Mets' collapse complete, miss playoffs with loss to Marlins on final day of season
The Mets' Pete Alonso, left, stands with Francisco Lindor against the Miami Marlins on Sunday. Credit: AP
MIAMI — There are so many minor moments in the course of a 162-game season that end up telling the story of the whole.
Here’s the one from the Mets’ 4-0 loss to the Marlins on Sunday at loanDepot park, the one that eliminated them from playoff contention in Game 162:
The bases were loaded in the fifth when Pete Alonso strode to the plate as the tying run. The man who saved the season last year again was facing the possibility that this would be his last game in a Mets uniform, and there was a sort of steeliness to his gait — a lumbering presence that made it feel as if this deeply un-magical season might have some spark yet.
Alonso lined Edward Cabrera’s sinker straight toward the left-centerfield gap at a screaming 115.9 mph — the hardest any Met hit a ball all year. But Javier Sanoja somehow tracked it down 348 feet away from the plate, and Alonso’s face morphed from astonishment to heartbreak.
“Just because you work hard, you do the right things, you have a good process, that doesn’t guarantee wins,” he said afterward. “People are going to be upset and let down by that. That’s a really tough life lesson.”
And in the end, you didn’t have to ask which of the Mets’ 79 losses was the one that got away, because though they didn’t know it for sure until the very last inning, they controlled their own destiny. They entered the day without that control but got the help they needed: The Reds fell behind for good in the fourth inning and lost to the Brewers, meaning that a victory by the Mets would punch their ticket to the playoffs. In fitting fashion, they beat themselves.
Brooks Raley (3-1), Ryne Stanek and Tyler Rogers combined to give up four runs in the fourth. The Mets went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. They were the only team in baseball to not win after trailing after eight innings, going 0-70.
The result is one of the most spectacular collapses in franchise history.
The $341 million team spent 83 days in first place and was 21 games over .500 on June 12. At 45-24, they boasted MLB’s best record. What ensued was an utter meltdown: They became one of the worst teams in baseball, playing to a .409 winning percentage (38-55) in the final 93 games.
And yet they had plenty of hope to squander: On Sept. 5, fresh off a win over the Reds, they still were a near-lock to make the playoffs, tied for the second wild card and four games ahead of the also-ran pack. They proceeded to lose the next eight games and went 10-15 in September.
Their must-win game was a bullpen game started by Sean Manaea, who pitched 1 2⁄3 innings after throwing in relief earlier in the week, and finished by seven other pitchers, an indictment of the state of their rotation.
The loss also means Sunday might be the last time Alonso and Edwin Diaz don a Mets uniform. Alonso will exercise his player option and Diaz will speak with his family before deciding whether to opt out of the end of his contract.
“One of the reasons why this sucks is because, no matter what, the team’s going to look different next year,” Francisco Lindor said. “There are a lot of good guys here, a lot of good people that want it . . . and it’s not going to look the same . . .
“It hurts. It hurts to fail.”
With a runner on first and one out in the fourth, Stanek hung a sweeper that Eric Wagaman drove to the wall in left-center for a double to open the scoring. With two outs, Brian Navarreto pulled a first-pitch slider to nearly the same spot for a double that gave the Marlins a 2-0 lead.
And just as the Brewers — the team with absolutely nothing on the line — went ahead of the Reds for good, the Mets gave up another two runs. Sanoja drilled Rogers’ slider into the leftfield corner for an RBI triple and Xavier Edwards blooped a single to center to make it 4-0.
“You’re trying to piece it together,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Stanek was going to play a role, Rogers was going to play a role . . . Everyone is going to have to get outs. You play the matchups there. We felt good about those matchups and it didn’t work.”
The Mets’ best shot came in that fifth, when Cabrera walked three batters — Ronny Mauricio with one out, followed by Lindor and Juan Soto with two outs. That brought up Alonso for the screaming line-drive out.
“I thought it was in the gap and we’re right back in the game, and before you know it, their guy is making the play,” Mendoza said. “It takes a toll on the guys. That was our chance right there and we didn’t capitalize.”
Added Alonso: “You don’t want to be in my mind for that one. It stunk.”
Edwin Diaz pitched two perfect innings in the fifth and sixth and offered to go back out for a third, but the heavily taxed closer was refused. Meanwhile, the Mets’ bats continued their funeral processional, even as the Reds lost before them.
“It does sting more knowing that you know it was within your grasp,” Brandon Nimmo said. “So yeah, that one was a nice little cherry on top for the sting.”
Tyler Phillips came in to finish the embalming in the ninth: Mauricio walked, Cedric Mullins flied out to right, Lindor hit into a double play to end the season.
“Really good teams that I’ve been a part of, we’ve been able to patch holes, we were able to pick each other up,” Alonso said. “We didn’t really do a good job of cutting down deficits and eliminating bounce-back runs and covering each other’s miscues. It’s going to happen. Miscues happen. Mistakes happen, not just in one game but over the course of the year . . .
“The devil is in the details.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
