From the New York Daily News:

Mets lose NL East title to Phillies on season's final day

BY ADAM RUBIN
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Monday, October 1st 2007, 9:18 AM

Jimmy Rollins called it in January. The Mets made it happen in September.

The Mets completed a historic collapse on the season's final day as Tom Glavine, their Hall of Fame-bound pitcher, put them in a seven-run hole before their hitters even had a chance to swing. In first place from May 16 until Friday night, and owners of a seven-game lead with 17 games left, the Mets saw their season officially end four minutes after an 8-1 loss to the Marlins yesterday at Shea, when the Phillies finished off the Nationals.

As impossible as it may have seemed just two weeks ago, the Phillies - as Rollins predicted in January - were indeed the "team to beat" in the NL East and the Mets, who came within a game of reaching the World Series last year, are without a playoff berth.

The historical context must be especially sweet in the City of Brotherly Love. In 1964, Gene Mauch's Phillies blew a 6-1/2-game lead with 12 games left to play. Now they are the beneficiaries of a similar collapse.

"We did it to ourselves," David Wright said. "It's not like we didn't see this coming and it just blindsided us. We gradually let this thing slip away. Shooting yourselves in the foot over and over again down the stretch, in all honesty, we didn't deserve it. We weren't playing playoff-quality baseball. We didn't deserve to make the playoffs. You finish a home stand - the biggest home stand of the year - 1-6, that's not good enough."

Said Carlos Delgado: "We were too good to finish like this."

For the first time in the three years since Omar Minaya took over and "The New Mets" were born with the signings of Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran and the hiring of Willie Randolph, the organization has stumbled. An 83-79 record in 2005 that reenergized Shea had turned into the first division title in 18 seasons and the brink of the World Series last year. And a new stadium is rising.

Now? Questions arise about Randolph's job security, though Minaya offered a healthy endorsement after the elimination and no change is expected. The ax may instead fall on coaches. Rumblings of high-level disenchantment with pitching coach Rick Peterson, who signed a three-year deal last winter, are surfacing.

"Willie Randolph, to me, has done a good job," Minaya said. "You don't look at a person for one year. ... The changes that have happened here, as a general manager, that's what I look at in a manager or anybody else. The past three years with Willie Randolph has turned our franchise around from where it was before he got here."

After John Maine came within four outs of the franchise's first no-hitter and the Mets routed the Marlins, 13-0, on Saturday to pull back into a first-place tie with Philadelphia, the Mets simply needed a win to force at least a play-in game. Instead, Glavine had the second-shortest outing of his career in what felt like his final appearance as a Met. Glavine faced only nine batters, hitting Dontrelle Willis with a 1-2 offering with his final pitch to force in Florida's fifth run. He recorded just one out. The Marlins - fired up by Saturday's bench-clearing incident, and incensed by Hanley Ramirez getting plunked in that game - had a 7-0 lead after a half-inning once Dan Uggla delivered a two-run double against Jorge Sosa.

"This game is going to have no bearing on whether or not I play next year," Glavine said. "It's easy for me to sit here right now with the disappointment that I feel and say, 'The heck with this. I don't want to go through with this anymore.' But it's like anything - time heals all wounds. As disappointing as this is, it's something I'm going to have to deal with, just like had we won the World Series, I would have had to deal with those emotions."

Before the game, a sign had been taped in the tunnel leading to the Mets' dugout. It contained bulletin-board fodder from Ramirez, which quoted him vowing revenge. Underneath, it read: "It's never a good idea to wake the sleeping mutt!"

"It really worked, huh?" Marlins left fielder Cody Ross chirped about the sign.

The Mets tried to rally in the early innings, but they stranded eight runners during the first three. The first letdown came with two outs and the bases loaded in the first on a Ramon Castro shot to the warning track. In the third, again with two outs and the bases loaded, Paul Lo Duca sent a check-swing tapper back to pitcher Logan Kensing, who had just replaced Willis.

The Mets, who moved 21 games over .500 on Sept. 12, became the first club in MLB history to squander a seven-game lead over their final 17 games. They "earned" it, going 5-12. Asked if he had seen anything comparable to this collapse, Pedro Martinez replied: "None of you has, and neither have I. It's something new. I never saw anything happen to me like happened with the Red Sox where we lost three - 0-3 - and we came back (against the Yankees).

"This is also new to me."

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This video best explains the Mets' performance in the month of September, particularly their performance after 12 Sep.

At least the Mets have chicken.