Last night, the Mets lost their third straight game when the winning run was scored in their opponents final at-bat (two losses to the Marlins and one at Washington).
The last time the Mets lost three consecutive games in their last at-bat was June 10-12, 2009 (two extra-inning losses vs. Philadelphia and a loss at Yankee Stadium).
“They hurt bad,” Mets manager Terry Collins said, referring to these latest final-inning losses.
“We’re playing teams in our division and we’ve now let the Marlins catch us.”
“We had to make sure that we stayed on top of everything and right now, we’ve let some games slip away. You can’t do that in a pennant race, when you’re fighting for something.”
“You’ve got to win games where you’ve got the lead and you’ve got your people in place to win those games and we haven’t done that. That’s not a good thing to say.”
The Mets have let a golden opportunity pass them by in their last seven games.
The Atlanta Braves have lost 4 of their last 5, and 7 of their last 10 games, and yet the Mets are still the same 7.5 games behind them as they were at the beginning of last week.
They could have cut that lead in half in their last five games, but they didn’t due to costly mistakes in the field, and a lack of effective late inning relief from the bullpen which has headed south in recent weeks.
Terry Collins could certainly use a fresh arm in that bullpen, but don’t expect that to happen until September call-ups a month from now. By then, it could be all over.
