The Mets are in denial, or they are engaged in revisionist history or they are deluding themselves. They need to fix their bullpen, and the sooner they deal in reality, the more likely they will be able to make the necessary corrections.
Maybe it’s all a misunderstanding. Maybe Jerry Manuel, the Mets manager, is working from an outdated script. Maybe general manager Omar Minaya hasn’t told Manuel he can be candid in talking to reporters about the team’s bullpen problems.
Whatever the explanation, Manuel was quoted the other day as suggesting that the addition of a top-flight closer will do the trick. “If we get the closer,” Manuel was quoted as saying, “then everybody else goes back to their own place.”
It’s difficult to believe that Manuel believes that the problems that derailed the Mets’ post-season locomotive stemmed from Billy Wagner’s absence. Wagner, the Mets’ closer, last pitched Aug. 2, leaving the Mets without an established closer for the last two months of the season.
No question the Mets missed Wagner, even though he wasn’t having a super season when he was forced to end his season ahead of reconstructive surgery Sept. 10. But his absence did not ignite the bullpen problems. With 7 blown saves in 34 chances, Wagner at times was part of the problem.
But contrary to Manuel’s comment Wagner’s absence did not cause a reshuffling of the world order in the bullpen nor did it lead to the Mets’ second successive late-season failure. When Wagner made his last appearance Aug. 2, the Mets were in third place, two games off the lead. When Luis Ayala converted his first save opportunity Aug. 22 en route to becoming the substitute closer, the Mets were two and a half games in first place.
Ayala would have a total of nine save opportunities, and he would finish with seven saves, giving him virtually the same percentage of success (78) as Wagner produced (79). So Ayala wasn’t the problem, and his performance enabled Manuel to leave the other relievers where they were. They just didn’t pitch effectively in those spots.
Aaron Heilman was the worst offender. No matter where in games he pitched he was ineffective. These were his top 10 failures:
Aug. 1 – With the Mets and Houston tied, Heilman pitches a scoreless seventh inning but gives up a grand slam in the eighth to Mark Loretta for a 7-3 loss.
Aug. 2 – After Wagner gives up a two-run, game-tying single in the ninth, Heilman starts the 10th by walking Lance Berkman, who goes to third on a Carlos Lee double and scores the Astros’ winning run on a sacrifice fly off Pedro Feliciano.
Aug. 5 – Heilman begins the ninth with a 6-2 lead over San Diego. It wasn’t a save situation so Wagner, if healthy, would most likely not have been pitching. Four batters and Jody Gerut’s three-run homer later, the score was 6-5 and Heilman was out of the game, leaving Joe Smith and Scott Schoeneweis to get the last two outs.
Aug. 11 – Heilman begins the ninth with a 5-4 lead over Pittsburgh but gives up a game-tying single to Ryan Doumit. Schoeneweis replaces Heilman and allows a game-losing hit.
Aug. 24 – With the Mets leading the Astros, 4-3, Heilman relieves Oliver Perez with one on and one out in the seventh and gives up a double and a game-tying single to the first two batters he faces. The Astros hit two home runs against Feliciano in the 10th inning for a 6-4 victory.
Aug. 30 – The Mets and Florida are tied, 3-3, in the ninth, and Heilman walks four batters, two intentionally, the last unintentionally, for a 4-3 loss.
Sept. 10 – In a game the Mets once led Washington, 7-1, Heilman starts the sixth with a 7-5 lead and allows a two-run home run to Cristian Guzman. The Mets overcome Heilman’s latest failure and win 13-10.
Sept. 17 – Heilman begins the eighth with a 9-5 lead over the Nationals and allows a double and a single to the first two batters. Schoeneweis and Smith retire the next three batters, and Ayala winds up saving a 9-7 victory in the ninth.
Sept. 21 – Atlanta has a 5-4 lead, thanks to Schoeneweis and Smith, and Heilman relieves Feliciano with one on and two out in the eighth. After an intentional walk, Martin Prado cracks a two-run double against Heilman for a7-4 lead. Carlos Delgado slugs a two-run homer in the ninth, but the Mets lose, 7-6.
Sept. 26 – Running out of games, the Mets are losing to the Marlins, 4-1, in the seventh. Heilman relieves Feliciano and gets two outs but walks two, the second forcing in a run in a game the Mets would lose, 6-1.
The Mets were eliminated from the division race the next day and from the wild-card race the day after that, the last day of the season.
Everyone in the bullpen contributed to the Mets’ failure to gain a post-season spot, but the relievers failed because of their own ineffectiveness, not from pitching out of order because Wagner wasn’t available.
Between Wagner’s last appearance and the end of the season the Mets lost 21 games. In 10 of those games their opponents scored the runs that put them ahead to stay in the first five innings, before any relievers could contribute to the losses. In an 11th game, a batter doubled against the starter in the seventh inning and scored the lead run on a groundout against a reliever.
That leaves 10 games in which the go-ahead runs were scored against relievers in the eighth (four times), the ninth (three) and extra innings (three). Heilman contributed runs in four of those games as well as the two losses immediately preceding that stretch.
Maybe Manuel didn’t want to single out Heilman so he talked about the out-of-order bullpen rotation necessitated by Wagner’s injury. But Heilman put the bullpen in greater disarray than Wagner did.