Mets In First Place...For The Wild Card?

    Flash back to five days ago:

    The Mets just swept a two-game series from the Nationals, scoring 23 runs in the two games, and stand 3.5 games atop the National League East.  The Phillies, who just dropped back to back games against the Marlins, are four games behind New York in the loss column.  The Brewers, who are in the midst of a rough stretch, themselves, are still four games up on the Astros and Phillies in the Wild Card race, but who cares about the Wild Card?  The Mets don't need to worry about the pity playoff spot when they're poised to win the division, right?

    Flash to the present:

    The Mets have lost three in a row and four of the last five.  The Phillies have won five straight, including a four-game sweep of Milwaukee, and start the day in first place in the NL East by a half game.  The Brewers, who are in a freefall, have sunk to a half game behind the Mets in the Wild Card race.  Good thing there's always the Wild Card, because otherwise the Mets would be out of a playoff spot.

    After scoring runs like crazy against Washington last Tuesday and Wednesday, the Mets have totaled just 13 runs in their last five games; the offensive drought cumulated in a frustrating 1-0 loss in the nation's capital last night.  The Mets 3-4-5 hitters are a combined 1-23 so far this series, and Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado have managed a measly two singles in 30 at-bats in the two games.

    Mike Pelfrey and Joe Smith pitched phenomenally last night, but their efforts were squandered as the Mets' bats came up empty against the great Odalis Perez.  There were three key plays that had a major impact on the outcome of last night's game:

1)   In the bottom of the fifth inning, Anderson Hernandez (who couldn't hit the ball out of the infield with the Mets, but has a .327 batting average with the Nats since he was traded for Luis Ayala) led off with a walk, but Pelfrey erased him on a Wil Nieves double play grounder.  With two outs and nobody on, Odalis Perez slapped a sinking liner to left.  Fernando Tatis dove forward but missed the ball, allowing it to bounce past him for a double.  Tatis landed awkwardly on his left shoulder, separating it.  He'll miss the remainder of the season.

    Let's just reflect for a second on how valuable Tatis has been to this Mets team this season.  Out of baseball between 2003 and 2005, he decided to give it a shot again, to try to make enough money to build a church in his hometown in the Dominican Republic.  Tatis toiled in the minors for the Orioles from 2006 until Omar Minaya took a chance on the former slugger.  Since his call-up in mid-May, he has certainly paid dividends, hitting .397 in July with six home runs and 18 RBI.  He has been the Mets' best clutch hitter this season, with a .392 average with runners in scoring position, and seven of his 11 home runs have either tied the game or put the Mets ahead.  His presence in the lineup will be sorely missed, especially against left-handed pitching, not to mention at this time of offensive feebleness.

    With that said, Tatis' dive may have cost the Mets the game.  He should not have attempted to dive for that ball; rather, he should have played it on a hop in order to hold the runner to a single.  The Mets' training staff attended to Tatis' injury for several minutes, and when Pelfrey started pitching again he did not look sharp.  He walked Willie Harris and then let up a ground-rule double to Christian Guzman, the newest Met-killer.  Who knows if Pelfrey would have walked Harris if he didn't stand still while Tatis was leaving the field?  Maybe he would have retired Harris and the game would have remained tied, or maybe the long break didn't affect Pelfrey at all.  But it may have.

2)  With two outs in the top of the sixth, David Wright was batting with Brian Schneider on second and Jose Reyes on first.  He smashed a frozen rope to left field, and right off the bat it looked like a two-run double to give the Mets the lead.  But Willie Harris--the same Willie Harris who, while a member of the Braves last year, robbed Delgado of a game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth--made an unbelievable catch, snagging the liner while leaping backward.  Wright slammed his helmet down in frustration as he reached first, having just failed yet again with runners in scoring position.  Apparently, Harris actually has a picture of his game-ending catch on Delgado's drive hanging above his locker for motivation.  It seems like he's always a little extra motivated against the Mets.

3)  With one out in the top of the eighth, Ramon Castro singled to left, but was removed for pinch runner Ramon Martinez, a September call-up, who then committed the cardinal sin of pinch running:  a baserunning error.  When your one job on a given night is to run the bases properly, you had better not mess up.  Credit Jerry Manuel with a great call, because Robinson Cancel executed a picture perfect hit-and-run, stroking a ground single through the hole on the right side of the infield.  Martinez, who had been running on the play, inexplicably hesitated and then stopped at second.  Had he made it to third with one out, the Mets would have had a chance to score the tying run with Jose Reyes up next.  Reyes bounced back to the pitcher, who threw high to second, and Cancel would have been safe had he slid, but instead he tip-toed into the bag and was forced out.  Those two baserunning errors severely limited the Mets' chances to tie the game in that inning.

    Just like Mets fans were confident with 17 games to play last season, they were somewhat sure of their team's fate five games ago.  But the division lead has slipped away, and New York will need to turn things around in the remaining 12 games in order to make the postseason.  Hmmm...12 games left...five games ago...looks like they started crumbling with 17 games to play yet again...