MET MIRACLE FALLS SHORT
Staff holes start to be a real pitch now
Incredibly, nearly 40,000 fans were standing and chanting in the ninth inning, hours after the Mets had fallen behind 10-0 to the Phillies and Terry Collins had pulled his star players to rest them for the final week of the season.
More incredibly, the game was up for grabs, as the Mets had fought back to make it 10-8, with Lucas Duda at the plate representing the winning run.
As inept as the Phillies’ bullpen has been of late, and as loud as it was at that moment in Citi Field, it seemed inevitable the Mets were going to complete the impossible comeback. And then it was over, Duda and Travis d’Arnaud making two routine outs to end the 10-8 loss, and the inevitable instead was the obvious: a team can only survive so many emergency starters.
The good news for the Mets is that Noah Syndergaard, who pitched a bullpen on Saturday, is apparently recovered enough from strep throat to be counted on to start Tuesday in Miami — and Sunday in Philadelphia, if necessary.
Meanwhile, at some point you knew that all of the pitching injuries/illnesses were going to cost the Mets, and Saturday proved to be the night.
Sean Gilmartin, the soft-tossing lefty making the start because of Noah Syndergaard’s strep throat, couldn’t get out of the first inning, giving up five runs, and Rafael Montero wasn’t much better, which was why it was 10-0 in the fourth inning.
Unlike Friday night, when Gabriel Ynoa was pulled after two innings, the offense couldn’t overcome the odds.
Even so the big crowd was energized all night, even down 10-0. Most of the fans surely had bought tickets months ago, hoping the Mets would be closing in on a division title on this second-to-last home game of the season. Instead, a zillion injuries later, this night was a reminder the Mets are fortunate to still be very much in this wild-card race, thanks largely to betterthan-expected pitching from Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman.
If only they were the only fill-ins needed. Gilmartin, however, was the ninth different starting pitcher the Mets have used in their last 36 games, underscoring the achievement in going 22-14 during that span to climb back into the wild-card race that seemed almost out of reach in mid-August.
Obviously they have the stumbles by the Cardinals and Giants to thank at least partly for being atop the wild-card standings, and the soft schedule hasn’t hurt either. Now, however, the task of earning one of the two wild-card spots only gets more difficult, with seven games remaining. That schedule advantage the Mets had, which not long ago loomed so large, is all but gone now, as the Cardinals finish with the Cubs Sunday and the Giants return home for their final six games.
Meanwhile, the Mets go on the road for the final week, with three games against the Marlins and then three against these Phillies.
And here’s the worst news, from a Mets’ perspective: The Marlins announced Saturday they’re giving Jose Fernandez an extra day’s rest before his next start, meaning that he’ll be waiting for the Mets in Miami for Monday’s series opener. Hmmm. Marlins manager Don Mattingly told reporters the decision was made because Fernandez went eight innings and threw 111 pitches in his previous start, and either way he was going to get two final starts this season.
But the Marlins have a history of being spoilers against the Mets, and even if Mattingly hasn’t been part of that history, surely the hypercompetitive Fernandez preferred the chance to shut down a contender rather than pitch against the Braves.
And considering that Fernandez is 12-2 with a 1.63 ERA at home this season, and 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA against the Mets at Marlins Park, the move makes the final week significantly tougher for Terry Collins’ ballclub.
With that in mind, it makes sense that Syndergaard will pitch Tuesday. Collins said it was simply to give him extra time to recover from strep throat, but who knows, perhaps Fernandez’s dominance convinced the Mets to save their ace for another night. So it will be Bartolo Colon on Monday, with him and Syndergaard lining up on regular rest to pitch the final two games of the season in Philly, if the wild-card berth is still up for grabs. For Collins that was the silver lining coming out of the last two nights: He can lean on his best pitchers in this final week.
“Starting Monday we’ll have six games left and those two guys are going to start four of them,’’ Collins said. “And starting pitching is what the game is all about.”
Of course, that might well mean Seth Lugo would be the starter in the wild-game on Oct. 5th. That’s not the way the Mets would draw it up, obviously, but in a season in which the obstacles keep coming, it sure would be fitting.