Jose Reyes
With voting opening, Michael Conforto‘s name does not appear on the All Star Game ballot. His name doesn’t appear because a team only has three outfielders listed, and the Mets Opening Day outfield of Yoenis Cespedes–Curtis Granderson–Jay Bruce is on there. Still, that doesn’t mean you still can’t vote for Conforto. In fact, you can and should write his name in.
To date, Conforto has had an outstanding year. Through his first 23 games this season, the newly minted leadoff hitter has hit .344/.421/.688 with seven homers and 16 RBI. He’s gone from a player the Mets needed to try to find playing time for to a player they cannot afford to take out of the lineup. He’s been one of the best outfielders in all of baseball.
Among National League outfielders with at least 70 at-bats, he is one of the top ranked players. His batting average, on base percentage. and slugging are second only to Bryce Harper. Again, his 183 wRC+ is second only to Harper. Same goes for his 189 OPS+. It should then come as no surprise that his 1.1 fWAR and 1.1 bWAR are also second to Harper. No matter what state you cite, the only rationale conclusion you can reach is Conforto is the second best outfielder in the National League.
Last year, he had suffered from the proverbial ‘Sophomore Slump” due to a wrist injury, benchings, and the struggles that typically ensue from both of these circumstances. Despite proving himself in Triple-A, the Mets still wouldn’t trust him over injured and struggling players. Rather than give him the opportunity to be the player he was, the Mets traded for Bruce. The failure to move Bruce in the offseason led to Conforto starting the year on the bench. Despite this, Conforto was ready to to step in when the Mets needed him most.
He’s played all three outfield positions, and he has played them well. With Granderson’s and Jose Reyes‘ struggles, he has provided the team with a lead-off hitter. With the injuries to Cespedes and Lucas Duda, he has provided his team with a great bat – a bat that is the second best in the National League. Conforto has been everything the Mets have needed and more.
In reality, the question shouldn’t be whether Conforto should be in the All Star Game, the question is when does everyone start inserting his name into MVP discussions. Yes, it is too soon for MVP discussions, and so at this point, we should focus on his being an All Star. With his name not being on the ballot, Mets fans need to step up and write-in his name.
It’s time again to wonder what’s wrong with Matt Harvey. Again, he struggled against a poor Braves offense. This time, he couldn’t hold a lead. He’s not striking guys out.
Tonight, his line was 5.1 innings, eight hits, six runs, six earned, three walks, and two strikeouts. His start was more frustrating than those numbers indicate.
After being staked to a 2-0 lead on a Jay Bruce first inning homer off R.A. Dickey, Harvey gave the lead right back by surrendering a two run homer to Freddie Freeman. The Mets then fell behind 3-2 when Harvey allowed an RBI double to Ender Inciarte.
It’s odd that this was considered an earned run. The rally was started when Jose Reyes threw a ball away allowing Kurt Suzuki to reach. Despite Reyes’ arm and Suzuki’s speed, it was ruled a hit.
The Mets tied the game at three in the third with an Asdrubal Cabrera leadoff homer. From there on out, it was all Braves.
Things began to unravel in the fourth with some poor pitching, luck, and umpiring. Adonis Garcia hit a lead off single, and then he moved to second on a Suzuki hit by pitch. On the hit by pitch, Suzuki actually took a full swing which should’ve negated the hit by pitch, but he was awarded first anyway. It should be no shock this was the decision as the first base umpire Larry Vanover was not good tonight. For example, he initially called Juan Lagares out on this play:
https://twitter.com/mlbreplays/status/859581152096534530
And then there was this one:
https://twitter.com/mlbreplays/status/859604994705588224
In any event, Suzuki was awarded first. Harvey then walked Dansby Swanson to load the bases despite Swanson entering the game hitting .151 and being up 1-2 in the count. Garcia then scored a run on a large hop off Dickey’s bat. Inciarte, a true Mets killer, made it 6-3 with a two RBI single.
