The New York Mets are like a Jenga tower right now, fragile and teetering, everyone waiting for it to crumble, and poised to scream, bellow and cackle when it does.

If the Mets do collapse -- if they really, truly do blow their seven-game division lead they held on Sept. 12 -- it will register as one of baseball's all-time great accordion jobs, and not just because they're from New York.

To see a team with immense talent play like bums is harrowing. The Mets blew another inexplicable game Thursday night, ceding a three-run ninth-inning lead in an 8-7 extra-innings loss at Florida. It was the Mets' sixth loss in seven games, and Philadelphia's 7-6 comeback win against Washington propelled them to 1 1/2 games behind the Mets in the National League East standings.

Closer Billy Wagner was the latest denizen of the Mets' training room, missing the game with back spasms and forcing manager Willie Randolph to rely on a patchwork bullpen that behaved as such. Afterward, Wagner said all he could do was "wish and hope and pray" for his return.

The rest of Queens wishes, hopes and prays for a pulse. The entire borough is quivering with fear, which makes Mike and the Mad Dog's lives a lot easier and gives the tabloid headline writers a chance to earn their paychecks.

This is how scapegoats are built, and this year Randolph has assumed that mantel. All of a sudden, now that the Mets are losing, his lack of fire is in question.

News flash: The Mets hired Randolph knowing he has the personality of a cardboard box. They figured general manager Omar Minaya, flashy and media savvy, could pick up the slack in that area while the clubhouse dynamics took care of themselves.

Well, the Mets need something right now, a swift size-15 to the posterior. And it's not so much that Randolph hasn't been the one to provide it -- Tom Glavine or Carlos Delgado or Wagner would fill that role just fine -- but he was completely nonchalant as the Mets' lead faded.

Randolph believed that everything would work out. He never saw how the Mets' lack of urgency has damned them to a race. The Philadelphia Phillies have suffered through injuries, too, and far worse ones at that. Their rotation consists of a kid with a balky elbow (Cole Hamels), a lefty closer to Social Security than his rookie year (Jamie Moyer) and a guy who spent the season's first two months in Double-A (Kyle Kendrick).

And yet the more the Mets play -- the more they kick around the ball, the more they blow leads, the more they hobble toward history -- the more it looks like Jimmy Rollins might have been right.

Rollins, remember, came out before spring training and called the Phillies "the team to beat." His words reverberated in the Mets' clubhouse, and when Philadelphia came out of the gates 3-10, Rollins had them presented with a fork and knife, ready for consumption.

He refused to eat them. Wouldn't even have a taste. Once the Phillies got hot, Rollins started to believe, and the Phillies followed him here, to the cusp, where they're standing with all the strength of the monolith in "2001."

The Mets, done in Thursday by Dan Uggla's RBI double to score Hanley Ramirez, are fighting the weight of their own expectations. Pedro Martinez pitches against the Marlins tonight and needs to be New York's tourniquet. They're wobbly and looking for that piece to solidify them. Maybe it's him. Maybe it's Randolph. Maybe it's someone else.

Or maybe the tower crumbles and gawkers stare and shake their heads, having seen it coming for a long while.

FIVE ...

• As for the other races, San Diego has quietly crept to within a half-game of Arizona in the NL West thanks to a seven-game winning streak. The latest came from an unlikely source -- and an even unlikelier headline.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee dropped a game behind Chicago in the loss column and 1 1/2 games total after one of its former relievers came back to bite them. Brewers fever would seem to register about 97.4 on the instaread right now.

• Speaking of Milwaukee blowing it, is Prince Fielder's MVP candidacy shot if the Brewers don't make the playoffs? And if so, does that thrust Matt Holliday, this year's Mr. September, into the forefront? Bernie Lincicome says no, though a good pro-Holliday argument can be made for voters who won't consider Jake Peavy because he's a pitcher, won't buy into the David Wright hype and won't split a vote between Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley.

After hitting his 36th home run Thursday, Holliday leads the NL in extra-base hits and RBIs, ranks second in slugging percentage and batting average and fourth in homers.

• While Carlos Pena surely will win Comeback Player of the Year in the American League because of his home, Kansas City pitcher Zack Greinke's story is even better. He overcame social-anxiety issues, worked his way back onto the Royals' roster, established himself as a tremendous middle-relief asset and is pitching like the force everyone envisioned when he arrived in 2004. Still only 23, Greinke started his foray back into the rotation with 12 scoreless innings and capped it with eight more brilliant ones Thursday, giving up two hits and striking out 10.

And even bigger news: Jeff Flanagan's years-long campaign for the Royals to bring back their powder-blue uniforms seems to have paid off.

• Cincinnati manager Pete Mackanin needs to consult Messrs. Merriam and Webster. In trying to describe Homer Bailey's strong return to the Reds' rotation, he used these two words: "pitcherish" and "pitchesque."

How about pitcheresque? That's at least close to picturesque.

• Two more games like this and J.R. Towles will match Brad Ausmus' RBI total for the season.

... AND FLY

This is officially the coolest thing ever.