The Full Cespedes Experience

During last night’s game, we got to see the full experience of what it has been like watching Yoenis Cespedes in a Mets uniform.  Much like he did in 2015, we got to see Cespedes make an immediate impact in the first inning with a home run off of Padres starter Kyle Lloyd:

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After the Padres played some Home Run Derby of their own with Hunter Renfroe and Allen Cordoba each hitting a pair of third inning home runs off Seth Lugo, the Mets were trailing 3-1.  For Renfroe, it was his second homer in as many at-bats against the Mets, and it was his third homer in three days.  Thank God he plays in the NL West.

After the Mets pulled themselves within a run in the fourth with Travis d’Arnaud getting another two out RBI in this series, it was time for Cespedes to go back to work and help take this game over.

Cespedes joined the doubles hit parade in the fifth.  After Curtis Granderson and Asdrubal Cabrera led off the inning with a pair of doubles, Cespedes followed with one of his own to give the Mets a 4-3 lead.

It was just one of those nights where things weren’t going to be easy.  After Lugo surrendered a lead-0ff single to Matt Szczur, Cabrera didn’t get down low enough to field what should have been a Jose Pirela ground out.  This set up first and second with no outs.  Both runners would advance on a deep Carlos Asuaje fly out.  Lugo did his best to limit the damage by allowing just one run to score on a Wil Myers sacrifice fly.

Lugo’s final line was six innings, eight hits, four runs, three earned, no walks, and one strikeout.  He got the win in large part because of Cespedes.

The game winning runs came on what was about as bizarre as a Little League home run as you are ever going to see:

Where do you begin with this one?  The check swing triple?  Myers throwing the ball away when there was no play at third?  Cespedes’ head first slide into home?  The offline throw from Cory Spangenberg?  Or was it that Hector Sanchez failing to both catch the ball and tag Cespedes?  It was the typical comedy of errors you see in your standard Little League home runs, but with Major League Baseball players.

With the triple, Cespedes found himself a single short of the cycle – the easiest one to get.  Cespedes didn’t get that chance.

Despite Gary Cohen trying to assure us Michael Conforto was coming into the game in left field in a double switch so Terry Collins could get two innings out of Paul Sewald, we all knew better.  Cespedes left the game with leg problems, which were later described as a quad tightness.  Who knows how many games he will miss if any.

With Cespedes being the dominant figure in the game, putting the Mets on his back offensively, and leaving the game with a leg injury, Mets fans got the full Cespedes experience.  Or at least very close to it as we did not get to see Cespedes unleash his cannon of an arm.

From there, Collins went to Addison Reed, who must be on fumes, in the ninth.  The closer, who the Mets are trying their best to keep up his extremely high trade value, had another shaky ninth.  He allowed a Dusty Coleman two out RBI double to bring the Padres to within 6-5.  Much like he did last night, Reed then shut the door to preserve the victory.

With the win, the Mets are now just four games under .500, and they are nine games behind the Colorado Rockies (seven in the loss column) for the second Wild Card.  Of course, this all means little when Cespedes leaves yet another game with a leg injury.

Game Notes: Conforto was initially out of the lineup to give him a day off.

 

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