Joey's World Tour: Mile High Clubbed

Greetings from 5,280 feet above sea level! (Photo by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus)

Hi, everyone!  This is Joey Beartran and it's time for me to share my latest story as I make another stop on my world tour of ballparks.  If you recall, the last stop I made was in Cincinnati, where I witnessed the Mets clinching the 2015 National League East division title.  But as the saying goes, "It was the best of the times.  It was the worst of times."  And whereas the Cincinnati trip was as good as it gets, the trip to the Mile High city was ... let's just say the opposite.

I'm not concerned about spoiler alerts.  I'll just come out and say it.  The Mets were clubbed by the Rockies in a three-game sweep.  New York scored just nine runs in the three games - the fewest they had ever scored in a series at Coors Field.  How bad was it for the Mets during the lost weekend in Denver?

They lost the first game to Jon Gray.  It was Gray's first big league win.  It took him 14 starts in parts of two seasons to earn that elusive first victory.

They lost the second game to Eddie Butler.  This is the same Eddie Butler who has a 6.70 ERA and 1.82 WHIP at Coors Field in three seasons as a Rockie.

They lost the third game to Tyler Chatwood.  Well, Chatwood's a good pitcher.  But the Rockies' bullpen continued to stymie the Mets.

In the three games, Colorado's relief staff allowed no runs in eight innings.  The two main relievers who befuddled the Mets' batsmen were closer Jake McGee and set-up man Charlie Sheen (but you can call him Carlos Estevez).  Estevez was anything but a Wild Thing, as he struck out four batters and walked none in two innings.  Meanwhile, McGee earned saves in all three games, also walking none while fanning three in the trio of victories.  Prior to the sweep, Estevez had a 6.00 ERA and a 1.56 WHIP, while McGee was one of the worst closers in baseball, posting a 4.97 ERA and a .300/.364/.480 slash line against him prior to the series against the Mets.

Apparently, the Mets didn't get the memo that they were facing lousy pitchers at Coors Field.

How could the Mets miss this large sign letting them know where they were?  (Photo by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus)

But enough about the games.  Let's talk about what I did in and around the ballpark.  Baseball results notwithstanding, I actually had a fun time in Denver and the surrounding areas in Colorado.

Inside the ballpark, there are many things that you're not going to find in any other stadiums.  For example, one of the first things you'll notice when you look up is a purple row among the sea of green seats where the fannies can rest their fannies.  That row is exactly 5,280 feet above sea level, or exactly one mile - also known as the distance Yoenis Cespedes hits balls in batting practice.

Unlike Citi Field (and most other ballparks), you're allowed to walk down to the seats behind home plate during batting practice.  Another thing I noticed was that even though ushers at every section in the park don't allow you to go to your seat until an at-bat is completed (after all, that is proper baseball etiquette), they don't check your ticket to see if you actually belong in that section.  Good to know in case I pay for $4 tickets in the Rockpile (the area with bleacher-style seats high above straightaway center field) and want to move down a little closer to the action.

But when I don't mind being a mile high in the stadium, I can relax in the new Rooftop area high above the right field corner.  Up there, they have a few full bars with lots of domestic and craft beers, a lounge area, HEAT (for those cold early and late season games) and good music (for when the crack of the bat doesn't provide you with enough sonic stimulation).

In case you forgot, I'm not just the Studious Metsimus roving reporter.  I'm also the culinary expert.  So my time at Coors Field wouldn't be complete without discussing some of the food choices inside the park.  Here's the first thing I noticed about the food.  It's reasonably priced!  You basically have to have a seafood option or a large barbecue plate to spend more than ten bucks on one item.  The same thing applies to adult beverages.  A margarita in a small cup at Citi Field will cost you $12.  At Coors Field, a slightly larger cup is only $8.25.  And they put plenty of salt around the rim, as opposed to the ones sold at Citi Field.  (My Studious Metsimus colleagues filed that report, as I'm too young to partake in those types of drinks.)

A great place to eat inside the ballpark is the Smokehouse.  (The full name is the Smokehouse at the Blue Moon Co. at the Sandlot, which sounds too much like it should be run by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Orange County on Planet Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy.)  In addition to having just about every kind of meat available for nachos, they had excellent baked potatoes with lots of free toppings. (Bacon is considered a free topping here - yes, please!)

There's also a Helton's Burger Shack in the left field corner, which features a burger and sauce made from brisket, shoulder and sirloin.  Forget the fries when you order this burger.  You have to go with the humongous onion rings as your side.  Seriously, they're huge.

If you're craving Italian food, the ballpark has a special wing dedicated to delicacies from the country shaped like a boot.  And for dessert, you can have a Berrie-Kabob, which is a misspelled berry on a skewer.  Actually, I kid.  It's actually strawberries and bananas covered in white or milk chocolate all pierced by a long stick.  I may have asked for a couple dozen of these.

Smokehouse and Helton Shack Burger photos courtesy of the Denver Post.  All other photos by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus.

The delicious food helped ease the pain of the three losses suffered by the Mets.  But Coors Field also brought back painful memories.  For example, the Rockies are very proud of their lone National League pennant, and they like to remind all those who enter the park with banners and sections of the scoreboard devoted to their one World Series appearance in 2007.  If you recall, that was the year the Mets gift wrapped the division title to the Phillies, while the Rockies waltzed by the Mets for the wild card, which led to an unlikely pennant for Colorado's baseball club that in the minds of most Mets fans should have been won by New York.

Thinking of the 2007 season upset me more than it should have, so I was joined by my sister, Iggy, as we decided to escape into the Rockies team store.  There we were met by a wall of Dingers, where we were greatly outnumbered by the effigies of the Rockies mascot.  But at least Iggy made a friend or three when she noticed some bears in Rockies shirts.

Now that we're talking about the past, I should mention that prior to last year, the Mets hadn't appeared in a World Series since 2000, and the player who helped propel them to the Fall Classic that year was NLCS MVP Mike Hampton.  The same Mike Hampton left the Mets at the end of that season to enroll his kids in the fine Colorado school system.  (Never mind the nine-figure, long-term contract given to him by the Rockies.  It was the schools that made him sign it, dadgummit!)

Hampton may not have replicated his success on the mound as a member of the Rockies in 2001, but he did do quite well at the plate that year, winning a Silver Slugger Award, which the Rockies celebrate with a banner in the field level concourse.  On a related note, the Rockies also like to point out who they defeated in the first game ever played at Coors Field in 1995.  The large letters made it hard to miss.

