Well it’s official. The season is over for the 2019 New York
Mets. And like they did in 2007 and 2008 the Miami Marlins played a major role
in popping the Mets postseason hopes, delivering an 8-4 loss for New York on
Monday night at Citi Field.
For the past two months the Mets have teased us with the
hope that they could somehow find their way into one of the two National League
wild card slots, but at the end of the day, it was just that … a tease.
Monday’s loss to the Marlins pushed the Mets to five games
back of the Milwaukee Brewers for the final wild card spot. The Mets would need
to 6-0, while the Brewers go 0-6 just to get in.
In the words of John Franco: Fudgetaboutit!!
At least the Mets season lasted longer than the New York
Jets.
All that is left for the Mets this year is to finish with a
winning record, and see whether Pete Alonso can break Aaron Judge’s rookie
record for home runs in a season.
With the postseason dream dashed the clock will be ticking
on Manager Mickey Callaway and possibly General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen over
the next seven days.
Most likely one, if not both could be fired by seasons end.
Then again, this is the Wilpon’s we are talking about, so
who’s to say they won’t keep the embattled duo together?
On this night, it was Steven Matz who fell victim to the
rare power of the Marlins. Miami tagged the lefty for six runs over five
innings, including a grand slam by catcher Jorge Alfaro to put the game
seemingly out of reach at 6-0.
Give the Mets credit, they did comeback when Amed Rosario
answered with a grand slam home run of his own to cut the Marlin lead to 6-4,
but it was not enough as the Marlins bullpen combined to blank the Mets over
the final three innings of the contest.
To say this game against Miami was the sole reason why the
Mets didn’t make the playoffs would be an injustice. The Mets were 11 games
under .500 on July 12, before putting together a miraculous July and August run
as they flipped the script, turning their record around to 67-60, and putting
themselves in the thick of the wild card race.
Then the bottom fell out over six days in late August when
the Mets lost six in a row to the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves. Had the Mets
won even a couple of those games, they could have pulled to within a game or
even. Instead they remained about four or five back, and never really regained
the momentum they had in late July and early August.
Of course the ills of the Mets bullpen played a major part
in the struggles this year. The bullpen blew a combined 32 games this year when
the Mets had a lead after the sixth inning. 32! And closer Edwin Diaz became
the poster boy for those struggles with a ERA near six and seven blown saves.
The fact that the Mets were this close to putting all those
problems behind them with a playoff berth is a credit to the players as much as
it is to Callaway for keeping the team focused.
Will that matter to the Wilpons in a few days when they make
their final decision on Callaway? We’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime,
six games are left.
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