WFAN's Joe Benigno pronounced the Mets' playoff hopes dead Friday morning after they were swept by the Cubs.
It was certainly a devastating blow to the Mets, who with the series had a chance to overtake the Cubs in the wild-card standings. Instead, the sweep at Citi Field widened a two-game deficit for the final National League playoff spot to five games.
"I'll watch because I'm a Met fan, but the season, it's over now," Benigno said. "Let's be real. They gave us a nice run. They had this crazy run to pull us back -- as Michael Corleone once said, 'they pulled me back in.' And that's what they did. And now it's done."
The Mets, who were 11 games under .500 and owned the NL's second-worst record shortly after the All-Star break, climbed back into the wild-card race by winning 15 of 16 at one point. But they've now lost six straight -- all at home -- and the remaining schedule is far from easy. The Mets' next five series are all against teams they're looking up at in the standings -- the Phillies twice, Nationals, Diamondbacks and Dodgers.
"A week ago, you're sitting there saying this is going to be one hell of a September, and we haven't gotten to September a week later, and it's like, 'What in the hell just happened?'" said Jerry Recco, who was filling in with Benigno on Friday's "Boomer and Gio" show.
Victor Caratini drove in all of the Cubs' runs in the 4-1 win Thursday, homering twice off Jacob deGrom. In between those homers, deGrom retried 15 straight batters. But the Mets' offense didn't do enough.
"They never score a run for the guy," Benigno said. "Never, ever, ever."
The Mets have scored one or two runs in four of their losses during their current losing streak.
"The bottom line is they have not hit," Benigno said. "Going back even to the Indians series, you look at the last two games against Cleveland, they didn't really hit in those games, either, even though they won them. And that's what's killed them."
To listen to the open from Friday's show, click on the audio player above.
