Mets vs. Phils - Rambling Comments and Observations

This past weekend’s series against the Phillies was the cherry on the sundae for this horrific Mets season. Not only were they mathematically eliminated with Sunday night’s double-header loss, but the fatal blow was struck by none other than their former comrade, Pedro Martinez. Yes, that would be the same Pedro who was hurt the majority of the 2007 and 2008 seasons yet would not consider accepting less money from the Mets to return in 2009. The same Pedro who then took less money to go pitch midseason for our arch rivals, The Phils. How’s that for irony?


Oddly, I bear no ill-will towards Mr. Martinez. Baseball is a business and frankly, even if he had been willing to accept less money from the Mets earlier in the season, I don’t think the Mets were that interested. The truth of the matter is, with all of the injuries, even if Pedro had signed with us earlier on, I doubt his presence would have changed anything in this wretched season. And the way karma works; he probably would have gotten injured already somehow!

Pedro aside, however, the thing I find most interesting about this weekend’s Mets / Phils series was that going into it, most Mets fans expected our shell of a team to get drubbed soundly. But the truth is, they were in every game and made things pretty competitive. Ok, we all knew the Mets would ultimately end up on the losing end of the majority of the games. But unlike the Marlins series, the team actually showed up for the games - especially with all of the late inning scoring. If you are a Philly fan, you have to be a little concerned that a team without many of their regulars managed to put up this much of a fight. You also have to be concerned about your bullpen, which right now looks horrendous.

Now, I’m definitely not suggesting that the Phillies’ bullpen woes will lead to them losing the division a la the Mets of 2007 and 2008. It takes a special bunch to do what the Mets did the previous two years when they blew respective 7 and 3.5 game leads in the NL East with 17 games left on the season. But the circumstances right now for the Phils are eerily similar to those of the Mets of 2007 and 2008.

As of today, September 15th, the Phils are 7 games up on the Marlins with 19 games left to play. Three upcoming games are against Atlanta, who still has a long-shot chance at the Wild Card berth. Even scarier is that five are against the similarly Wild Card gunning Marlins, including the three that end the season. In 2007 and 2008 the Marlins were the final nails in the coffin for the Mets during their fateful season-ending matchups. Adding to the similarities are the bullpen woes of the 2007-2008 Mets and the 2009 Phils.

The fat lady has sung and has been escorted offstage for the Mets in 2009. But could she be headed to Philly for an encore performance? As a Mets fan, I don’t know. To me, bullpen woes aside, the Phillies have insane offense, play good defense, have good starting pitching and play with heart. These are factors that the Mets definitely did not get at all in 2009 or at the end of the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Truly good teams stop bad streaks from picking up too much momentum and spiraling out of control. The Mets weren’t good enough to stop the snowball effect. The Phils have 19 games left to prove they are by figuring out a solution with that bullpen. Otherwise, these last 19 games are going to be the most painful Philly fans will ever experience. Trust me on this. Been there, done this twice and it isn’t remotely fun.