The Mets lost this game 7-3. Sadly, one of the reasons for the loss was Seth Lugofinally having a poor game.
The guy we all want in the rotation allowed five earned on eight hits in five innings pitched.
It really was an off night for a guy having a great season. Unfortunately, despite Lugo bailing out the Mets several times this year, the Mets could not bail him out.
In the second, after a Dominic Smithdouble, the Mets had runners at second and third with no outs.
Kevin Plaweckigrounded out, and then on a shallow center, the noodle armed Jarrod Dyson threw it offline, and he still got it there in plenty of time to nail Jose Bautistaat the plate.
One of the reasons Bautista was sent was Lugo was due up. Of course, Lugo would single off his counter-part Zack Godley to start a rally. He’d score on a Todd Frazierdouble.
After the double, the Mets had runners at second and third with one out. Brandon Nimmo and Asdrubal Cabrerastruck out to end that rally.
Sure, Alex Avilabailed out Godley more than a few times by stopping a few balls in the dirt with a runner on third. But really, this was in an inept Mets offense.
Things looked interesting with a Smith fourth inning homer off the foul pole to make it 3-2.
From there, Lugo allowed two earned. Newest Mets Chris Beck allowed a run in 1.2 innings of work. Anthony Swarzakallowed a run in the eighth.
In the ninth, a bewildered Mets team stood at the top railing almost willing something to happen.
There was a rally in the ninth against Jorge De La Rosa with Wilmer Floreshitting an RBI double scoring an unearned run.
At that point, the Diamondbacks went to their closer, Brad Boxberger, who got Michael Confortoto fly out to left to end the game.
In case you haven’t noticed, the Mets are really bad right now.
Game Notes: Smith made an appearance in LF
Well, if you have been following this Mets season, there has been just one good storyline/player. That player is now etching his name in the Mets record books by making or rising in all-time Mets categories. That includes career strikeouts and strikeouts per nine. Can you name the Mets all-time leaders in strikeouts. Good luck!
Tom SeaverDwight GoodenJerry KoosmanJon MatlackRon DarlingAl LeiterJacob deGromJon NieseSid FernandezDavid Cone
While any game where the Mets are trying to snap out of this horrendous June skid has its own level of interest, this game had some extra intrigue because the Mets were facing one of the two pitchers they traded in 2015 to obtain Addison Reed.
Well, on this night, it seemed as if the Diamondbacks got a much better return for Reed than the Jamie Callahan, Gerson Bautista, Stephen Nogosek triumvirate the Mets received from the Red Sox at last year’s trade deadline.
Things look good real early for the Mets as Brandon Nimmo hit a first inning homer off of Matt Koch. After that, Koch allowed just a fifth inning single to Dominic Smith that went nowhere before he allowed a Michael Conforto solo shot in the sixth inning.
All told, Koch pitched six innings allowing the two homers while walking one and striking out five. To be fair, with the way the Mets offense is going, we can’t tell if Koch is the one who got away or if a pitcher with a 4.20 ERA entering the game looked good because any semi-competent pitcher can shut down the Mets right now.
Now, the aforementioned Conforto homer pulled the Mets to within 3-2. They were behind because Jason Vargas wasn’t great . . . again.
After getting a lead, he surrendered it almost immediately in the second on a rally started by his first issuing a leadoff walk to John Ryan Murphy and then hitting David Peralta. Now, Peralta made no effort to get out of the way of the ball, a point Mickey Callaway seemed to be chirping about from the dugout, but there’s not point being bitter, right?
Anyway, Murphy came around and scored on an ensuing Ketel Marte single.
Vargas got out of that jam, but he allowed solo shots to Paul Goldschmidt and Peralta in consecutive innings to put the Mets down 3-1.
After his five innings, you could honestly say Vargas kept the Mets in the game. That’s a real accomplishment from where he was to start the season.
By the seventh, the Mets were down a run, and they were still in this game. After 1.2 fine innings from Hansel Robles, Callaway brought in Jerry Blevins to face a stretch of left-handed Diamondback batters starting with Daniel Descalso.
With two outs and an inherited runner from Robles, Blevins first allowed Descalso to single, and then he hit the left-handed hitting Jon Jay to load the bases.This led to Callaway bringing in Sewald, who is struggling every bit as much as Vargas and Blevins. He proceeded to walk Nick Ahmed to force home a run.
Think about that. Robles was the Mets best reliever of the night, and he is the one charged with a run after Blevins’ and Sewald’s inept performances.
Speaking of poor performances, after Amed Rosario hit a solo shot in the eighth inning to pull the Mets within 4-3, Jacob Rhame came in and allowed solo homers to Peralta and Jake Lamb. At that point, the Mets were down 6-3, and they were well past their quota for runs in a game.