Photos by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus

Although Coors Field is a gem of a ballpark, the real gem in the state is the Rocky Mountains.  So I took a short trip up to Juniper Pass, which is approximately 40 miles west of downtown Denver and 11,020 feet above sea level.  My driver could have gone up to Mount Evans, which was a few miles up the road at an altitude of over 12,000 feet, but the area was still closed due to winter conditions.  In mid-May, mind you.  But that's the Rocky Mountains for you.

At the slightly lower Juniper Pass, the mountain roads were clear of frozen precipitation, but there was still plenty of snow to see.  I probably should have worn my hood as the temperature was in the upper 30s there, whereas it was in the upper 50s at Denver's lower altitude.

The views from Juniper Pass were absolutely incredible.  The air is crisp and you can hear sounds from miles away (not that there are many sounds at 11,000 feet).  But because the air is thinner, you get winded very quickly.  I can only imagine how much of a hard time Bartolo Colon would have had running around the bases had Petco Park been located somewhere in Juniper Pass instead of San Diego.

My butt was frozen in this photo.  (Photos by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus)

We came.  We saw.  But the Rockies conquered.  That was pretty much the story on this latest stop of Joey's World Tour of ballparks.  But at least we enjoyed some good food and some breathtaking views.  And because of the altitude, some of it was literally breathtaking.  I mean, it was hard to breathe once we passed 10,000 feet!

Coors Field is definitely a ballpark I would visit again.  Hopefully, next time the Mets will remember to pack their bats when they depart for Denver.  They should also pack their scouting reports so that they don't think guys like Jon Gray, Eddie Butler and Tyler Chatwood are the second coming of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.  (PSSST, here's a little secret.  They're also not as good as John Smiley, Zane Smith and Randy Tomlin, for those of you who are more experienced Mets fans.)

I'd like to look a little happier in photos the next time I go to Coors Field than I did when I took this final photo in front of the scoreboard after the Rockies completed their sweep of the Mets.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you on the road wherever my baseball tour takes me next.

There was no sunshine for me or the Mets on this cloudy day.  (Photo by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus)

For previous installments of Joey's World Tour, please click on the links below, where you will be entertained by Joey's wit, photos and love of ballpark cuisine:

World Tour Stop #1: Baltimore
World Tour Stop #2: Washington, DC
World Tour Stop #3: Pittsburgh
World Tour Stop #4: Texas
World Tour Stop #5: Los Angeles
World Tour Stop #6: San Diego
World Tour Stop #7: Toronto
World Tour Stop #8: Chicago
World Tour Stop #9: Milwaukee
World Tour Stop #10: Seattle
World Tour Stop #11: Cleveland
World Tour Stop #12: Brooklyn (Ebbets Field site) and Manhattan (Polo Grounds site)
World Tour Stop #13: Baltimore (again) and Pittsburgh (part deux)
World Tour Stop #14: Cincinnati

The Most With The Least: Moises Alou (2007)

It's not exactly a secret that older players tend to break down during the long baseball season more often than their younger counterparts do.  Through the 2015 season, Mets players have appeared in 150 or more games in a single season a total of 88 times.  Sixty-two of those 88 instances were by players who had yet to turn 30 when they accomplished the feat.  And when 37-year-old Eddie Murray played in 154 games for the Mets in 1993, he became the oldest player in franchise history to complete a season in which he appeared in a minimum of 150 games.

Murray is one of just six players in club annals to play at least 100 games in a season after he had blown out 37 candles.  He's also one of three former Mets - Brett Butler and Rickey Henderson are the others - who had at least 350 at-bats in a season after turning 37.  Needless to say, older position players have rarely contributed on an everyday basis for the Mets, and even fewer have been as productive as they were during their younger years.

One former Met in particular had a fantastic - albeit abbreviated - season with the team after he was signed as a free agent four months after his 40th birthday.  Injuries curtailed his first season with the club, causing him to miss over two months of action.  But when he returned from his extended stay on the disabled list, the quadragenarian embarked on a record-setting stretch with his bat, doing everything he could to prevent the team from falling victim to what became an epic collapse.

Omar Minaya finally got his man when he signed Moises Alou.  (Doug Benc/Getty Images)

Moises Rojas Alou always had trouble staying healthy throughout his entire major league career.  In the 1990s, he missed two entire years (1991, 1999) because of injuries.  He also missed at least 26 games in ten other seasons.  When he was healthy, he was one of the best hitters in the sport, batting .330 or higher three times.  He also produced three 30-HR campaigns and five 100-RBI seasons.

But after a seven-year stretch from 1997 to 2003 in which Alou helped three teams reach the postseason, which included winning a World Series title with the Florida Marlins in 1997, the left fielder's luck with team success faded.  It began with the moment Alou could not catch a foul ball in Game Six of the 2003 National League Championship Series - a moment that Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman is still catching hell for.  Alou and his Cubs teammates failed to win the game and the pennant.  A year later, the Cubs finished in third place in the N.L. Central, despite Alou's best efforts (39 HR, 106 RBI) to carry the team back to the playoffs.  The 38-year-old Alou then left the Cubs to play two seasons in San Francisco, where his father, Felipe, was the team's manager.  But the Giants, who had just completed their eighth consecutive winning season in 2004, were tremendous disappointments in 2005 and 2006, finishing below .500 in both years.

Alou had already turned 40 when he became a free agent for the last time following the 2006 campaign.  He also had not appeared in a postseason game in three consecutive seasons after making four trips to playoffs in the previous seven years.  The Mets, who had come within one win of a trip to the World Series in 2006, were in dire need of a right-handed bat, particularly one who could hit left-handed pitchers effectively.  They found their man in Alou, whose lifetime .332/.399/.559 slash line against southpaws was exactly what general manager Omar Minaya was looking for in a middle-of-the-order hitter.  Minaya signed Alou to a one-year, $7.5 million contract, with a second year club option.  According to Alou, winning was the main reason why he chose to sign with the Mets.

"The length of the contract doesn't matter to me at this point in my career," Alou said.  "I want to win this year.  And if things work out the way I think they will, I will play two years in New York."

With the soon-to-be 41-year-old on board, the Mets began the 2007 season by winning their first four games in convincing fashion.  Alou collected five hits and two walks in the four games - games the Mets won by a combined 31-3 score.  By late April, Alou was on a tear, batting just under .400 with an OPS over 1.000.  But the injury bug found its way back into Alou's system, as the left fielder strained his left quadriceps muscle in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers on May 12.  With Alou out of the lineup, the team struggled on offense, batting .252 with a .308 on-base percentage in the month of June, after collectively batting .281 and reaching base at a .352 clip prior to Alou's injury.

