We Believe In Comebacks, But Not Winning

The Mets are off to their worst start in 18 years. Not since 1992 have they begun the season with a 2-6 record. The team is in last place, five games behind the Phillies. The team's slogan for 2010, "We Believe In Comebacks", was supposed to be for the team coming back into contention after a miserable 2009 season.

Apparently, the team didn't read the fine print when they were informed of the new slogan. So far, the Mets have been able to come back from late-inning deficits, but have not finished the job.

Last Wednesday against the Marlins, the Mets erased a five-run seventh-inning deficit, turning a 6-1 deficit into a 6-6 game that went into extra innings. Unfortunately, Hisanori Takahashi gave up the go-ahead run in the tenth inning and the Mets fell to the Marlins by the final score of 7-6.

On Saturday, the Mets entered the ninth inning against Nationals' closer Matt Capps trailing by one run. Capps was not particularly effective, giving up a line drive single to Jose Reyes, followed by two walks. The Mets appeared poised to complete the comeback when Rod Barajas lined a frozen rope to left field. Of course, that's Willie Harris territory, meaning that the catch was made and the comeback was thwarted.

Now we get to last night's game. The Mets were already in last place and needed a victory to get back on track. They were trailing 5-3 going to the eighth inning, but scored a run in each of the last two frames to send the game into extra innings. Could the Mets finally complete a comeback, pulling out a much-needed victory at Coors Field?

I'll let the following set of pictures paint the picture of what happened on the fourth pitch from Jenrry Mejia to Rockies' catcher Chris Iannetta.



For the third time this year, the Mets appeared poised to come back from a deficit, snaring a victory from the jaws of defeat. Instead, all they snared was another heartbreaking loss. Had they completed each comeback, their record would be a much more attractive 5-3 instead of the dreadful 2-6 that's staring back at us from the newspaper.

The Mets do believe in coming back. They've shown the ability to fight back from an early deficit on three occasions this year. However, if they want to remain relevant in the NL East race and not continue to be the laughing stock of baseball, they must add "We Believe In Winning" to the equation.

If the Mets don't learn how to pull out these tight ballgames soon, not only will their 2010 slogan seem silly, but the fans will stop believing in coming back...to Citi Field, that is.