Jeurys Familia is used to walking off the mound when the game is over. Not Thursday, not after blowing another save, not after being forced to hand the ball to Hansel Robles in the top of the ninth.
In a slow-motion nightmare not even this reeling team saw coming, Familia and the Mets defense fell apart in the ninth inning, erasing the meager one-run lead their stagnant offense had eked out eons ago and eventually losing to the Rockies, 2-1, at Citi Field. It was the second time in a row the Mets entered the ninth with a lead and left with a loss.
It seemed wholly improbable, even by the Mets’ current standards. Here was their closer — who, until Wednesday night, had converted 52 straight regular-season saves, teetering on the edge again in a game the Mets absolutely needed to win. First came Trevor Story’s leadoff single, then a stolen base and a full-count walk to David Dahl. That was followed by a series of misplays that will keep the Mets shuddering deep into the night.
Daniel Descalso bunted with two strikes and the ball died in front of catcher Rene Rivera, who waited for it to go foul . . . except it died on the chalk for a fair ball, loading the bases with no outs. Familia struck out Tony Wolters, but then Cristhian Adames hit a slow roller to the right side. The ball skipped off the leg of James Loney, who had ranged between first and second, scoring Story with the tying run and keeping the bases loaded. Facing Charlie Blackmon, Familia bounced a wild pitch past Rivera to the backstop, scoring Dahl from third with the go-ahead run and ending the closer’s day. Hansel Robles got the last two outs.
The Mets went down in order in the bottom of the ninth against Rockies closer Carlos Estevez.
It’s unfair to lay all this at Familia’s feet, though. The Mets’ offense — playing without the injured Jose Reyes and Yoenis Ces pedes — wasted a bounce-back performance from Jacob deGrom and did nothing to give the Mets pitchers some breathing room.
Despite threatening a few times, the Mets repeated the same refrain when it came to runners in scoring position. They wasted Rivera’s leadoff double in the fifth — the next three batters went down silently — and loaded the bases with no outs in seventh, only to get nothing out of it. Kelly Johnson bounced into a fielder’s choice at the plate, Curtis Granderson struck out and Wilmer Flores flew out to center. They entered the game hitting a major-league low .206 and went 1-for-9 on Thursday.
The Mets scored their only run in the second, when Rivera stroked Tyler Anderson’s 0-and-2 fastball to right-center to score Loney, who had singled with one out. But Rivera — not surprisingly overeager when you consider this team’s inability to score runs — tried to stretch it into a triple and was out by about five feet. He otherwise had the best offensive day of any Met, going 3-for-4 with two doubles.
DeGrom, meanwhile, continued to prove that even if his offense is in tatters, and even if his velocity is off from last year, he can still deal.
Coming off one of the worst performances of his career against the Marlins last Saturday, deGrom pitched seven innings, allowing no runs on five hits, with a walk and six strikeouts.
DeGrom’s velocity appeared to be what it has been all year — that is to say, down from last season, but not as bad as it was for the Marlins’ shellacking. DeGrom’s fastball dipped into the 92-93 mph range for that game, but he was regularly hitting 95 on Thursday afternoon. He had a good bit more success, too, striking out four in his first two innings.
..... - Newsday