Alou tried to get back in the lineup in early June, but when his doctors allowed him to resume running, he continued to feel pain in his left leg.  The Mets were in the midst of a three-week stretch in which they lost 13 of 16 games, and the time off the field was clearly upsetting Alou.

Travis Lindquist/Getty Images

 "I'm frustrated.  I came here to play, not get hurt.  I mean, I have to play.  I didn't think it would be this long, and I'm very disappointed.  When you're hurt and you're on a good team, you feel like you're in everybody's way.  I don't like that feeling."




Alou wasn't the only one frustrated, as manager Willie Randolph couldn't decide on which player was best suited to replace Alou during his time on the disabled list.  By the time Alou returned from what became an unwanted 66-game vacation, Randolph had called upon Carlos Gomez (20 starts), Endy Chavez (12 starts), Ricky Ledee (9 starts), Lastings Milledge (8 starts), Ben Johnson (5 starts), David Newhan (5 starts), Marlon Anderson (4 starts) and Damion Easley (3 starts) to fill in for Alou in left field.  But once Alou shook off the rust from his extended stay on the D.L., he became the hottest hitter on the team.

After not collecting a hit in four of his first ten games following his return to the team (which briefly lowered his batting average under .300), Alou went on an 11-game hitting streak, in which he produced five homers and drove in 13 runs.  The Mets won seven of those 11 games.  Then, after going 0-for-4 against the San Diego Padres on August 22, Alou embarked on another hitting streak - one that wouldn't end until he entered the Mets' record books.

Alou collected at least one hit in the six games he started from August 23 to August 29.  Alou didn't the start the game against the Phillies on August 30, but he did come into the game as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning, where he walked to helped fuel a five-run rally by the Mets.  Although Alou did not collect a hit in the game, his hitting streak would be allowed to continue, as MLB rules dictate that such a skein cannot by terminated if all of a player's plate appearances in a game result in either a walk, hit batsman, defensive indifference and/or sacrifice bunt.

Following his appearance as a pinch-hitter in Philadelphia, Alou started nine of the team's next ten games.  The Mets won all nine of the games he started and were shut out in the one game he didn't start.  When the Mets defeated the Atlanta Braves on September 12, their lead in the N.L. East grew to a season-high seven games with 17 games to play.  Alou was one of the main reasons for the team's early September success, batting .421 with eight extra-base hits, ten runs scored and five RBI in the month through the 12th.  His hitting streak also stood at 17 games, which was just nine short of the team's all-time record of 26, set by David Wright earlier in the 2007 season (the streak began at the end of the 2006 campaign and continued into 2007) and seven games short of the team's single-season record (Hubie Brooks and Mike Piazza shared that record).

But then the Mets went into a free fall, losing their next five games.  At the same time, the Phillies won six games in a row to cut the Mets' lead in the division to a scant 1½ games.  Alou did all he could to help the Mets during their losing streak, collecting nine hits in the five games, but the team's suspect pitching was mostly responsible for the defeats, allowing 39 runs in the handful of contests.  The Mets recovered to win four of the next five games, with Alou contributing eight hits and five RBI.  In the fifth game, one in which the Mets defeated the Marlins, 7-6 in 11 innings, Alou drove in the tying run with a single in the eighth inning after failing to collect a hit in his first three at-bats.  The single extended his hitting streak to a team-record 27 games and also made him the oldest player in history with a skein of that length.  

New York entered the final week of the regular season with a 2½-game lead over the Phillies.  On paper, they appeared to be in good shape as they entered their three-game series in Washington against the Nationals, who were 69-87 and had scored just 636 runs all season, which were the fewest runs scored by any team in the majors.  Incredibly, Washington scored 32 runs in the three-game sweep of the Mets, and not even Alou's hitting clinic in the three games (seven hits, five RBI) could prevent the Mets from having their division lead over the Phillies whittled to just half a game.

Travis Lindquist/Getty Images

Despite the devastating loss in the final game of the series, one in which the Mets blew an early 5-0 lead, Alou's first-inning home run did extend his hitting streak to 30 games and gave him a .403 batting average and 1.029 OPS over the 30-game period, to go with eight doubles, one triple, four homers, 17 RBI and 22 runs scored.  But his individual success could not translate into team success, as the Mets went just 15-15 in the 30 games.  Alou's hitting streak ended on September 27, in a 3-0 loss to the Cardinals and the Mets' season ended three days later when they lost for the 12th time in their last 17 games.

After the heartbreaking conclusion of the 2007 campaign, the Mets decided to pick up Alou's $7.5 million option for the 2008 season.  General manager Omar Minaya expected Alou to be on a mission to help the team get back to the postseason after falling just short of their goal in 2007.  Alou certainly agreed with Minaya, and was not afraid to share his thoughts on the team's September collapse.

"I'm angry at what happened last year and our fans deserved better," Alou said.  "I'm coming back to help us win a championship.  From the first day of spring training we have to show people that 2008 will be different."

Unfortunately, the 2008 season was anything but different.  Once again, the Mets squandered a division lead in late September and once again, Alou could not stay healthy.  In fact, he barely played for the Mets in 2008, appearing in only 15 games, with all but one of them coming in the month of May.  (Alou had hernia surgery in March, a strained calf in late May and a torn left hamstring while rehabbing at AA-Binghamton in July.)  During the brief time Alou was healthy in 2008, he was just a singles hitter for the Mets, collecting just two doubles and no homers, despite a .347 batting average.  Alou's final injury put a nail in the 42-year-old's major league career, one that ended with five years of missing the postseason.

Alou's time in New York - when he was healthy - showed that he could still be one of the best hitters in the game even at his advanced age.  In parts of two seasons with the Mets, Alou had just 414 plate appearances, but he still batted an impressive .342 with a .507 slugging percentage, adding 21 doubles, 13 homers and 58 RBI.  This made Alou one of just six players in club annals to play multiple seasons with the team and have at least a .500 slugging percentage (with a minimum of 400 plate appearances), joining Mike Piazza (.542), Darryl Strawberry (.520), Carlos Delgado (.506), John Olerud (.501) and Carlos Beltran (.500).  Alou also has the highest lifetime batting average of any Mets player with at least 400 plate appearances, comfortably ahead of the .326 mark produced by Lance Johnson during his two-year stay in New York from 1996 to 1997.

In addition to his slugging prowess, Alou rarely struck out as a Met, fanning just 34 times over his two seasons with the team.  In fact, Alou became just the third Met in franchise history in 2007 to produce a season with 30 or more extra-base hits and 30 or fewer strikeouts, joining Ron Hunt and Felix Millan.  However, Alou had by far the highest batting average, OBP, slugging percentage and OPS of the three players.

