If The Mets Win Sunday, Jonathon Niese Is A Goner

The shirt might be coming off Jonathon Niese's back if he wins on Sunday.

Did the title to this post get your attention?  It should.  Because recent history shows that winning a game at home on Closing Day usually leads to a starting pitcher's exit from New York.  Please allow me to expound on that statement.

The Mets moved from Shea Stadium to Citi Field following the 2008 campaign.  Since then, the Mets have won three of their first four Closing Day games at their new digs.  Citi Field's first Closing Day in 2009 saw Nelson Figueroa take the hill against the Houston Astros.  Figueroa pitched the only complete game shutout of his nine-year career on that final Sunday, holding the Astros to four hits in the Mets' 4-0 victory.  Figueroa never pitched another game for the Mets, as he was selected off waivers by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2010.

After losing their next Closing Day game in 2010, the Mets ended the 2011 season with another complete game shutout.  This time, it was Miguel Batista doing the honors, besting the Cincinnati Reds, 3-0.  By the following July, Batista had been released by the Mets.

Finally, in 2012, R.A. Dickey started for the Mets in their final home game at Citi Field.  Dickey made 13 Pirates walk the plank back to the dugout, striking out a baker's dozen to earn his 20th victory of the season in the Mets' 6-5 win over Pittsburgh.  Dickey made one more start for the Mets in Miami (a no-decision) before being traded during the offseason to the Toronto Blue Jays.

That brings to Sunday's Closing Day game against the Milwaukee Brewers - a game in which Jonathon Niese is scheduled to start.  The Mets have never won a Closing Day at Citi Field and had its starting pitcher in that game make it through the following season as a Met.  And in two of those three wins, that day's starter never threw another pitch for the Mets at Citi Field.

Sure, Jonathon Niese still has three years left on his current contract, but facts are facts.  Mets pitchers who win on Closing Day at Citi Field don't stick around to enjoy their end-of-season victories.  In fact, the last time the Mets won a Closing Day game at home and they kept that day's winning pitcher around was in 2004, when Tom Glavine defeated the Montreal Expos, 8-1 at Shea Stadium.  Of course, Glavine remained with the Mets until 2007 but the Expos didn't stick around in Montreal, moving to their new home in Washington the following season.

If only Glavine's last game had come in 2004 rather than 2007...

Sunday Bloody Sunday

I married a Mets fan.  A Mets fan with a full season ticket plan.  Before meeting my Gal For All Seasons, I was a Sunday plan holder at Shea Stadium and continued with the "Sunday-ish" plan at Citi Field (the one that gave you 10 of the 13 Sunday games, plus five weekday games).

I enjoyed going to these games, which, as long as ESPN didn't interfere, were always day games.  I was able to relax, have some comfort food, and watch the Mets do their best to send me home with a win.  That was then.  Now is another story.

Sunday for the Mets has turned into a bloodbath.

On June 3 (a Sunday), the Mets honored John Franco at Citi Field, inducting him into the team's Hall of Fame.  The celebration was topped off with a 6-1 victory over the defending World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, improving the team's record to a season-high eight games above .500 (31-23) and moving them into a tie for first place in the National League East.  The calendar now says we're a few days away from August.  The Mets are still searching for their next win on a Sunday.

Since that celebratory Sunday, the Mets have gone 17-30, falling from a first place tie to a 12½-game deficit in the division.  They are also 8½ games out of the final wild card spot.  Although they haven't played particularly well on most days, they have been exceedingly bad on Sundays.

The Mets have lost every Sunday game they have played since June 3, a total of seven games in all.  And it's not just that they've lost.  It's how they've lost.

Their first three Sunday games after June 3 were all close games.  But they were all losses.  On June 10, the Mets lost a heartbreaker to the Yankees, 5-4, in a game they led most of the way.  One week later, on June 17, they lost at home to the Reds, 3-1.  In that game, Chris Young was shutting out the Reds into the fifth inning and then - kablooey - the Reds scored all their runs off him in one game-changing frame.

On June 24, the Mets once again played the Yankees.  Twice they rallied from four-run deficits to eventually tie the game in the sixth.  But the recently-DFA'd Miguel Batista put an end to any hopes of a dramatic come-from-behind victory by allowing a run in the eighth, giving the Yankees the 6-5 win.

At least those games were close.  The Sunday games in July have been a different story.

Ike Davis has been great recently, but even he can't bear to watch the Mets on a Sunday.

