Tearful Mets Moments: Jeurys Familia’s blown save against the Padres in 2015

The same things that can bring you so much joy can also bring you to tears. This is the time I cried over the New York Mets.

Though 2015 was filled with many joyous moments for New York Mets fans, it also featured some excruciatingly painful losses. I’m not talking about the three blown saves in the World Series, Lucas Duda’s infamous throw home, or even Max Scherzer no-hitting the Mets on the second to last day of the season. No, for me, the moment in the 2015 season that absolutely broke me was the rain-delayed loss against the San Diego Padres.

In a season that had so far been surprisingly competitive, I was starting to have hope that 2015 could be a magical year. With July 29 came the now-legendary “Wilmer Flores no-trade game,” in the midst of the Amazins fighting for a playoff spot. By the next day, the trade had evaporated, but the emotions from that game still lingered in the hearts of fans.

July 30, 2015. The Mets were two games back of the division-leading Nationals going into the day. The afternoon game, started by Jon Niese, began promisingly, with the Mets carrying a 7-1 lead into the 7th inning. Everything was pointing towards a win for the Amazins.

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But as Mets fans have come to expect, whenever a win looks most within reach, that’s when the heartbreaking losses are just around the corner.

The 7th inning began, and before I had time to get a glass of water from the kitchen, the Padres’ Derek Norris had hit a grand slam off of Hansel Robles, cutting the lead to 7-5. As Robles pointed to the sky, I laid my head on the table in exasperation.

The 9th inning rolled around, and the rain began to pour down. Jeurys Familia came into the game and retired the first two batters, and the game was tantalizingly close to being over. Then, with Norris up yet again and facing an 0-1 count, the umpires decided to stop the game. A 44-minute rain delay ensued.

The Mets never fare well in rain delays, and I had an increasingly sinking feeling that this game was doomed. Sure enough, my nightmares came to life when the game resumed. Newly minted “Mets killer” Norris singled, Matt Kemp singled, and Justin Upton followed with a three-run bomb off of Familia. 8-7 Padres. Then came another rain delay.

When Upton’s homer left the park, I felt my stomach drop to the floor. I was watching that game with my mom, but once the second rain delay was called, I just couldn’t face other humans. I trudged upstairs and felt tears falling down my cheeks. I had thought I was a big girl, but there I was, crying because my baseball team had just blown what seemed like an absolutely crucial game, right ahead of a weekend series with the Nationals.

Mets fans all know the pain of watching leads disappear into thin air, but somehow it never gets any easier. I’ve watched a lot of bad losses over the years, including that gut-wrenching 9th inning collapse against the Nationals last year, but somehow no regular-season game has affected me as much as this one did in 2015.

Between the Wilmer game the night before, and the Mets actually being in contention for the first time since 2008, that 2015 season was the first time in several years that I was truly emotionally invested in every game. In that moment, when the rain delay hit and I knew the orange and blue were going to lose, I felt that the season had completely slipped away.

Thankfully, that proved not to be the case. The very next day, the Mets traded for Yoenis Cespedes. Later that night was the Wilmer walk-off game, and the image of him grabbing the Mets logo on his jersey as he ran gleefully towards home plate will be etched into the memory of Mets fans forever.

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Though the Mets ultimately did not bring home a championship in 2015, I am grateful that the rain-delayed loss against the Padres was, in fact, the low point of the season. Games like this help build character for fans, and absorbing this ridiculous loss in July helped make the rest of the season that much sweeter. Even if it did mean shedding a few tears on a rainy afternoon.