As the mid-point of the season approaches, the Mets do not seem prepared to attain the position they need to avoid a third consecutive late-season collapse. Before the season began, I boldly proclaimed that the Mets could exorcise the Phillies from their shattered psyches forever more if they built an 18-game lead with 17 games to play.
The 17-games-to-go juncture, after all, was the point of the schedule the Mets reached the last two years leading the National League East before they did their Phillies fade. They led Philadelphia by 7 games with 17 to go in 2007 and by 3 ½ games with 17 to go last year, and they finished first neither time.
It seemed to make sense, then, that the Mets would have to take drastic action to avoid a three-peat; building an 18-game lead seemed to be pretty drastic. Right now it’s impossible, too.
Bruised, battered and broken, the Mets remain in the division race only through the generosity of the Phillies, who may be repaying past favors.
For example, after losing two of three games to the Phillies 10 days ago, the Mets lost two of three games each to the Yankees and the Orioles and were in danger of falling so far behind that even with more than half the season to go they would have been hard pressed to catch the Phillies.
But the Phillies lost five of six to the Red Sox and the Blue Jays, enabling the Mets to gain a game on them, and the Mets gained yet another game Friday night, slicing their deficit to two games.
The Mets remain in the race despite encountering a multitude of problems, including a season-long siege of injuries, an offense too impotent to put teams away and a bullpen that is vastly improved over last year’s but still capable of relinquishing late-inning leads.
The injuries have nearly decimated the Mets. They have so many players on the disabled list that the group includes players who were hurt filling in for players who were recovering from injuries themselves.
Ramon Martinez was playing shortstop in place of Jose Reyes (aching calf) and fractured a finger. Two weeks earlier Alex Cora tore a ligament in his throwing thumb while substituting for Reyes. Angel Pagan, who had spent the first six weeks of the season on the disabled list, was playing center field because Carlos Beltran had a stomach ailment and strained his groin.
First baseman and major run producer Carlos Delgado had hip surgery and hasn’t played since May 10. “He should be back before the end of the season, but I don’t know when,” general manager Omar Minaya said.
Delgado’s absence has prompted fans to urge Minaya to trade for a first baseman, such as Nick Johnson of Washington, but Minaya said, “Who are you going to give up for him? Fernando Martinez? I’m not going to do that. Bobby Parnell? I’m not going to do that.”
Especially not with Johnson’s injury history. Johnson has missed two entire seasons and three-quarters of another season with injuries. “If the Mets traded for him,” an executive of one team said, “Nick Johnson could easily get hurt within a week or an at-bat.”
Right fielder Ryan Church and catcher Brian Schneider have also been on the disabled list this season, and three pitchers are on it now – starters John Maine and Oliver Perez and setup reliever J.J. Putz.
The Mets expect Maine to return to the rotation in 10 days to two weeks, and Minaya was cautiously optimistic about Perez (at left), who hasn’t pitched for the Mets since May 2.
“Perez finally had a good session yesterday,” Minaya said Friday. “He’s not ready now. It depends on how his knee responds. He’s on a cycle to pitch every five days. He threw well yesterday, 91, 92. That was good news.”
Minaya was not interested in getting into the sweepstakes for Pedro Martinez, who has been throwing for about half a dozen teams. The general manager, however, asked Cleveland about Cliff Lee, last year’s American League Cy Young award winner, but the Indians decided not to trade him.
In the meantime, while the Mets tread water awaiting the return of their injured starters, they need to figure out how to convert late-inning leads into victories. In the space of nine recent days, leading to the weekend, they lost four games which they led after the fifth inning.
The losses resulted from a combination of their relief pitchers giving up runs and their hitters shutting down and not producing late-inning add-on runs.
The Phillies, on the other hand, have demonstrated that they are a relentless and a resilient team, and even if the Mets remain in the race, they will have a difficult task in overcoming them.
CUBS CREEP ALONG
Just as the Phillies have let the Mets hang around, the Cubs have found the N.L. Central forgiving, too. Favored to win a third straight division title, the Cubs have spent more time in fourth place than anywhere else. They began the weekend with a .500 record (31-31), having lost 17 of 27 games in the previous month.
They also began the weekend uncertain of their future ownership. News surfaced last week that Sam Zell, owner of the Tribune Company, which owns the Cubs, had not completed negotiations with the announced buyer, the Ricketts family of Chicago, and in fact was talking again with Marc Utay, a former Chicago resident, who heads a private equity firm in New York.
None of the participants was talking about the sale developments, but a baseball official who knows Zell said, “Sam’s a tough negotiator,” adding, “I guess nothing these days is unusual. They’re in bankruptcy, and they have creditors to deal with. It’s just taking longer than they’d like.”