Thanks for this, Baseball Reference Play Index!

Moises Alou could have been the right player to push the Mets to the pennant they failed to capture in 2006.  But he just couldn't stay healthy enough to contribute.  When he wasn't on the field in 2007, the Mets couldn't decide on a proper replacement for him in left, and the team failed to increase their lead in the division, going 35-31 during his time on the disabled list.  Had Alou remained healthy and productive, perhaps the team would have had a double-digit cushion in the standings in September instead of just a seven-game lead in the middle of the month.

Then again, even when Alou was healthy and charging forward with his team-record hitting streak, he still couldn't do anything about the shortcomings of the team's pitchers.  With every hit and RBI picked up by Alou, he had to watch his pitchers give up several of their own, and as a result, the pennant that eluded him when Steve Bartman got in his way in Chicago also got away from him in New York.

The 2007 season is one most Mets fans would like to forget.  But if one thing from that season should be held on to, it's that fans got to see a tremendous player at the end of his career doing what he did best over a career that spanned nearly two decades.  It's just too bad that one of the things he did best (hitting) got overshadowed by the other (getting hurt).  And because of that, the physical pain felt by Alou will always by rivaled by the emotional pain still felt by Mets fans whenever the year 2007 is brought up as a topic of discussion.


Note:  The Most With The Least is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players who performed at a high level without receiving the accolades or playing time their more established teammates got, due to injuries, executive decisions or other factors.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:

January 4, 2016: Benny Agbayani
January 11, 2016: Donn Clendenon
January 18, 2016: Tim Teufel
January 25, 2016: Hisanori Takahashi
February 1, 2016: Chris Jones
February 8, 2016: Claudell Washington
 

Why One Series Win Against the Nats Could Do Wonders For the Mets' Postseason Chances

With the Mets losing and the Nationals winning on Sunday, the two teams will head into their critical three-game showdown this afternoon with New York leading the division by four games.  The teams will also face each other at Citi Field for a three-game series in Games No. 160, 161 and 162.  That means both teams still have to play 20 games against other teams.

Mets fans know the story of being seven games up with 17 to play in 2007.  New York went on to go 5-12 in their final 17 affairs, while the Phillies finished strongly at 13-4 to claim the NL East by one game.  The Mets and Phillies played each other three times during the season's final 17 games, with Philadelphia taking all three games.  That means the Mets still lost nine of the other 14 games they played while the Phillies took 10 of 14 against their non-Metsian opponents.  (New York also lost four straight to the Phillies in late August, before "seven-games-up-with-seventeen-to-play" became a thing.)

The main reason the Mets failed to hold on to the division lead in 2007 was their pitching.  Mets pitchers allowed a whopping 115 runs in the team's final 17 games, allowing six or more runs in 11 of those contests.  The offense, which scored 98 runs in the 17 games (an average of 5.8 runs per game), couldn't overcome the shoddy pitching, as the Mets scored six or more runs ten times in the 17 games, but were only able to win half of those ten affairs.

In 2015, the Mets have far superior pitching to their counterparts from eight years ago.  The 2007 squad had Oliver Perez leading the team with a 3.56 ERA and Orlando Hernandez was the only starting pitcher with a WHIP under 1.27.  This year's Mets have three starters (Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard) who have ERAs lower than Perez's team-leading mark in 2007, and only Jonathon Niese has a WHIP higher than the one posted by El Duque eight years ago.

In addition, the current Mets have Jeurys Familia (36 saves, 1.78 ERA, 0.97 WHIP) closing out games, while the 2007 club had Billy Wagner (34 saves, 2.63 ERA, 1.13 WHIP), who suffered from back spasms at the end of the season, but still pitched through the pain and it showed.  Wagner pitched to a 6.91 ERA and 1.74 WHIP in the team's last 40 games, blowing three saves.

The 2015 Mets will probably not allow almost seven runs per game over the final 26 games like the '07 squad allowed in their last seventeen, especially considering that this year's pitchers have allowed three runs or less in 74 of their first 136 games.  (The '07 club allowed four runs or more in 91 of their 162 games.)  So they probably won't have a catastrophic season-ending slump - one that would allow them to lose 12 of their last 17 games, a la the 2007 team.

But let's say the Mets just play .500 ball in the 20 games in which they're not playing the Nationals.  That would give them 85 wins in 156 games.  Now let's look at what the Nationals would have to do in their other games, considering each win-loss scenario in their final six games against the Mets and assuming the Mets win just half of their other 20 games.


Nationals go 6-0 against the Mets:
Mets finish with an 85-77 record.
Washington would need to go 9-11 in their other 20 games to win the division with an 86-76 record.

Nationals go 5-1 against the Mets:
Mets finish with an 86-76 record.
Washington would need to go 11-9 in their other 20 games to win the division with an 87-75 record.

Nationals go 4-2 against the Mets:
Mets finish with an 87-75 record.
Washington would need to go 13-7 in their other 20 games to win the division with an 88-74 record.

Nationals split the six games against the Mets:
Mets finish with an 88-74 record.
Washington would need to go 15-5 in their other 20 games to win the division with an 89-73 record.

Nationals go 2-4 against the Mets:
Mets finish with an 89-73 record.
Washington would need to go 17-3 in their other 20 games to win the division with a 90-70 record.

Nationals go 1-5 against the Mets:
Mets finish with a 90-72 record.
Washington would need to go 19-1 in their other games to win the division with a 91-71 record.

Nationals go 0-6 against the Mets:
Mets finish with a 91-71 record.
Washington would be golfing after October 4 regardless of how they fare in the other 20 games.


Of course, the Mets could somehow finish with a losing record in the 20 games they're not facing Washington, just as they could finish with a winning record in those games.  But seven of those 20 games are against the Atlanta Braves - a team that is on a run of historically bad proportions.  Atlanta is 12-41 in its last 53 games.  Their .226 winning percentage in those games - which add up to approximately one-third of the season - is lower than the .250 winning percentage posted by the 1962 Mets.  Yeah, it's been that bad in Tomahawk Town.

Some of you might say, "but the Mets lost a whole bunch of games to the Nats and Marlins down the stretch in 2007, when both teams were under .500."  That's true.  That Mets team went 5-8 against Washington and the then-Florida Marlins.  But those Nats and Marlins teams weren't 2015 Braves bad.  This year's Atlanta squad could lose 100 games and finish with the worst record in baseball.  The 2007 Nationals and Marlins won 73 games and 71 games, respectively.  There's no way - I repeat - NO WAY the Mets lose more than a game or two, if that many, against the Braves down the stretch this year.