The Mets had things cooking in the fifth and looked to be poised to tie the score again. However, Neil Walker grounded into a double play turning first and second no out to a runner on third with two outs. Then, Nick Markakis absolutely robbed Travis d’Arnaud. It was d’Arnaud’s last at-bat of the game as he’d be lifted in the sixth for Kevin Plawecki because his wrist injury flared up again.
Harvey pitched into the sixth, but he was removed with one out after throwing 99 pitches. He likely would’ve been hit with another run, but Lagares nailed a runner at the plate.
.@juanlagares2 shows off the cannon as he guns down the runner at the plate! pic.twitter.com/MQI16imync
— New York Mets (@Mets) May 3, 2017
The bullpen still fell apart, and like they’ve been in the past, Josh Smoker and Fernando Salas were the culprits. In the seventh, the two combined to allow three runs on four hits and a walk.
Like that, the Mets had a horrible 9-3 loss dropping them back to last place which is a place no one thought they’d be at this point in the season.
There were some positives. Michael Conforto (2-4, R, BB) and Bruce (2-5, 2 R, HR, GS, 6 RBI) stayed hot at the plate. Cabrera hit a homer. Josh Edgin and Paul Sewald were good out of the pen. Despite his struggles, Harvey is regaining his velocity hitting 98 on the gun.
There was also the ninth inning rally. Matt Wisler loaded the bases and Bruce hit an opposite field grand slam to make it 9-7. Jim Johnson then came on and retired Walker to get the save.
Still, this was a bad game for the Mets. Harvey struggled with his command. The bullpen struggled more than he did. The lineup past Bruce is still not hitting. They are also not winning games they should win.
Game Notes: Curtis Granderson asked for the night off as he feels his swing is off. He made a pinch hitting appearance going 0-1.
With Julio Teheran and his 2.25 ERA against the Mets, and the struggling Robert Gsellman starting for the Mets, it seemed as if the Mets initiation to SunTrust Park was going to be as bad as Turner Field treated the Mets. With one swing of the bat, Michael Conforto dispelled many of those concerns:
.@mconforto8 is ???! pic.twitter.com/Q3VACTbkJ2
— New York Mets (@Mets) May 1, 2017
The concerns returned when Ender Inciarte returned the favor by hovering to lead-off the first.
The Mets then did something rate in the fourth. They built a sustained rally.
The Mets quickly loaded the bases, and Neil Walker snapped an 0-13 skid to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. Jose Reyes hit a RBI groundout. Travis d’Arnaud was told to go to first (IBB) reloading the bases, and T.J. Rivera made them pay with an RBI single. After a Gsellman line out, Conforto hit a two RBI single making it 6-1.
The Braves would get a lot of that back. In the fourth, Nick Markakis and Adonis Garcia and would collect RBIs after Matt Kemp set the stage with a double.
In the sixth, Terry Collins tried to coax another inning to help a tired bullpen. Freddie Freeman and Kemp hit back-to-back doubles leaving yo term getting hooked. Collins had enough, and he used Josh Edgin and Hansel Robles combined to shut the door keeping the score at 6-5.
Gsellman had an uneven start once again due to his struggling with command. His velocity dipped a bit. Still he lasted five, and he gave the Mets a chance to win allowing six hits, five earned, and a walk.
Reyes added a run off a solo homer in the eighth to make it 7-5.
That lead would last as Jerry Blevins, Addison Reed, and Jeurys Familia shut the door on the Braves to pick up the 7-5 win. Maybe, just maybe SunTrust will be different than Turner Field.
Game Notes: Curtis Granderson went 0-3 and is now hitting .124. To his credit, he did work out a walk, scored a run, and had a fine play in center.
Want to know how things went for the Mets today? Their best pitcher was Kevin Plawecki who allowed four runs on three homers in two . . . TWO! . . . innings pitched.
How the Mets got there is almost too exhausting to detail. Suffice it to say, it all started with Noah Syndergaard. After refusing an MRI for biceps complaints, the Mets sent him to the mound on Sunday. To be fair, Syndergaard probably thought MRI meant Mets related injury.
