The Mets fulfill their yearly collapse with a Wild Card Series loss to the Padres
By Bradley Edington ‘23
Courtesy of Flickr - Mets Opening Night (Apr. 27, 2022)
Are the New York Mets the most heartbreaking major league sports team in recent history?
This October, the New York Mets, who showed great potential throughout the entire 2022 season, ended their season in disappointing fashion with a 2-1 loss to the San Diego Padres in the National League Wild Card Series. Though this year’s end may not seem remarkable, in context with the team's recent history, the series loss tells a different story.
The Mets’ first World Series title in 1969 provided one of the biggest upsets in World Series history when they beat the Baltimore Orioles in five games.
It took another 17 years before the Mets won the pennant, or the right to play in the World Series, again. Their miraculous comeback over the Boston Red Sox in the late innings of Game 6 is one of the most infamous games in Red Sox history. This win would send the series to Game 7, where the Mets won the title. Unfortunately for Mets fans, this was the last time the Mets would clinch the championship.
After the 1986 World series, the Mets have let down their fans time and again. Below is a historical timeline of the Mets' three most disappointing seasons of the last 30 years.
2000:
The 2000 season was the first year since 1986 that the Mets had made it to the World Series. The Mets faced off against the juggernaut New York Yankees in the first Subway Series, or New York vs. New York World Series, since 1956.
Game 1, the longest game in World Series history, running a total of four hours and 51 minutes, served as the nail-biting start to an equally exhilarating series. The Yankees and Mets swapped leads throughout the entire game and, headed into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Mets held a one-run lead. However, the Yankee’s second baseman, Chuck Knoblauch, hit a sacrifice flyball that sent the game into extra innings. The winning walk-off single from Jose Vizcaino of the Yankees in the 12th inning would set the tone for the rest of the series as Mets fans exclaimed “we could have had it!”
Game 2 was equally dramatic. After a burst of passion in the 2nd inning when Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens threw a broken bat at the Mets dugout after a foul ball, the Yankees settled into a 6-0 lead headed into the ninth inning. Then, in an astonishing shift of tide, the Mets began a comeback, one run at a time, until they sat in a 5-6 deficit with only one run needed to send the game to extra innings. However, forever the letdown team, the Mets were not able to capitalize on their comeback and fell short of tying up the game.
Game 3 served as a redemption game for the Mets and their fans. In a much less thrilling game, the Mets beat the Yankees, 4-2. Both the fans and the team hoped the Game 3 win would be a change in momentum for the series, however, the Yankees would go on to win Games 4 and 5 to capture the pennant in two, undramatic wins.
The spark of hope that the Mets displayed in Game 3 had died and, with their 4-1 series loss, a sudden halt to the unrelenting pace that they displayed throughout the season had come.
2015:
The 2015 World Series, where the Mets were pitted against the Kansas City Royals, was one big heartbreak, made up of smaller disappointments. In each of the five games played, the Mets went up on the Royales early, and, only in Game 3, were the Mets able to hold onto the lead.
Game 1 of the series was reminiscent of the first game in the 2000 World Series. The Royals trailed 4-3 heading into the bottom of the ninth when Alex Gordon’s home run for the Royals sent the game into extra innings. The score stayed level until the 14th inning when the Royals’ Eric Hosmer’s sacrifice flyball ended the game.
Game 2 started out slow; there were no runs scored until the Mets got a run in the top of the fourth with a Run Batted In (RBI) single to shallow left field. However, the Mets’ lead didn't hold for long as the Royals scored four runs in the fifth and another three runs in the eighth, finishing the game with a 7-1 win.
Game 3 provided more hope for the Mets than the previous games. In their first home game of the series, the Mets were up 2-1 in the first inning. With a surge of sixth-inning runs, the Mets were able to secure a win with a 9-3 lead.
In Game 4, the Mets held a 3-2 lead on the Royals headed into the eighth inning. However, the Royals pulled out three runs with a base hit and two RBIs in the eighth and took the game, 5-3.
The pattern set in the first four games of the series seemed to write the results of Game 5. The Mets held a hopeful 2-0 lead going into the top of the ninth. However, the team couldn’t get away from their seemingly predetermined doom. With some easy-to-hit pitching from Mets pitcher Matt Harvey and aggressive base running from Hosmer, the Royals tied the game up and sent it to the tenth inning.
It wasn't until the 12th that the Royals put the final nail in the coffin. The Royals’ second baseman, Christian Colon, hit the game-winning RBI which sent Jarrod Dyson to home plate and finally secured the Mets’ collapse.
“You never have them until that 27th out is made,” said Terry Collins, the Mets manager, in a press conference after the loss, after being asked about letting each game slip away. “Yeah, we’re real disappointed.”
2022:
The 2022 Mets may have been the highest potential squad the Mets franchise had seen since their 1986 title.
To start, the Mets came into the wildcard series with 101 regular season wins, the second most wins in Mets history, behind their 1986 season. The Mets’ payroll of $288 million, the highest in Major League Baseball, allowed general manager Billy Eppler to hold superstars, such as designated hitter and first base Pete Alonso, on their roster. With the recent three-year, $130 million signing of starting pitcher Max Scherzer, the team looked dangerous throughout the majority of the season.
However, in the last month before the playoffs, the Mets’ demise seemed inevitable, as they lost 15 out of their last 26 games.
Headed into the National League Wild Card Series, a best-of-three-game series, the Mets hoped to take the San Diego Padres in two games and advance to a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Mets were forced into the Wild Card Series by the Atlanta Braves, who had the same record of 101-61 and had taken the National League East due to their intra-division record, which serves as a tiebreaker.
However, the Padres put up a ferocious fight from the start of the series, winning Game 1 in a 7-1 landslide. With the statistically worst postseason performance in Scherzer’s postseason history, the Padres quickly took the lead over the Mets. The Mets finished the game with their heads hung low and tails between their legs.
Game 2 was much more hopeful for the Mets. Combined with a better game of pitching, the Mets’ hitting game, which had little impact in Game 1, came in with full force, scoring 4 runs in the seventh inning to secure the 7-3 win for the team.
In the deciding game of the 3-game series, Game 3 seemed similar to Game 1. The Mets’ starting pitcher, Chris Bassitt, allowed the Padres to go up 4-0 in the first five innings. On the offensive side, the Mets couldn’t manage a single hit until the fifth inning with the star performance of Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove. The game ended in a resounding 6-0 loss for the Mets, and just like that, their season was over.
“The sport is so, you know, gratifying and so many great things happen. It’s just cruel, too,” said Mets manager Buck Showalter in a press conference after the Game 3 loss. The disappointment was readily apparent in his tone as he said, “It’s not always fair.”
“When do I get joy?” cried Frank Fleming, a reporter for Barstool Sports and die-hard Mets fan, over social media after Game 3. “I get to watch the Dodgers win, the Braves win, the Yankees win. I saw the Patriots win a million Super Bowls. When? When do the Mets get their chance?”
"There’s a lot we accomplished this year,” Alonso said when reflecting on the 2022 season. “There’s a lot to be proud of. Also, there’s a lot we can learn from and take into next year and hopefully capitalize."
Though Alonso’s hopeful attitude may not ease the pain that Mets fans have become all too accustomed to, it's what the team needs in order to succeed in the future and end their yearly heartbreak.