BILLY Wagner came in with a fourrun lead Wednesday night, so he was not in line for a save. Yet, he saved something anyway – his Met career.
At least temporarily, he did. There was still NLCS Game 7 last night, still another chance to wonder if the Shea crowd will recall him more as Armando Benitez or Jesse Orosco.
Wagner edged way too close to blowing a four-run, ninth-inning lead in Game 6 for everyone in the ballpark and every Mets fan anywhere not to begin considering the worst. As it was, he merely survived.
He ultimately finished off a 4-2 victory. But while the Mets won, Wagner lost, especially external confidence in his ability to flourish in October.
If he would have squandered the lead, and he did go from comfort to facing the tying run nearly with the speed of one of his fastballs, then it would be hard to imagine how he makes it in this town.
Which is a pretty frightening thought for the Mets, who have Wagner signed through 2009 for another $32.5 million.
Closing is the majors’ most perilous occupation.
Closing in October only raises everything from the attention to the tension.
Closing in October for a New York team is perhaps the toughest task imaginable short of feeding sharks while bleeding profusely. Of course, Wagner was pretty darn close to that job, as well, considering the teeming anger of the razortoothed Shea crowd during the ninth inning.
In actuality, Wagner’s difficulties in this forum only accentuates the credentials of Mariano Rivera, long-time New York/October closer extraordinaire. In three NLCS innings as the Mets closer, Wagner had permitted one more earned run, one more homer and lost one more game than Rivera has in 25 ALCS games spanning 382/3 innings.
Perhaps it was unfair to compare Wagner to the best closer of all-time – though the New York/New York thing, the sharing of “Enter Sandman” as a theme song and similar paychecks do unite them. However, Wagner was not even holding up that well on the Benitez scale. He had allowed 10 runs on 18 hits in 101/3 career postseason innings. You wonder now if he can handle October and, also, what life will be with Wagner moving forward as he loses heat on his straight fastball. Have we seen hints of both issues in this NLCS?
In Game 2, Wagner entered with the score tied in the ninth and allowed a leadoff homer to So Taguchi en route to being strafed for three runs and the loss in a 9-6 Cardinal win that turned the momentum toward St. Louis.
On Wednesday night, he quickly drained the joy out of Shea. Juan Encarnacion singled and Scott Rolen, who has had few good swings in this series, doubled.
Thoughts quickly returned to May 20, when Wagner coughed up a 4-0, ninth-inning lead in what would become a loss to the Yankees. That was part of the reference library that has kept Mets fans edgy about Wagner even before the postseason.
Wagner recorded two outs before hanging a slider that So Taguchi lined to left for a two-run double that halved the lead, brought the tying run to the plate and further antagonized the home crowd.
Fortunately for the Mets, they had – ironically – scored two insurance runs in the seventh against Braden Looper.
The Mets had agreed to pay lavishly – $43 million over four years – to enlist Wagner to end the line of fan-angering closers that went from John Franco to Benitez to Looper. But here was Wagner, throwing the Mets for another loop. If he were to blow this game, hasten the end of the Mets season, he would be back in 2007 because of financial commitments.
But the negative energy each time he took the mound would be staggering, maybe insurmountable for him and his team.
“The problem with closers is by the time you accept their failure, you already have really damaged a season, and with a closer with a long-term contract, the decision comes even slower,” an AL executive said.
Wagner tabled final decisions, at least for 24 hours. He induced David Eckstein into a game-ending ground out.
