For lack of a better word, let’s make one up that quintessentially applies to the 2021 New York Mets. What they have done better than just about any team in recent memory around here, any sport, is this:
They regularly michaelcorleone you.
Even if you are not an aficionado of the “Godfather” trilogy, you surely know what this means. Right in the middle of Part III, Al Pacino as Michael Corleone utters the most famous of all the lines Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola ever typed on his behalf:
“Just when I thought I was out … they pull me back in!”
The Mets michaelcorleoned you early, when they were so inept at the plate they fired their hitting coach … and somehow didn’t spin out.
They michaelcorleoned you a little later, when every member of the projected Opening Day lineup (and a few others, for good measure) spent time on the injured list — and they not only played well enough to scratch their way to first place playing the likes of Johneshwy Fargas, Khalil Lee and Wilfredo Tovar, they stayed there for 90 consecutive days.
Jacob deGrom was an unwitting one-man practitioner of michaelcorleoneism, leaving games early and taking fans’ fears with him for several roller-coaster rides yet always returning to pitch brilliantly … until at last he vanished after July 7, his every-fifth-day magic replaced by every-two-week medical updates.
So … are the Mets doing it again?
The calendar officially flipped to September on Wednesday, and the Mets celebrated as they’ve done more often than any team in baseball this year — by not playing a scheduled game. A few minutes before banging that game a day in advance, the Mets had polished off an improbable doubleheader sweep of the Marlins on Tuesday. Coupled with the Braves’ lost three days in L.A., it reduced their deficit in the NL East to five games heading into Thursday.
That means they picked up 1 1/2 games in a single day, Tuesday, and 3 1/2 full games in just five days, and that means that at the end of a month, August, in which they’d somehow at one point surrendered 12 1/2 games to the Braves, the final number was just 9 1/2.
Those numbers are still grim. And the Zack Scott drunk-driving arrest will only add an additional layer of distraction to an already precipitous task.
But they seem less grim if you think of this: Starting with Thursday’s game with Miami at Citi Field, the Mets had 27 games between now and Oct. 1, when they’ll close the season with three games in Atlanta. At a minimum, they need to shave two games off the lead —a game every other week — for those games to be relevant. About 15 minutes ago that seemed like the most ridiculous kind of pipe dream. Does it now?
There is also this to think about: Atlanta is scheduled to complete a suspended game Sept. 24 in San Diego. They trail that scheduled seven-inning game 5-4 in the fifth. If the Padres hold on, that’s another free half-game to the good in the standings for the Mets.
Again, that’s bare minimum. The Mets probably need to go 10-3, minimum in the 13 games they have left with D.C. and Miami (while not going full-tuck against the Yankees, Brewers and Cardinals). The Braves get their whacks against those patsies, too. And the Phillies — who at one point lost four in a row to the ungodly bad D’backs — have been michaelcorleoning their fans, too. And they have the easiest schedule of all.
Part of the problem of being pulled back in, as Michael learned to his great horror, is the likelihood this will all end very, very badly.
(By the way … when was a law passed that our two baseball teams aren’t allowed to win games on the same day? The last time that happened was Aug. 22 — 12 days ago, though it feels like 12 weeks ago).
You are a Mets fan, and that means you are not naturally inclined for best-case scenarios. You’ve seen this team (not) hit for 132 games. Jacob deGrom probably isn’t walking in that door. You’re asking for September to be a perfect storm of good fortune. That’s a tall order. Maybe you really are out, for good. And maybe that’s for the best.
But … can you be pulled back in?
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