Watching the bottom of the 10th, Werth walked leading off.

Then Davey Johnson sent up Livan to pinch hit and he dropped down a perfect sac bunt on the first pitch (yes, major league pitchers can execute sacrifice bunts, Mets fans).

So then the trainer comes out to check on the Cubs reliever, who has some kind of injury and has to leave the game.

The Cubs call on closer Carlos Marmol, who wasn't warming, so he has as much time as he wants to get ready to face Ivan Rodriguez.

So Marmol is finally ready and Werth takes off early in the count with such a jump that Soto doesn't even bother to throw to third.

Soon thereafter, Marmol uncorks a wild pitch, Werth scores standing up and the Nats win.

So I'm wondering how a major league team can allow the potential winning run to steal third base, uncontested, with one out. It looked like the amount of attention a runner gets in a blowout, where the scoring is defensive indifference, except this was the winning run.

The likely answer-the Cubs suck and they're poorly coached.

But the thing that got me most is that WGN let the play pass without a replay or a comment.

Wouldn't it have been good to get a replay and see if they were holding Werth on, or at least how he got such a great jump?

And can you imagine that happening on an SNY telecast and no one--not Keith, not Ronnie, or even Gary--offering some kind of comment?

Didn't Billy Wagner turn that into an art form when he pitched with the Mets?

I don't remember much about Wagner pitching for the Mets to be honest.

I never disliked the guy, but I truthfully can't remember a single great "moment".where he closed the door in what looked like an impossible situation. I'm sure there were some. I just don't recall them.

Funny thing is, I remember him being lights out for the Braves against the Mets better than I remember any of his Mets moments

There were a number of runners that used to steal uncontested when he pitched, because of his non pick off move, or that he just forgot to watch them. I remember that one game in September 2007 against Philly in Philly when the Mets made a nice comeback, and the Phills ended up winning because whoever their baserunner was, stole bases easily on Wagner.

I went to a game at Shea where Wagner loaded the bases against the Braves with nobody out and the Mets up 1, top 9th. Wagner got Jeff Francoeur to bounce weakly to 3rd and Wright came home for one out. Then Andruw Jones bounced into a double play. Put it in the books!

The game was started by John Smoltz and Orlando Hernandez and El Duque was spinning a no-no through 5, I believe.

That's one of the impossible jams I remember Billy getting out of.

Now that you mention it, Mike, I think I remember that game.

I was stuck in a night-time traffic jam trying to cross the Tappan Zee Bridge and I listened on the car radio. One of those fun construction-related bottlenecks.

Billy was not at his best as a Met, but he was a rock at the end of the pen. If he stays healthy during 2008, I say the Mets make the playoffs that year. We were able to piece it together to get to Billy, but as soon as he got hurt we had nothing in the pen able to do his job. Just a bunch of specialists like Joe Smith, Scott Schoeneweis, or Pedro Feliciano, or guys who were ineffective like Aaron Heilman, Duaner Sanchez, and Luis Ayala.

Seeing Ayala on the Yankees actually brings me back to those days. He really didn't have much in the way of stuff but I respected the effort he gave. He failed pretty hard in the closer role, but he was clearly in over his head and should never have been put in that situation.

We ended up 3.0 back in the division and 1.0 back in the Wild Card. Billy Wagner was the difference.

That was actually Jayson Werth. Serendipity.

Edit: Thank you for bringing that fiasco up. Time to go drink or something.