The Mets are in freefall. They just got swept in four games at home by the (now) 50-73 Colorado Rockies. The Mets' starter for the last of those four losses, today's game, was blogger Collin McHugh, making his major-league debut. McHugh threw seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk, and the Mets still managed to lose.
It's easy to blame today's game on centerfielder Jordany Valdespin, who spectacularly misplayed Tyler Colvin's eighth-inning would-be line-out into a triple that wound up becoming the game's only run. Valdespin was thrown out stealing, too, and he failed to lay down a requested sacrifice bunt.
But fans'd be stupid to blame Valdespin, because he's one of the few components of this Mets team with any life left. Josh Thole and Daniel Murphy are singles hitters who don't hit singles. David Wright's been ordinary since the all-star break. Andres Torres heads to the plate looking to find any excuse not to swing. Ike Davis homers and walks from time to time; but not often. Scott Hairston recently started playing like Scott Hairston is supposed to play. Jason Bay... well, never mind. No need to pile on. Unless, by piling on, you're talking about piling on the bullpen. With trash. Because then you should pile on. The bullpen is a pile of burning trash, and you've gotta burn your trash, too. Otherwise it'll sit there and smell bad and the opossums will get to it. Let it hang with Frank Francisco and Manny Acosta.
All of this is to say that WFAN's Mike Francesa—who's often just a garden-variety sports-talk troll, albeit a pioneering garden-variety sports-talk troll—actually tapped into something raw and real in the frothing, voice-cracking rant above. You don't have to listen to all 10 minutes and 15 seconds to get the gist of it, but you probably won't want to turn it off, either.
The Mets have done a lot of reprehensible things since early July. The worst thing they did: they made it easy for Mike Francesa.