Keidel: Mets Need To Prove They're Not Losers In Biggest Series Of Season
By Jason Keidel
» More Columns
As the Mets meet their most important series of the season, it doubles as a referendum on their ancestral standing as the B-side of Big Apple baseball.
If the Mets are to be more than an ephemeral feel-good story and a sagging bridge to football season, they need to add an essential chapter this week, starting on Monday.
Fans were relieved, if not euphoric, that the franchise finally opened its eyes -- if not its wallet -- to snag some authentic talent at the trade deadline, which has helped the Mets dart out to first place.
But with the success comes -- cue the cliché -- great responsibility. A responsibility to keep the large lead they secured. To make some noise in the playoffs. To let the fans know this isn't an anomaly, a six-month hiccup in a largely solemn arc.
Then the team's singular flaw flared up on Sunday, with the bullpen blowing the nth lead in an otherwise blessed year. When you enter the eighth inning ahead you have to slam the lid. Not only did it cost the Mets their series against the Miami Marlins -- a team that forfeits every season before it begins -- but it yielded a game in the standings.
Strolling into our nation's capital with a five-game lead would have been more aesthetically pleasing. If the Mets lose two of three to the streaking Nats, they will be just three games up, which is one series sweep from forfeiting the bulge they sweated so profusely to procure.
This is why Matt Harvey has to pitch, not only on Tuesday but for as long as this fairy dust still coats the club. Is it a coincidence the team is sputtering through this fog about his future? We can't know. (We'll address Mr. Harvey in detail on Tuesday.) But we do know that this Page Six tableau couldn't come at a more troubling time.
Mets fans are understandably squirming. They have played no one of note, yet surrendered three games for no discernible reason. It can't just be the loss of Lucas Duda, who returns on Monday. Now they have to wonder if they are on the cusp of another collapse -- without their beloved Dark Knight, no less.
They have blown biblical leads before. We don't need to parse the particulars here; every collapse is burned into the collective psyche. Beyond the obvious forlorn Octobers, the Mets have played in one World Series in the last 30 years, and have won one since 1969. They simply can't gag another NL East title and keep the goodwill they've built over the last two months.
And this won't be easy. Not only are they on the road, against a hotter team, but they are facing the Nats' three best pitchers in a row. A four-game lead can shrivel to one quite quickly, which makes a win on Tuesday -- though unlikely when you consider Jon Niese is facing Max Scherzer -- rather appealing.
The Mets know something about front-line pitching. With Harvey and Jacob deGrom starting the final two games of the series, the Mets have the tools to return the season to order.
When the Mets won their seventh straight a couple of weeks ago, stretching their lead to seven games, WFAN host Craig Carton wondered if this were the exact climate for a collapse. You can decide if he was teasing or warning, joshing or prescient. It was good for a laugh. But no one is laughing now.
Is it a matter of mojo or karma? Are we dealing in optics or omens? The Mets can go a long way to quieting the media and appeasing the masses with two wins in Washington.
Follow Jason on Twitter @JasonKeidel.