With the team's excellent pitching, and with so many games left against the struggling Braves, it would be hard to fathom a sub-.500 record for the Mets when they're not facing Washington.  Losing five of six to Washington or even worse, a six-game sweep, in the remaining matchups between the two NL East contenders would be cause for concern.

If the Mets win just one game against the Nationals, that would force Washington to play .550 ball over their remaining 20 games, which is quite possible, assuming the Mets play .500 ball in their other 20 games.  However, should the Mets win just one out of three in each series against the Nationals (two total wins in the six games between the two teams), Washington would have to play .650 ball in their other games.  A split between the two teams and Washington would have to go on a run reminiscent of what the Phillies did in 2007.

The Mets couldn't defeat the Phillies down the stretch in 2007.  That cost them the division more than losing to the Nationals and Marlins did.  All the Mets have to do is win one series against the Nationals over the final month of the 2015 campaign and it might not matter what either NL East contender does in their other games.

Even with the Mets losing 2½ games in the standings over the last four days, the division title is still very much within the Mets' grasp.  Only a National disaster could keep the Mets from playing past Game No. 162.
 

Mets Must Get Over The Four-and-a-Half Game Hump

If the Mets want to see this in October, they need to increase their division lead in August and September.  (AP Photo)

No lead in the division is safe in baseball.  If you were a Mets fan in 2007, then you know how true that statement is.  But some leads are more safe than others, and the Mets have proven that in seasons when they've qualified for the postseason.

The 2015 Mets currently hold a 4½-game lead over the floundering Washington Nationals.  New York has built its lead by winning 11 of its last 14 games, while Washington is in the throes of a 4-11 team slump.  But an extra inning loss to the Pirates last night prevented the Mets from increasing their lead to 5½ games.  And earlier in the season, when the Mets rolled off a franchise record-tying 11-game winning streak, they also held a 4½-game lead in the division.  However, they never went over that hump, standing pat at 4½ for nine straight days (April 23-May 1) before a loss to the Nationals on May 2 cut their lead to 3½ games.

Only twice in club history has the team held a lead in the division of more than 4½ games and failed to win a division title.  The 1972 Mets got off to a tremendous start, winning 31 of their first 43 games.  In late May, the team possessed a comfortable 6½-game lead in the NL East.  But when Rusty Staub was felled by a wayward pitch thrown by Braves pitcher (and future Met) George Stone in early June, the team crumbled.  In the three-month period from June 7 to September 7, the Mets went 34-50 and finished double-digit games behind the eventual division champion Pittsburgh Pirates.

Thirty-five years later, the Mets famously held a seven-game lead with 17 games left in the season, only to see the Philadelphia Phillies take advantage of a Mets team that suddenly forgot how to pitch effectively.  Philly won all seven of their match-ups with the Mets in the season's final five weeks and Mets pitchers allowed an unfathomable 131 runs in the team's last 19 games to cough up the seemingly insurmountable lead.

Other than the 1972 and 2007 campaigns, New York has held a division lead of at least five games in four other campaigns.  They won the division crown in each of those seasons (1969, 1986, 1988, 2006).  They also held a lead of five or more games in the wild card race in 2000 and advanced to the World Series that year.

The Mets have had leads in the division of at least one game many times in franchise history.  And since the wild card came into play in 1995, they have been the leader in that race many times.  But just having a lead in the division or wild card race after the season is well underway hasn't guaranteed October baseball in Flushing.  Let's look at five not-so-memorable instances where this occurred.

• In 1970, the defending World Series champion Mets held a two-game lead in the division when the calendar turned from June to July.  They ended the season six games behind the division-winning Pirates.

• In 1984, the Mets were 4½ games ahead of the Chicago Cubs on July 27.  They lost 11 games in the standings after that date to finish 6½ games behind the first place Cubs.

• The 1990 Mets were alone in first place as late as September 3.  But a 14-16 finish doomed them to second place, four games behind the division champion Pirates.

• Eight years later, the 1998 Mets held a one-game lead in the wild card race with just five games left in the season.  They lost each of their last five games to finish 1½ games behind the eventual wild card-winning Cubs.

• In 2008, one year after blowing a seven-game lead with 17 games to play, the Mets were on top of the NL East by a season-high 3½ games on September 10.  They were also 2½ games up on the Milwaukee Brewers for the wild card as late as September 20, when the season was down to its final eight games.  They failed to qualify for the playoffs.

What do the 1970, 1984, 1990, 1998 and 2008 Mets have in common?  Neither of them were able to stretch their division or wild card leads to more than 4½ games.  That's the same number of games the current Mets haven't been able to surpass in their quest to fight off the Washington Nationals.

The New York Mets have rarely missed the playoffs when they've had a lead of at least five games.  Only the 1972 and 2007 Mets know what it's like to watch the postseason on television after having such a lead.  But give the Mets a lead in the division or wild card race of more than seven games at any point in the season and they've never failed to crash the postseason party.

Entering Saturday's game against the Pirates, the 2015 Mets have been in first place for 64 of the season's 131 days.  They've held a 4½-game lead in the division for 11 of those days.  They've yet to hold a lead of at least five games.  History tells us that increasing that lead would subsequently increase the Mets' odds of making the playoffs.  If the lead were to grow by just three more games, the Mets would be in rarefied air - air that has only been breathed in by the 1969, 1986, 1988 and 2006 Mets.  Those were the only four teams that held a division lead of more than seven games.  You may recall those teams by their other name - NL East champions.

If the 2015 Mets want to join those squads as division champs, they just need to get over the 4½-game hump.  The longer they wait to get over it, the more nerve-wracking the final seven weeks of the season will be. 
  

Three Mo-METS In Time: Kenny Rogers, Aaron Heilman, Tom Glavine (The Three Enemigos)

A general manager can acquire baseball players in several ways.  These ways include - but are not limited to - trading for players, signing free agents or drafting players.  From 1997 to 2003, the man who traded, signed and drafted players for the Mets was general manager Steve Phillips.

Phillips helped build the Mets into a contender, adding proven talent like Mike Piazza and Robin Ventura to a squad that had ended a six-year run of futility during the first year of Phillips' tenure.  He also set the Mets up for success after his departure by drafting David Wright and signing Jose Reyes.

But Phillips also had his share of duds, as anyone who remembers the 2002 season can attest.  (The law office of Alomar, Vaughn, Burnitz and Cedeño lost a lot of cases for that team.)  He also failed to keep quality players when he had them.

Phillips could not re-sign first baseman John Olerud, who went back home to the Pacific Northwest after Phillips made a poorly-timed comment about the World Trade Organization riots going on in Seattle, saying, "I can't understand why anybody would want to play in Seattle after seeing the chaos.  I would think there'd be a mass exodus."  Olerud went on to win three Gold Gloves and made an All-Star team with the Mariners (he accomplished neither in his three years as a Met).  He also played in the postseason four times after leaving the Mets.

