ST. LOUIS – The last image of Steve Trachsel in a Met uniform may be him walking to the dugout last night, biting his glove in the middle of the second inning after giving up five runs to put his team in a hole from which it couldn’t emerge.
The veteran pitcher spit the bit in the Mets’ Game 3 NLCS loss to the Cardinals, and now the team is down 2-1 in the series. Trachsel signed with the Mets as a free agent in 2000, and waited six years for them to make the playoffs. Now he may play a large role in them going home.
The Cardinals hammered the 35-year-old, scoring two runs in the first inning, loading the bases again in the first and loading the bases in the second before Met manager Willie Randolph gave him the hook.
“I felt like I was locating pretty well,” Trachsel said. “I was barely missing.”
Trachsel left the game one batter after getting hit by a Preston Wilson comeback grounder that bruised his right thigh.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been hit like that,” Trachsel said. “It didn’t feel bad initially, but then it stiffened up.”
The Mets were counting on Trachsel to give them an extended outing after they used their bullpen for five innings in Friday. Instead, he got shelled.
Trachsel is a free agent after the season, and the chances he’ll be back for a seventh season with the Mets are slim.
“I’m definitely disappointed. It’s not the way we drew up the game,” Trachsel said. “I never had a chance to get into a rhythm.”
Trachsel would be in line to start Game 7, a proposition as appealing as a dentist visit for Met fans after watching last night.
David Eckstein got the ball rolling with a single to center. The inning ended with Trachsel walking three Cardinals and giving up two runs on a Scott Spiezio triple.
The second inning was no prettier. Pitcher Jeff Suppan led off the inning with a home run to left field. It was Suppan’s second career home run. Guess who the first came off? Yep, Trachsel on Sept. 10, 2005.
Eckstein walked, and then Wilson lined one that hit the ground in front of the mound, then hit Trachsel and ricocheted into left field. After issuing his fifth walk, this one to Albert Pujols, Trachsel was pulled by Randolph.
As he walked off the field, Trachsel chomped down on his mitt and yelled to himself. After a mediocre six years that will be best remembered for his deliberate ways on the mound, Met fans are no doubt saying, “Good riddance.”
