NEW YORK - In the bottom of the first inning, a few Mets fans were chanting: "Let's go Washington."
In a 28-minute, 52-pitch, top-of-the-first fiasco, a microcosm of all that had gone wrong for the Mets as they blew a seven-game lead with 17 to go, Shea Stadium had gone from hopeful to fatalistic. If they were going to give something away and take their rightful places along Bill Buckner, the 1986 Angels and the 1964 Phillies, these Mets were going to do it in style.
In his last game of the year during which he won his 300th game on his way to the Hall of Fame, Mets starter Tom Glavine threw 36 pitches. He faced nine batters. The first one walked after going down 0-2. The next one hit into a force. Everybody else reached base.
After five hits (including a few rockets), one walk and one hit batter, Glavine was gone. He had thrown 19 balls, 17 strikes (five of which became hits) and tossed a ball into the outfield when trying to stop a runner from advancing to third. Cody Ross, who smashed a slicing double into the rightfield corner to get the Florida Marlins really rolling, scored. Everybody scored.
Glavine was gone after he hit Dontrelle Willis. His day was not complete. Two more of his runners scored when Dan Uggla, the only player in the lineup who did not reach against Glavine, crushed a double off Jorge Sosa. Glavine left, down 7-0. It had to be the worst big-game start by a big-game pitcher in history. The normally free-swinging Marlins made Glavine throw strikes. He could not or would not do it. And when he did, they hit it.
The Mets were out of it so fast they were never in it.
They lost, 8-1. It seemed worse. It was worse. It ended their season. And nobody will forget how it ended and what led up to it.
In the top of the fourth, one fan, perhaps a late arrival that was given the details, yelled: "Glavine, I hate you."
It was that kind of day, that kind of September for a team that went from mortal lock to sports jail in one brutal stretch of really bad baseball.
The scoreboard was no kinder. The Phillies led the Nationals, 1-0, then 3-0, 5-1. And finally, 6-1.
The National League East, a division the Mets dominated last year and seemed to own this year, had been decided. There would be no need for a playoff game in Philadelphia today. There would be no need for anything but the recriminations. And a prominent page in baseball's Book of Great Chokes.