Every Mets fan knew what would happen. We knew he’s get injured. We’ve been expecting it since Generation K went up in flames with the injuries suffered by Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher, and Paul Wilson. And it happened. After 1.1 innings where he allowed five hits, five runs, two walks (first two of the season) while striking out two, he was gone with a “lat injury.” It’s in quotes because it’s clear no one knows what’s going on with Syndergaard.
From there, it’s difficult to decipher what happened.
Even with the Syndergaard injury, the Mets were only down 6-5 heading into the bottom of the fourth.
Everyone was pitching in (pun intended). The resurgent Jose Reyes, moved to second in the lineup due to players getting the day off, got it all started with a first inning one out triple. Jay Bruce was 3-4 with a homer and two RBI. Rene Rivera had a homer of his own. Even Sean Gilmartin got in on the action with an RBI double.
Gilmartin, that’s where the trouble started. Initially, he kept the Nationals at bay when he came on after the Syndergaard injury. But, he melted down in the fourth allowing four earned. Gilmartin, like the rest of the Mets was victimized by Anthony Rendon, who hit two homers off of him.
Fernando Salas started the fifth, and he eventually put the game completely out of reach allowing three runs. When he left, it was 13-5. The Nationals still had 10 runs left in them.
Six of them came off Josh Smoker, who melted down in his second inning of work. He didn’t record one out while facing five batters that inning. He and the whole team left Terry Collins little choice. He had to go to a position player to pitch the final two innings.
It was hard to tell if Plawecki was throwing a knuckleball or a batting practice fastball. The answer was a knuckleball, but the Nationals were teeing off of him and all Mets pitchers like it was batting practice. Whether it was the knuckleball or the fact that Plawecki was the least important player on the roster, it was an inspired choice by Collins.
What wasn’t inspired was how the Mets finished this series. After rallying back from losing six in a row, 10 of 11, and Yoenis Cespedes, the Mets beat Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg in back-to-back games. It was an announcement the Mets weren’t done. It was enough to give a Nationals team, who just lost Adam Eaton for the season, doubt they were the better team.
Twenty-three runs later, in a game started by Syndergaard, that doubt should be erased. Trea Turner was the only Nationals starter without a multi-hit game, and he still hit a double and scored a run.
More than that, Rendon was 6-6 with five runs, a double, three homers, and 10 RBI. The Mets as a team had five runs on nine hits.
Game Recap: Reyes had another error, but this one was at shortstop as the Mets gave Asdrubal Cabrera the day off. Neil Walker had another poor game at the plate and is now hitting .195. Same goes for Curtis Granderson who is now hitting .128.
When your child is invited to a birthday party, you need to derive a plan. When do to get there? When should you leave? Which parents are you going to talk to? How are you going to be able to watch/follow the Mets game?
Well, the latter is more my concern than my wife’s.
Fortunately, I got to watch today’s game until Michael Conforto did this:
Well, I got to watch the first one. After that, it was time to start getting out the house and into the car. Once in the car, I got to hear how Zack Wheeler‘s Houdini act was running out of time.
The Nationals might’ve gotten to him in the first with a Ryan Zimmerman RBI single, but they weren’t getting to him again. At least, Terry Collins wasn’t going to let that happen.
The first four innings were tough for Wheeler. After the first, he issued lead-off walks. Somehow, he managed to escape unscathed. With the Conforto three run bomb, he has a 3-1 lead and just needed to get out of the fifth to get his win. He came so close.
He helped erase a Jose Reyes error to start the inning by getting Bryce Harper to ground into the 1-6-3 double play. On the play, Trea Turner, who reached on the Reyes’ error, went to third. Turner then scored on the Zimmerman infield single.
By the way, Zimmerman is getting annoying. The guy is 32 and coming off two bad years. Now, all of a sudden, he’s playing at an All Star level again even if he still can’t throw the ball. Not only is he beating up on the Mets pitching right now, but he’s also rubbing it in because he’s having the resurgence Mets fans wanted for Zimmerman’s childhood friend and teammate David Wright.
In any event, Zimmerman singles, and Wheeler is at 96 stressful pitches. Collins was all but forced to go to Josh Edgin at that point to put an end to the tomfoolery. For the second game in a row, Edgin did just that by getting a huge out. This time he got Daniel Murphy to line out.
