On the last day of last season, after one of the worst flops in baseball history, the Mets made a promise to themselves, to one another and to their fans: it would never happen again.
True to their word, the Mets did not collapse. What happened on this gray and gloomy Sunday afternoon was the culmination of all their flaws, all their shortcomings, collaborating to produce a tumble from postseason contention that was just as stunning and, in a way, more heart-wrenching than it was last year.
For the second consecutive year, the Florida Marlins extinguished the Mets’ hopes on the final day of the regular season, defeating them, 4-2, to close Shea Stadium without a last gasp at October baseball.
The loss, coupled with the Brewers’ 3-1 victory against the Chicago Cubs about 30 minutes later, gave Milwaukee the National League’s wild card. For the first time in 16 years, neither New York team will make the postseason.
“It feels like a wasted season,” David Wright said.
The Mets held a three-and-a-half-game lead over Philadelphia in the East on Sept. 10 — half their lead from a year ago — but lost 10 of their final 17 games and were eliminated from division contention Saturday. Still, the wild card remained a possibility, but that, too, slipped from their grasp.
The offense, so dynamic at times, could not ease the stress on the team’s weakest aspect, its bullpen. The Mets scored five runs in the three-game series against Florida, and the bullpen allowed five runs in six and two-thirds innings.
Scoring twice was enough on Saturday, when Johan Santana pitched a three-hit shutout. But after Oliver Pérez, like Santana pitching on short rest, tired in the sixth inning Sunday, Manager Jerry Manuel asked his relievers to record the final 11 outs. They did, but not before inflicting more damage. Joe Smith walked in a run, and Scott Schoeneweis and Luis Ayala surrendered back-to-back home runs to Wes Helms and Dan Uggla to snap a 2-2 tie in the eighth.
Some in the crowd of 56,059 left when Cameron Maybin squeezed Ryan Church’s deep fly ball for the final out, but the rest stayed for an extended and dramatic farewell ceremony to Shea. It was as if the fans were turning their collective backs at the disastrous last two seasons and embracing the more distant past. The only current player who came out for the ceremony was the rookie Daniel Murphy, who walked behind home plate, scooped up some dirt and returned to the dugout to scattered applause.
“This is the second year in a row that I’ve been waiting for the next day and the next day didn’t arrive,” said Pedro Martínez, who would have started a one-game playoff against Milwaukee on Monday. “It’s sad to see it go that way and not be able to do anything.”
In the clubhouse, players who endured a miserable fall and a dreary winter could not believe they were in for more of the same. José Reyes sat sobbing in front of his locker, his head in his hands, cursing himself. Wright, who admitted feeling pressure to carry the team, staggered around like a zombie, his eye black smudged. Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer, walked around consoling players, shaking Schoeneweis’s hand and sitting beside John Maine and Mike Pelfrey to offer encouragement. As he left, Carlos Beltrán fell onto Martínez’s shoulder, crying.
“Sure, I have to believe it — it’s happening,” said Beltrán, whose two-run homer in the sixth evened the score at 2-2. “Last year, we had an opportunity and we didn’t accomplish our goal, and this year also. It’s a bad group to be in as a player.”
Manuel addressed his players for about five minutes after the game, thanking them for their effort and for the respect they showed him since he took over for Willie Randolph on June 17. Manuel guided the team to a 55-38 record, building upon already strong relationships with core players and demonstrating no fear when making strategic and personnel decisions.
“I wish I could have led them a little further,” Manuel said.
Many players, including Wright and Beltrán, endorsed Manuel’s return, and General Manager Omar Minaya indicated that he, too, was satisfied with Manuel’s work. He plans to meet with ownership within the next day or two, and it would be a tremendous surprise if the Mets did not retain Manuel.
Part of the reason the sting of Sunday’s defeat may linger was the drama enveloping the day. As the Mets’ game remained scoreless through five innings, the Cubs led Milwaukee, 1-0, and the fans at Shea roared when that run was posted on the scoreboard. They groaned when the Brewers tied the score, and a few Mets leaning against the dugout railing bowed their heads when Milwaukee went ahead.
Trailing by two, the Mets had two on with two outs in the eighth and Carlos Delgado due up when the Marlins made a pitching change. At that moment, the “9” beside the MIL/CHI on the scoreboard switched to an “F,” signifying “Final,” and everyone in the cranky old ballpark — players, fans, former greats who gathered to say goodbye to Shea — knew that only a Mets win could stave off elimination.
The Mets tried distancing themselves from the uncomfortable end to last season, and despite their blemishes, consistently showed greater resolve. When the Marlins bounced the Mets on the final day last season, there was little doubt after the first inning, when Florida scored seven runs. On Sunday, Beltrán responded to the Marlins’ two runs in the sixth with his two-run homer in the bottom half. Delgado, in the eighth, crunched a drive that was caught near the warning track in left field.
And in the ninth, Church, who had struck out in his previous six at-bats, ripped a ball toward center. Could it? Would it?
“When he hit it, the way the ball took off, part of me wanted to believe it had a chance to go out,” said Damion Easley, who had walked with two outs. “But I just didn’t know.”
The ball nestled in Maybin’s glove, and the Mets stood paralyzed, in disbelief that despite losing key players like Billy Wagner, Maine and Fernando Tatis; despite two months of underachieving that cost their manager his job; and despite carrying the burden of last season every day of this one, it had ended the same way. And so the final season of Shea will end just as the first one did 44 years ago.
“We failed,” Wright said. “We failed as a team.”
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