There are more than 100 games and four months to go, but boy, this was a gut-punch of a weekend for the Mets, who while attempting to pay homage to their 1986 championship forefathers were embarrassed by Chase Utley and lost two of three to the Dodgers while their sure-thing closer Jeurys Familia was twice lit up in flames.
Hey, even if this is unfamiliar territory for Familia, who was touched for two runs in the ninth inning of Sunday’s 4-2 loss after the Mets had tied it in the bottom of the eighth after having spotted a 2-0 lead to the brilliant Clayton Kershaw, this happens to the best of them.
It happened to Mariano Rivera, it happened to Jesse Orosco and one of these weeks it is going to happen to Aroldis Chapman. It just doesn’t help the Mets’ psyche that it happened twice in three days to Familia, torched in this series for six runs on six hits while surrendering four walks in two innings.
Doesn’t help the Mets’ psyche following a weekend in which archenemy Utley knocked in nine runs and scored three while also being the target responsible for Noah Syndergaard’s third-inning exit on Saturday, even if Bartolo Colon, Antonio Bastardo and Familia retired the second baseman on his final three ups in this one which ended in a 4-2 Mets’ loss.
Confidence is a tricky animal. The Mets will take care to ensure that Familia, who had previously been on a run through which he had allowed one run on five hits over 9 ¹/₃ innings without surrendering a walk over his previous 10 outings, does not lose his.
From the sound of it, that does not seem as if it will be a particular problem, the right-hander saying after it had ended that, “Everybody goes through a bad time. I understand that I am not perfect. I forgot what happened yesterday. I already forgot what happened today. I will try to figure out what I’m doing wrong and move forward.”
The Mets will move forward following this weekend in which they had their best starter ejected for throwing close to Utley on Saturday and then saw this dastardly fellow score the first run on Sunday on a forceout on which Terry Collins lost a challenge on — what else? — the Utley Rule even as the manager claimed Corey Seager had violated two of the three precepts of the regulation in sliding into second to break up a a potential double play.
But the Mets, who have slipped a game behind the Nationals into second place in the East, move forward into a future that contains uncertainty about both David Wright and Matt Harvey, the former with issues about his health, the latter with issues about, well, his arm and his head and all of the above.
Wright missed his second straight game, sidelined by a neck issue for which he is taking anti-inflammatory medication. The Mets expect to know more on Monday about his immediate future after the captain is reexamined by physicians, but it is impossible to know whether this latest setback represents nothing more than a speed bump for Wright or whether it carries more serious implications.
It is also impossible to know what to expect from the beleaguered Harvey when he takes the mound on Monday against the White Sox at Citi Field. Not even his manager (“Huh … [long pause] … that’s a good question”) has a clue what to anticipate from the one-time civic darling who has fallen into disrepute.
We are all suffering from Harvey Fatigue. The melodrama that surrounds him consistently sucks the air out of the room. The question is whether this is an individual the Mets can actually depend on as they attempt to defend the NL championship.
The same question applies to Wright, but obviously for very different reasons. The Mets’ boom-or-bust offense is already problematic. Wright was just beginning to find his stride when he went down. The team that is already feeling the impact of the long-term absences of Lucas Duda and Travis d’Arnaud is not equipped to lose its third baseman, too.
We’ll find out more on Monday about both Harvey and Wright. We’ll find out whether this bad holiday weekend will get worse.
