Sunday, September 26, 1999
Phillies 4, Mets 2
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — A thrilling, tumultuous season for the New York Mets has come down to this: seven games stand between them and making the playoffs for the first time since 1988.
Bobby Valentine made it clear Saturday that if the Mets' five-game losing streak turns into a second-straight late-season collapse, he should be fired.
“I shouldn't come back next year if we don't go to the playoffs,” Valentine said after the Mets continued their amazin' freefall with a 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Mets fell into a tie with Cincinnati for the NL wild card with the Reds' 6-1 victory over St. Louis. Both teams have seven games remaining.
With five games remaining last season, New York needed only one victory to force a playoff for the NL wild card. They lost all five, including three against the Braves at Turner Field.
Valentine was crushed, asking himself what he could have done differently. If it happens again, he said it should cost him his job.
“That would be an easy decision if we don't get to the playoffs,” Valentine said. “I'm not making anybody's decision for them.”
Valentine added that he would not resign, saying, “I have never walked away from anything in my life. And I'm not walking away from this. This isn't over. This is a seven-game season that I think is going to bring the best out in us.”
“It's not the guys,” Valentine said. “We've got a seven-game season here. If we don't get to the playoffs, it's my fault, not their fault. I should be held totally responsible for this thing, because we're a good team. We're better than we're playing right now.
“I believe we're going to come out of it. I believe it big-time.”
Kenny Rogers, who wasn't expected to start in this series because of a sore hamstring, gave up back-to-back homers to Mike Lieberthal and Rico Brogna in the second and walked in two runs in the third.
A rally that could have lifted the Mets out of their slump ended abruptly in the eighth inning when Benny Agbayani's liner turned into an improbable double play.
“If I got that hit, that would have been the turning point,” Agbayani said.
New York fell six games behind NL East-leading Atlanta with three against the Braves next week. Atlanta beat Montreal 5-3 Saturday night.
Valentine said it was time for the Mets to turn their attention to the wild card.
“All we have is seven games. All we have to do is play better than one team,” Valentine said. “Crazier things have happened, but I think that's what we have to look at.
“I think they've been looking over their shoulder at Cincinnati and wondering if something would happen where they didn't have to do it, if it would be done for them. Now they realize that they have to do it.”
The Mets' losing streak, including a three-game sweep in Atlanta, is the club's longest since the infamous eight-game slide that led to the firing of three coaches in June.
General manager Steve Phillips and several players came to Valentine's defense.
“I don't think you can put all of the losses in the last five days on any one person,” Phillips said.
Asked what he thought about Valentine's statement about his job, Phillips said, “I'm glad it's nothing I'm even going to have to consider.”
Robin Ventura said, “We're the ones who have to put it together.”
The Phillies won for only the sixth time in 29 games.
“Early in the year, we thought this would be a meaningful series,” said Brogna, who hit his career-high 23rd homer.
John Olerud hit a two-run homer into the right-field upper deck off Steve Montgomery to cut it to 4-2 in the eighth. Mike Piazza walked before Scott Aldred relieved and walked Ventura. But that only set the stage for the Mets' latest setback.
Darryl Hamilton, a .313 batter was asked to sacrifice with no outs, bunted back to Aldred, who forced Piazza at third. Pinch-hitter Agbayani hit a looper that appeared headed for the outfield, but second baseman Dave Doster leaped high to snare it and flipped to second for a double play.
“I didn't know I caught it until I hit the ground,” Doster said. “I felt it hit the glove when I landed.”
Rey Ordonez led off the ninth with a walk, and Wayne Gomes got three outs for his 19th save.
Robert Person (9-5), traded by the Mets to Toronto for Olerud in 1996, shut down his former team and got his first victory since Aug. 26.
Rogers (5-1) lost for the first time with the Mets and lasted only 2 2-3 innings in his shortest outing since New York acquired him from Oakland on July 23. He allowed four runs, four hits and four walks.
Person allowed three hits in six shutout innings with no walks and four strikeouts. Consistently topping 95 mph, Person got out of trouble in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
The biggest missed opportunity for the Mets came in the sixth, when they had runners at first and second with one out following a walk to Edgardo Alfonzo and a single by Olerud. But Piazza struck out for the second time in the game, chasing a slider that nearly bounced in the opposite batter's box.
After Ventura walked to load the bases, Hamilton flied to center on a 3-2 pitch.
Notes: The Mets were 9-1 in Rogers' previous 10 starts. ... Lieberthal's homer was his 30th. ... Brogna got his 100th RBI when he walked with the bases loaded in the third. He is the first Phillies player to drive in 100 runs in consecutive seasons since Darren Daulton in 1992-93.
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