What is wrong with Billy Wagner? There has to be something wrong with him, right? Look the guy gets two quick outs then blows the game. He had gotten two outs—two outs! All of a sudden, according to his own words after the game, he became “out of sync”. How does that happen? We have seen three different Billy Wagners now. The one that is lights out, the one that comes in the game with a comfortable lead and completely gives it away, (if you think last night’s loss was bad, do I need to remind you of a certain Saturday afternoon in May against the Yankees), and the one we saw last night. You know, that’s the Billy Wagner that teases you by getting a couple of quick outs then it’s John Franco impersonation time. Last night’s blown save was Billy’s fourth of the year, one more than he had all of last year. At least in this one, Billy justifiably took the loss.
During the course of a 162 game season, there will be devastating losses like last night’s game. And this was a devastating loss, make no mistake about it. “This one stings” as Ron Darling said during the post game show. Consider this; Jose Reyes becomes just the third Met in Shea Stadium history to hit for the cycle (9th Met overall). Jose Valentin hits a dramatic blast to center field that puts the Mets ahead, Aaron Heilman has a strong 8th inning and it looks like the Mets are on their way to a great come back win having trailed 4 to 2 for most of the game. This game was made for Mets Classics. Not so fast, enter Billy Wagner. At the beginning of the ninth, I stepped away from the TV for a minute. When I came back, Wagner already had one out. One pitch later, Griffey grounded out to Delgado. But you know, at that point I turned to my son and said, “Now it gets interesting”. Man do I hate being right all the time.
The Mets will bounce back I have no doubt about that. With the rest of the NL east losing last night, the Mets still remain a commanding 9.5 games ahead. My concern over last night’s loss is what happens down the road when the Mets will be in more crucial games. What kind of closer will Billy be if the race tightens up and the Mets are fighting for the division or even in the playoffs themselves. I just do not yet have the feeling that Billy Wagner is the dominating closer that was advertised. I don’t feel like we have a “Mariano”, so far it seems more like an “Armando”.
So what is wrong with Billy? Some scouts have suggested that his velocity is fine but the ball fails to move like it did last year. Could it be his grip? Is that middle finger on his pitching hand been bothering him all season? Would he even say if it did? What ever the case, something is not right with him. This is one of the dominant closers in the game. The Mets shelled out 43 million for this guy. For that kind of cash they expected one run leads in the 9th to be secure. So far, it has been a crap shoot.
I thought Willie Randolph’s comments after the game were telling. He said “That (game) was a classic give away”. At first I thought he was only talking about Wagner, but then he talked of chances early in the game that were squandered. But I wonder. I have a feeling Willie is just not quite in love with his new closer, at least not yet. It will be interesting to see this play out.
Notes: Had the Mets won last night, I would have recorded the encore presentation and placed it in its rightful place in my library. After all it was a nice comeback and of course Reyes hit for the cycle. But knowing the outcome, I would never watch it.
On this home stand the Mets are 2 and 4 and at Shea this year their record is now an unremarkable 21 and 15. The Mets have a very tough road trip ahead against American League teams
Do you still wish that the Phillies swept the Yankees instead of what actually happened? If the Yanks were swept, combined with the Mets losing 2 of 3 to the Reds, the Mets lead would be down to 7.5 games, instead they remain at 9.5. Since last Thursday’s win against Philly, the Mets lead has stayed at 9.5 games. If Wagner could have gotten that last freeken out last night, the Mets lead would have been 10.5 games. Anyway, the Yankees are done with the Phillies so you can go back to sticking pins in your Yankee voodoo dolls.
Pedro, we need you today. Pedro has always stepped up when the Mets needed him to. With a tough nine game trip starting tomorrow and that nasty loss last night, it would be great if Pedro could be his old self this afternoon and help the Mets walk away with a W.
I really wanted to write about Jose Reyes today but I needed to vent. Hopefully, Jose can keep pouring it on. Every time I think of Reyes and Write and the fact that they are so young, I get excited thinking about the future this team could have. There, I ended on a positive note.
