While much has, and no doubt will continue to be made of the New York Mets' historically God-awful collapse (missing the playoffs after being 7 games up with 17 to go) let's not forget they were not the only playoff-bound team crawling on all fours to baseball's finish line. At 7:37 tonight, the San Diego Padres have the opportunity to play "New York Mets" to the Colorado Rockies' Philadelphia Phillies.
Lest we forget on September 20, the Fathers had a 4.5 game lead over Colorado in the Wild Card with just 10 games to go. They went 4-6, while the Rocks went 8-1. Or if you prefer, take it back to September 15, where the Padres were up 4.5 on Colorado with 15 to play. San Diego went a respectable 9-6 after that, while the Rockies played unthinkable .929 baseball, going 13-1.
In that regard, today's one-game playoff seems to be more about Colorado's rocket-propelled season's ending than the Padres' September shortcomings. But consider this. The Mets ran a 43-year-old out to the mound who is clearly in the twilight of a Hall of Fame career, and the opposing team thumped him. That single event, while precipitated by a series of unimaginable occurrences, is not so hard to fathom. The situation with San Diego is different. They have the NL's clear-cut Cy Young winner going tonight. He won pitching's triple crown. Heck, Jake Peavy allowed just one more base runner (12) than he had strikeouts (11) in 2 starts against Colorado this year.But if the Rockies win...
If the Padres and Peavy are sent packing...
It might be almost as bad as what the Mets did.
Almost.
