ATLANTA — Eight is enough!
The Mets can make that next year's cheesy T-shirt slogan, after their playoff drought officially extended to eight seasons on Friday night.
Zack Wheeler's six shutout innings led the Mets to a 5-0 victory over the Braves at Turner Field, but the Pirates delivered the knockout punch by rallying to beat the Brewers 4-2 in Pittsburgh.
Not that the Mets were holding their collective breaths that they could finish the season with a nine-game winning streak and receive enough other lucky bounces to pull out a miraculous wild-card berth.
Earlier Friday, as the Mets prepared to open their three-game series against the Braves, they could only try to find positives in the wreckage of another lost season.
"I think we're moving in the right direction," said Daniel Murphy, who finished 4-for-5 and scored on Lucas Duda's sixth-inning home run as the Mets took a 2-0 lead. "We've gotten some real nice years by the guys on the pitching staff and we see what Juan Lagares has been able to do and Lucas Duda offensively and Wilmer [Flores] has been swinging the bat real well lately, so I think the future looks bright and we're moving in the right direction."
The last time the Mets received even a sniff of the playoffs was Murphy's rookie year in 2008, when they lost to the Marlins on the final day of the season and were eliminated from the hunt.
Since then, the Mets haven't had a winning season. They remain within two losses of extending that streak to six straight losing seasons.
"You go into every season optimistic," Murphy said. "If you didn't, if you thought you were going to come in and lose 90 ballgames, I don't think you would come to work."
If the Mets, who are 74-80, can squeeze out four victories in their final eight games, they will finish with their highest win total in manager Terry Collins' four seasons. Regardless, all indications are Collins will be retained as manager for next season.
Collins was asked if he could have envisioned, upon his arrival before the 2011 season, needing at least a fifth year to end the club's playoff drought.
"We had hoped it would turn around fast, but that's not really reality," Collins said. "The reality side of the whole thing is it takes time to try to rebuild the farm system and try to get those guys to the big leagues and try to get them to play well."
Collins pointed to playing the whole season without Matt Harvey — who underwent Tommy John surgery last October — as a significant factor.
"There was no plan going in of a timetable to when we thought we were going to compete," Collins said. "And especially when you have some of the injuries that we've had, where you lose your No. 1 guy, it's hard to overcome that."
But the surprising emergence of NL Rookie of the Year candidate Jacob deGrom in the rotation helped absorb some of the sting from losing Harvey. The Mets also have gotten big performances from a rebuilt bullpen that includes Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia and Vic Black.
Duda, who hit his 28th home run of the year, has been the biggest surprise offensively, but brutal seasons from David Wright and Curtis Granderson ultimately stalled the offense.
"We're looking at next year, so many positive things, getting Matt back in the rotation, the bullpen is better," Collins said. "We've got some guys solidifying their positions, now if we go out this winter and add a piece or two, I think we'll be legitimate."
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