Last Zombie Standing

So last night, on 9/11, the Mets beat Arizona, 9-0, scoring 9 runs and whacking 11 hits.

This is the time of year, approaching Halloween, when things get a little freaky and mystical for our Flushing compatriots, for better or for worse.  Insurmountable leads slip away (see 2007-2008)—or are overcome.

In 1973, for instance—what was supposed to be an emerging year for your New York Yankees—the Metsies sat at 69-75 on 9/11, good for fifth place in a six-team division.  Their record was even worse at that point than the Yanks', then at 72-73, having just slipped below .500 for the first time since May.

You know what happened next.  A 13-4 "tear" that brought the Mets in first in the NL East with an all-time worst, 82-79 record—followed by a miraculous NLCS win over the Big Red Machine, and a narrow, seven-game loss to the Swingin' A's—a World Series where NYM once led, 3 games to 2.

Just last Sunday evening, Mets looked dead at last, in 9th place in the NL after losing an insane and inept marathon outing to the Phillies, four games out of the second Wild Card spot.

Last night—cheered on by their usual, overwhelming crowd of just under 22,000 fanatics—the Metsies obliterated Arizona and pushed into a tie for 7th place.  More to the point, they are just two game behind Chicago and Milwaukee, now tied for the road Wild Card spot.

Tyler "Ahead of the Curve and Right in Front of the Onrushing Locomotive" Kepner chose this moment to write today's rare Times column on baseball, praising the Diamondbacks for having done a tear down after making the Wild Card in 2017.

Really?

Think this Arizona team might have done a little better than 3 runs and 3 losses to the Mets this week if they had NOT got rid of J.D. Martinez,  Zack Greinke, Patrick Corbin, and A.J. Pollock? Think the minor leaguers they got in return—for ONE of those guys, Greinke—will really put them as close to a ring as they would have been otherwise?

Nice timing, Tyler Too.

But the salient fact is the Mets are still there, even after Boston has curled up like a soft, white kitten for the year.  And if they do make the playoffs, they could be very, very dangerous.

Sure, the Flushing bullpen is a joke.  But the Mets have a solid hitting core, their fielding has improved dramatically, and in the postseason they could stick one or even two of their five, first-rate starters into the pen.

Could this be what the JuJu gods have been up to all around?

While we joke and pretend to commiserate with them about their miserable working conditions...could it be that they're actually gathered in a swank, secret backroom, smoking cigars, swigging first-rate bourbon, and gaming out an all-time horror for us this October?

Say, a scenario in which, after dispatching the Carmine Hose and running up bracing, miracle wins over Cleveland and Houston, we lose the World Series to—

Stop.  I can't even think it.

But the Mets are still there.

They're winning again this afternoon as I write this, against a D'back team that is now at 3 runs for 30 innings in this series (Boy, I bet they're glad they don't have that damned J.D. Martinez on the team!).

Of course it can't happen.

I just wish I wasn't hearing all that chortling behind that mysterious locked door down at JuJu headquarters...