It’s taken longer than the Cubs would like for their hitters to begin hitting. Last year the Cubs scored the most runs in the league, had the most total bases, had the second highest batting average .278) and averaged 5.31 runs a game. This season, before Saturday, they were 14th in runs, 15th in total bases, 14th in batting average (.245) and had averaged 4.25 runs a game.
Those are not figures expected from a team managed by Lou Piniella, which is why the Cubs changed hitting coaches last week, replacing Gerald Perry with Von Joshua. Piniella, once a hitting coach for the Yankees, often serves as his own hitting coach, but his system wasn’t working this season.
“Lou is a great hitting coach, but he delegates well and lets the coaches do their jobs,” general manager Jim Hendry said. “I’ve never let a hitting coach go in the middle of the season. This is not an indictment of Gerald Perry. Maybe a different voice would help. Joshua had a lot of our kids in the minors. Maybe a change will help and maybe the combination of Lou and Von will help us.”
The Cubs’ offense has been weakened by the six-week absence of Aramis Ramirez, their third baseman, who dislocated a shoulder six weeks ago while hitting .364 in 18 games. He remains the Cubs’ only .300 hitter.
Alfonso Soriano was hitting .229, 53 points below his career average, and Geovany Soto .222 after hitting .285 as a rookie last season.
“We have all-star caliber players who didn’t hit well at the same time,” Hendry said.
“Ramirez got hurt and has been out for a long time. You wouldn’t think one guy would make the impact we’re talking about, but guys are starting to swing the bats better in the last few days. Ramirez hopefully will be back by the first week of August.
“Soriano is a streaky guy. He’s had a couple good days. He’s such a talented guy, he can carry you for three, four weeks, and he can go into funks. He went from .280 to .225 in a couple weeks time, but he looks like he’s coming out of it. He’s too talented to be down for long.”
Piniella did not return a telephone call to talk about the Cubs, but Hendry said, “Lou is like I am. We’re a little disappointed. We expected to be better. But Lou’s proven over time he can lead the troops back. We’re reasonably healthy except for Ramirez. Lou’s track record in the second half has always been good. He’s handling it pretty good.”
FOREIGN ASSIGNMENT
The Dodgers are doing well enough that their chief executive officer feels she can leave the team for a few days around mid-season. Jamie McCourt is going to the Maccabiah Games in Israel next month.
“I’ve lived in Israel a couple times,” she said. “I traveled around the country in high school, and I also did a year of law school there. I haven’t been there in a long time. I’m Jewish, and I have four boys and all have been bar mitzvahed, one in Israel.”
McCourt said she was asked if the Dodgers would be a sponsor of the Maccabiah Games “and I said absolutely. It promotes the game of baseball internationally, and I love Israel and I love the Maccabiah Games.”
One person said he heard that Sandy Koufax would be going with McCourt to the games, which will be held July 13-23, but she said the former Dodgers’ pitching great would not be. Koufax, a relative recluse, rarely appears publicly.
“Sandy has become a close friend,” McCourt said. “We got a Scopus award from Hebrew University three years ago, and I asked Sandy if he would present it to us in Los Angeles and he did. He picks and chooses what he does, He’s not as uninvolved as people imagine. But he said he isn’t going to the games because all his friends’ kids are getting married this summer. I love Sandy. He’s like a brother. He’s a wonderful human being. He’s just a good person.”
SNUFFING OUT PIERRE’S FIRE
In his first 20 games as Manny Ramirez’s suspension replacement in left field for the Dodgers, Juan Pierre was on fire as a hitter. He amassed 37 hits in 87 at-bats for a .425 average. In his last 19 games, however, before Saturday, Pierre had 17 hits in 83 at-bats, a .210 average.
In Pierre’s period of hitting, the Dodgers had a 13-7 record and increased their division lead from 6 ½ games to nine games. In his non-hitting period they have had a 10-9 record and lost a game from their lead.
DOSE OF REALITY FOR PITTSBURGH FANS
Some of my fellow Pittsburghers are getting carried away by the Penguins’ recent Stanley Cup championship following the Steelers’ Super Bowl conquest earlier this year.
“Actually we are not that far out of 1st place or a wild card playoff spot as of now…so who knows???” a Pittsburgh fan wrote in an e-mail to a friend.
He referred to the Pirates, who haven’t had a winning season since 1992, let alone won a World Series. They entered Saturday’s game with a 31-36 record, meaning they needed a 51-44 record in their remaining 95 games to avoid breaking the record for most successive losing seasons, 16, which they share with the 1933-48 Phillies.