As the Mets roared through the playoffs, scouts and opposing players alike called second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo the best hitter in the Amazin’s lineup and the key to their team. They go as he goes, and if you can stop him, you can stop the Mets, they said. Looks like they were right.
The Yankees shut down Alfonzo in this Subway Series, and shut down the Mets, taking a 4-2 victory at Shea Stadium last night to take the series in five games. The Bombers held Alfonzo – the Mets’ most clutch hitter all season – to an embarrassing .143 average, and the Mets to a .229 mark.
“That’s the last thing I wanted to do – don’t do anything. Sometimes it goes like that. I picked a bad time to get down. That’s kind of disappointing,” said Alfonzo, who hit .324 this year and .341 with men in scoring position, to knock in 94 runs. But in the Subway Series, he was just 3-for-21 with no extra-base hits, just one RBI and five strikeouts.
Last night he went 1-for-5, popping out to second to end the second inning with runners on first and second. And he flew out to right in the ninth with Benny Agbayani on second. Afterwards, he admitted he was pressing and trying too hard.
“You make it to the World Series and you want to do good. But sometimes you have to think we’re all human. It’s going to be a tough situation, you want to do it too much and that’s when nothing happens. But that’s just the way God wants it.”
Alfonzo stood in his locker in the somber Met clubhouse last night. Above his head hung a sign that read “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen,” drawn from Hebrews 11:1. The all-star firmly believes if the Mets didn’t win, God clearly must have a different plan.
And the usually clutch player who opened the 1999 playoffs by slashing a game-winning grand slam in the ninth against Arizona and hit a key two-run homer this year in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the NLCS said he won’t mope about the loss or his poor performance.
“It was a good series,” he said. “They just did the little things. We can’t be upset about this, but be proud of the way we played. Not too many people get here. We have to thank God for the opportunity.”