Brewers Through to Playoffs: Mets Choke Once More
Steve Rawlins
Posted on: 29 September 2008 - 17:16
Baseball
It’s going to be a quiet October for New York’s baseball fans. Heading into the final weekend of the regular season the Yankees were long since eliminated, but the New York Mets had it all to play for.
To remain in contention for the National League wild card spot, all they had to do was beat the Florida Marlins at home in the final game at Shea Stadium. For the second year in a row, they came up short, and to the same team.
Spoilers
Wes Helms and Dan Uggla of the Marlins hit back to back homers in the eighth inning courtesy of Scott Schoeneweis and Luis Ayala, two of the Mets’ struggling bullpen replacements. When it came back to New York to do something special in reply, Carlos Delgado left two men on base after flying out to left field to end the eighth. Wright, Chavez and Church could not put any runs on the board in the final inning, and the Mets collapse was complete. The Florida Marlins had repeated history.
Choke-artists
A Marlins fan in the stands held up a large white sign saying: “International Symbol For Choking” above a picture of the New York Mets Logo – and it’s true – this has been one of baseball’s biggest September slides. It is unbelievable that this same team led the National League East by seven games with only seventeen left to play. To the disbelief of their fans, the Mets then went 7 and 9, and then on Sunday, 7 and 10.
It’s all Brew baby
Flip it over to the Cubs/Brewers game and it was a different story. With the pressure on, ace pitcher CC Sabathia took this Milwaukee club on his back and has carried them into the postseason. The very fact that he pitched on Sunday was impressive; it was his third consecutive start after only three days rest. Running on fumes, he pitched a complete 9 innings, and pitched well. Striking out seven, walking one and allowing only one unearned run, big CC got Derrek Lee to ground out into a big double play to end the game.
Run support
Sabathia needed help from his offense to win this huge game and he got it, once again from Ryan Braun, who is providing the sort of clutch batting performances that the Mets so sorely lacked this September. Last Thursday, Braun hit a massive grand slam home run with two outs in extra innings to push the Brewers past Pittsburgh 5-1, and maintain their position in the wild card race. On Sunday, Braun helped his team to their first playoff appearance since 1982 with a tie breaking two run homer in the eighth.
Wild Card Clinched
After the 3-1 victory celebrations had died down, thousands of fans stayed behind at Miller Park to watch the Mets game unfold on the big screen. It wasn’t long before the champagne corks were being popped and the celebrations had begun once more. Milwaukee, holders of the National League wild card spot, will meet the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Division series which starts on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia.