Brutal way to Shea goodbye

For second consecutive year, loss to Marlins on final day sends traumatized Mets home early

BY DAVID LENNON | david.lennon@newsday.com

September 29, 2008

Maybe what the Mets really need is a change of scenery. They can only hope for better luck at Citi Field.

Evidently, the ghosts of last September's collapse never left Shea Stadium, and the Mets were unable to fumigate the building this year. It seems that the only solution is to knock it down, and the wrecking ball did not arrive in time yesterday to prevent history from repeating itself in a 4-2 loss to the Marlins.

Carlos Beltran hit a tying two-run homer off Scott Olsen in the sixth inning to rally the Mets and energize a crowd of 56,059. But the team's Achilles' heel, its bullpen, conspired to prevent the Mets from earning a playoff berth on the final day of the season - for the second consecutive year.

"It's very disappointing," said Beltran, who was among those in tears after the game. "It's a bad feeling because we know we could have won this. We could have been in the playoffs."

In the eighth inning, pinch hitter Wes Helms and Dan Uggla hit back-to-back home runs off relievers Scott Schoeneweis (2-6) and Luis Ayala. Moments later, the Brewers were celebrating on the field at Miller Park in Milwaukee, courtesy of their 3-1 win over the Cubs.

When the Brewers' result flashed on the rightfield scoreboard in the eighth, some fans booed, but it sounded more like the air leaking out of a balloon. This was not a collapse on the scale of last September, when the Mets blew a seven-game division lead by going 5-12 in the final 17 games. But it was no less painful.

The Mets had a 3Â½-game lead in the NL East on Sept. 10, and with the Brewers' fade, they seemed to have the wild card as a safety net. But that vanished, too, as the Mets went 7-10 in their last 17 games to miss the postseason again.

"Last year, for lack of a better word, we collapsed," David Wright said. "This year, I just think we hit a little rut in the wrong time to hit a rut. We were in the driver's seat late in the year. We failed to take control and run away with it. It feels like a wasted season."

A year ago, many of the Mets were devastated by the loss. And to have it happen again, to the same team under the same circumstances, took a heavy toll this time.

Schoeneweis, who did not allow a run in 10 of his previous 12 appearances, wandered through the clubhouse in an almost catatonic state. He sat talking with COO Jeff Wilpon in the manager's office and later asked to speak with manager Jerry Manuel and general manager Omar Minaya.

Others seemed too shaken for words. When Jose Reyes returned to his locker, he sat for a while with his head in his hands, staring down at the floor, his eyes watery.

"I'm not feeling good," Reyes said softly. "I didn't want to go home, bro'."

Much later, Darryl Strawberry walked through the emptying clubhouse, trying to console the players. He patted the shoulders of Wright, who managed a weak smile.

"Keep your head up," Strawberry said. "You've got to work through this."

A day earlier, Johan Santana saved the Mets' season with a remarkable three-hit shutout on three days' rest, the very definition of clutch. Even Oliver Perez - unpredictable Ollie - kept the Mets in a scoreless tie yesterday into the sixth inning, also on short rest.

When Perez struck out Cameron Maybin to open the game, the crowd, already standing, roared. There was no hint of a letdown looming a few innings later, no ominous sense of something terrible waiting around the corner. But as Olsen clamped down on the Mets, who had scored only three runs in a stretch of 23 innings, the cracks began to show.

Perez allowed a leadoff double to Maybin in the sixth, and the Marlins took a 1-0 lead when John Baker punched a 1-and-2 pitch for a bloop single into centerfield. Three batters later, in what probably was Perez's last act as a Met, he intentionally walked Uggla to load the bases, and Joe Smith was called on as Manuel prayed for a ground ball of some sort.

What he got instead was a walk to Josh Willingham that forced home a run and put Florida ahead 2-0. Perez threw only 85 pitches before he was pulled, but Manuel said he had no choice.

"You still can't leave a guy in that you feel is having some issues and he's on three days' rest and he's given you a good shot," Manuel said. "At some point, we were going to have to go down there. At some point, we would have had to go to our pen."

What happened next was too predictable. The back-to-back home runs after Beltran's tying home run stunned the last of the true believers in the crowd, and after Carlos Delgado lined out to deep left with runners on first and second to end the eighth, the fans' faith was tested one final time in the ninth inning.