Tuesday, October 25, 2005
For New Mets, it's getting real old
September 16, 2005
With a wasted grand slam, a blown ninth-inning lead, a couple of errors and some questionable choices, the Mets showed there is no shortage of ways to ruin a day, only a shortage of ways to explain it. In finding wins and words, the Mets are at a loss."I'm pretty much out of words," said Cliff Floyd, whose grand slam in the fifth turned a three-run deficit into a one-run lead and seemed to give the club some life for a change. But the Mets coughed up that lead to the Nationals and dropped the game, 6-5, in the 10th. It was a we've-seen-this-before 15th loss in their past 18 games.
"All you're going to hear is the same thing from me, until we start winning," Floyd said after the Mets were swept at home and fell further back in their only remaining race - the one to stay out of last place. They are 4½ games behind Washington and falling fast.They gave up the lead in the ninth on Brad Wilkerson's ground ball under Kaz Matsui's glove with the infield in - a ball that might have been a game-ending double play if the infield had been back.They lost on Vinny Castilla's two-out single in the 10th - after manager Willie Randolph declined to intentionally walk Castilla with Keith Osik on deck. All of that after they had seized the advantage on Floyd's uplifting 30th homer of the season.It all added to the Mets' sense of bewilderment over how their spirited season has gone out of control so quickly. When the Mets go south, it seems, they don't stop at the Mason-Dixon line, they go all the way to Antarctica. That's the way it happened last year, too."We have a lot better team this year, regardless of this streak. We have a better team," said Braden Looper, who was charged with his seventh blown save. Without even being asked why this is happening to the Mets, he said, "I don't know."Floyd said, "I would have told you you were the biggest liar in the world if you'd have told me this would happen."It looked as if Floyd was going to give the Mets at least a day of hope when he drilled Livan Hernandez's two-out, full-count pitch over the rightfield fence for a 5-4 lead."The way things are going for us," Randolph said, "you never feel like things are totally safe."Things got unsafe in a hurry in the ninth when pinch hitter Ryan Zimmerman laced a single to right and took second when Gerald Williams - a defensive replacement - made an error in trying to corral the ball's unusual spin. "That is a play I did not make," Williams said, refusing to say if he should have made it.Cristian Guzman's grounder put the tying run on third and Jose Guillen was hit by a pitch. With one out and fast pinch runners Kenny Kelly and Brandon Watson on third and first, Randolph had his middle infielders playing halfway against Wilkerson until the count reached 3-and-2, then directed them to come in. Matsui and Jose Reyes said that was done because a double play seemed less likely with Watson moving from first.Randolph, though, insisted that never happened. He said his fielders were in from the first pitch. "We wanted to play in and cut down the run at the plate. Basically we were in. A few steps here and there, but basically we weren't back."It didn't work. The ball handcuffed Matsui for an error, and Kelly, a former quarterback for the University of Miami, raced home with the tying run. Then the infielders moved back for pinch hitter Carlos Baerga, who hit into a double play.That merely set up the 10th-inning heartache from Castilla, whose single against Roberto Hernandez (6-6) drove in Nick Johnson from third. Randolph admitted having thought about walking Castilla but said: "They could have pinch hit with a lefthander. I'm sure they would have hit with [Brian] Schneider."But Schneider had not started this series because of a shoulder injury and was unavailable yesterday, according to a posting on MLB.com before the game.In the end, it was just another long, lost day for the Mets. It was beyond description. As Floyd put it: "It's already been said, five or six times this week."
Source: http://www.newsday.com/
With a wasted grand slam, a blown ninth-inning lead, a couple of errors and some questionable choices, the Mets showed there is no shortage of ways to ruin a day, only a shortage of ways to explain it. In finding wins and words, the Mets are at a loss."I'm pretty much out of words," said Cliff Floyd, whose grand slam in the fifth turned a three-run deficit into a one-run lead and seemed to give the club some life for a change. But the Mets coughed up that lead to the Nationals and dropped the game, 6-5, in the 10th. It was a we've-seen-this-before 15th loss in their past 18 games.
"All you're going to hear is the same thing from me, until we start winning," Floyd said after the Mets were swept at home and fell further back in their only remaining race - the one to stay out of last place. They are 4½ games behind Washington and falling fast.They gave up the lead in the ninth on Brad Wilkerson's ground ball under Kaz Matsui's glove with the infield in - a ball that might have been a game-ending double play if the infield had been back.They lost on Vinny Castilla's two-out single in the 10th - after manager Willie Randolph declined to intentionally walk Castilla with Keith Osik on deck. All of that after they had seized the advantage on Floyd's uplifting 30th homer of the season.It all added to the Mets' sense of bewilderment over how their spirited season has gone out of control so quickly. When the Mets go south, it seems, they don't stop at the Mason-Dixon line, they go all the way to Antarctica. That's the way it happened last year, too."We have a lot better team this year, regardless of this streak. We have a better team," said Braden Looper, who was charged with his seventh blown save. Without even being asked why this is happening to the Mets, he said, "I don't know."Floyd said, "I would have told you you were the biggest liar in the world if you'd have told me this would happen."It looked as if Floyd was going to give the Mets at least a day of hope when he drilled Livan Hernandez's two-out, full-count pitch over the rightfield fence for a 5-4 lead."The way things are going for us," Randolph said, "you never feel like things are totally safe."Things got unsafe in a hurry in the ninth when pinch hitter Ryan Zimmerman laced a single to right and took second when Gerald Williams - a defensive replacement - made an error in trying to corral the ball's unusual spin. "That is a play I did not make," Williams said, refusing to say if he should have made it.Cristian Guzman's grounder put the tying run on third and Jose Guillen was hit by a pitch. With one out and fast pinch runners Kenny Kelly and Brandon Watson on third and first, Randolph had his middle infielders playing halfway against Wilkerson until the count reached 3-and-2, then directed them to come in. Matsui and Jose Reyes said that was done because a double play seemed less likely with Watson moving from first.Randolph, though, insisted that never happened. He said his fielders were in from the first pitch. "We wanted to play in and cut down the run at the plate. Basically we were in. A few steps here and there, but basically we weren't back."It didn't work. The ball handcuffed Matsui for an error, and Kelly, a former quarterback for the University of Miami, raced home with the tying run. Then the infielders moved back for pinch hitter Carlos Baerga, who hit into a double play.That merely set up the 10th-inning heartache from Castilla, whose single against Roberto Hernandez (6-6) drove in Nick Johnson from third. Randolph admitted having thought about walking Castilla but said: "They could have pinch hit with a lefthander. I'm sure they would have hit with [Brian] Schneider."But Schneider had not started this series because of a shoulder injury and was unavailable yesterday, according to a posting on MLB.com before the game.In the end, it was just another long, lost day for the Mets. It was beyond description. As Floyd put it: "It's already been said, five or six times this week."
Source: http://www.newsday.com/
