FanNation - The Republic of Sport

9/17/08

Break up the Mets.

The collapsing kids were able to hold on and defeat the last place...in case you may have forgotten...the last place Washington Nationals 9-7, after leading by scores of 6-1, 7-2, 8-3, and 9-5, 8 pitchers combined to finally reel in a seeimingly elusive victory during the apparently trechorous final 17 regular season games on the schedule.

While Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and even Daniel Murphy all contributed offensively, a much bigger issue continues to haunt this team down the stretch.

If you guessed the teams all star third basemen, you would be Wright.

David Wright that is, and to the average fan, his numbers this season are as impressive as any.

He's been hovering around the .300 mark, he has 31 home runs and has driven in 114.

However, despite a scorching hot homestand, Wright has once again gone wrong, going a combined 1-13 with 6 strikeouts since arriving in the Nation's capitol.  Not only has he stopped hitting, he is leaving men on at an alarming rate, already having left 10 runners on.

He continues to swing at pitches out of the strike zone, and to anybody who has been watching David since he joined the team back in 2004, over the course of the season it seems he has completely abandoned his approach to hitting the ball up the middle and to right field, something he did with regularity early in his career.

And if you thought his offense strugglers were bad, you needed to see the throw he failed to make in the bottom of the ninth inning on the most routine of groundballs, underthrowing a ball to first resulting in two unearned runs scoring and nearly costing his team yet another late inning loss.

The bullpen was able to get more outs than runs it allowed for a change, and the Mets held onto to their slim Wild Card lead (1/2 game over Milwaukee) while keeping pace with the streaking Phillies who won once again in Atlanta, sitting a 1/2 game behind them.

While the victory tonight was much needed, Mets fans should hardly be sighing a breathe a relief, as with 11 games still to play, the team only proved tonight that beating the worst time in baseball needed 9 runs and 8 pitchers- and that was only barely enough.

Of bigger concern is the third basemen, as David Wright's stats really mask the problems he has had all season with runners in scoring position.

Anybody who wants to include Wright in MVP discussions needs to start paying closer attention to not only Wrights performance in big spots (or lack-there-of) but to the play of guys like Ryan Howard when the game is on the line.

Not only is Howard coming up with every big hit imaginable down the stretch for Philadelphia, but his ball club is getting victories night after night, while Wright's Mets continue to scratch and claw their way into irrelevance with brutal losses to lower division teams like the Braves and Nationals.

While the losses hurt, at this point even the wins are discouraging, as 5 and 6 run leads are anything but safe, and with the pressure constantly being placed upon the inconsistent offense, guys like David Wright- whom many believe is the best and most valuable player on this team- need to wake up before they let another late season slip away.

The Mets send Johan Santana to the mound tomorrow night trying to earn a split of the four game series, and Santana will be making the first of his three remaining regular season starts for a ball club that desperately needs to win the games with him on the mound.

Santana has been as good as advertised following an up and down first half of the season, having yet to lose a game since the All Star break and owning an ERA under three in that span.

While Santana's performance during these last 2 weeks will be crucial, the teams hopes may rest on the shoulders of their franchise third basemen.

With 6 of the final 17 games having been played, the Mets have already found ways to lose 4 of them, leaving them only 11 games to avoid suffering a second consecutive embarassing end to their season.

Only 11 games to make everything Wright.