In July, the Mets have played four games on a Sunday.  They have lost all four games by a minimum of five runs each.  On July 1, they lost to the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine, 8-3, preventing what would have been their first four-game sweep of the Dodgers in Los Angeles.  On July 8, in their final game before the All-Star Break, the Mets lost at home to the Cubs, 7-0.  That loss dropped the Mets out of the second wild card spot, a place they have not been anywhere near since then.  On July 15, the Mets were swept away by the Braves, losing the series finale, 6-1.  Finally, last Sunday (June 22), the Mets lost once again to the Dodgers, this time at Citi Field.  Their 8-3 loss capped a three-game sweep by Los Angeles and dropped the Mets below .500 for the first time in 2012.  The Mets have not seen the break-even point since then.

Since June 3, the Mets have lost seven consecutive Sunday games.  The first three were all close.  The next four were blowouts.  There's an old saying that goes, "you win some, you lose some".  For the Mets, that saying can be changed to "you win none, you lose some, then you lose some more", especially when referring to their recent efforts on Sundays.

I used to look forward to Sunday games.  Now I dread them.  It really has become Sunday Bloody Sunday for the Mets over the past two months.

National Crisis Averted

With a little help from the bats of David Wright and Ike Davis, plus the right weather conditions for R.A. Dickey’s knuckleball to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, the Mets avoided being swept in Washington and the greater embarrassment of coming home after a winless road trip against the division rivals directly ahead of them in the NL East standings.

How bad was this road trip before Thursday’s finale?  I’ll tell you how bad it was.  Davey Johnson offered some of his traditional dugout snack food (Rolaids) to Terry Collins to help him deal with the heartburn, heartache and heart stomping going on between the foul lines since the All-Star Break.

Okay, so the sharing of the Rolaids between past and present Mets skippers might not be entirely accurate, but after watching and listening to the team before and after their games this week, perhaps it should be the fans who start raiding Davey Johnson’s medicine cabinet for some vintage 1986 antacid tablets.

For example, on Tuesday Jordany Valdespin put on his Air Jordanys and sent a Tyler Clippard pitch flying into the night.  Valdespin had come into the game as a pinch-hitter for Jason Bay.  So did Terry Collins reward the ‘Spinster for his late-inning heroics?   Nope.  The next day, Jason Bay’s name was once again on the starting lineup card, while Valdespin was once again keeping Bay’s seat on the bench warm.

Then, on Wednesday, after the Mets had cut Washington’s lead in half, Collins gave the ball to Saturday’s starting pitcher, Miguel Batista to keep the Mets within a run of the Nationals.  That’s not last Saturday’s starter.  That’s this coming Saturday’s starter, as in three days after his relief effort.  So of course, Batista allowed two runs to the Nats, which ended up being the winning runs after the Mets hit two solo homers off closer Tyler Clippard in the ninth.  But of course, when Batista was interviewed after the game, he claimed the Mets were not only better than the Nationals, but that they were THE BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL!

Let me rewind that.

Batista, who gave up the runs that proved to be the winning tallies, doesn’t think there is any team in baseball better than the Mets.  Now I know Batista is a published novelist and poet, but I don’t think his poetic license extends to post-game interviews.  I mean, was he waxing poetic or was he just a poet who gets waxed by other hitters?  Seems to me as if the latter has been true more often than not, and by Terry Collins giving him a start on Saturday on two days rest, perhaps Batista is writing the final chapters of his Mets career.

Let me set the record straight.  The Mets are not the best team in baseball.  They’re not even the best team in New York.  Heck, I think a little league team or two in Queens might argue that the Mets aren’t even the best team in their own borough.  But they are a good team.  And sometimes that’s all you need to crash the postseason party.   But when they lose five straight games to teams that are standing behind the velvet rope checking for their IDs … well … let’s just say the Mets are going to have a tough time proving they should be invited to their exclusive shindig.

Terry Collins has to make better decisions as the manager.  The relief corps has to stop being the relief corpse.  And they should stop making stupid statements when they come off the field.  The only statements fans need to hear are ones made by the bats, gloves and arms between the foul lines.  That’s it.

By winning the series finale against Washington on Thursday, a National crisis was averted.  For now.  The Mets could once again be in crisis mode when the Nats visit Citi Field for a crucial three-game series next week.  But only if they fail to play the way we know they can play.  With heart.  With cojones.  With a desire to win.  With the passion they showed during the first half.  Are those Mets still with us?  Let’s hope so.