Marlins 4 Mets 2
MIAMI – The impossible became harder yesterday; the scoreboard explained that.
Braves win. Phillies win. Mets lose.
The miracle run may not have ended with yesterday’s 4-2 loss to the Marlins, but it was at least paused.
The Mets’ six-game winning streak was stopped as they dropped eight games behind the Braves and 4½ back of the second-place Phillies. The tragic number shrunk to 12.
“We can’t afford to lose ground,” Todd Zeile said. “We lost ground. That’s why I’m upset.”
Zeile reasoned the Mets needed to win 15 of their final 18 to have a chance. If they were to do that, then the Braves would have to go 8-12 for the Mets to tie at 86-76. The Phillies would have to go 11-8 to make it a three-way. This means the Mets would have to play better than their recent 17 wins in 22-game pace.
“We’ll probably even lose a couple more before it’s all over – maybe,” Bobby Valentine said.
They’d better only lose two more to have a real, albeit slim, chance. The Braves would then have to go 9-11 to make it possible, while the Phillies would need a 12-7 for 87.
“We knew we were going to need help from other teams,” said Steve Trachsel, whose former team, the Cubs, lost to the Braves 9-5. “Obviously, the Cubs aren’t helping us. Big shock to me.”
Yesterday, Trachsel’s teammates didn’t help him much either. Pitching without his best stuff, he held the Marlins to just two runs in six innings. He still lost, because the Mets couldn’t give him run support.
“You hate to see a game like this slip away,” Mike Piazza said.
With the Mets down 2-1 in the eighth, Valentine kicked himself for not giving Matt Lawton the hold sign. Lawton, who had led off with a walk, thought he could steal a base off reliever Braden Looper. He left on the first pitch, and Charles Johnson threw him out.
“All my body parts weren’t working well together,” said Lawton, who didn’t second-guess his decision to go.
After Desi Relaford walked and Mike Piazza singled, the usually clutch Tsuyoshi Shinjo, first pitch swinging, grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
The Marlins used breaks and a great slide to add two important insurance runs in the eighth. Cliff Floyd led off with a bloop into short center that neither shortstop Joe McEwing Nor Jay Payton could track down.
“It was a well-placed ball by Cliff,” Payton said.
Two batters later, with two men on and one out, Kevin Millar hit a ball right at McEwing, who was playing short in part because of Rey Ordonez’ stiff back. With the runner from first, Preston Wilson, going, McEwing fired home instead of going for two.
“He made the right play; he just threw the ball to the wrong side of the plate,” Valentine said.
Piazza caught the ball on the first-base side and tried a swipe tag across the plate. Floyd made a sensational slide, gliding around Piazza’s outstretched glove.
“I definitely thought I had him,” said Piazza, who might have nicked either Floyd’s hand or shirt. “I was kind of shocked.”
The Marlins went on to add another run on a Johnson single to extend the lead to three runs. The Mets ended up getting one back in the ninth on Payton’s RBI single, but they could get no closer and thus failed in their bid to reach .500.
“I don’t want to say it was a milestone or anything,” Piazza said. “It was a little bit of symbolic plateau to get back there. It would be a lot later than we wanted it to be. If it were a month ago, it could be a better situation right now.”