Ultimately, this game amounted to the pitchers Sandy Alderson brought in to help this team completely failing, but sure, let’s all blame Callaway for this team’s performance.
Game Notes: Tim Peterson was sent down to make room for new Met Chris Beck on the roster. Beck did not make an appearance.
Right now, the Mets are 28-36. That puts them eight games under .500, 9.5 games back of the Braves for the National League East, and 8.5 games back of the Nationals for the second Wild Card. With the trade deadline about a month and a half away, it’s time to consider whether the Mets season is over. Our Mets bloggers provide their opinion in the latest roundtable:
Michael Baron (nym.news)
To get to 85 wins, the Mets now have to go 57-41. That’s a .582 clip just to make it interesting. I’m guessing that won’t be enough with Atlanta, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Arizona and for fun, San Francisco and Philly in the realistic hunt for a wild card. I do agree and have said if there’s any hope, it’s in the starting rotation, but 85 wins right now is asking a lot for this bullpen and roster which lacks any sort of competitive edge in the heat, not to mention what they probably need which is another 60-62 wins, or a 62-36 record the rest of the way.
Roger Cormier (Good Fundies)
Fangraphs currently has the Mets’ playoff odds at 4.6%. It was 9.8% just two days ago; 22% at the start of June. The Mets’ offense has been historically bad. This is not an exaggeration: No team since 1900 has scored fewer runs and recorded fewer hits in an 11 game span than the Mets. So, what I’m trying to say is no the season isn’t over. Almost! But sadly no, we are not yet free. The starting pitching has finally been really, really good lately, and all without Noah Syndergaard. The offense cannot possibly continue to break records in futility, thanks to our new best friends the law of averages. In conclusion: it is definitely probably not over.
Mark Healey (Gotham Baseball)
It’s hard to be as positive as I was prior to the season, but I still think it’s too early to call it “over.” I wish I had a better feel for the organizational plan here, but I don’t know if Callaway is setting his lineups and managing his bullpen or if he is following a front office script. Until I can determine that, I’m going to wait and see.
Ed Leyro (Studious Metsimus)
The season is far from over, but if the Mets can’t figure out how to score in more than one inning per game, they will be selling off pieces once again and we’ll all be counting down the days to the start of the football season.
Joe Maracic (Loud Egg)
The season is definitely not over. The Mets will find a way to pull us all back in again. Just as everything seems to be ok again, BAM! Back to DL and losing some more.
Greg Prince (Faith and Fear in Flushing)
I allowed myself a modicum of optimism after the Mets won the final game of their otherwise winless homestand. Get on the road, get a little momentum going…but the two games in Atlanta disabused me of the notion. Except for playing 98 more games as mandated, the season is 98% done (I of course will hang on the 2% chance it’s not).
Tim Ryder (MMO & FOB)
No, I don’t think it is. That could simply be the eternal optimist in me coming out, but it’s a very long season. There are 98 games left. The ’99 Mets were 28-28 when they fired their hitting and pitching coach and finished the season with 90+ wins. Our pitching staff is only getting better and the bats are sure to come around at some point. This can’t go on forever, right? Maybe Roessler needs to go. Who knows? But there’s more than enough time to make up for this awful stretch. There’s too much talent here to ’02 this thing.
Dilip Srindhar (MMO & MMN)
Not necessarily. The Mets could always get on some hot streak and get back to .500 given that their starting pitching has been pretty solid. That said, I really want them to realize how unlikely that would be and fully commit to playing the kids. For example, give Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo starts in the rotation. Give Dominic Smith a good long look at first. See what you have in Wilmer Flores. Also call up Tyler Bashlor, Drew Smith, and Eric Handold to see the bullpen. If we get a large sample of these guys, then we can assess the off-season better and not get stuck with making poor insurance investments. This would require the Mets to move Asdrubal Cabrera soon and let Flores play but it should be a nice couple months to see the team get younger and see what might be in fold for 2019.
Mets Daddy
The Mets can’t score, and even when their starting pitching has turned things around, the bullpen has blown either the narrow lead it was given, or they have let a one run game turn into a 10 run game. It would be worse, but really, a one run lead against this Mets team is like a 10 run lead.
Right now, we’re all pinning our hopes on Syndergaard and Yoenis Cespedes returning from the DL, but no one knows when or if that is going to happen.
Meanwhile, the Mets are continuing to keep Jose Reyes on the roster and go so far as to defend the decision. That means no young players like Jeff McNeil are going to get a change. Just when you think things couldn’t get more absurd, this team picked up Chris Beck and his career 5.94 ERA off waivers to try to help fix this bullpen.
Meanwhile, Jay Bruce can add a back back to his plantar fascitiis issues. In that way, he’s much like Cabrera in that he’s adding more injuries than base hits. Neither one of these players are even being considered for the disabled list.
Bartolo Colon is singing. It’s over.
