You didn’t really think it was going to be as easy as the Mets made it look for a week in Denver and Philadelphia, did you?
Who knows, maybe the Nationals will continue to trip all over themselves in the coming weeks, but let’s face it, with a big lead, there’s a pressure on the Mets now to win the NL East that they never expected.
Are they ready for it? Their bats were bound to cool off, but after two straight rather listless losses to the Red Sox, including Saturday’s 3-1 defeat, it’s fair to wonder how they’ll deal with September pennant-race pressure.
Which, of course, begs another question: Are the fans ready for it?
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Admit it, the 2007 collapse is never far from your thoughts now that the Mets have put themselves in this position. Right?
It’s perfectly understandable. But I don’t see anything of the sort this time. The race may get tight, but there’s no comparison between the state of the pitching now and then.
Jacob deGrom dominated the Red Sox on Saturday much like Matt Harvey did Friday night, and lost only because the Mets couldn’t do a thing with Joe Kelly on Saturday.
But that type of starting pitching goes a long way toward preventing losing streaks, never mind collapses.
Remember, it was the pitching that fell apart late in the 2007 season, as a starting rotation full of age and mediocrity hit the wall in the final weeks of September.
In truth, it was a staggering level of failure. As that team went 5-12 in its final 17 games while blowing a seven-game lead to the Phillies, it allowed seven or more runs in nine of those 12 losses.
Furthermore, four times during that stretch the Mets gave up double figures in runs. And, of course, in the decisive season finale, 41-year-old Tom Glavine gave up seven runs in the first inning en route to an 8-1 loss to the Marlins.
It’s hard to see Harvey, deGrom and the other starters caving in such a manner.
Then again, shaky bullpens can be toxic for teams trying to get to the finish line, as was the case in 2008 when the Mets again failed to hold onto a lead late in the season — though nothing like ’07.
The Mets are fine at the back end with Tyler Clippard and Jeurys Familia, but they continue to search for a dependable third reliever, someone to fill that gap in the seventh inning when pitch counts gets too high for the starters, as was the case the last two days with Harvey and deGrom.
Sure enough, Hansel Robles gave up a solo home run in the seventh inning on Saturday, which extended the Sox lead to 3-0. Obviously it wasn’t as destructive as the three runs Logan Verrett gave up in the seventh on Friday night to blow Harvey’s 2-0 lead, but it didn’t help.
So maybe what the Mets’ brass did on Saturday, coming to an agreement on a trade — pending medicals — with the Diamondbacks for reliever Addison Reed, will prove more significant than the loss to the Red Sox.
GM Sandy Alderson has been trying to make some type of waiver deal in recent weeks, and in Reed the Mets are hoping to catch a hot reliever. Overall the righthander, who totaled 72 saves in 2013-14, has been a huge disappointment this season, to the point that the D-Backs sent him to the minors for five weeks in June and July.
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But since returning Reed has allowed only three runs in 14.1 innings over 13 appearances, with 14 strikeouts vs. three walks.
“He’s worth a shot,” was the way a Mets person summed up the pending deal on Saturday night.
Why not? Every other deal that Alderson has made lately has paid off nicely, helping the Mets transform themselves from a punchless offense to a team that has been “smashing the ball” lately, as Terry Collins put it on Saturday.
But offense tends to come and go, and don’t forget, the Mets did their pounding last week on the Phillies and the Rockies, the teams with the two worst ERAs in the National League.
Still, it has been something of a shock to see the Mets offense grind to a complete halt the last couple of nights, even if the Red Sox did start two young, talented pitchers in Henry Owens and Kelly.
Collins made the case that the nine-game road trip and extra-inning games on Thursday and Friday are catching up with the Mets.
“You look at the swings and you say, ‘we’re out of gas,’ ” Collins said.
Maybe there’s some truth to that, but nobody wants to hear it. The Mets have a big lead, September is coming and nobody has better pitching. There can be no excuse for not finishing the job this time.
