Rick Porcello
Rick Porcello allowed five runs over five innings, and the Mets never could quite catch up to the Diamondbacks.
In the loss, Michael Conforto had a big game going 4-for-5 with a double and an RBI.
The Mets other runs came off of back-to-back bases loaded walls to Porcello and Jeff McNeil.
The Mets had a chance in the ninth with runners at the corners and one out, but they couldn’t get another run across. As a result, the Mets lost 5-3.
After losing a tight game to the Diamondbacks last night, the Mets jumped out to an early first inning lead when Jeff McNeil homered on the first pitch of the game thrown by Robbie Ray:
That lead grew to 2-0 when Amed Rosario homered in the second.
Rick Porcello had a strong start picking up the win after allowing just two earned over 7.2 innings.
The Mets put some distance between them and the Diamondbacks in the eighth. Jake Marisnick hit a bases loaded two RBI single, and McNeil drew a bases loaded walk later in the inning to give the Mets a 6-1 lead.
After Robert Gsellman got into a jam in the ninth, Edwin Diaz picked up the save in the Mets 6-2 win.
Rick Porcello had what was probably the best start of his computer simulated baseball career allowing just one earned to the Cardinals over 6.2 innings.
Even though he had allowed just three hits up until that point, Luis Rojas went to his bullpen. Justin Wilson and Dellin Betances kept the Cardinals off the board heading into the ninth for Edwin Diaz, who converted the save.
In this 2-1 Mets victory, Brandon Nimmo hit a second inning RBI single against Cardinals starter Daniel Ponce de Leon scoring Wilson Ramos. In the fourth, Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo homer, which proved to be the game winner.
Ronald Acuna, Jr. hit a three run homer off Rick Porcello in the top of the first, and that was all the Braves would need in their 6-2 win.
The Mets only mustered two runs with one of them being a solo homer by Yoenis Cespedes. After winning nine straight, the Mets have now lost two in a row.
In last night’s game, it took the Mets until the later innings for their offense to explode and route the Braves. Tonight, the Mets scored in each of the first three innings with a seven spot in the third.
Jeff McNeil homered yesterday, and he had a two home run game tonight. He had a four RBI game. Wilson Ramos had five, and Robinson Cano had three.
With Rick Porcello holding the Braves to three earned over six, this was an easy 15-5 victory.
The Mets jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a three run homer by Wilson Ramos in the second inning. Unfortunately, the Mets could not hold onto the lead.
The Marlins got to Rick Porcello in the fifth scoring six runs off of him en route to a Marlins 8-4 victory.
A real nice touch to tonight’s simulated game was seeing all the Mets and Braves players wearing 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson. It was extra special seeing Dominic Smith homering while wearing the number.
Hopefully, we’ll get to see that happen in 2021.
The Mets other run came off a Brandon Nimmo lead-off homer. With those two runs, the duel between Rick Porcello and Felix Hernandez turned into a battle of the bullpens.
Ultimately, Robert Gsellman wasn’t up to the task allowing two runs in the top of the ninth. That rally began with a leadoff walk to Mets killer Charlie Culberson.
The Mets blew a few leads in this one including a 2-0 first inning lead courtesy of solo homers by Pete Alonso and Yoenis Cespedes. Unfortunately, Rick Porcello wouldn’t get out of the inning without the Brewers tying the game up.
A Brandon Nimmo two run shot in the second gave the Mets another two run lead. However, the Brewers would not only tie it, but they’d also take the lead heading into the ninth.
With Josh Hader on the mound, the Mets staged a great comeback in the top of the ninth.
The Mets tied the score with back-to-back doubles from Cespedes and Robinson Cano. Nimmo hit one which ate up Keston Hiura to give the Mets a 6-5 lead.
That chased Hader, and the Brewers went to David Phelps. Amed Rosario doubled, and Dominic Smith hit a pinch hit sacrifice fly to give the Mets a 7-5 lead.
Edwin Diaz got the first two out in the ninth before getting into trouble, allowing a run to score, and Luis Rojas going to Seth Lugo for the one out save. When Lugo got the only batter he faced out, the Mets won 7-6.
In this simulated season, Michael Conforto was back in the lineup (remember when the worst thing that happened was his late Spring injury), and he homered. Between his play and Rick Porcello pitching seven strong, the Mets won 6-2.
As an added benefit, Edwin Diaz came into a pressure situation in the ninth to record the save.
Well, there are some issues with the AI and decision making, but in the end, the main takeaway so far is MLB The Show doesn’t think the Mets quite stack up to the NL East competition.
All his life, Rick Porcello wanted to be a Mets pitcher, and he took a one year deal with the Mets to make that happen. You can be sure he didn’t want his first start to go like this.
First off, you can be rest assured he didn’t want his Mets debut to be simulated because of COVID19. He also didn’t want to take the loss while not lasting five innings.
His big problem can in the second when he got hit hard. The hardest hit came off the bat of Didi Gregorius who opened the scoring with a solo homer.
The Mets trailed 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh, with the lone run coming off a Brandon Nimmo homer off of Vince Velasquez. The Mets pulled to within 4-2 off a long Wilson Ramos RBI single. That’s when the bizarre AI kicked in.
Down two with two on and no outs, Amed Rosario bunted in front of Jake Marisnick, and the Phillies got the force out at second. Marisnick struck out, and then out of everyone on the bench, Jarrett Parker came up to pinch hit.
That’s the same NRI who was never going to make the Mets 2020 Opening Day roster. He grounded out to first to end the rally.
In the end, we can all assume Luis Rojas will be much better than this. If so, maybe the Mets don’t lose games like this 4-2, and mostly likely, they won’t begin the year losing their first four.
How much better they’ll be is up for debate. For instance, Baseball Reference‘s 2020 simulation with OOTP21 has the Mets with a 1-3 record at the moment.
Still, these are just simulations, and they’re helping us get through this stretch of self isolation and quarantine. Seeing these Mets start 0-4, we wait all the more for the real thing.