What isn’t over is the excellent work these Mets bloggers put out over the course of a season. Much like GKR, these people give you reason to at least follow the Mets with their excellent work. I hope you enjoy their work as much as I do.
You know what the Mets do to win a game? Score a run.
You know what they need to score those runs? Get some hits, at least more than two.
Through the first six innings, Braves rookie Mike Soroka faced the minimum while no-hitting the Mets.
Finally, Michael Conforto broke through with a leadoff single to start the seventh. After that, it was strikeout-strikeout-Jay Bruce pop out.
While the Mets were once again setting baseball back to the days of the New York Nine, Jacob deGrom was once again pitching like the best player in baseball.
In seven innings, deGrom allowed just one run, and while that run was charged as an earned run, it wasn’t entirely on him.
After a Dansby Swanson one out double, Freddie Freeman hit a single Brandon Nimmo booted in left costing him of any opportunity to get Swanson out at the plate.
That was it. Once that run scored, the Mets chances of winning went with it. In fact, as noted by Elias, the Mets are the first team ever to score fewer than 15 runs and compile less than 50 hits over an 11 game span (h/t Good Fundies).
Because Freeman owns both the Mets and Jerry Blevins, he hit a solo shot in the eighth to expand the Braves lead to 2-0.
The Mets did have a rally in them in the ninth. Conforto drew a one out walk, and Nimmo hit a two out double. That put the game in Bruce’s hands.
With the tying runs on base, Bruce hit the first pitch Aroyds Vizcaino offered him. It was a game ending pop out to short. It was a fitting end to another miserable loss.
Game Notes: After pinch hitting for Luis Guillorme in the top of the eighth, Jose Bautista stayed in the game and played his first game at second base in a decade.
Things got interesting for the Mets in the sixth inning. Very interesting.
After five shutout innings, the Braves pulled Mike Foltynewicz in favor of LHP Jesse Biddle. The Mets got to work with Todd Frazierearning a one out walk. The ensuing batter, Brandon Nimmo, stuck out his elbow, and he was hit by a pitch.
Except, he wasn’t awarded a base because the home plate umpire Stu Scheurwater ruled Nimmo didn’t try to get out of the way of that pitch. Upon review, he was correct.
That didn’t stop Mickey Callawayfrom going absolutely ballistic leading to his first ejection in his managerial career.
With Dansby Swanson unable to get a hold of an Asdrubal Cabrera grounder the bases were loaded for Jay Bruce, who actually delivered by hitting a ground rule double to give the Mets a 2-1 lead.
In case you were wondering whether this was going to be an offensive breakout, don’t.
Devin Mesoracoripped a ball right at Braves third baseman Johan Camargo, who tagged out the lead footed Cabrera, who was standing next to the bag, before throwing to first to complete the double play.
Considering how Mets starting pitchers haven’t had leads for nearly a week (with the exception of Sunday), you could almost understand Zach Wheelerseemingly not knowing how to handle the situation.
Wheeler’s first pitch in the bottom of the sixth was hit by Freddie Freeman for a game tying solo homer.
What was odd after that was even after Tyler Flowersbarely beat the throw on what was almost a double play grounder, Bruce would nail him at third on a Camargo single. On the play, Frazier fielded the throw and dove back to tag Flowers out.
In a what was impressive base running, Camargo moved to second on the Flowers gaffe.
With two outs and a runner at second, Wheeler couldn’t get out of the inning. Like most of the night, it was a soft single which did him in.
The go-ahead Ender Inciartesingle was blooped just past Amed Rosario‘s outstretched glove leaving Brandon Nimmono shot to get Camargo at home.
Now, before reflecting on the final score and Wheeler’s final line, consider this – the Mets should have gotten out of that inning down 3-2.
Inciarte took off for second, and Mesoraco made a perfect throw to second. Only problem was Cabrera flat out dropped the ball. What appeared to be a gassed Wheeler walked the next two batters.
Gary Disarcina finally went to Paul Sewald, who had been standing around for quite some time.
What is odd was with the pitcher’s spot due up third that inning, Disarcina didn’t bother double switching Sewald into the game. Considering it was a one run game, at a minimum, it was a curious decision.
It wound up not mattering as Sewald surrendered a grand slam to Ozzie Albies. With the Mets down 7-2, Sewald hit for himself in the top of the seventh because at that point, why not?
Sewald allowed another run in the seventh to make it an 8-2 game. That was the final score of a game the Mets had a lead and were in decent position of winning. Things are getting real bad.
Game Notes: The Mets have scored 14 runs in nine games this month.
In the final game of the Subway Series, Asdrubal Cabrera tweaked one of the myriad of leg injuries he’s been dealing with for over a month now.
