Atlanta wins 106th
Mets' fade complete with 7-2 loss to Braves
Posted: Sunday September 27, 1998 08:51 PM
| |
Valentine couldn't watch as his Mets squandered numerous chances to beat Atlanta during the three-game sweep AP |
ATLANTA (AP) -- As he left the New York clubhouse, Turk Wendell
carried a stack of T-shirts that were ordered when the Mets had a chance to
make the playoffs.
They won't be needed this year.
The Mets, who had a one-game lead in the NL wild-card race going into
their final five games, finished a ghastly, winless final week with a 7-2
loss to the Atlanta
Braves on Sunday and were eliminated from playoff contention.
The wild-card shirts, which looked so valuable Tuesday, instead will
serve as sad reminders to how the Mets bombed out.
"I'll take one," Mets closer John Franco said
to Wendell, grabbing one of the shirts and stuffing it inside his travel
bag. "I could use something to clean my house."
The Mets, who haven't made a postseason appearance since Los Angeles
beat them in the 1988 NL championship series, lost their last five games
and scored just seven runs in their final 44 innings.
"I don't know what happened," Mets manager Bobby Valentine said. "If I
knew, I would have done something about it. That's the frustrating part. I
couldn't do anything about it. I should have done something, I should have
done something ..."
New York, which dropped out of a three-way tie by losing 4-0 Saturday,
began Sunday one game behind Chicago and San Francisco, needing a victory
over the Braves and losses by both the Cubs and Giants to force a three-way
playoff. Atlanta, which has won seven straight division titles, quickly
ended that illusion with a four-run second inning.
Unlike the Mets, who wasted numerous chances during the three-game
sweep, the Braves scored their first six runs with two-outs hits and went
on to their team-record 106th win. They open the playoffs Wednesday against
the winner of Monday night's playoff game between the Cubs and Giants.
"We peaked pretty good at the end," said manager Bobby Cox, whose team
finished with seven straight wins and 14 in 16 games. "Everybody seems to
be hitting well."
Unlike New York.
During the final week, the Mets were shut out twice. During three days
in Atlanta, they stranded 32 runners 11 on Sunday and left the bases
loaded four times.
"There's never a good time to struggle," Brian McRae
said. "But at the end of the season, with the position we were in, it was
more dramatic."
These Mets weren't Amazin'. Instead, they seemed amazed at how quickly
their season ended.
"We knew if we didn't play good ball, it wasn't going to last," McRae
said. "We didn't play good ball, so this is the position we find ourselves
in."
After falling behind 5-0, the Mets closed to 5-2 in the seventh and had
the tying run at the plate with one out. But Mike Piazza who
stranded 15 runners in the series struck out against Dennis
Martinez, and McRae went down swinging against John Rocker.
Atlanta sealed the victory with RBI doubles by Eddie Perez in
the seventh and Chipper Jones
in the eighth.
The Braves pounded Mets starter Armando
Reynoso (7-3), who lasted only 1 2-3 innings and gave up five runs and
six hits.
Andres
Galarraga had an RBI double in the first before Atlanta broke it open
with a flurry of two-out hits in the second.
Reynoso made the mistake of grooving a 3-2 fastball to Greg Maddux, one
of the best-hitting pitchers in the league. Maddux, who hit .240 this
season, slammed a drive to the wall in center for an RBI double.
After Walt
Weiss' single, Keith
Lockhart made it 4-0 with a two-run double to the gap in right-center.
Chipper Jones then blooped a hit just behind shortstop that a diving Rey Ordonez
failed to snare. Ordonez quickly grabbed the ball and jumped to his feet,
but seemed startled to see Lockhart was trying to score all the way from
second.
Ordonez's throw sailed over Piazza's head for an error while the runner
slid across the plate.
The Mets bunched together three straight hits in the third, including John Olerud's
RBI single, but their frustration was epitomized the following inning when
Atlanta came up with two brilliant defensive plays.
On a slow roller by Carlos Baerga,
Chipper Jones swooped in from third, barehanded the ball and barely beat
the runner with the throw to first. Then, Rey Ordonez hit a grounder deep
in the hole that was backhanded by shortstop Ozzie Guillen,
who skipped a throw just ahead of a head-first slide by the Mets shortstop.
Maddux (18-9), who had lost his first three September decisions, avoided
having his first winless month since June 1990, allowing five hits and a
run in six innings. Despite a late-season swoon, the four-time NL Cy Young
winner finished with a 2.22 ERA, leading the NL for the fourth time. He
finished second the last two seasons.
Largely overlooked amid the hoopla generated by Mark McGwire,
Sammy Sosa and
the New York
Yankees, Atlanta (106-56) put together one of the best seasons ever by
an NL team. Only five NL teams have won more games in a season, the last
being the 1986 New York
Mets (108-54).
Piazza, eligible for free agency after the season, ended the game by
popping out to second against Rudy Seanez.
"I'm going to take some time off," Piazza said. "I have no feelings on
next year at this time. I'm just going to spend some time with my family
and friends and see where it goes from there."
Notes: The Braves had 23 shutouts, one short of the Atlanta record
set in 1992. ... The Mets, who finished 88-74 for the second straight
season, had a six-game losing streak from April 25-May 2. ... Atlanta has
the pitching categories covered: Tom Glavine led
the NL with 20 wins, Maddux had the best ERA, and John Smoltz the
highest winning percentage (.850). ... Andruw Jones
finished three steals short of becoming the youngest 30-30 player ever. ...
Olerud went 2-for-4 and finished second in the league at .354, nine points
behind Colorado's Larry Walker.
... The Braves drew 48,685 to finish at 3,361,350, a drop of 103,138 from
Turner Field's first season but the third-highest total in franchise
history. ... Atlanta pitchers totaled 1,232 strikeouts this season, tied
for the second-most in major league history with the 1997 Dodgers behind
the 1996 Braves (1,245).
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
