A Met-aphor?

Being a Mets fan is a little like, well, being a Mets fan. If you're a fan, you know what I mean. At some point, something is going to go horribly wrong. Sometimes you can predict it. Sometimes you can't. But it will go wrong. Trust me on that.

With a handful of games left this season, the Mets, having fallen from their narrow lead over the Phillies (like the Mets, a team just above mediocre) in the NL East, have been trying to get back, or at least to make it to the wild card slot. Last night's game was, for me, a miniature of the entire season. I've called it a Met-aphor in the post title, but that's a pun and it's not technically correct. You lit majors, please help me with this. One part stands for the larger whole? Synecdoche?

Playing the Cubs, who this year have been about the only really good team in the National League, the Mets opened a 5-1 lead against Carlos Zambrano, their ace. But Oliver Perez and members of the Mets' fragile bullpen blew that lead. The Mets tied it in the 8th at 6-6. In the bottom of the ninth, rookie Daniel Murphy led off with a triple for the Mets. No one out, winning run at third base. The Phillies had already lost to Atlanta.

But David Wright struck out; the Cubs walked Delgado and Beltran intentionally; Ryan Church forced Murphy at home; and Ramon Castro struck out. The winning run at third with no one out failed to score. Needless to say, the Cubs won in the 10th inning.

This has been the Mets' season in a nutshell.