Three losses to the Pirates at Citi Field ignited a case of the jitters throughout Met land. The unbridled euphoria Met fans had experienced over a recent winning streak and their teams ascent to the top of the National League’s Eastern Division dimmed some over the weekend.
Based on our most recent experiences and stretching back for almost a decade, it’s totally understandable that the newly found ‘swag’ of long suffering Met fans might waver watching their team drop three in a row, two in extra innings, in their home park. A gnawing in the stomach continued to grow as the weekend unfolded turning into outright angst during the Mets ugly meltdown on Sunday afternoon.
Take a deep breath fellow Met fans. Losing streaks during the dog days of August over a long, hard baseball season are hardly unique. In fact, every noteworthy Met team of yesteryear suffered through similar lapses.
Baseball’s 1969 darlings, those 100 win World Champion Miracle Mets had a mid August swoon. A three game set with the Astros that began on August 11 and ended on the 14th went sour with Houston sweeping away the Mets 3-0, 8-7, and 8-2.
In 1973, the Mets reached the seventh game of the World Series, but the regular season was hardly stellar with our Metropolitans suffering several losing streaks. Once again the Ides of August began on the 11th of August that year when the Mets feel to the Giants 8-7. The Mets fell 4-1 to San Francisco the following day, then lost 3-2 and 9-0 to San Diego on August 13 and 14.
Met fans knew they had something special during the 1985 season when the Mets finished in second place behind the Cardinals but still won 98 games. Early in ’85, the Mets dropped six consecutive games. This time the August performance dip happened later in the month. The Mets dropped back-to-back games on August 26 and 27 to finish a series with the Dodgers, then fell to the Giants the following day in the first game of the next series.
Even the record setting Mets of 1986 slumped in August. Once again, August the 14th was the day when the mischief began. The Mets lost 5-1 to the Cardinals that day in the second game of a doubleheader, then dropped three more to the Cards over the next three days to close out a disappointing series. And, those ’86 World Champs shouldered another four game losing streak in the month of September.
The 2000 Subway Series Mets got through August unscathed, but almost fell off the table in early September losing 7 of 8 games to start the crucial month of September. The Mets dropped a close contest to the Cardinals on September 1, then lost two more one run outcomes to the Redbirds on the 2nd and 3rd. Cincinnati won the opening game of the following series going away at 6-2. The Mets rallied for a tight 3-2 victory, then lost the getaway game to the Reds, 3-2. The Phillies extended the 2000 Mets September misery winning 2-0 and 6-3 on September 8 and 9.
The 2006 Mets had a horrid run beginning in mid September, September 15th, in fact. Starting on September 15, the Mets lost 10 of the next 13 games including two, three game losing runs and one streak that stretched four games.
This is baseball. Good teams suffer losing streaks all the time. In late August of 2010, the San Diego Padres went from contenders to pretenders when they lost 10-games in a row beginning in the last days in August and stretching into the month of October.
The ’82 Braves won 89 games but had a wretched baseball month of August. The Braves lost 11 times in a row and went 2-19 and lost 14.5 games during a run that started on July 30 and ran through August 18. Atlanta still won their division that year.
Baseball losing streaks, small or large, are never recommended, definitely during a pennant race during the months of August and September. But, they happen all the time. After the 2007 and 2008 seasons Met fans might appreciate that fact better than most. That’s why the Bucs weekend sweep left us gasping.
No one knows how the 2015 NL Eastern Division pennant race will end. Our three game Met losing streak to the Pirates might have us squirming, but the six straight games the Nationals dropped to the Dodgers and Giants have Nat fans begging for relief of any kind.
