World Series Hangover: Mets collapse against the Marlins, fall five back of the Phillies in NL East

Fresh off their World Series high and a sweep of the Phillies, the Mets came crashing back to reality Thursday night.

Costly mistakes, the kind that separate contenders from pretenders, doomed them in a 7-4 loss to the Marlins.

New York booted the ball all over the field, committing three errors that led to five unearned runs. Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo were the main culprits, coughing up plays in the seventh inning that handed Miami the lead for good.

The irony (I guess) is that both guys also provided the offense. Nimmo doubled in two runs in the first. Alonso tied it in the fifth with his 30th homer of the season. That’s just lovely when it mattered, they unraveled.

The Citi Field Curse

Look, I have no idea what type of voodoo the New York Mets have on the Phillies. They batted an absurd .568 (21-for-37) with runners in scoring position during the series vs the Phillies. Twenty-one hits with runners on.

New York has now beaten the Phillies 10 straight times at Citi Field and has taken 24 of the last 30 there, counting last year’s playoffs. With the sweep this week, they also clinched the season series and the postseason tiebreaker.

Back to Normal Last Night

While the Mets were busy handing runs to Miami, the Phillies were busy hanging 19 on the Braves in South Philly behind Kyle Schwarber’s historic four-homer, nine-RBI night.

The result?

• Mets drop to five games back of the Phils in the NL East with 28 to go.
• Mets still hold the final NL Wild Card spot, but only by four games over Cincinnati.

In other words, that three-game sweep of Philly already feels like a distant memory.

Bottom Line

The Mets needed to ride their momentum and put pressure on the Phillies. Instead, they faceplanted against the Marlins and let the gap widen. Feels like a World Series hangover, right? Meh… more like same old Mets.

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