What is it with the Mets, the Marlins and Game 161s? (Games 161? Anyway.)
I’m generally allergic to tidy narratives, but this one was undeniable: John Maine in 2007, Johan Santana in 2008 … and now Clay Holmes in 2025.
No, Holmes didn’t go all the way. But that’s nitpicking — he’s a converted reliever who’s way beyond his innings allotment, and has looked gassed in recent outings. Saturday night was his best outing as a Met, and the one his team so desperately needed.
And the Mets backed it up in the other phases of the game, unlike innumerable nights during which they’ve failed to take care of one or all aspects of business. Pete Alonso punished Eury Perez, Jeff McNeil added key insurance, and the lineup gave Edwin Diaz some space late. The relievers were sharp — Diaz has been particularly effective of late — and the defense was sound. And the Mets looked focused, as opposed to whatever it is they were doing Friday night.
It was a complete game for the team if not for Holmes, made even sweeter by the odd spectacle of some 20,000 Mets fans packing Soilmaster Stadium so that the soundtrack would have made you swear you were at Citi Field.
Now here come the caveats.
With the Mets no longer in control of their destiny, they needed help — which the Brewers, already playoff bound and locked into their seeding, did not provide. (And while things like this don’t motivate teams, I doubt any of the Brewers are too broken up about it, seeing how the Mets wrecked a dream season 11 months ago.) Give the Reds credit too — they’ve been a monster down the stretch.
And all this talk of Game 161 inevitably leads us to the Mets, the Marlins and Game 162s. (Games 162? Anyway.)
2007’s Game 162 saw T@m Glav!ne lay an egg and torch his reputation with Mets fans in the clubhouse scrum, earning the unique formatting his name will bear at Faith and Fear forevermore. (BTW, I vote we retroactively give his 300th win to the Braves, seeing how it’s a milestone nobody here wants to remember or celebrate.) 2008’s Game 162 was handed to Oliver Perez, who didn’t pitch badly but wound up on the wrong end of a workaday 4-2 loss that wound up feeling like 40-2. (My lasting memory is of an ashen Howard Johnson enduring the closing ceremonies at Shea before a shocked, mostly silent house.)
No, Game 162s (or is it … oh let’s let this one go) haven’t gone well for us where the Marlins are involved. And, once again, we need help from entities that may prove less than motivated and perhaps even not wholly disinterested.
But that’s where the Mets have put themselves, and us. And at least there’s a last day that matters, a final carousel of desperate wild hopes and superstitions and exhortations and pleas to the baseball gods and everything else brought to the proceedings by us, the fans — who simultaneously care so deeply and can do nothing to affect the outcome of something that means so much to us.
That’s cruel, but it has always been thus.
One more guaranteed day of baseball. What will be will be.
If we win today but don’t get in it’ll be because in September the Reds swept the two teams ahead of them in their division, the Brewers and Cubs. All we had to do was the same to two of the lower teams in our division, the Marlins and Nats, and we’d spend today lining up our pitching for the WCS instead of hoping we can avoid dropping 2 of 3 to Miami. But yes, we put ourselves here. Missing the playoffs would be very well-earned.
Kudos to Holmes. Not just for yesterday but the season.
Even if the mini-miracle happens today, this team is not going to last any longer than Wednesday in L.A. anyway. They can barely beat the Marlins let alone The Los Angeles Ohtanis.
This season has been painful. I can’t figure out what would be less worse; lose to the Marlins or win and have Cinci win. These are the only two option to consider because there is no way this team is going to the post-season. Nor do they really deserve to.
This team made my 9 year cry himself to sleep during their second extended losing streak. All I could think is “why did I do this to him?” It’s not worth the benefit of “lessons in life” and “character building” I convinced myself being a Mets fan bestowed upon him. He knows enough about the game that he can say things like “Vientos is buns” or that “McNeil will sell.” He will call pitches for the opposing team when Alvarez come to plate knowing he will chase at sliders down and away. He also knows that Gregory Soto “gives it up.” If my 9 year old knows the these things, the rest of MLB does too.
My everlasting memories of Howard Johnson are these:
Sparky Anderson once said he would not want to be in a foxhole with Howard Johnson.
I asked Joe McIlvaine before a game if he was going to trade him. He asked me why, and I said, “Because he doesn’t come through in the field.” He said, “You’re a pretty tough customer.”
When we won in 1986 and 1988, Hojo was not a full time starter.
When he came back and played a horrible CF, he changed to #44, but then changed back to #20 because he couldn’t take the pressure.
Many years later, when asked about HoJo’s power surge, Davey Johnson said, “Did he probably cork his bat? Yes.”
Making the playoffs = deserving to make the playoffs. We may not love our wildcard system, but that’s the reality.
Wow…we are far away from our SNY feed, and we have no cable or broadcast available. I’m currently in a bar so my husband can watch the Bills game, but nobody on Cape Cod is going to pick up SNY. So which is better: picking up Howie and co. ( what I’ve been doing all week), follow on Gameday and go to the beach (it’s beautiful out) or ignore the Mets all together? Hint: I know #3 is the way to go, but then again, I’m in a bar watching the Bills, so I take some comfort in the fact that my husband doesn’t have any more sense than me.
I well remember 2007 and 2008, and the parallels are irresistible after yesterday’s gem from Holmes, and so here we are. I might feel different if all we needed was a Mets victory, but scoreboard watching the Reds and Brewers will be excruciating. And yet Jason, you captured it:Our dilemma as fans freezes us in limbo. Do we stay or do we go?
That we are going through this fan misery for the third time with the same teams and the same stakes just testifies to the Mets’ penchant to wring as much drama from us in any situation. I dread the breakup of this team’s core, to whom both my husband and I have dedicated so much over the last decade or so. I loved this team last year and merely tolerated them this year, but the potential departures of Alonso, Diaz, et.al. , saddens me. I can’t be angry at the Mets, however; there’s more than enough to anger me in real life. So once more, and perhaps for the last time for this particular group of Mets, I Gotta Believe.
I hope that they play with some urgency today. Clean fielding, hard hitting, solid pitching. Just want to feel like this season has not been a waste of time.
Reds lose and Mets lose anyway. Spin the wheel and today we click onto RISP LOB. Yes, Mets pitching gave up yet another crooked number inning, but 4 runs mid-game are not insurmountable. That was an exclamation point, leave no doubt way to stamp the 2025 season. It’s fitting that the 2025 season ended on a GIDP by 2024 clutch hero Lindor.
As much as Stearns shares the blame, I imagine the multifaceted failure of the 2025 Mets gives him license to tear down the team that he inherited and rebuild the team drastically.
What was, was.
I’m sure our talented FAFIF writers are composing a fitting eulogy for this – for lack of a better word – team. I’ll withhold further comment until I hear from them. They will definitely say what needs to be said better than anything I could think of.
no post today would be quite fitting as well, because after game 161, there was *nothing*
There is no joy in Mudville.