Just when you thought there wouldn’t be a division championship celebrated at Citi Field, here comes the Tampa Bay Rays to make our dreams come true.
Their 8-5 victory gave them the A.L. East division title, and put the Mets’ playoff hopes officially on life support. That’s what I get for putting out all the scenarios yesterday. (I hope you didn’t bet that parlay.) I thought that if the Mets had lost today, it would have been because either Michael Wacha got Glavine’d, or Todd Frazier was going to do something stupid. When Wacha struck out the side in the first inning, it wasn’t going to be a Glavine.
But with the score tied at 2-2 in the 6th, Randy Arozarena hit his first home run of the night, a two run shot to make it 4-2, and then the Rays tore Chasen Shreve apart in the 8th for three runs before Arozarena put the cherry on top with a bomb over the fair pole off Steven Matz. The Mets scored three meaningless runs in the ninth before they finally went down to enable the Rays to spray confetti over our field.
Look, I’m just glad the Mets didn’t blow a 9-1 lead. Maybe that’s still coming. Maybe that last kick in the nuts is awaiting us in Washington. Hell, it awaited me 11 years ago as I saw a couple of games in D.C., including one where Justin Maxwell hit a grand slam off of Frankie Rodriguez which sent me to the front row of the dugout to fire Jerry Manuel a full year before he was actually fired. (If you would like to read about that trip when I had a lot more piss and vinegar, you may do so here.) So maybe we’ll have one more spectacular meltdown to keep us relevant with the kids.
@Metstradamus If you told me in July that Conforto and Dom would be MVP candidates, McNeil would hit .329, and Cano would hit over .300 with 10 HR, I would have predicted 40 wins.
What a disaster.
— The Copy Freditor (@fsolomon75) September 24, 2020
But I’m glad that at least for one day, that’s been avoided, and maybe the Mets will just go quietly. One thing that’s pretty much assured: The Mets are going to be going home in a season where 16 teams made the playoffs and .500 would have gotten them in. Disastrous is an understatement.
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- 2020
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