USA TODAY International Edition
METS HAVE BACKS TO WALL
As woes, injuries mount, 2015 NL champs hoping Reyes’ return provides spark
New York Mets manager Terry Collins sits behind his desk early Wednesday morning painfully writing out his lineup card, and the more he stares at it, the harder it becomes on the eyes.
The Mets are beaten up and weary, and Collins says it’s time to give some of his regulars a breather. He sits Yoenis Cespedes, troubled by a strained thigh, and puts Wilmer Flores, a career .254 hitter, in the No. 3 spot. Struggling second baseman Neil Walker and shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera sit, too. James Loney, with four home runs all season, is the cleanup hitter.
By the time Collins finishes writing out his lineup, there’s not a single starting player with a .300 batting average or more than 30 RBI. One player has more than 10 home runs.
Yep, it has been that kind of season.
And it was that kind of day, with the Mets trudging out of the cramped visiting Wrigley Field clubhouse 6- 2 losers to the Chicago Cubs, in a season that has gone sideways.
“You can’t just sit there and say, ‘ Woe is me,’ and, ‘ So- and- so is not here,’ ” Collins tells USA TODAY Sports, “I’m tired of talking about injuries and bone spurs and everything else. We’ve just to get it going.
“Our big boys have got to start playing good.
“I think they’ll pick it up. Really, they have to. It’s crunchtime.”
Perhaps, but right now the Mets hardly resemble the team last seen in October at Wrigley Field, the one that swept the Cubs to win the National League pennant.
They look old and broken down and find themselves buried in a sea of mediocrity.
It might be July, but it’s starting to get late in a hurry, with the Mets sitting at 50- 44 and in third place in the National League East, behind the Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins. As it stands, the Mets are not even in position to qualify for the NL’s second wild- card spot.
“It’s not good, and it’s not bad,” Collins says, “but we’ve got some veteran guys who have been through it, who know what this is all about and know we can still do this.
“There’s no panic in here by any stretch, because, let’s face it, we’ve been there.”
The Mets need only flip the calendar back a year to jog their memories. They were 48- 45 a year ago, trailing the Nationals by three games and muddling along for relevancy.
Ten days later, they ran off a seven- game winning streak, took a 2 1⁄2- game lead over the Nationals, and the rest was history.
“There are similarities,” Collins says, “but a year ago, we had all of these young, talented pitchers coming onto the scene, and the energy just soared. ( Jeurys) Familia became the closer. We went out and made some trades, and the energy level really picked up.
he trouble now is some of those same young pitchers are fatigued and hurt. Matt Harvey is out for the season. Steven Matz ( 7- 6, 3.56 ERA) is pitching with a painful bone spur. The Mets are relying on Noah Syndergaard ( 9- 4, 2.43 ERA) and Jacob deGrom ( 6- 4, 2.38 ERA) and praying every fifth day that 43- yearold Bartolo Colon can keep them in a game.
Wednesday wasn’t one of them. Colon ( 8- 5, 3.48 ERA) was smacked around for eight hits and six runs in 4 1⁄3 innings. It was his shortest road start of the season and — even more alarming — was the second time in three starts he yielded six earned runs.
Yet when Collins was asked if Colon could be yanked from the rotation, he quickly dismissed the notion, even if Father Time might have finally caught up with him.
“We don’t have the options,” Collins says flatly. “Bartolo is going to pitch. He’s going to start every five days.
“Right now, if he was 53, he’s going to be out there.”
The Mets would love to revisit history, believing they’re better equipped for the pennant stretch, with a deeper bench and a team that experienced a playoff run a year ago.
Yet a year ago, they picked up Cespedes and infielders Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson before the trade deadline, along with relievers Tyler Clippard and Addison Reed.
“Those guys really woke up the clubhouse,” Collins says. “I mean, really woke up the clubhouse. It really does make a difference. The guys that were here, it was like, ‘ I better get it going, or I can be out of a job.’ ”
This summer, third baseman and team captain David Wright is out for the season. First baseman Lucas Duda, out with a stress fracture in his back since May, isn’t expected back until late August. Zack Wheeler, who was supposed to give them a six- man rotation this summer, is likely out until September. And they let playoff hero Daniel Murphy walk out of the door.
Who could have imagined that their key to survival might be Jose Reyes, who until two weeks ago hadn’t played a major league game since September, having been disciplined for a domestic violence arrest ( for which chargers were dropped) and then released by the Colorado Rockies?
Reyes, who joined the Mets on July 5, becoming their primary starting third baseman, has injected energy and enthusiasm into the clubhouse. He no longer has the skills of his glory days with the Mets, whom he left to join the Marlins for the 2012 season as a free agent, but his effervescent personality remains.
“I feel like I never left, but at the same time, I feel like this is a dream,” Reyes says. “I still can’t believe I’m part of the New York Mets again. Never in my mind did I think I’d be back in the same organization that saw me grow as a player and as a man.
“Last year was the worst year in the big leagues with everything that happened. This year, if we could get back to the World Series, would be my greatest year, a dream come true.”
The Mets have been ecstatic with Reyes’ defense at third, considering he has been a shortstop his entire career, but need him to hit. He’s hitting .213, though he had a recent stretch of four consecutive games with an RBI.
The Mets, who lost two of three to the Cubs at Wrigley, should find out quickly if they can be revived. They visit the Marlins for three games this weekend, followed by a four- game home series vs. the St. Louis Cardinals.
“They’re all very big games now,” Collins says. “The Marlins are playing very well. We’ve got to go down there and win two. We’ve got to make up some ground. No doubt, it’s going to be a big weekend for us.”
The Mets say they’ll try to bring in reinforcements before the Aug. 1 non- waiver trade deadline, but there are no guarantees they can land someone such as Chicago White Sox third baseman Todd Frazier, and certainly no one is going to make the same impact Cespedes did last summer.
“We still have the confidence, and there’s a lot of similarities to last year,” Collins says, “but I just don’t know if we’re going to go out and get three major pieces like last year.”
Who knows? Perhaps the Mets will surprise us again, but unless something dramatically changes, this could be a World Series hangover that nothing can cure.
“There’s no panic in here by any stretch, because, let’s face it, we’ve been there.” Mets manager Terry Collins