Monday, September 27, 1999Phillies 3, Mets 2
The Associated PressPHILADELPHIA — John Franco grabbed his suitcase and headed for the door. Before departing, he tried to put a good spin on the disaster that has become the New York Mets.
“We're not dead yet,” Franco said after the Mets' promising season declined further into shambles with their sixth straight loss, 3-2 to the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday. “We're long from being dead. I still believe.”
About a half-hour after Franco paraphrased the Mets' refrain from championships past, news spread quickly to the press box that New York was trailing the Cincinnati Reds in the NL wild-card standings.
A day after Robert Person beat his former team, ex-Met Paul Byrd (15-10) stymied New York and another former Mets player, Rico Brogna, homered for the second straight day.
Then, ex-Phillies closer Ricky Bottalico served up a game-winning, three-run homer to Pokey Reese as the Reds beat the Cardinals 7-5. Cincinnati, which trailed the Mets by 4 games a week ago, leads New York by one game with six to play.
The Mets, swept by the Braves last week in Atlanta, are out of a playoff spot for the first time since July 21. And this sweep came at the hands of a franchise that perpetrated one of the worst collapses in baseball history, blowing a 61/2-game lead with 12 games left in 1964.
The Phillies, who have lost more games than any team in major league history, entered the series with 34 losses in 44 games.
“I hoped we'd win the series,” Brogna said. “I never dreamed we'd sweep them.”
Manager Bobby Valentine, who surprised reporters Saturday by saying he should be fired if the Mets don't make the playoffs, had nothing to add on that note after this game. Players tipped chairs over as they left the dugout, leaving general manager Steve Phillips sitting alone and gripping a baseball.
“This stuff's going to change,” Valentine vowed. “It always does. We're too good for it not to.”
So ensconced in their slump are the Mets that they failed to score with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth. Rickey Henderson, who had only hit into three double plays this season, grounded into one against Steve Montgomery to end the game. Montgomery got his first career save.
After Wayne Gomes walked the bases loaded with one out, Henderson hit a soft chopper just to the right of second base. David Doster, who made a leaping grab to squelch a Mets rally on Saturday, short-hopped it and flipped to second to start the improbable twin killing.
Doster wasn't sure whether to catch it on a fly or short-hop it.
“Either way, I think it would have worked out because we had (Rey) Ordonez off second,” Doster said.
“What are the odds of that happening?” Franco asked.
Henderson, with a New York paper bearing the headline “Broomsday” from the Braves series still on the floor in his locker, would not entertain the question.
“Y'all got your quotes, y'all saw the game. Go with that,” Henderson said. “Because Rickey isn't going to do nothing. I got nothing to say about this crazy stuff going on.”
Actually, that said it all.
In position to challenge Atlanta for the NL East title less than a week ago, the Mets soaked in the news that the Braves clinched the division with a 10-0 victory over Montreal.
“I don't have an explanation,” Franco said. “There is no explanation.”
The Mets have a much-needed day off Monday, then six home games against Atlanta and Pittsburgh to finish the season.
“I think a lot of the guys are physically tired,” said Valentine, who then related an anecdote from the ski slopes. “When I'm on the slopes, at the end of the day I always tell guys that fatigue makes a coward of all of us.”
Stymied by Byrd and stellar defensive plays by the Phillies, the Mets finally broke through with a big hit in the seventh. Ordonez hit a two-run double into the right-center gap, cutting it to 3-2.
Byrd, who pitched briefly for the Mets in 1995-96, allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings with two walks and six strikeouts. Reed (10-5) allowed three runs and three hits in six innings, including Brogna's two-run homer in the fourth.
The Mets were robbed of hits in the fourth and sixth. Shortstop Desi Relaford deflected Edgardo Alfonzo's liner and caught it on the rebound just before it hit the turf in the fourth.
In the sixth, Relaford made a backhanded play in the hole on Henderson, and Byrd snared John Olerud's smash that seemed bound to be a single up the middle. Notes: From the seventh inning Friday through the sixth inning Sunday, Olerud was 5-for-8 and the rest of the Mets were 2-for-50. ... Mets C Mike Piazza, was 0-for-9 in the series and hadn't hit a ball out of the infield before his single in the seventh and double in the eighth. He was 0-for-3 trying to throw out runners. ... Byrd is 5-1 lifetime against the Mets. ... Franco set the NL record with his 17th pinch walk in the seventh. Elmer Valo of the Washington Senators has the major league mark with 18 walks in 1960. ... The Mets, who concluded an 0-6 road trip, had an eight-game losing streak earlier this season which included an 0-6 homestand and led to the firing of three coaches. ... Valentine tried to stir up the offense by moving Roger Cedeno up to the No. 2 spot and batting Alfonzo sixth behind Robin Ventura.
AP-CS-09-26-99 1905EDT
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