Just as Howie Rose is talking about how Hansel Robles usually blows up just as you begin to feel comfortable with him, it’s time up enter the party. Of course, Robles has been great of late not allowing a run in his last six appearances or eight innings, whichever you prefer. Nine innings including the sixth inning.
That’s where I left off. Not the best feeling with the Mets up 3-2, and Stephen Strasburg is dealing. At that point, I’m walking into a party.
For those that have not attended children’s birthday parties, it’s a mixture of bedlam amongst the children while you make small talk. The two goals are make sure your child doesn’t get hurt on whatever contraption is the feature of this party, and don’t get stuck in one of those conversations. With this being a “gymnastics” party, there were plenty of pitfalls:
Fortunately, one of the better parents was there. Before I could say hello, he said to me, “Mets are still up 3-2.” Everything about that sentence is beautiful. First, he found it more important to give a score update exchanged pleasantries. Second, he used the word still knowing I was going to be listening to it on the way over. Finally, the Mets were leading.
From there, it was all hands on deck. One eye on the phone. The other on the kids.
The second Conforto homer sparked a conversation how bizarre it was the Mets treatment of him was. The Zimmerman homer led to conversions about him and Wright. No, the Reyes homer did not extend into a DV discussion. Rather, it was about how hot he is now at the plate, and how we hope Curtis Granderson snaps out of it once the calendar turns to May.
With Jeurys Familia getting his first save of the season while retiring the side in order, the game was over, but the party was in full swing.
Certainly, with the Mets having pulled out their second straight win, I was in a party mood myself.
So without Yoenis Cespedes and with Max Scherzer in the mound, the Mets really had no chance to beat the Nationals, right? Well, at least for one night, it was no Yo no problem.
With Cespedes out, someone had to replace him as the spark plug in the Mets offense. Tonight, Travis d’Arnaud was d’Man. In the second inning, his no doubt blast gave the Mets their first lead in over nine games:
Intersting enough, do you remember the last time the Mets had a lead in a game?
https://twitter.com/studi_metsimus/status/858101051030990852
Unfortunately, that lead was short lived. In the bottom of the second, Jacob deGrom first allowed a solo home run to Ryan Zimmerman and then a two run homer to Matt Wieters. The Mets short lived 2-0 lead became a 3-2 deficit. From, there it was all Mets.
deGrom settled in and started mowing down the Nationals. He didn’t allow another run in the final five innings he pitched. He was terrific striking out 12 while allowing those three runs. For the first time in nine games, he was a Mets pitcher that recorded a win. He was the first Mets starter to record a win since Zack Wheeler got the win on April 12th.
He got the win because his battery mate made sure he had enough run support:
A look at Travis d'Arnaud's two home-run swings tonight. #Mets pic.twitter.com/ybrIWMIcrY
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) April 29, 2017
It was d’Arnaud’s first five RBI game of his career. He once again showed his offensive potential on a night reminiscent of Mike Piazza. He even had a 445 foot blast like Piazza used to do.
The Mets then got to the Nationals bullpen in the eighth. It was a refreshing change after a terrible Nationals bullpen dominated the Mets batters at Citi Field.
Jose Reyes led off the inning with a double off Jacob Turner. He moved to third on a fielder’s choice by T.J. Rivera. With Zimmerman coming off the bag, the Mets had runners at the corners with no outs. The Mets would then load the bases when d’Arnaud worked out a walk.
Kevin Plawecki then pinch hit for deGrom and hit an RBI single through the drawn in infield. Yes, it did really happen. Michael Conforto made it 7-3 when he worked out a bases loaded walk.
The damage would be limited there as Asdrubal Cabrera hit into the 3-2-4 double play, and Jay Bruce grounded out. Still, the Mets got two insurance runs. It turns out they needed them.
Jerry Blevins came on to start the eighth, and he allowed a one out single to Trea Turner. After he struck out Bryce Harper, Collins turned to Addison Reed to get out of the inning.
