The Mets suffered their most deflating loss of the entire season on Tuesday night by a long shot as they entered the ninth inning with a 10-4 lead, but managed to blow it and lose 11-10.
Paul Sewald and Edwin Diaz combined to allow seven runs with the latter allowing a walk-off three-run homer to Kurt Suzuki.
While many assume the season is over, and myself included 95% of the time I have thought about it, the reality is this is just another loss. Sure, this one was more painful than the rest, but we have seen the Mets rebound from really, really bad losses before.
After getting swept by the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs just last week, the team went into Philadelphia with their playoff hopes hanging by a thread and managed to take two-of-three against the Phillies.
The team lost the game on Sunday night in heartbreaking fashion, tying the game in the top of the eighth, just to watch Jeurys Familia blow it and allow three runs to secure a Phillies’ 5-2 victory.
Worst of all was that it was the final game of that series and the team was now forced to fly to and settle in Washington D.C. for an afternoon Labor Day game in a 14-hour span.
Nonetheless, the Mes found a way, winning that game 7-3, keeping themselves four games out of the second NL Wild Card spot.
To be blunt, though, Tuesday’s loss sucked and as someone who is really passionate about the team, I went to bed pretty upset about what happened.
But, the beauty of baseball is that there are 162 games in a season and that was just one of them. The key is that this team can’t allow one game to snowball into two, three, or four losses.
This team has to find a way to avoid letting one loss turn into a defining moment of their season. Sure, are the odds really stacked against them now? Absolutely.
In fact, their playoff odds have shrunk down all the way to 7.7%, according to FanGraphs. But remember, this team was 11 games under .500 at one point, and their odds were much lower than that at one point.
Also, that number is actually surprisingly the second-highest number among non-playoff teams at the moment, ahead of both the Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks.
This team also has gotten Brandon Nimmo and Robinson Cano back in the last few days and could soon get to see Jed Lowrie take the field for the first time this season.
With regards to Nimmo, the offense has looked completely different with him in the lineup as the team has scored 17 runs in the two games he’s started since returning.
I’m not saying to believe in this team considering how I was feeling less than 12 hours ago, all I’m saying is that this team is capable of doing special things and nobody should be that stunned if by the end of the week we’re on the edge of our seats every game again.
This team is resilient and the fact is if that doesn’t change, the Mets still have a chance, even if five games back and four teams ahead of them feels insurmountable.
