense the shortstop hasn’t seen since he was young, and Beltran and David Wright and Carlos Delgado were driving him home.
“It’s like ’06. I always say that. It reminds me a lot of 2006 with the Mets,” Reyes said. “These guys here are unbelievable. Every time you see them at home plate, it’s like they’re going to hit a homer.”
Though the rest of the Blue Jays’ bats were silenced by another brilliant outing from Tanaka, Toronto still holds a 3½ game division lead over the Yankees, a perspective Reyes hasn’t seen since playing in Queens.
Since 2008, Reyes’ teams haven’t finished higher than fourth place, but being back on a contender is as good as he remembers.
“It’s been long. I missed that,” he said. “It’s a different feeling, for sure. We’re playing good baseball now. … This year we have a very good opportunity to [make the playoffs] and hopefully we can continue to play the way that we’ve played so far.”
Facing a different pitcher should help.
“One run scored, it’s hard to win games like that,” Reyes said. “Hopefully we [win] tomorrow. There’s no Tanaka tomorrow.”