Reed was greeted by Zimmerman’s second homer of the game. Things got tense when Daniel Murphy ripped a single, and Reyes made an error allowing Anthony Rendon to reach. Reed was struggling, but bore down and got a huge strikeout of Jayson Werth to get out of the jam.
This set the stage for Jeurys Familia to record his first save of the season.
It wasn’t easy as the Nationals immediately loaded the bases off Familia with three straight singles to lead off the inning. The last one was an Adam Eaton infield single Reyes should’ve played but let go to Cabrera. While Reyes had a good night at the plate going 2-4 with two runs, a walk, double, and a stolen base, he was poor in the field again.
With Eaton coming up lame on the play, Dusty Baker had to use three pinch runners in the inning. Believe it or not, that wasn’t the panic move of the game.
After Familia struck out Turner, Terry Collins went to Josh Edgin to pitch to Harper. Somehow it worked with Edgin getting Harper to hit into the 1-2-3 double play. On a night where the Mets got an improbable win, why not Edgin recording the save there?
Game Notes: With the Cespedes injury, Bruce returned to his familiar RF. The plan is to go with Rivera at first until Lucas Duda, who just began his rehab assignment, is ready to come off the DL. Reyes is heating up going six for his last 14 with a HR. Granderson is in a 1-22 funk and now has a lower batting average than Reyes.
On any given day, any of the following would have been the worst thing to happen to the Mets. First, there was the announcement Noah Syndergaard needed to have his start skipped with bicep issues that radiate up to his pitching shoulder. Then Matt Harvey goes out in his place, doesn’t have his typical velocity, and he can’t get out of the fifth inning. Just when you thought things couldn’t go any worse, Yoenis Cespedes had to be helped off the field in the fourth inning after hitting a lead-off double.
Anything else that happened today didn’t matter because the Mets just might’ve seen their season flash before their eyes.
It doesn’t matter that a poor decision not to throw home in the second inning seemed to finally wake up Jose Reyes who would subsequently nail two runners at home and hit a home run. It doesn’t matter Neil Walker seemed to wake up offensively. It doesn’t even matter that Jay Bruce continues to hit well.
What matters is the Mets are faced with the very real prospect of losing Syndergaard and Cespedes for a long time. It also matters that Harvey took a big step back from the pitcher who was gradually getting stronger to start the year. Hopefully, there’s nothing wrong with him. The way things are going with the Mets right now, you shouldn’t have much hope.
Overall, the offense isn’t hitting, and the pitching is getting further compromised.
With all the talk about how the Mets fleeced the Blue Jays, R.A. Dickey must’ve smiled with this win. Not only was he able to pitch on a game Syndergaard wasn’t, but Travis d’Arnaud was also 0-2 with a strikeout against him. By the way, Wuilmer Becerra is coming off offseason shoulder surgery and has yet to play the field this year.
Yes, you do that trade 279,684,800,441,574,796 times out of 100, but at least in this game Dickey felt vindicated. He must have felt further vindicated with the Braves leaping the Mets in the standings leaving the Mets in last place. Unless things start to change, it’s hard to argue the Mets won’t stay there for a while.
Game Notes: Eric O’Flaherty pitched a scoreless inning and has not allowed a hit to the Mets since his first disastrous outing. The Mets have not had a lead in over 56 innings. They have no lost 10 of their last 11.
Betsy Helfand of the Review Journal reports utility player Matt Reynolds has flown to New York presumably to join the Mets. As of this moment, the Mets have not announced a corresponding move. Normally, in these situations, you can surmise what the corresponding move will be. However, given the current state of the Mets, we really have no idea what that move will be.
First and foremost. Yoenis Cespedes has been injured, and he has insisted that he could play today. Before letting him do that, the Mets were supposedly going to really make Cespedes test out that hamstring to make sure he is healthy enough to play. It is possible Cespedes is not healthy enough to play, and as a result, the Mets are going to move him to the disabled list.
If not Cespedes, it’s possible the Mets could move Asdrubal Cabrera to the disabled list. The shortstop has been clearly hobbled and limited. After each play on the field, he noticeably winces, and he takes time to get back to his position. Over the last two games, there have been multiple instances where you question if he could continue playing in the game. Given how he’s played, it’s possible he could be headed to the disabled list.
