New York Mets' power fades late in games

Jeremy D Cothran By Jeremy D Cothran
on August 27, 2008 at 7:46 PM, updated August 27, 2008 at 10:06 PM
The Mets hope to see celebrations like this one late in games down the stretch.


Sure, the Mets scored seven runs. On most days that is more than enough. But not a single run came across after the fourth inning. While the Phillies kept mounting one threat after another, the Mets failed to put runners in scoring position.

What irks interim manager Jerry Manuel is that tack-on runs often serve as knockout punches. Had the Mets been able to generate more runs over the course of the game, they would have taken a considerable amount of pressure off the bullpen.

It took 13 innings for Tuesday's marathon to play out. The Mets finished with 14 hits. But from the fifth inning on, they had only four more. Manuel wants to give credit to the Phillies bullpen, but he's pinning the problem on an internal issue.

"We are trying to address that," Manuel said. "That's kind of an issue that we have that we're trying to figure out different ways as to why we're having that particular problem."

Here's the thing: There is not a cut-and-dried solution. But it's progressed past the point where Manuel believes it's just coincidence. He's seen the trend too long. Even his predecessor, Willie Randolph, constantly bemoaned the Mets' inability to add tack-on runs.

At one point in their last series against the Astros, the Mets made 34 consecutive outs. Granted, 20 of those came against Roy Oswalt, but it helps to frame the issue.

As a whole, the offense operates at an incredibly productive level. Entering Wednesday night, the Mets were the second-best team in the National League in scoring runs. They are the best team in the majors at scoring in the first inning, which helps wear down the starting pitcher. On Tuesday, Jamie Moyer was out of the game after just three innings.

"It's just one of those things. Hopefully at some point it might be better to reverse that," Manuel said with a hearty laugh. "We start getting them late, we might have some wiggle room."

Players say it's part of the game. Their reasoning is simple: Sometimes the team hits well, and sometimes it doesn't. That was how Fernando Tatis -- who mashed a three-run homer Tuesday -- put it. But is it that simple? Manuel felt the quality of his team's at-bats falls dramatically in the later innings. He watches a team that was once taking pitches and swinging at good pitches revert to bad habits. The Mets grounded into three double plays and finished just 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

Manuel just wants productive at-bats. What angers him is to watch hitters swing at pitches out of the strike zone and ground into double plays.

"You don't always have to get hits to have good at-bats," Manuel said. "If you hit a line drive, I'm good with that. If they catch it, they catch it."

The Mets scored early because they put continual pressure on Moyer. Jose Reyes led off the game with a triple, crushing the second pitch of the game into the gap in left-center field. In the third, the first two hitters reached base on singles. Tatis then brought them all home with a towering shot.

Compare that with extra innings. From the 10th on, the Mets put only two baserunners on. No one even reached second base. The bullpen allowed only three runs over the course of eight innings, but they're finding a lot of the blame directed at them because of the overall result.