Jessica gets her wish! She submitted this post before today’s game but it didn’t go up on time. But it all worked out. – Joe D.

It seems like a familiar enough scenario: the Mets play the Marlins for the final series of the year. In a must-win series, the Mets lose two out of three.

Why does it seem familiar? Because it’s happened far too much in recent memory for Mets fans to even forget it. The only difference between this year and the Metsian collapses of 2007 and 2008 is that this time, none of the parties involved are playing for anything but dignity.

I don’t know what’s going to happen today when Jeremy Hefner steps on the hill, but hopefully he does better than Tom Glavine’s 2007 lackluster effort. I hope that he does better in a crunch situation than Scott Schoeneweis in 2008. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment for the Mets that year was learning how to spell Schoeneweis.

I hope Hefner goes out there and proves that he belongs on this team in some capacity. Despite one epic hiccup against the Phillies, Hefner has otherwise been effective whether he starts or goes out of the pen. There have been times where he’s made me look like I know something about fantasy baseball.

I don’t understand why the Mets let the Marlins get to them year in and year out. It’s not a heated rivalry like the Mets/Phillies rivalry or even the Mets/Braves rivalry. When the Marlins beat them two out of three in the final series of the season, it means the Mets go out on a losing note. R.A. Dickey was lucky to come out of last night’s game with the no-decision as the Mets continue their streak of making mionr league pitchers look like Cy Young.

What got me about last night’s game is that the Mets struck their two-out lightning magic and then couldn’t harness that magic and turn it into a victory. We certainly had the (W)right batter up at the right time and he certainly got that clutch hit, but as the Mets went further down the lineup, their offensive woes certainly began to show.

After Ike Davis bats fourth, there’s no protection. If Jason Bay or Andres Torres comes up, your inning is basically over. The Marlins, and any other person who has watched video of the Mets in 2012, have figured it out and used it to the best of their advantage.

To me, winning the last game of a series means so much more than winning the first two games of a series. If a team is on a losing streak, winning the last game of a series may allow them to go into the next series on a victory high. To win this last game would mean that the stench of defeat wouldn’t stink so badly.

The Marlins have gotten the last laugh against the Mets far too often. I want that to change. I want the Mets to really get to the Marlins today. I want them to say, “Yeah, you took the series, but we won the last game.”

I want them to go out as winners.