Albert Pujols, Cardinals End Mets' Season

Remember watching wrestling on Saturday morning back in the 80s when they would have these really good wrestlers like Tito Santana or Don Muraco wrestle scrubs or “jobbers” like Reno Riggins or Barry O? They were one of those things that, because I was younger, I knew the outcome of the match, but really didn’t.

It would be five minutes of Tito Santana just working some guy over. Occasionally the jobber would get a punch or two in, but it would never amount to anything. I would watch the whole match just to see someone like Santana’s finishing move to put this guy out of his misery.

In the earlier days, it was the figure four leglock and in the later days it was the flying forearm (or the flying jalapeno as Bobby Heenan would say).

Well, last night Albert Pujols and the rest of the St. Louis Cardinals hit the New York Mets with a flying forearm by beating the Mets 12-7 in come-from-behind fashion and, for all intents and purposes, ended the 2009 season for the Metropolitans.

The Mets had a 7-4 lead with Johan Santana on the mound. But then Francisco Rodriguez imploded in the ninth and Albert Pujols broke out of his semi-slump in a big way (4-for-5 with two home runs and five RBI). If you can’t hold a three-run lead with your best pitcher and top closer on the mound, it’s over.

The Mets’ season has been like a jobber’s match in the 80s. They have been worked over, every now and then would throw a couple of punches to make you somewhat believe they could win, and in the end you kind of knew the outcome, but really didn’t.

Living in New York there are plenty of fans who still had the pipedream that the Mets’ injured stars like Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, and Carlos Beltran would come back and it would be the Mets this year who would make a late run and sneak into the playoffs.

Not going to happen.

The Mets are 10 games out of first in the NL East and are now nine games out of a Wild Card spot. The Mets have too many teams to pass and are too injured (Reyes may be out for the season now) in order to make a run at anything.

Here is all you need to know about the Mets’ season: Second baseman Luis Castillo sprained his ankle tripping down the steps to the dugout while trying to avoid someone’s glove after grounding out to second in the seventh inning.

That would be the equivalent of not only losing the match, but getting hit over the head with a steal chair afterwards.