Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Nationals was an especially hurtful one, and a game the Mets might circle on the calendar if they find themselves packing their bags on October 4 at Citi Field to go home, rather than for a Wild Card game in another city.
Sure, it’s just one game. The Mets are going to win again in 2015, often times in dramatic fashion. They’ll lose again, probably in dramatic fashion as well. And they’ll probably somehow find a way to remain competitive enough in their playoff races to at least remain relevant down to the final days of the regular season.
Who knows, maybe they will make it past game 162 for the first time in nine years.
After all, when everything is taken into account with the health of their roster, the management of the roster, and the under-performance of their roster, the Mets aren’t a bad team.
In fact, they’ve somehow managed to be quite a good team. Again, all things considered. With a little roster augmentation, a little bit better management of the roster, and even the prayer they can keep people healthy and get others healthy again, they’d be an even better team, quite possibly in first place and commanding the National League East.
Then again, maybe their roster’s inferiority ultimately led them to this fate anyway.
But it’s because of those imperfections – which most or all other teams suffer from as well in the game today – which highlight the significance of playing and managing for these “must-win” games the Mets found a way to lose on Wednesday that much greater.
The problems the Mets have, the self-inflicted handicaps they face, and the lack of production top-to-bottom, provide the Mets zero margin for error.
And, that goes for the manager’s decisions too, the poor roster construction notwithstanding.
So on a day when everything seems to be working – the Mets got good enough pitching from the starter, the offense found a way against one of the league’s premier starting pitchers, and the defense made the plays when they needed to – it seemed as though the Mets would in fact find a way to win a true, “must-win” game against the Nationals, and pull within one little game of the division rival which has flat out owned them over the last four seasons.
Finally, the Mets would win a big series and make a statement against a team which has horsed them around for years, right?
Well, they sure made a statement, but did everything but win the series.
It certainly wasn’t due to a lack of execution. In fact, the offense got their big hits and took advantage of the opportunities the Nationals gave them, beatingt one of the league’s best in Jordan Zimmermann in the process.
But on this day, the clubs 50th win – which would have been the biggest win for the team in years – quickly disintegrated and turned into their 46th loss on a gamble by manager Terry Collins when he left Bobby Parnell in for too long instead of turning to his club’s MVP and shutdown closer, Jeurys Familia for a four-out save.
“That’s all on me,” Collins said candidly after the crushing loss.
It would really be something if a game the Mets were well on their way towards winning in satisfying manner only to blink their eyes and lose because of indecisiveness was the difference between the lights being on at Citi Field in October, and the lights being off. Especially if the Mets got that close with this roster which is full of so many challenges and holes.
Sure, there are other losses. But this one is different. This one has an odor which tends to hover around a team. This one had more implications and potential consequences than any in the 2015 season to date.
What’s worse, the Mets should never have to look back on a game like this with regret. Not with so many good things which happened for 7 1/2 innings.
Now, all they can do now is hope that one bad decision doesn’t end up being their season’s difference.
Just Mets 