Then again, this is the time of year Travis d’Arnaud usually heads to the disabled list. On Wednesday, he hit his arm on a bat trying to throw out a base stealer. In every game since, Terry Collins has penciled his name in the lineup only to remove him afterwards when d’Arnaud said he couldn’t throw (insert your own joke here). With him not being able to do more than pinch hit for a solid week, it’s possible the Mets move him to the disabled list.
Then again with the way things are going, it’s possible someone got hurt on an off day. It wouldn’t be the first time in franchise history. You never know with this team.
Maybe the aforementioned players are healthy and ready to go, and the Mets are just moving the deck chairs due to some under-performing players. Although he has received limited opportunities, T.J. Rivera is just 1-10 on the season with no extra base hits or RBI. Maybe the move will be for Kevin Plawecki, who once again looked over powered by major league pitching in the one game he played. Save for Michael Conforto and Jay Bruce, you can really make a case for any one of the Mets players to be sent down or designated for assignment. With that said, no one really believes at this juncture that either Jose Reyes or Curtis Granderson will suffer that indignity yet.
It’s also possible Reynolds is here as a precaution. There is so much wrong with the Mets in terms of injury and under-performance. The Mets may look to see how Cespedes, Cabrera, and d’Arnaud respond to the off-day, and if any one of them can’t go, Reynolds will. At this juncture, we just don’t know.
Ulimately, Reynolds getting called-up to the majors is a microcosm of the 2017 season. He’s here because we don’t know who can play. We don’t know who’s too hurt to play, and we don’t know who’s capable of playing at this level. Sooner or later, this is nonsense is going to have to end.
When a team is riddled with injuries like the Mets have been, what most people focus on is how it negatively impacts the lineup. The converse of that is an injury creates an opportunity for another player. With Lucas Duda and Wilmer Flores on the disabled list and Yoenis Cespedes unable to play the field, it forced the Mets to play Jay Bruce at first base and put Juan Lagares in center field. This was Lagares’ opportunity to fight for a bigger role on the Mets.
And there was one there. It’s no secret Curtis Granderson has been struggling to begin the season. Through 18 games, he is hitting just .149/.205/.254 with one homer and six RBI. With the Mets being unable to trade Bruce, Granderson is miscast as a center fielder. His -1 DRS ranks him 16th among players with at least 90 innings in center field this year. His -23.0 UZR/150 ranks 23rd among center fielders with at least 90 innings. Long story short, it has not been a good start to the season for Granderson. With him being 36 years old, there have been more than whispers if he’s not the same player anymore.
While it may be only slightly ajar, the door was open for someone to stake a claim for a spot in the outfield. We saw Michael Conforto do just that. On the season, he is hitting .361/.432/.722 with four homers and eight RBI. He’s also made a series of outstanding defensive plays in left and center field. With Granderson and Jose Reyes‘ struggling, Conforto may just have cemented himself as the team’s lead-off hitter.
Lagares did not make a similar push. While it is inarguable that Lagares is by far the team’s best defensive player, he still does not do enough to play every day. In his 2014 breakout season, Lagares had a 102 OPS+. Given his glove, you could keep a player like Lagares in the lineup everyday with league average bat like his. The problem is he’s regressed every season since. Since that 2014 season, Lagares is merely a .250/.289/.356 hitter with a 77 OPS+. There’s really no amount of defense that can keep a bat like that in the lineup. Certainly, not with a National League team.
Yet, we have seen glimpses of Lagares being a competent hitter. We saw it in 2014. We saw it again in the 2015 postseason. In that postseason, Lagares hit .348/.375/.435 with two doubles and two stolen bases. That may not be his true talent level, but it shows you he’s capable of being at least a decent hitter.
Unfortuantely, he hasn’t to begin the year. So far this season, he is 1-18 with his lone hit being a single to break up Gio Gonzalez‘s no-hitter on Saturday. Again, Lagares seems to be regressing, which means once Cespedes returns, Lagares will once again be limited to being a defensive replacement late in games and getting starts against left-handed pitching. Given the comments made post-game, that will happen on Tuesday.
