The LoHud Mets Blog

Tough loss for the Mets in more ways than one. In this time of relative crisis, you don’t want to hear from me, so here’s what the manager and the players had to say after their NL Wild Card lead was shaved to a game and their NL East deficit moved to 2 1/2:

David Wright:

“Everything we want to accomplish is right there out in front of us. We’ve worked extremely hard to get to this point where we have six games left. We’re in the driver’s seat, we’re in control getting into the playoffs. That’s the position we’re in. We haven’t played well.”

“We’ve hit a little snag, but we need to play well these six games and get in the playoffs. That’s the goal.”

“Last year is over with and done with. It was a failed opportunity. This year we have a golden opportunity to get to the playoffs. There’s a lot of teams out there that wish they were in the position that we’re in and we can’t lose sight of that. Forget what happens this week.”

Jerry Manuel:

“I still feel pretty confident that we can get in this thing. Once we do that, I think we’ll do real well.”

“When you sign on with the Mets, you sign also being a part of what happened last year. But as a manager of a team, my job is to separate that and focus on what’s going on this season.”

“It depends on how (Beltran) responds after a night’s rest, whether or not he’s really, really stiff. I’m sure he’s going to want to applaud the type of effort he’s putting out there.”

Carlos Beltran said he had the wind knocked out of him catching Mark DeRosa’s fly ball in the seventh. Beltran smashed his elbow against his rib cage when he collided against the wall, and it took him a while to regain his breath.

The real injury from the impact was his left knee, which swelled up as he finished the last half-inning in the field. Beltran was told by a doctor and trainer Ray Ramirez to leave the game, which was why the Mets originally sent Damion Easley to the plate to pinch hit. Beltran convinced Ramirez the knee had loosened up, and went out and got a base hit.

Beltran had ice on his shoulder, knee and ribs afterward but said he expects to play tomorrow night.

Carlos Beltran:

“I don’t expect to have a day off. I expect to come out and do whatever I can to play. Right now we’re in a situation where I have to play.”