Because I knew that if they backed into the title through the poor play of another team, the fate that befell the Phillies would have befallen the Mets. “Prolonging the agony” was the phrase I used several weeks ago. In my opinion, no team should be in post season play because they owe a debt of gratitude to another team, which is what would have happened to the Mets if they’d backed into the NL East courtesy of the Phillies dropping games they should have won.
And while Phillies fans around the internet snarked the Mets for their impressive meltdown, no one seemed to be too concerned for the fact that the Phillies had no business going to the post season because their presence there was due to the Mets pìššìņg away a 7 game lead. The Phillies wound up doing exactly what I *didn’t* want the Mets to do. They didn’t win the division title; the Mets lost the division title, and that’s a very different thing.
Now Phillies fans may have felt some degree of entitlement as the Phillies played monumentally adequate ball in the home stretch…as opposed to the Mets who played monumentally inadequate ball. Without that combination of events, the Phillies finish second. But the Mets gave them the division lead in a box that was gift-wrapped by the bullpen that would come into inflammatory situations and pour on gasoline, and finished with a nice bow on top by an offense that just couldn’t get enough of stranding runners in scoring position. All that was proven during the final weeks was that there was no lead the Mets couldn’t blow, be it a five run lead or a seven game lead.
How does that entitle Phillies fans to strut? Beats me.
Anyway, the fate that I foresaw happening to the Mets for not truly earning their post season berth was shifted over to the Phillies for not truly earning theirs. I hope the Phils fans enjoyed their whole three extra games of losing baseball. Better you than us.
Wait’ll next year.
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