Something about Angel Pagan’s effort at “the claw” in the fifth last night made me sad. Pagan’s was not the emphatic windmill we’ve seen from Jose Reyes all year or Daniel Murphy’s clumsy but forceful air shot-put. It was a claw of attrition, one delivered entirely mechanically, devoid of enthusiasm. It did not shout, “we’re doing this!” but rather whimpered, “are we still doing this?”

I am not one to question a baseball player’s motivation. In this job, I have come to recognize that professional athletes are, in general, programmed a bit differently than most of us. They did not reach the absurd heights at which they compete by letting up easily, and so I find it hard to believe that a Major Leaguer is ever likely to stop trying his hardest at any point in a season. There are too many selfish reasons for all of them to keep succeeding to expect that any of them would stop wanting to. Fans are often way too quick to diagnose indifference in professional athletes, usually because the fans themselves have grown weary.

That is to say, don’t take the above mention of Pagan’s pathetic celebration as some sort of insinuation that the center fielder isn’t trying his hardest. I am certain he is.

But these guys aren’t stupid, and the Mets know their place in the standings and are aware of the trade rumors surrounding some members of the team.  So — and I’m definitely reading too much into this — to me Pagan’s perfunctory gesture felt like an indication that they know what we all kind of know: The fun times are coming to an end for the 2011 Mets. The Braves and Phillies are shrinking on the horizon. Carlos Beltran appears likely to be traded in the next couple of weeks.

It was as if Pagan opened the spotlight not for the Jose Reyes-headlined blockbuster of May and June but for a grim reality series, the third straight season of August and September games lacking the luster of playoff implications. Whatever longshot chance of a Wild Card chase that lingered through the early parts of the summer seems likely to leave town with Beltran.

It’s a shame, really. It was amazing watching what Reyes and Beltran could do when surrounded by halfway decent players, and if only David Wright were in the lineup all year, or they had managed to put together this deep a roster a couple seasons sooner, or Johan Santana… man. Man.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. All hope is not yet lost. Baseball Prospectus gives the Mets a 1.6 percent chance of making the playoffs. Wright returns soon. I’ll enjoy this while it lasts, and worry about the other stuff when it comes.