Marlins 5
Mets 4
October can’t get here soon enough.
The Mets have 30 games left, and at this point, you might as well start the countdown. Another day, another game, another loss last night. The Mets’ misery has become mundane.
Last night it was a 5-4 decision to the Marlins, making it five straight defeats for the Mets and 10 losses in their last 11 games. They’re 60-72 and pending last night’s extra-inning affair between the Cubs and Expos, were just four games out of last place.
Of course, with every loss, Art Howe’s chances of coming back in 2005 get even worse. If the Mets have a disastrous September – as they had last year and appear to be preparing to have again – Howe may be in trouble.
Last night was bad from the start. Five batters into the game, a Marlin run was already in and there were scattered boos among the 19,621 at Shea.
The Mets would trail 2-0 and 3-1 before mounting a comeback to take a 4-3 lead, but in the sixth inning, Tom Glavine simply couldn’t hold it.
Although he was facing the bottom of the Marlins’ lineup, Glavine quickly got into trouble, allowing Juan Encarnacion’s single and Mike Mordecai’s double, putting runners on second and third with one out. Glavine recovered to get Juan Pierre to hit a comebacker, holding both runners, but he walked Damion Easley to load the bases for Paul LoDuca.
The ex-Dodger catcher promptly delivered an opposite-field two-run single, giving the Marlins the 5-4 lead.
The only reason the Mets even hung around was because of Wilson Delgado, who somehow morphed into Carlos Delgado last night and played the best offensive game of his career.
Consider that the 32-year-old Delgado has been playing since 1996 and entering last night, he owned three homers and 32 RBIs lifetime. Yet almost inexplicably, he promptly homered and drove in a career-high four runs last night.
After David Wright, who started two rallies with singles, lined a one-out single in the second, Delgado drove him in with an opposite-field double to right.
Wright again singled to lead off the fourth, and after Jason Phillips followed with a base hit to center, Delgado blasted a 395-foot bomb into the rightfield pen. It was Delgado’s first homer in nearly two years (Sept. 26, 2002 was the last one).
It also marked the end of a disturbing streak for the Mets, who until the homer, hadn’t had a hit with a runner in scoring position since – make sure you’re sitting down for this – the third inning Sunday. They had gone 0-for-16 since, failing to get a hit in the clutch in 27 innings.
