As The End Drew Near

By Jack Flynn
Posted Wednesday, September 17, 2008

It was the type of at-bat that makes or breaks a baseball team’s season.

David Wright hung there in the batter’s box, fouling off pitch after pitch, trying to keep himself in the at-bat and his team in the game on Tuesday night. The New York Mets, at this point in the season a legitimate playoff contender mostly by attrition, were losing 1-0 in the ninth inning of a game that had no business being as close as it was.

On the mound for the Washington Nationals was Joel Hanrahan. He is currently the closer for the franchise with the worst record in Major League Baseball. These are the teams that playoff contenders steamroll on their way to clinching a division crown. In contrast, the Mets had managed just two runs and nine hits off Nationals pitching in the first 17 innings of this series to that point.

But that’s how it is with the Mets these days – when the calendar reaches mid-September they are the ones who resemble a last-place team, no matter who they are playing.

The Nationals put quite a few nails in the Mets’ coffin last season, winning five out of six September games during that epic and unforgettable collapse. Now here was Hanrahan, one strike away from retiring the most important hitter in the Mets’ lineup, desperately trying to find the pitch that would keep the Nationals in line to hammer home another nail in what is beginning to resemble a brand-new coffin.

Hanrahan only became the Nationals’ closer at the beginning of August, after Jon Rauch was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. That’s what happens with bad teams – the best players get shipped off to pennant contenders and those left behind step into unfamiliar roles and do what they can with them.

As he continued to foul pitches off, waiting for the relatively inexperienced closer to make a mistake, Wright gave casual baseball observers a small glimpse into why he is so beloved among the Mets’ fan base. His commitment to success is legendary – there is a well-traveled story about Wright and how he used to take so much batting practice when he was in the minor leagues that, for a time, he was actually leaving himself nearly too fatigued to play actual games.

Ten pitches into the at-bat, Mets fans still had hope that their hero would finally give them something to cheer about. Surely he had seen all of Hanrahan’s arsenal at this point; surely the Nationals’ third –string closer would finally make a mistake. When he did, surely Wright would drive the ball deep into the Washington night and begin the rally that would allow the Mets to end the evening where they had started it – in first place.

After a time, Hanrahan wound up and threw his eleventh pitch to Wright. The ball landed in Wil Nieves’ glove ahead of Wright’s swing, finally ending the at-bat and with it, the Mets’ chances at victory. The Met third baseman took the long walk back to the dugout, a beaten man representing a beaten team.

Two more batters needed to be retired, but Hanrahan had already cut what was left of the Mets’ heart right out of their chest. Carlos Beltran was the next batter; he let a strike go by and then lined a shot that settled comfortably into the glove of Nationals’ center fielder Lastings Milledge. Two outs.

How Milledge must be enjoying his former team’s misfortune these days. He was in the Mets’ clubhouse last September – distrusted by the former manager, alienated by his former teammates, consistently scapegoated by a mainstream press corps too lazy and indulgent to question what, exactly, this kid had done to deserve so much scorn.

It’s easy to forget that Milledge is still just 23 years old and, while unquestionably still a raw talent, has raked at every single level of organized baseball he’s played at. There were some Mets fans who reveled in Milledge’s slow start at the plate in 2008 – and a handful of them used the ugliest of descriptions to express their satisfaction with his departure.

Well, Milledge is hitting .325/.399/.529 with seven home runs and ten steals since July 31, before stroking two more singles in last night’s game. He has five hits so far in this series. Try finding those simple-minded fans now.

The last batter of the game was Carlos Delgado. Hanrahan, emboldened by his success so far, pumped two quick fastballs past Delgado. The first baseman never took the bat off his shoulder. Delgado held his swing at an eye-level waste pitch, then took an embarrassing hack at a 58-foot breaking ball that Nieves could not corral on his first attempt. Delgado never even bothered to run to first, and Nieves put the tag on to complete the game.

Players on beaten teams do not hustle. They walk off the field with their heads hung low, as winners slap tags on their back to complete their failure.

Jack Flynn is too annoyed to come with a clever reason about why you should visit his blog, Productive Outs and Crackerjack. Just go check it out.