In addition to Olerud, who left via free agency, Phillips also pushed the panic button when shortstop Rey Ordoñez got hurt in 2000, trading Melvin Mora to the Orioles for short-term solution Mike Bordick.  The 35-year-old Bordick, who was having a career year in Baltimore (.831 OPS), underperformed in New York (.685 OPS).  Mora went on to become a two-time All-Star and Silver Slugger recipient in ten seasons with the O's, while Bordick went on to become an Oriole again in 2001, leaving the Mets as a free agent.

Needless to say, Phillips had his ups and downs as general manager of the Mets.  But three players - players who are now vilified in New York - were originally viewed as key pieces to helping the team either make a push for the postseason or bringing the team back to respectability.  One was acquired via a trade.  Another was drafted by Phillips.  The third came to New York as a free agent.  For the most part, they performed well while in New York.  But no one ever remembers that.  The only thing anyone remembers about them was their contribution to three of the lowest moments in Mets history, essentially turning them into the Three Enemigos - enemies of Mets fans who wanted so badly to taste postseason success, only to have it taken from them through three epic meltdowns.

Kenny Rogers, Aaron Heilman and Tom Glavine - the Three Enemigos!

In 1998, the Mets failed to end a ten-year postseason drought, coughing up a one-game lead in the wild card race in the season's final five games.  Although New York added future Hall of Famer Mike Piazza in May, the team only made minor moves at the trade deadline in 1998, dealing for players such as Tony Phillips, Wille Blair, Jorge Fabregas and Mike Kinkade.  Not wanting to use the same approach in 1999, general manager Phillips went all-out at the trade deadline, acquiring veterans Darryl Hamilton and Shawon Dunston.  He also made two separate trades with Oakland, dealing away former Generation K member Jason Isringhausen for reliever Billy Taylor and shipping off outfield prospect Terrence Long (who became the AL Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2000) for starting pitcher Kenny Rogers.

Rogers pitched well for the Mets during the season's final two months, tossing two complete games, one of which was a four-hit shutout against the San Francisco Giants on September 6.  The Mets won ten of the 12 starts made by Rogers, including his critical performance in the first game of the season-ending series versus the Pittsburgh Pirates.  With the Mets two games out of the wild card with three games to play, Rogers held the Bucs scoreless into the eighth inning, striking out a season-high ten batters.  But Rogers allowed a run in the eighth, then watched from the bench as a walk by Turk Wendell and a single off John Franco allowed the tying run to score.  The Mets eventually won the game in 11 innings to keep their postseason hopes alive and three days later, their playoff dreams came true after they defeated the Cincinnati Reds in the season's 163rd game.

In his first nine starts for the Mets following the trade, Rogers was a perfect 5-0 with a 3.23 ERA and 1.26 WHIP.  The Mets won eight of those nine starts, which impressed manager Bobby Valentine.

''He surprises me with his curveball, something I didn't know he had developed so well,'' said Valentine.  ''He's a much better pitcher than I remembered. ... He's everything that we had hoped for.'' 

What Valentine hadn't hoped for was Rogers falling apart in his next two starts, allowing a total of ten runs and not making it past the fifth inning in either game, both of which came against the sub-.500 Phillies.  His strong performance against the Pirates in his final regular season start only served to place a bandage on a cracking dam.  That crack would burst in the postseason.

The Mets lost a total of five games against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves in the 1999 postseason.  Three of those five losses were charged to Kenny Rogers.  A home run by backup catcher Todd Pratt ended the division series in four games, temporarily making Mets fans forget that Rogers was responsible for the team's only loss in the series, a game in which he allowed four runs in 4⅓ innings.

Rogers didn't fare much better a week later in his first NLCS start.  After dropping the first game to Atlanta, the Mets desperately needed a series-tying win before coming back home to Shea Stadium.  Although Rogers kept the Braves scoreless through the first five innings, he was constantly pitching in and out of trouble, allowing eight base runners in those five frames.  But the Braves squandered several scoring opportunities, grounding into two double plays and getting picked off first base on two occasions.  Rogers was more lucky than good in the first five innings.  His luck ran out in the sixth, as he allowed a game-tying two-run homer to Mets killer Brian Jordan, followed by another two-run homer by light-hitting catcher Eddie Perez.

"I can't believe I just gave up a homer to Eddie Perez." (Steve Schaefer/AFP/Getty Images)

It was bad enough that Rogers had coughed up the lead in the critical Game Two loss to the Braves.  But that's not what Mets fans remember him for.  The moment that truly made Rogers an enemy of the Mets' state happened four games later, when two of his fellow pitchers blew late-inning leads and he was called upon to keep the game tied.  Until it wasn't.

As a result of the game-winning Grand Slam Single by Robin Ventura in Game Five - a game in which Kenny Rogers pitched two scoreless innings of relief, the Mets became just the second team in big league history to force a Game Six after dropping the first three games of a best-of-seven series.  The series shifted back to Atlanta for the sixth game, but the Mets didn't show up for that game until after it had begun, falling behind by five runs in the first inning.

The never-say-die Mets did not panic, despite the early 5-0 deficit.  New York scored eight runs from the sixth through the eighth innings, taking a one-run lead into the bottom of the eighth.  But John Franco allowed a one-out single to Eddie Perez (you may remember him as the aforementioned light-hitting catcher), a stolen base by pinch-runner Otis Nixon and a run-scoring single by Brian Hunter.  Once again, the Mets and Braves were going to extra innings with the Braves a run away from winning the pennant.

In Game Five, Todd Pratt tied the game in the 15th inning with a bases-loaded walk.  Two days later, Pratt gave the Mets an extra-inning lead, hitting a sacrifice fly to score Benny Agbayani in the tenth.  But once again, the Mets bullpen could not hold the lead, as Armando Benitez allowed a one-out RBI single to yet another light-hitting Brave - pinch-hitter Ozzie Guillen.  The game was now tied, 9-9, as the teams moved on to the 11th inning.  This time, the Mets could not push across a run to take the lead in their half of the inning, a frame that saw the Mets use Shawon Dunston as a pinch-hitter for Benitez.  New York had used nine pitchers in their Game Five victory.  With Benitez now out of the game, the Mets needed an eighth pitcher to start the bottom of the 11th in Game Six.  Valentine rolled the dice and turned to Kenny Rogers.  The decision ended up costing the Mets their magical season.

