New York – With their pitching rotation in tatters, the sky seemed to be falling on the New York Mets. Yet, just hours before managing his first playoff game last week, Willie Randolph was talking about wine.
“Let’s get it on, let’s have fun with it, man,” Randolph said before Game 1 of the National League divisional series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I try to always keep the perspective, and I’m going to enjoy this day and at the end, we get a victory, have another glass of wine and get ready for tomorrow. … I’m a red wine guy. I’ve got a nice little cellar.”
Then Randolph’s Mets went out and beat the Dodgers 6-5.
Then they beat the Dodgers twice more to sweep the divisional series. Now they’re in the National League Championship Series, hosting the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 tonight.
Though Randolph doesn’t have the managerial pedigree of the Cardinals’ Tony La Russa, players say Randolph deserves praise not only for his cool crisis management but for the all-for- one atmosphere he has nurtured inside the clubhouse.
“We are a brotherhood. This is a special team,” Randolph said Saturday night while his players doused him with champagne after the Game 3 victory.
Not that the Mets’ postseason has gone according to script. First, ace Pedro Martinez was lost with a torn muscle tendon in his left leg and a torn right rotator cuff. Next, a day before the playoffs began, Orlando Hernandez, the scheduled Game 1 starter, was knocked out of the playoffs with a right calf injury.
Suddenly, the Mets didn’t seem so amazing.
But Randolph never saw it that way. More important, neither did his players.
“We’re going to be all right. You can’t feel sorry for yourself,” third baseman David Wright said. “It’s crunch time. We have to dig deep and see what’s left.”
What’s left is a shaky starting staff and a terrific bullpen that Randolph went to early and often against the Dodgers. In Game 1, he yanked rookie John Maine after 4 1/3 innings. In Saturday’s Game 3, after starter Steve Trachsel had allowed two runs and had runners on second and third with one out in the fourth, Randolph called on reliever Darren Oliver.
Randolph has supreme confidence in Aaron Heilman, Pedro Feliciano and closer Billy Wagner.
“The bullpen’s a big part of our club. It’s a strength for us,” he said. “We’ve challenged them to be ready. They know that they’ve been the heart and soul of our team this year.”
While general manager Omar Minaya gets credit for stocking the Mets with the deepest roster in the National League, Ran- dolph has earned kudos for pushing the right buttons.
“I think the biggest thing is we’re a resilient team, and maybe people didn’t know that about us,” Wright said. “We’ve lost Pedro (Martinez), we’ve lost Cliff Floyd and Carlos Beltran for a period of time, but it just seems like whoever’s down, somebody steps up and wants to be the guy. I think they all know Willie has confidence in them. That makes a difference.”
Added catcher Paul Lo Duca: “We’re such a close-knit clubhouse. We knew Pedro and El Duque (Hernandez) weren’t going to be here. It was unfortunate, but we can’t sit around and cry about it. Everybody’s taken advantage of it and has gone out and done the little things. I think you have to give Willie credit for that. He talks about us being a brotherhood in here. He’s right.”
Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
