By TODD JACOBSON
WASHINGTON--The Nationals' season had already been reduced to humble goals and small dreams before their 6-5 loss to the New York Mets yesterday.
"Finish Strong" had been scribbled on a dry-erase board outside the team's clubhouse and the saying stayed their for days. Remaining above .500 and out of last place in the National League East were unabashed targets for a team that spent 58 days atop the division earlier in the season.
Even those small ambitions are falling by the wayside as the Nationals stumble toward a painful end of a squandered season.
Thanks to four Mets home runs--two by catcher Mike Piazza--Washington (78-78) was also officially eliminated from the playoff race while dropping to .500 for the first time since May 29.
The once-proud team also slid into sole possession of last place in the division for the first time since Sept. 2.
That's right where most observers picked them to finish six months ago, but the Nationals spent much of the season proving experts wrong, winning one-run games and controlling first place at the All-Star Break.
Then, as fans flocked to RFK Stadium to watch their new team win, last place seemed an unimaginable residence.
"It would be a shame if we finished in last," catcher Gary Bennett said. "Obviously that would be a shame. The second half, we have collapsed. Plain and simple we didn't get it done."
Yesterday, with a crowd of 29,967 watching, provided another example of the collapse.
Ace John Patterson was on the mound but his mind was with his family in hurricane-torn Texas and the Nationals squandered leads of 3-1 and 5-4 against Mets starter Kris Benson as home runs flew out of stingy RFK Stadium at an unheard of pace.
Patterson's family left his hometown of Orange, Texas, to get out of the way of Hurricane Rita and had reached his sister's home in Houston yesterday, but he still doesn't know the status of his house, which sits on the water in Orange.
"It was on my mind," he said. "But I was trying to do the best job I could in the situation under the circumstances."
Piazza hit two home runs off Patterson and David Wright and Mike Jacobs homered off reliever Travis Hughes in the eighth inning, negating Nick Johnson's two-RBI single in the bottom of the seventh.
Johnson's hit gave the Nationals a 5-4 lead, but it was short-lived as the Mets became the second team all season to hit four home runs at RFK after the Los Angeles Dodgers did it Aug. 2.
"It's jumping a little better now," said Patterson, who left after allowing four runs in six innings. "There is no team that's going to hit four home runs here in June. It never would've happened."
A lot of things seemed impossible when the Nats were winning games at a fast clip. Washington won a season-high 10 games in a row then, and led the NL East by as many as 51/2 games.
"Everything was going so well," Patterson said. "You feel awful."
A disastrous second half killed the Nationals' playoff hopes. Since the All-Star Break, Washington is 26-42 and has lost seven of its last eight games.
They were swept by the Mets, and by the time the team had packed its bags for a trip to Miami for a three-game series against the Florida Marlins starting today, the words "Finish Strong" had been wiped clean off the dry-erase board.
Even small goals were slipping away.
"This team doesn't want or need to finish in last place with the season we've had," outfielder Brad Wilkerson said. "It's going to come up short of what we wanted to do but coming in last place will put a bad taste in our mouths. We will need to regroup and set some goals for ourselves and the team and get out of last place."
To reach TODD JACOBSON:
Mets 6, Nationals 5 |