Rogers allowed a leadoff double to Gerald Williams, who advanced to third on Bret Boone's sacrifice bunt.  Valentine then had Rogers intentionally walk Chipper Jones and Brian Jordan to set up a force play at every base.  But that also forced Rogers to pitch with pinpoint control to slugger Andruw Jones.  Finally, on a 3-2 count, Rogers threw a pitch that wasn't even close to the strike zone, allowing Williams to scamper home with the pennant-winning run and the Mets to fly home with their season coming to a screeching halt.

Although he pitched fairly well during the regular season following his mid-season trade to the Mets, Rogers fell apart in the postseason, going 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA.  Rogers pitched 12 innings in two starts and two relief appearances, allowing 26 base runners (16 hits, nine walks, one hit batsman).  The Mets eventually did win the pennant in 2000, but they did so without Rogers, who signed as a free agent with the Texas Rangers following his postseason pratfalls.  For many Mets fans, he left the team four balls too late.

After the Mets lost the 2000 World Series to the Yankees (without Rogers), Steve Phillips went into the 2001 June amateur draft hoping to find a talented arm who could help the team in the near future.  After all, four of the club's five starting pitchers in 2001 were already in their thirties and the team had just lost starting pitcher Mike Hampton to free agency.  However, as a result of Hampton's defection to the thin air and utopian school system in Denver, the Mets received two first round draft picks from the Rockies.  With their supplemental pick from Colorado, the Mets chose infielder David Wright and with their compensation pick, New York selected pitcher Aaron Heilman.

At least David Wright turned out okay.  (Doug Benc/Getty Images)

As a student-athlete at Notre Dame, Heilman set school records in career wins (43) and strikeouts (425).  He also rarely gave up home runs, allowing just 12 homers in 393⅔ innings.  That trend continued in the minor leagues, as Heilman surrendered just 15 homers in three minor league seasons before making his major league debut for the Mets in 2003.  Unfortunately, Heilman took some time to adjust to major league hitters, especially ones with power.

From 2003 to 2004, Heilman made 18 starts for the Mets, allowing 17 homers in 93⅓ innings.  It was more of the same for Heilman in his first start of the 2005 campaign, as he allowed home runs to noted Met-killers Brian Jordan and Chipper Jones in a loss to the Braves on April 9.  His next start was a revelation, as Heilman pitched a complete-game one-hit shutout against the Florida Marlins, allowing just a fourth-inning single to future Met Luis Castillo.  But when Heilman faced the Marlins again in his next start, he allowed seven runs and 11 hits in just four innings of work.  A month later, Heilman had lost his spot in the starting rotation.

The home run ball was one of the reasons why Heilman never made it as a starting pitcher, as he served up 22 taters in his first 25 career starts.  But once he moved to the bullpen, Heilman thrived.  He allowed just one homer in 45 relief appearances, with that long ball coming in garbage time on August 24 during the late innings of an 18-4 Mets victory over the Diamondbacks.

In 2006, Heilman once again finished strongly.  From July 19 to the end of the season, Heilman made 33 relief appearances, posting four wins, 12 holds, a 2.29 ERA and a stellar 0.93 WHIP.  Opposing batters hit just .190 off Heilman in those 33 games and most importantly, failed to hit any home runs off him in 35⅓ innings.  Heilman went nearly three months without allowing a home run until he surrendered what appeared to be a meaningless home run to Wilson Betemit in Game Two of the division series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.  It was the only run allowed by the Mets in a 4-1 victory.  Two weeks later, Heilman allowed another home run.  This time, the blast wasn't so meaningless.

In a tension-filled seventh game of the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Mets and Cards were tied, 1-1, going to the eighth inning.  As he had done throughout the season, manager Willie Randolph brought in Heilman to pitch the eighth inning.  Heilman rewarded his manager by pitching a scoreless frame, sandwiching two strikeouts around an intentional walk to Albert Pujols.  But instead of bringing in closer Billy Wagner to start the ninth, even though there was no chance for a save situation with the Mets playing at home, Randolph decided to hold Wagner in case the game went into extra innings, allowing Heilman to pitch the ninth.

Heilman had pitched beautifully in 2006, but he was most effective as a one-inning pitcher.  During the regular season, Heilman was asked to pitch more than one inning in 17 of his 74 relief appearances.  He allowed runs in nine of those 17 outings.  When asked to pitch no more than one inning, Heilman held the opposition scoreless in 45 of those 57 appearances.  But Game Seven was a different animal, and Heilman was going to pitch as long as Randolph needed him to stay on the mound.  Three batters into the ninth, Heilman became a part of Mets history, but not for a moment he wanted.

I wonder what's got everyone's attention in this photo.  (Photo by Bill Kostroun/AP)

During the 2006 regular season, Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina batted .216 and had a .271 on-base percentage.  He also was not a threat to go deep, as he had notched just 16 career homers in 1,033 plate appearances.  Clearly, Molina was not a Mike Piazza-type hitting catcher.  In fact, he couldn't even be compared to someone like, oh, let's say Mike Scioscia.  Although Molina's power was comparable to Scioscia, who hit 35 homers in 3,295 plate appearances through 1988, at least Scioscia knew how to reach base (.263 batting average, .350 on-base percentage during the same span).

In 1988, Scioscia had 31 plate appearances against the Mets during the regular season.  He produced no homers and one RBI against them.  Similarly, in his short career, Molina had 32 lifetime regular season plate appearances versus the Mets entering the 2006 NLCS.  Those plate appearances produced - you guessed it - no homers and one RBI for Molina.  In the 1988 National League Championship Series, Scioscia pulled a two-run homer off Dwight Gooden in the ninth inning at Shea Stadium in what was considered the turning point of the series.  Eighteen years later, a catcher with little power was batting in the ninth inning at Shea during a critical moment of the NLCS.  Once again, the light-hitting catcher had a runner on base and was facing a homegrown, first round draft pick.  And once again, the ball was pulled out of the yard.

Ever since becoming a relief pitcher in 2005, Aaron Heilman had become a master of keeping the ball in the park, allowing just six homers in 119 relief appearances during the 2005 and 2006 campaigns.  But once Molina beat him for a pennant-winning two-run homer in Game Seven of the 2006 NLCS, Heilman became quite susceptible to the long ball, serving up 18 homers in 159 games over the next two seasons.  And it wasn't just the fact that he was giving up homers.  He was also giving them up with men on base.

From 2003 to 2006, Heilman allowed 28 homers.  Exactly half of them (14) were solo shots.  After giving up the fateful home run to Molina, Heilman yielded 18 homers in his final two years as a Met.  Only four of them were hit with no one on base.  Six of them came with at least two runners aboard (four three-run homers, two grand slams).

