PHILADELPHIA — The 2010 Mets’ Voyage of the Damned continued here last night with statistics telling no lies about their 21-36 road record.
Rest assured, the Mets’ postseason hopes are all but tucked in because most of their best players fail when they can’t sleep in their own beds.
“Early on, we didn’t have an eighth-inning guy, so you have some losses on the road,” manager Jerry Manuel said before the Mets’ 7-5 loss to the Phillies last night. “But it’s more than that at this point.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Back to the future last night went a team that doesn’t have one.
Jon Niese, the best thing not named R.A. Dickey to happen to the 2010 Mets, pitched seven beautiful innings on 111 effective pitches, departing with a 2-1 lead, when Manuel went to Bobby Parnell to start the eighth.
Parnell faced four batters, and all four had hits. Pedro Feliciano, thanks in part to a miscommunication between him and David Wright on Wilson Valdez’s bunt, faced another four hitters before getting an out. Manny Acosta retired two, but not before he had given up a sacrifice fly to Placido Polanco and an RBI hit to Mike Sweeney, who had started the inning with a single off Parnell.
The Mets got buried with an 11-batter, six-run eighth that made Mike Hessman’s three-run pinch-hit homer in the ninth just window dressing. That inning essentially ridiculed any foolish notions that the possibility of completing a sweep here over Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay tonight and tomorrow could give Manuel’s team a flicker of hope. That they could jump over two teams in the NL East and another four in the wild-card race in the final seven weeks of the season.
Even if they had enough time, there is zero indication that the Mets, now a game under .500, have enough team. Certainly again, a team that has 23 bullpen losses, that has not recorded a single hold since July 11, proved again not to have enough relief to get through the eighth, a prerequisite for getting through the ninth.
“We have to keep trying to find the right matchup,” Manuel said. “Until we do, we have to have pitchers thrown 120-125 pitches.
“With young pitchers you run out of innings for those guys.”
Niese, who had not thrown more than 117 pitches in a game all season, was not a smart choice to pitch an entire eighth. One more batter? Maybe, but the leadoff batter in the eighth, Sweeney is right-handed, which argued against it, like Niese’s future argued against trying to stretch him too far.
They don’t train them like they used to throw 130 pitches. You either have people who can get outs in the eighth inning, or you don’t contend.
“It’s a tough role, it’s a demanding role,” Manuel said. “That first out in the eighth is always huge for me.”
Last night, he got it eight batters in, against a lineup missing the injured Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Shane Victorino.
“Tough loss,” Manuel said five times, still three times fewer than his bullpen faced batters without getting one stinking out. The manager of a team punched in the gut this many times, should be accustomed to tough losses by now.