Marlins 7 Mets 4

The Mr. Hyde alter-ego of Oliver Perez took the mound, and with it, the ballgame. From the first inning, it was apparent that Ollie didn’t have his command, but it appeared as though he was going to grit his way through. Unfortunately, he couldn’t deal without his command and the bit of adversity that struck him in the top of the third.

Just minutes after rapping an unlikely, two-out, RBI hit to drive in the first Mets run, Perez gave up a similarly unlikely bloop base hit to opposing pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim — he of the .033 batting average. It was pure, sheer luck — a Texas Leaguer in the Bermuda Triangle between Carlos Delgado, Shawn Green, and Luis Castillo. It shouldn’t have been a big deal. The next batter Hanley Ramirez got ahead 2-0, but Ollie came back to even it up 2-2. Ramirez fought off a few good potential strike-three pitches, then got sawed off by another great pitch on his hands. However, the ball flew a few dozen feet past his barrel, over David Wright’s head and into the no man’s land exactly opposite of Kim’s hit. Perez then hit Dan Uggla to load the bases, but got Jeremy Hermida to ground to Wright, who went for the forceout at home. LoDuca fired back to third to nail Ramirez for the DP, but Wright flaked and tried to tag Ramirez instead of simply stepping on the bag. Perez then pulled off the dramatic, striking out slugger Miguel Cabrera, and it appeared he’d get out of the mess. With the crowd behind him, and the momentum of retiring the Marlins’ best hitter, Mr. Hyde reappeared, and hit the next two batters, driving in two runs.

In the bottom of the inning, the Mets fought back, with Luis Castillo singling and stealing second, then jogging home on a 450-foot homer by Carlos Beltran, getting the Mets as close as they’d get all night: 4-3.

It looked like all would be OK when Ollie started off the fourth with two quick outs. Unfortunately, the opposition making two outs has been the kiss of death for the Mets lately, as the Fish hit an infield single, a legit single, drew a walk, then hit another infield single — and scored two more runs. Watching it all unravel was mind-boggling. Other than the walk, Perez didn’t make bad pitches. Maybe he needs to read The Secret.

And that was the ballgame, because the Mets offense shut down after Beltran’s blast (unless you want to count a crappy RBI groundout by Wright that scored Castillo in the fifth. It’s amazing — the Marlins can score two runs riding two infield singles, and the Mets couldn’t muster much of anything with a dozen base hits of their own. Of course, it doesn’t help when your opponent draws four bases on balls and three HBPs in key situations and you only reach base with hits (oh, and one lousy walk — though NONE against Kim, who walks around five for every nine innings).

Notes

Luis Castillo was 3-for-5, Carlos Delgado poked two useless hits in the hole vacated by Cabrera during the shift, and Shawn Green rapped two singles up the middle. All those singles and Beltran’s homer was pretty much the extent of the excitement on the offense.

In case you missed it, the Phillies won (surprise, surprise), giving the Mets sole possession of second place.

Next Game

John Maine faces Chris Seddon at 1:10 PM. It’s do or die — and now that the Phils are one up, destiny is out of the Mets’ control. Bravo, boys, and best of luck. Let’s hope the young Marlins decide to hit the NYC club scene all night long, and show up with a collective hangover — the Mets need every edge they can get at this point.

Cardinals 3 Mets 0

Pedro did his job, holding the Cardinals to just three runs and pushing through seven full innings. However, the offense — which had been averaging about seven runs per game lately — did not show up to work.

Joel Pineiro — the guy who had a 6.36 ERA last year, and was dumped by the Red Sox (and who I clamored for both over the winter and after he was DFA’s) — pitched the game of his life, allowing only three hits and no runs over eight innings. You can’t really fault the Mets offense for this one — Pineiro was marvelous, with pinpoint command of every pitch in his repertoire. Oh, and the Cardinals defense collected about fourteen web gems (can’t decide who I loathe more, David Eckstein or Miguel Cairo).

