For the Mets, Groundhog Day comes in September, the latter half of September, to be specific. Unless they alter the course of their season in the next week to 10 days, the Mets will be sentenced to having the same nightmares every year at this time. In the Bill Murray movie, the same events occur at the same time every day. With the Mets, the same events occur at the same time every year.
Santayana might have said he who cannot learn from history is doomed to repeat it, but the Mets have learned the excruciatingly painful effect of their history; they just can’t seem to do anything about it.
The results of the Mets’ last several games have been uncanny. They have been downright scary, in fact.
There has been no more frequent topic of conversation inside or outside the Mets’ clubhouse than their collapse last season in the final 17 days of September. Having had a seven-game lead over the Phillies, they lost 12 of their last 17 games and the National League East championship.
Throughout this season, when they were asked about it, and they were asked often about it, Mets players and officials said that was last season; this is a new season. But as soon as the final 17 days of this season arrived, the Mets began doing the same thing as they did a year ago. They started losing games and their lead over the Phillies.
One might have said, at the start of the 17 days, that the Phillies had the Mets right where they wanted them.
In the space of three days, the Mets’ lead over the Phillies shrank from three games to half a game. One more day, and the lead was gone altogether, and the Phillies were in first place, the Mets in second, half a game back.
The Mets lost four of five games to the Braves and the Nationals; the Phillies completed a four-game sweep of the Brewers and beat the Braves in the opener of their series for a five-game winning streak, matching their longest winning streak of the season.
Between the start of September and the start of the 17 days, the Mets swept a three-game series from the Brewers and took two games from the Nationals. But as soon as they reached the 17 days, the Mets started losing.
Halfway through their four-game series with the Nationals, when they had fallen out of first place, the Mets had time to wake up and find that they could break out of their Groundhog-Day dilemma. It wouldn’t be easy, though. They would have to win some games, and they had no assurance that they could do that.
Here is what happened last September and what has happened so far this September:
| September 200714: lost to Philies 3-2 in 10 +5½
15: lost to Phillies 5-3 +4½ 16: lost to Phillies 10-6 +3½ 17: lost to Nationals 12-4 +2½ 18: lost to Nationals 9-8 +1½ 19: beat Nationals 8-4 +2½ 20: lost to Marlins 8-7 in 10 +1½ 21: beat Marlins 9-6 +1½ 22: beat Marlins 7-2 +1½ 23: beat Marlins 7-6 in 11 +2½ 24: lost to Nationals 13-4 +2 25: lost to Nationals 10-9 +2 26: lost to Nationals 9-6 +1 27: lost to Cardinals 3-0 T 28: lost to Marlins 7-4 -1 29: beat Marlins 13-0 T 30: lost to Marlins 8-1 -1 |
September 200813: lost to Braves 3-2 ——-
13: beat Braves 5-0 +2½ 14: lost to Braves 7-4 +1 15: lost to Nationals 7-2 +½ 16: lost to Nationals 1-0 -½ |
Here is a game-by-game synopsis of last September and this:
2007
14: 2-3 (10) Phillies (Dobbs sac fly in 10th; Wright HR)
15: 3-5 Phillies (Phils score 3 in 8th, last 2 on Rollins triple)
16: 6-10 Phillies (Dobbs grand slam in 6th; Mets 6 errors; Wright HR)
17: 4-12 @Nationals (Nats wipe out Mets’ 4-0 lead with 4 in 4th, 2 on Schneider double)
18: 8-9 @Nationals (Nats wipe out Mets’ 7-3 lead with 5 in 5th, last 3 on Belliard HR)
19: 8-4 @Nationals (Wright 3 RBI, Alou 3 hits)
20: 7-8 (10) @ Marlins (Uggla’s 4th hit, a double, decides it; Wright 3 hits)
21: 9-6 @ Marlins (Alou stretches hitting streak to 25 games, Mets’ longest)
22: 7-2 @ Marlins (Perez allows 1earned run in 8 innings; Wright 3 hits)
23: 7-6 (11) Marlins (Wright singles home decisive run)
24: 4-13 Nationals (Nats batter Pelfrey for 7 runs (six earned) in 52/3;Wright 3 hits)
25: 9-10 Nationals (Mets’ 6-run rally in 9th falls short; Reyes 2 HR, Alou 4 hits)
26: 6-9 Nationals (Nats, down 5-0, score 5 in 5th; Beltran 2 HR)
27: 0-3 Cardinals (Joel Pineiro pitches 8 shutout innings)
28: 4-7 Marlins (Ramirez drives in 3 runs; Mets out of first for first time since May)
29: 13-0 Marlins (Maine pitches 72/3 no-hit innings, strikes out 14)
30: 1-8 Marlins (Glavine gives up 7 runs, gets one out)
2008
13: 2-3 Braves (Schoeneweis and Stokes give up critical hits in 8th)
13: 5-0 Braves (rookie Niese pitches 8 shutout innings)
14: 4-7 Braves (Norton hits 3-run HR against Ayala in 5-run 9th)
15: 2-7 Nationals (Martinez and Sanchez allow 5 runs in 6th and 7th)
16: 0-1 Nationals (Their second 1-0 win over the Mets exactly four months apart)