It Gets Even Uglier for Collapsing Mets

The 1951 Dodgers. The ’64 Phillies. The ’78 Red Sox.

Unless they turn things around fast, the New York Mets’ amazin’ collapse will join the ranks of baseball’s biggest.

“I can’t believe it’s going that bad. . . . I don’t believe it’s happened,” Met Manager Bobby Valentine said Tuesday night after his team’s seventh straight loss, 9-3, to the Atlanta Braves at New York.

Atlanta, which became the first NL team in 55 years to win 100 games in three straight seasons, chased Orel Hershiser after only one out, his quickest exit in 459 career starts.

“Don’t watch TV. Don’t read the paper. Don’t listen to the radio,” said Al Leiter, who starts today for the Mets against Greg Maddux. “You know it’s going to be bad. Why reinforce the negative?”

New York, which led either the NL East or the wild-card race from July 21 until Sunday, is 1 1/2 games behind Houston, the wild-card leader, with five games remaining.

While the Mets had a four-game wild-card lead on Sept. 19 with 12 games to play, they now must go at least 2-3--and that assumes Houston goes 0-4--to have any chance of reaching the postseason for the first time in 11 years.

Hershiser (13-12) left trailing, 3-0, after 24 pitches, and rookie Octavio Dotel’s first pitch skipped past catcher Mike Piazza as another run scored.

Tom Glavine (13-11) made sure New York didn’t catch up, allowing one run and six hits in seven innings.

The Mets were one for 13 with runners in scoring position, making them six for 53 (.113) during the skid. New York got nine hits overall and is batting .211 (43 for 204) during the last seven games.

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Arizona 9, Colorado 3--Steve Finley hit his 33rd and 34th home runs at Phoenix to help the Diamondbacks match their longest winning streak of the year at a club-record seven.

Finley reached 103 runs batted in and the Rockies’ Vinny Castilla got his 101st to make Arizona and Colorado the sixth and seventh teams in NL history to have four players with at least 100 RBIs. Andy Benes (13-12) earned the victory.

Florida 5, Montreal 3--Rookie Vladimir Nunez (7-10) pitched a career-best eight innings at Montreal as the Marlins won their 63rd game to avoid a second straight 100-loss season.

San Diego at St. Louis, ppd.--The game was rained out at St. Louis, and will be made up as part of a twi-night doubleheader today.

Pittsburgh at Milwaukee, ppd.--The game was rained out at Milwaukee, and will be made up today as part of a doubleheader.

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Notes

Arizona Diamondback catcher Damian Miller has a hairline fracture in his right wrist and has a 50-50 chance of missing the first round of the playoffs. He was injured while blocking a fastball on Sept. 21. . . . St. Louis Cardinal outfielder Willie McGee, who will turn 41 in November, said he will probably retire after the season. The 18-year veteran is batting .256 with no homers and 20 RBIs in 266 at-bats this season.