On the Mets beat

BY DAVID LENNON

MIAMI – It’s official. The Mets are now in a bare-knuckle fight for their playoff lives.

Losing games is one thing. But to be bitten by the bad karma that is haunting the Mets at this very moment goes beyond what happens between the white lines.

Need proof? Around the time Marlon Anderson’s heroic pinch-hit, three-run double in the ninth inning sets up the Mets for a comeback victory last night over the Marlins, Billy Wagner throws one warm-up pitch and is frozen by back spasms.

“It stinks,” Wagner said. “There’s nothing you can do.”

Three runs up, all the Mets had to get was three measly outs. And without Wagner, they couldn’t finish the job. The Marlins tied the score at 7 against Jorge Sosa in the bottom of the ninth and then finished off the weary Sosa in the 10th when Dan Uggla’s game-winning double cemented an 8-7 loss for the Mets.

This heart-breaking defeat, coming fast on the heels of Wednesday’s uplifting win in D.C., has the potential to sink the Mets like concrete shoes. Back at RFK Stadium, the Phillies rallied to beat the Nationals, 7-6, and move within 1 ½ games of the Mets, who are threatening to pull the biggest late-season choke in history. No team has ever lost its grip on first place after leading by seven games with 17 remaining.

“We've lost every which way,” said Tom Glavine, who was ripped for four runs in the fifth inning, including a three-run homer by Miguel Cabrera. “You're watching things happen that you just can't believe you're seeing happen. And it seems like everything that you could have go wrong against us has gone wrong.”

The injury to Wagner was the tipping point. The Mets closer first experienced back spasms during the sweep by the Phillies last weekend at Shea, but they were not a problem when Wagner polished off the Nationals on Wednesday to end the five-game losing streak.

But the ensuing plane ride to Florida, and another night in a hotel bed, put Wagner in pain again when he woke up yesterday morning. After getting worked on by a chiropractor and massage therapist, Wagner believed he could pitch, but the spasms returned with a vengeance in the ninth.

What’s worse is that Wagner could be dealing with this condition for the remainder of the regular season, and if the Mets are fortunate enough to advance, into October as well. After last night’s game, Wagner was wrapped with a heating back and stood up stiffly as he spoke with reporters.

“I’m day to day right now,” Wagner said. “Wish and hope and pray. That’s all I can do.”

The Mets as a team may want to try that, too, because there seems to be otherworldly forces at work here. Lastings Milledge was ejected in the seventh inning for a vicious confrontation with plate umpire Jim Joyce and Aaron Heilman was nailed on the left wrist – while warming on the mound! – by a baseball apparently flung from the stands in the eighth.

“I didn’t see it,” Heilman said. “But it hit me square. I was about to throw my second warmup pitch.”

Heilman supplied a scoreless eighth inning but things got very messy from there. In the ninth, Pedro Feliciano was pulled after Jeremy Hermida’s leadoff single and Sosa -- making his fifth appearance in six days -- immediately surrendered a double to Miguel Cabrera.

Alfredo Amezaga’s groundout scored the first run and an infield single by former Met Mike Jacobs added another to cut it to 7-6. Cody Ross prolonged the rally with a single that dropped in front of the charging Endy Chavez in leftfield – and stayed fair by a matter of inches. Matt Treanor then tied the score at 7 with a grounder to short.

Trailing 4-3 in the ninth inning, the Mets loaded the bases before Marlins closer Kevin Gregg whiffed Jose Reyes for the first out. Up next was the pinch hitter Anderson, and with the count 3-and-2, he ripped a bases-clearing double into the right-center gap. Many of the Mets flooded the area near the on-deck circle to greet their incoming teammates. Paul Lo Duca, his shaved head shining, was pumping his fists as each walked past.

The team’s mood was more somber in the wake of this demoralizing loss. Lo Duca, who always is available for comment afterward, still had not cooled down by the time reporters approached his locker.

“Not tonight, boys,” Lo Duca said as he brushed past. No one could really blame him after this loss.