Aaron Heilman was supposed to be a top prospect for the Mets who prided himself on keeping the ball in the park.  As a relief pitcher in 2005 and 2006, he was one of the best at doing just that.  That is, until Yadier Molina took a page out of the Mike Scioscia Guide to Hitting Devastating Home Runs.  Heilman - and the entire Mets franchise, for that matter - never recovered.

Speaking of being devastated, one player who signed with the Mets as a free agent during Steve Phillips' tenure as general manager was present at both the Kenny Rogers and Aaron Heilman meltdowns.  As a member of the Braves in 1999, he was in a celebratory mood when Rogers walked Andruw Jones to force in the decisive run, but seven years later he was more somber as a member of the Mets who witnessed the Molina home run.  One year after the Molina bomb, he put up a stinker of his own, not that he was all that devastated by it.

Tom Glavine was an enemy before and after he became an "enemigo".  In 17 years with the Braves (1987-2002, 2008), Glavine made 36 regular season starts against the Mets, posting a 17-7 record and 2.82 ERA.  His .708 winning percentage versus New York made him one of just three pitchers (min. 35 starts) who won at least 70% of his decisions against the Mets, joining two former Giants - Juan Marichal (26-8, .765 winning percentage) and Mike Krukow (22-7, .759).  But when Phillips needed to make a splash following the Mets' first losing season in six years, he turned to the Mets' nemesis, signing Glavine to a three-year, $35 million contract with a fourth-year option.  Glavine, who had 242 career wins at the time, thought he needed four productive seasons to reach 300 victories.

''I want to have the opportunity to win 300 games, and I think in order to do that, I have to pitch four years,'' said Glavine.  ''So I don't want to make a decision and in three years have to find a team to pitch for in the fourth year.  That fourth year is an important part of it.''

Glavine needed more than four years to reach 300 wins, as he produced 48 victories in his first four seasons as a Met.  But after becoming the only Mets pitcher to win multiple games during the 2006 postseason and needing just ten wins to become the first pitcher to win his 300th game while wearing a Mets uniform, the Mets almost had to bring Glavine back, which they did when they signed him to a one-year, $10.5 million contract to pitch for the team in 2007.

The Mets weren't nearly as successful in 2007 as they had been a year earlier.  Neither was Glavine, for that matter.  After going 15-7 with a 3.82 ERA in 2006, allowing three runs or fewer in all but seven of his 32 starts, his 2007 campaign was quite pedestrian (13-8, 4.45 ERA).  Glavine also allowed six runs or more in seven of his 34 starts in 2007.  One of those seven poor efforts came in Glavine's next-to-last start of the season, when he allowed six runs in five innings against Washington.  The Mets scored six runs in the ninth inning to make the Nationals sweat, but fell short by a single tally, losing a 10-9 heartbreaker.

Although Glavine could have easily been remembered for that subpar performance, the Mets still had a two-game lead in the division over the Phillies with five games to play.  Glavine would get one more opportunity to pitch before the end of the regular season, with the Mets hoping that the division could be clinched before then.  But it wasn't.  And Glavine's final start would determine if there would be October baseball at Shea Stadium.  Spoiler alert: There wasn't.

One day after John Maine had one of the best pitching performances in franchise history (no runs, one hit allowed, 14 strikeouts, no-hitter broken up with two outs in the eighth), Glavine had one of the worst.  Four batters into the game, Glavine had already given up more hits than Maine did the previous day.  Glavine faced every batter in the Marlins' lineup in the regular season finale.  He retired one of them.  The southpaw allowed four singles, a double, two walks and made a throwing error before hitting opposing pitcher Dontrelle Willis with the bases loaded to force in a run.  When reliever Jorge Sosa allowed a two-run double to Dan Uggla - the only batter Glavine retired in his abbreviated outing - the book on Glavine was closed.

In the Mets' biggest game of the season, Glavine pitched one-third of an inning, allowing seven runs - all of them earned.  His ERA for the day was an unfathomable 189.00.  The only thing larger than his earned run average was the enormity of the loss, as the 8-1 defeat, coupled with the Phillies' 6-1 victory, gave Philadelphia its first division crown in 14 years.  The crushing loss also sent the Mets home prematurely after the team held a seven-game lead in the division with 17 games to play.

As upset as Mets fans were with the team's collapse during the final three weeks of the season, they became even more incensed after hearing how Glavine felt about his performance, especially his choice of words when asked by a reporter if he was devastated by the loss.

"I'm not devastated, but I am disappointed.  Devastated is a word used for greater things in life than a game.  I was disappointed in the way I pitched."





For Mets fans who lived and died with the team since before Glavine had thrown his first pitch in the majors, the season-ending loss in 2007 was one of the toughest to comprehend, almost as difficult to swallow as Glavine's post-game comments.  Glavine's performance not only capped an historic collapse, it reinforced the notion that the Mets could not win the big game, similar to Kenny Rogers' loss in Game Six of the 1999 NLCS and Aaron Heilman's defeat in Game Seven of the 2006 NLCS.

The Mets once again lost a late-season division lead in 2008, although that one was just a three-and-a-half game lead, then followed that up with six consecutive losing seasons.  If only Kenny Rogers had not suffered a postseason meltdown in 1999, or if Aaron Heilman had known that light-hitting catchers can indeed become supermen at Shea Stadium in October, or even if Tom Glavine had been a little more terrific and a little less horrific in his final start as a Met, the history of the franchise could have been quite different.

Steve Phillips helped put together a team that made the only back-to-back playoff appearances in club annals.  He also helped lead the team down a dark path with some ill-fated trades, draft picks and free agent signings.  Three of those acquisitions had success with the Mets for most of the time they toiled in New York.  But they wilted horribly when the team needed them the most.

Kenny Rogers (traded to the Mets), Aaron Heilman (drafted by the Mets) and Tom Glavine (signed as a free agent with the Mets) could have been remembered for many things.  But their legacies will always come down to three heartbreaking defeats, turning three potential heroes into villains in the eyes of long-suffering Mets fans.

Nothing the Three Enemigos did prior to their untimely performances with the Mets will ever matter.  Whether they admitted it or not, those three moments in time will always be devastating.


Note:  One Mo-MET In Time is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players who will forever be known for a single moment, game or event, regardless of whatever else they accomplished during their tenure with the Mets.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:

January 5, 2015: Mookie Wilson 
January 12, 2015: Dave Mlicki
January 19, 2015: Steve Henderson 
January 26, 2015: Ron Swoboda
February 2, 2015: Anthony Young
February 9, 2015: Tim Harkness