Very little has gone right for the New York Mets over the last few months. Hopes were high heading into this season, with the Mets expected to be a contender once again, all the while christening a shiny new ballpark.
Since starting June a season-high seven games over .500, the Mets are 29-46, and instead of being in the thick of the NL East race, they’re ahead of only the Nationals, who have a better second-half record than the Mets.
Currently, their lineup is without Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, and most recently, David Wright. The pitching staff has fallen victim to the injury bug as well, with starters, relievers, and replacements all hitting the shelf.
But if Mets fans thought that Wright getting sidelined by the frightening meeting of Matt Cain’s heater with his noggin was their team getting kicked while they’re down, today just added more insult to the injury pile.
No, I’m not talking about the news that GM Omar Minaya (and with him, manager Jerry Manuel, it appears) will be back next season, which is another story in itself, or the fact that the Mets had a rare good day at the plate but still lost, but being on the wrong end of the rarest of game-ending situations, an unassisted triple play turned by Philadelphia’s Eric Bruntlett.
One second, the Mets were mounting a serious threat down 9-7 in the bottom of the ninth, with runners on first and second with no outs, and the next second, the game was over, and Bruntlett’s got a place in the history books.
The Mets had already been on the wrong end of one of the craziest endings to a game this season, and though that one might have hurt more because it was a game that they had wrapped up and that it also came against the Yankees, this one takes the cake because it’s just one of those once-in-a-blue-moon occurrences.
The loss dropped New York to a season-worst 10 games under .500 at 57-67, and they‘re now 15 and a half games back of the Phillies in the NL East and 13 back of the Rockies in the NL wild card standings. It does appear that the lineup could look a lot more normal sometime in September (sans Reyes, who looks to be done for the year), but things could get worse before they get better. After today’s series finale against the Phillies, the Mets start a nine-game road trip against the Marlins, Cubs, and Rockies, a swing that’s part of a run of 33 straight games against teams who currently have winning records.
So what’s next? I imagine that there’s not a lot more than you can take if you’re a Mets fan, so I won’t go into the possibilities, but the end of the season can’t come fast enough, can it?