Meantime, Rod Serling showed up in Citizen’s Bank Park to narrate the Braves-Phillies matchup. John Smoltz — a.k.a., Mr. Stupendous — pitched an awful four innings before being knocked out. Gold Glover Mark Teixeira made a critical error (as did Smoltz). When it was all over, the Phillies breezed to a 6-4 victory (it wasn’t nearly as close as the final score), and the phabulous Phillie phans were waving towels in jubilation at their team’s entrance into first place for the first time all year.

Notes

The Mets have zero passion, and are devoid of intestinal fortitude. Feel free to make plans for October — there won’t be any games to miss.

Keith Hernandez reminded me today of why I hated his announcing when he first came on board as a color man a few years ago. He started commentating when the Mets stunk, and he’s more of a bandwagon jumper than a homer — pointing out all the great things that the winning team is doing and criticizing the losing team’s shortfalls in any particular game. And often, the criticism is baseless or illogical. For example, he was getting on the Mets in the later innings for not being aggressive and swinging at first-pitch strikes. Hello? Keith? Have you watched the first 158 games of the season? If you paid attention, you may have noticed that the Mets were the most over-aggressive team in MLB, and routinely swung at first pitches regardless of the score. It was just their dumb luck that it took them 158 games to finally take a sound fundamental approach, and they happen to run into a guy who’s pitching the best game of his career.

Next Game

Does it matter? Oliver Perez will lose tomorrow against Byung-Hyun Kim in a 7:10 PM start at Shea. I will be in the Loge Level, Section 20, two-fisting adult beverages until I can’t see. Please feel free to stop by and swat me over the head with a toy bat.

The Mets play the Cardinals today in a long-overdue makeup game from June 28th. The teams had split the first two games, so this is the “rubber match”. In case you hadn’t heard, Pedro Martinez starts against Joel Pineiro. Not that it matters — because, when, after all, was the last time the starting pitcher of a game had a remote effect on the final score?

On the one hand, the fact the Mets are playing a game today instead of getting a much-needed day off really stinks. The team as a whole is in a tatters — completely exhausted, though more emotionally and mentally than physically. Right now the best thing would probably be a day off to let the pain of the last two weeks fade away. A recharge — like a refreshing nap you take in the late afternoon to get your motor running for a long evening on the town.

But the Mets are not afforded that luxury, so we’ll have to take an optimistic view. Maybe seeing the Cardinals for this one time will remind the Mets of their dominance from the first week in the season. Perhaps in turn it will spark a pang of confidence — truly, the most vital thing this totally demoralized team needs.

Further, perhaps by seeing the Cardinals uniforms, they’ll be reminded of The St. Louis Story of 2006 — and be inspired. If you’ve forgotten, allow me to refresh your memory, and provide some comparisons.

What’s today? September 27th. OK. A little more than one week ago — on September 19th — the Mets had allowed their 7-game lead to drop to 2.5 games. It was a 7-game lead as late as one week before — September 12th.

Now, rewind one year, to September 19th, 2006. On that day, the first-place Cardinals enjoyed a 7-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds, and an 8.5-game lead over the Houston Astros (wow, what a difference a year makes; those two teams are fighting for the cellar right now). This is what the standings looked like on that day:

Cardinals 80-69
Reds 74-77
Astros 72-78

There was somewhere between 10-13 games left to play, depending on the team.

On September 27th, 2006 — a year ago today, the NL Central standings looked like this:

Cardinals 81-76
Astros 80-78
Reds 78-80

Whoa. In a matter of eight games, the Cards went 1-7, and the Astros went 8-0. A day later, after the Cards dropped another one, it looked like this:

Cardinals 81-77
Astros 81-78
Reds 79-80

So, after having a 7-game lead as late as September 19th, the Cardinals had gone 1-8 and allowed the Astros to get within a half-game of first place, with only three games left in the season (the Cards actually had a fourth makeup game that never needed to be made up). This is how it panned out at the end of 162 games:

Cardinals 83-78
Astros 82-80
Reds 80-82

You know the rest of the story — all too well. The Cards limped into the playoffs, everyone wrote them off, they got hot at exactly the right time, and became World Champs.

We nearly had to use this in June. I think now is as desperate a time as any: