NEW YORK _ It's so easy to ask, "What if?"
What if the Mets had kept any one of two leads they had on Thursday? What if the game had stopped in the top of the ninth, when the rain first started coming down _ before Edwin Diaz gave up the two game-tying runs? And what if play had resumed that very night, instead of 19 hours later?
But the truth is, no matter how much the Mets may like to wonder, it doesn't matter.
"We have to deal with our reality today," Mickey Callaway said, voice heavy, after play resumed Friday and the Mets lost to the Cardinals, 5-4, in 10 innings. It's the third in their last four losses where the Mets at one point had the lead. This time, the Mets led 4-2 going into the ninth inning, before Diaz coughed up the two runs. Play resumed Friday in the bottom of the ninth, which Carlos Martinez retired the Mets in order.
Diaz came back out in the 10th and unraveled again. He let up a leadoff single to pinch hitter Yairo Munoz, who stole second, and then, with one out, the Mets closer allowed an RBI ground single to Paul DeJong past the Mets' drawn-in infield.
The offense again proved toothless in the bottom of the inning, as Jordan Hicks set aside Carlos Gomez, Adeiny Hechavarria and Jeff McNeil with little fanfare, and the Mets dipped two games under .500 at 33-35. The loss was Diaz's fourth of the season and his ERA increased to 3.58. It's also his third blown save; he only had four all last season when he had 57 saves for the Mariners.
Callaway, though, insisted the team isn't demoralized � pretty important when you have a second game in a half hour.
"It costs us in our record," Callaway said. "(But) I don't feel it in the clubhouse. I don't feel it on the bench. That's where it would really cost you, if you were letting it bother you, let it get you down, and leading to something worse than it is. It's just three losses. We have been playing better. We'd be in a pretty good spot if we held those three leads. We didn't."
