Last night I atteneded the most enjoyable Mets games I’ve been to this season. That is, it should have been the most enjoyable game, but Jerry Manuel insisted on using the human trainwreck to try to close out the game.
Joe Smith and Scott Shoenweiss managed to clean up and get a win for the good guys, but not before Heilman managed to completely ruin the evening for tens of thousands of fans. Up until Heilman showed up, the day was near perfect. It had been a good, crisp game, complete with excellent pitching (Pelfrey was outstanding), a career milestone (Daniel Murphy’s first ML RBI), and some nice drama (come from behind, 3-run homer by Tatis – his second of the day). The fans were all ready to forget the miserable road trip and head home happy.
Well, all that good stuff was forgotten the minute homerun Heilman did his thing.
Sure, the Mets still won, and sure – thanks to the Phillies’ loss – it meant moving up a game in the standings, but it brought back all the bullpen woes and lackluster play that have haunted the Mets for more than a full year now.
Heilman is one of the reasons the Mets are not a championship team. He’s also emblematic of the greater problems with this team: attitude and inconsistency.
I hope the Mets can prove me wrong this September (and October!) but I’m not going to hold my breath.
Update 8/8/08…
And basically the same thing happens two days later. Santana misses out on yet another win because of this crappy bullpen.