The Hunted

By Metstradamus
Posted Friday, August 31, 2007

Oh how times have changed.

In late June and early July, it was the Mets taking 3 out of 4 from the Phillies, putting everyone’s minds at ease regarding the state of the Mets. Now, it’s August…a more important month. And the Phillies have gone one better and swept the Mets in a four game series.

Heck, times have changed from Sunday, when the Mets had a seven game lead. And now it’s two.

Is it time to panic yet?

Normally, I would say no. All season, I’ve refused to panic. Many fans, even with a comfortable lead in the N.L. East, have talked like the Mets are a last place outfit, and I’ve refused to give in to that. I’ve basically said all year that it’s better to be the hunted than the hunter.

But when the hunter has a gun, and the hunted is the baseball equivalent of a three toed sloth, then no, it’s not better to be the hunted. And right now, the Mets are a three toed sloth sitting in the open field waiting, almost begging, to be put out of its misery, and it’s sad. (I don’t condone the hunting of three toed sloths…only Mets relievers.) It’s sad because this team supposedly was so much better than that. At least this team was supposedly good enough to at least take one lousy game in Philadelphia, which would have made it a four game lead. While that seems bad, it’s still arms length. But to be swept?

I could have understood if the Mets had lost this series with high numbers…8-6, 10-5, scores like that…like the 11-10 score they lost by on Thursday. At least you could have attributed those kind of scores to playing in that shoebox that they call a ballpark. But when your lineup puts up deuces in the first three games in said shoebox, you have problems. When you put up deuces in the first three games in the series against a rookie who you touched up for 6 runs in 4 and 2/3’s inning back in June, a guy who had just come off the disabled list with the highest ERA in the N.L., and a 44 year old who had an August ERA over seven, you have lots of problems...the kind of problems not easily solved by simply leaving Philadelphia.

(J.D. Durbin, Adam Eaton, and Jamie Moyer, and last I checked, are not Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, and Dave McInally.)

The easy answer to “Why did this happen” is this: “The Mets didn’t hit.” Great. Here’s the hard question: “Why couldn’t the Mets hit four pitchers who have horrible career numbers against certain Met hitters, in a ballpark that’s the relative size of a teacup?” I may be part of the Flushing University faculty, and I may have a soothsayer-like moniker. But I’m not God. So that answer isn’t part of my lesson plan. You’ll have to take a more advanced class for that. And when you do, and you get the answer, please post it in the Flushing University forums. I’d love to know.

In the meantime, go ahead and panic. I’ll be the one on the street with my hair on fire.