There are no rationalizations now -- no excuses, no escape clauses, no
glossing over a cold, hard truth for the Mets as they begin a critical series
tonight in Atlanta: their path through October could be paved in the next
three nights.
|  | | Mike Hampton gets the call in Monday's series opener. He's 3-3, 3.54 against the Braves since 1997. |
Why? It's not actually a pennant-race issue, because with a five-game lead
over the Diamondbacks, the Mets are relatively sure of winning the wild card.
Instead, it's about bridging the psychological gulf that exists between the
Mets and Braves, particularly at Turner Field, where the Mets have lost 15 of
their last 18 games.
Talk about a customized chamber of horrors. The Mets are just 5-19 in
Atlanta's home park since it opened in 1997, and were swept three straight at
this time last year. Turner is where the Mets' 1999 season came to a
crashing end last October, when Kenny Rogers delivered that not-even-close
ball four in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, walking home the winning
run with the bases loaded in the eleventh inning.
Even these new, improved, turn-of-the-millennium Mets are plagued by
Turner's oppressive karma. The Mets lost two of three to Atlanta in July, and have
been on a roller coaster since. They eventually exploded upon the National
League, caught and passed the Braves briefly in August, then lost seven
straight in September and most recently split a four-game series with the
Expos over the weekend.
All of which means the Mets are walking into Turner looking to survive,
to cope.
"We just want to get back to playing a really solid series from the first
pitch of the series until the last out," said Mike Piazza. "For whatever
reason, we've played well up until this month and been a little inconsistent."
Piazza isn't kidding: the Mets are just 6-11 in the month, and Piazza, once
a leading candidate for the MVP award, is hitting .146 with three RBI since
September 1. Everyone has fumbled for explanations, but the most eerie might
be the catcher's appearance on Sports Illustrated 's cover on August 16.
Since being anointed "the greatest-hitting catcher of all time" Piazza's
average has plummeted some 30 points, and he snapped out of an 0-for-17 slump on Friday night with a home runs. The race for the MVP has now shifted to Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent.
The Mets have been similarly cursed by SI. They're a mere 15-15, although,
incredibly, the Mets are only three games behind the Braves and could erase
an entire month's turbulence with a strong showing in Atlanta.
The Mets' hopes are bolstered by the fact that their two best pitchers,
Mike Hampton and Al Leiter, will be starting in this series. But it's also
true Atlanta has its greatest success against left-handers, batting .321
against them in 2000, as opposed to .260 against right-handers.
In that sense, the Mets are sorry that Rick Reed isn't in the rotation
for these three games, since the right-hander has a 2.37 ERA in five career
appearances at Turner Field. Instead, the Mets will rely on an all-lefty
arsenal: Hampton, Leiter and Glendon Rusch.
Of course, it can be argued the Mets aren't actually at their crossroads,
since there are still 13 games remaining, including three more against the
Braves at Shea next week. But if pressure is rooted in perception, then
there's no better time for the Mets to erase old scars than right now.
"We haven't beaten them. They're still the NL champs," Darryl
Hamilton said. "So until someone beats them, they have the right to say
whatever they want. All they (have to) say is, 'Beat us. Prove it.' "
Will they?
Better question: Can they? Baseball executives believe the Mets have
nearly the same on-paper talent quotient as the Braves, who, at times this
summer, have been more vulnerable than at any point since their renaissance
began in 1991.
Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine are still strike-zone deities, but Kevin
Millwood has been an enigma all summer, and despite John Rocker's success in recent weeks, there's still question marks about Bobby Cox's bullpen.
And, above all, the Braves no longer give off the scent of superiority -- at least against opponents other than the Mets.
"Watching them play all season ... they've made mistakes," Bobby Valentine said. "They've been consistently good, yet less than perfect. The rest
of the league has played a little better against them than they have in the
past. If the rest of the league is better, it must mean we are better."
That's probably true, although the Mets are still waiting for the moment
when they can finish a series at Turner Field and say: we came, we saw, we
coped.
For now, however, that's still a dream.
Bob Klapisch of the Bergen (N.J.) Record writes his Baseball in the Big Apple column throughout the season. | |
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