How many times have we seen this already this season… I’m talking about Terry Collins lamenting about what he could have done to prevent another bone-jarring moment in a Mets loss.
He has compiled enough material to complete his own personal volume of a Book of Lamentations.
Last night, was another typical Mets loss you can hang on the skipper of the Mets. Mike Vaccaro of the NY Post explains:
After his team had grinded and bloodied its way back from deficits of 4-0 and 5-1 all the way back to 5-5, Collins tried to squeeze an extra inning out of Miguel Batista. Robinson Cano was leading off the eighth. Two nights earlier, Cano had dented the Whitestone Bridge with a rocket blast off Batista. One night earlier, asked why he hadn’t used Byrdak to pitch to Raul Ibanez (who would tie the game with his own blast), he essentially said Byrdak’s job against the Yankees was to pitch to Cano.
Here came Cano. Tie game. Buzzing ballpark.
No Byrdak. All around Citi Field, the buzz was replaced by something else: by the sound of Mets fans among the sold-out crowd of 42,364 engaging in a community-wide first-guess, nobody waiting for hindsight to provide 20-20 clarity.
Seconds later, Cano struck again and as his blast soared into the night we felt the ice coarsing though our veins as we saw the inevitable worst-case scenario unfold before our unsurprised eyes.
“I should have brought Byrdak in,” Collins said after the game.
Too late for that, Terry.
The Mets lost 6-5 and their hard-fought five-run comeback went to waste.
“Should have brought him in,” he said a second time.
Yes, you should have.
You said that’s what Byrdak’s job would be during the Subway Series – to pitch to Cano. It was a good plan, but you blew it and it cost us the game. What were you saving him for? Another one of those moments that would never come?
Collins has done a fine job instilling confidence in this team and having them all believing in themselves. But when it comes to in-game strategy, Collins is his own worst enemy and he’s the first to admit it.
The problem is that he doesn’t seem to learn anything when he gets burned like this and he continues to make the same bad judgement calls again and again. I don’t mind having a manager who doesn’t do everything by the book and goes with his hunch occasionally, but you can’t keep betting against the odds and losing your pants like he has.
And what’s with his love affair with Miguel Batista?
