New York Mets Complete an Epic Collapse

Baseball's regular season is over and the playoffs are set—and one of the bigger stories is who didn't get in. Specifically, the New York Mets and their $340 million payroll. The Mets lost to the Miami Marlins 4-0 on Sunday. Had they won, they would have made the post-season. "There are no words to describe what we are going through," manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters afterward. But commentators had a few:

• "And the Mets' agonizing, three-and-a-half-month, slow-motion collapse is complete," Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen said as the game ended, per Sports Illustrated. "It is unfathomable that this collection of talent winds up outside of an expanded playoff system. After having the best record in baseball for the first two and a half months of the season, everything goes wrong over the last three-and-a-half months, and the Mets find themselves on the outside looking in."

• "These $340 million Mets will be recalled as the most expensive collection of talent that didn't even make it to October," writes Jon Heyman in the New York Post.
• Tim Britton of the Athletic notes that the Mets spent 174 of 186 days in playoff contention, and he also uses the phrase "slow-motion collapse." The Mets held a 10-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds in June, the team that claimed the final wild card spot on Sunday. Even more wrenching for Mets fans: The Reds lost earlier on Sunday, leaving the Mets in control of their own destiny.