There was an opportunity for Lagares to be more than that. He had an opportunity to show the Mets he could be an everyday player. As an everyday player, he could live on highlight reels and win additional Gold Gloves. That won’t be happening because rather than take advantage of the opporutnity, Lagares reinforced the notion that he isn’t an everyday player.
If we’re being honest, this isn’t the greatest Mets lineup even when the team is healthy. It’s full of guys who certainly can all hit the ball out of the ballpark, but it’s also full of players with poor on base percentages. When you lose Lucas Duda and Yoenis Cespedes to injury the problems become even more exacerbated.
Now, the Mets have the pitching to win games no matter who is in the lineup. We saw that in 2015 as the pitching and Curtis Granderson kept the team afloat playing near .500 ball until reinforcements arrived.
In those games the Mets did win, they needed their pitcher’s to be great. At the state the Mets offense is now, the 2017 Mets are back to that point. Yesterday, Jacob deGrom was good.
He was mowing the Nationals down for the first three innings until his wildness caught up to him in the fourth. A Daniel Murphy single was bracketed by walks to Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon loading the bases.
The Mets got a bit lucky as the Nationals third base coach sent Murphy on the ensuing RBI single by Matt Wieters.
In the fifth, the Nationals got to deGrom again. Adam Eaton and Trea Turner hit back-to-back one out doubles to make it 2-0. After Harper was just told to go to first base (essentially what the new intentional walk rule is), Ryan Zimmerman hit an RBI single to make it 3-0.
The Nationals wouldn’t score again in the sixth thanks in large part to Granderson:
Great grab by @cgrand3. #Mets pic.twitter.com/lwstvIwSKe
— New York Mets (@Mets) April 22, 2017
After getting the first two out, deGrom got in trouble again issuing yet another walk, this time to Eaton, and then allowing a single to Turner. At this point, Terry Collins turned to Josh Edgin to get the Mets out of the jam. Somewhat surprisingly, he did by striking out Harper.
Overall, it was a tough day for deGrom who issued a career high six walks. He was obviously ramped up early getting it up to 98 MPH and recording a lot of strikeouts. The early adrenaline wore off, and deGrom was left throwing 94 MPH and missing his spots. This was an uncharacteristic start for deGrom. His final line was 5.2 innings, eight hits, three runs, three earned, six walks, and 10 strikeouts.
Given the current state of the Mets offense, 3-0 might as well have been 30-0. This game was no different.
For the second time this season, the Mets offense was no-hit through five innings. This time, it was done by Gio Gonzalez. Though the Mets offense looked overmatched and lifeless, they would break through in the sixth.
Jose Reyes pinch hit for Edgin and worked a one out walk. Then, Juan Lagares broke up the no-hitter with a single. More than that, the Mets had a rally going.
Michael Conforto didn’t help the narrative he can’t hit left-handed pitching by striking out and going hitless on the day. Where Conforto didn’t come through, a hobbled Asdrubal Cabrera did hitting an RBI single to make it 3-1. That was as close as the Mets would get.
Jay Bruce and Neil Walker had back-to-back strikeouts ending the Mets only rally of the game. The offense then made a struggling Nationals bullpen look like the 1990 Nasty Boys.
Blake Treinen, Enny Romero, and Koda Glover did their best Norm Charlton–Rob Dibble–Randy Myers impersonation to slam the door shut on the 3-1 victory.
With that, the Mets are 8-10 and are in fourth place 4.5 back. They’re having trouble beating the Phillies and can’t even hit a poor Nationals bullpen. It’s still April, so it’s still early, but things do not look good right now.
Game Notes: Cabrera tried to leg out an infield single in the fourth. He was noticeably hobbled, and he came out to take his position right before the first pitch of the fifth inning. For the second day in a row, an injured Yoenis Cespedes informed the team he was too injured to pinch hit. Once again, Travis d’Arnaud was limited to pinch hitting duty. T.J. Rivera got the start at third base over a healthy Reyes. He was 0-3.