Sandy Alderson lauds Cabrera for playing through the injuries saying, “Cabrera! There’s a guy who’s playing. He’s not 100 percent. He’s playing. ‘Oh my god, he needs a day off, he needs a week off.’…He’s playing. Will we lose him at some point? Maybe. Right now, we want to keep putting a winning team on the field.” (Tim Healey, Newsday).
Here’s the thing, playing Cabrera through the injuries and putting a winning team on the field are two things inapposite of one another.
Back on April 25th, Mickey Callaway held Cabrera out of the lineup because the second baseman was experiencing hamstring issues.
At that time, Cabrera was hitting .349/.391/.590, and he looked like an early season MVP candidate for a 15-7 first place Mets team.
After skipping a game, Cabrera would go 0-for-6 in a 13 inning loss to the Cardinals. That was the beginning of a stretch from April 26th to the present where he has hit .247/.287/.448.
It’s not just hit bat. Over the course of the season, Cabrera has been the worst defensive second baseman in baseball with a -10 DRS. While Cabrera has historically been poor at second, it’s also fair to say his leg injuries further hinder his ability to play the field.
Over this stretch, the Mets have gone 13-27. That’s a 109 loss pace.
Now, Cabrera is not the sole cause for this record. Far from it. However, his ability to hit and field is a big reason why.
Playing Cabrera everyday isn’t helping him, and it’s not helping the Mets. It’s time the team calls up Jeff McNeil and let him play second.
Seriously, the worst McNeil can do is not hit and be a butcher in the field. That’s what the Mets are already getting from Cabrera, and we know that’s what Jose Reyes would provide. After all, in the Mets last game, Reyes both failed to step on second and threw the ball away allowing both runners to be safe.
If the Mets are serious about winning and fielding their best team, they need to have Cabrera healthy and playing. At this point, he’s not healthy, and he’s hurting the Mets. It’s time to put him in the disabled list.
With the Mets being unsure about Dominic Smith, and the team not expecting Peter Alonso to break out the way he has this past season, the team took a flyer on Adrian Gonzalez to at least compete for the Opening Day first base job.
Really, this was a flyer on a prideful player who has had a terrific Major League career. While Cooperstown may not being calling him, the former first round draft pick has had a fine career having done great things for the Padres and the Dodgers.
One of the reasons Gonzalez made the Mets Opening Day roster was his professionalism. He came to Spring Training, and he put in the work. Considering that work included his having to stretch and prepare two hours before the game just to get ready, it speaks to his desire to play well, and perhaps, to end his career on his own terms.
On Opening Day, he seemed to shut up many detractors hitting a go-ahead double to give the Mets the lead. From there, Gonzalez would have a number of good moments for the Mets, including his grand slam against the Nationals:
Another one of his biggest moments was his coming off the bench in a tight 1-1 game in Miami. Against the left-handed Chris O’Grady, Gonzalez hit a go-ahead RBI single that not only gave the Mets the lead, but hit also sparked a four run rally. At the time, it increased the Mets record to 10-1.
The one thing you could count on from Gonzalez was a professional at-bat. It may be why he was such an effective pinch hitter on the days he didn’t start. As a pinch hitter, he was 4-6 with two RBI and a walk.
His professional at-bats are probably why he was one of the Mets better hitters in the clutch. In what Baseball Reference characterizes as “High Leverage” situations, Gonzalez hit .368/.444/.553 with four doubles, a homer, and 16 RBI with five walks.
The problem for Gonzalez was not every at-bat was a pinch hitting appearance or in a high leverage situation. Overall, he hit .237/.299/.373 with five doubles, six homers, and 26 RBI. Like the rest of this Mets team, his numbers were dragged down by his recent slide with him hitting .179/.207/.268 over his past 17 games.
With the way the team has been playing of late, the Mets didn’t have the time to see if he could get back to being the .265/.341/.425 hitter he was towards the end of May.
During his tenure with the Mets, Gonzalez was able to get to 1,202 RBI. That made him just one of 22 first baseman in the history of the game to have 400 doubles, 300 homers, and 1,200 RBI.
It’s possible this is the end for him. If it is, it was a great career that saw him hit .287/.358/.485 with 317 homers and 1,202 RBI. He made five All Star teams while winning four Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers.
He had a very good career, and despite the recent struggles, he actually acquitted himself pretty well with the Mets. If nothing else, he did show there was something left in the tank.
Where he goes from here is anyone’s guess, but wherever he lands, best of luck to him.
The Mets Fan
I’m Phil Kerpen, a DC political/policy guy, and I tweet about that and Mets stuff which is kind of a weird mix but some people seem to like it.
I grew up in Brooklyn, but I’ve been in Washington for almost 20 years now. I’ve got four kids and the oldest is six so our house is a pretty busy, but I still try to watch most of the Mets games MLB TV is so great. I still remember listening to strained WFAN signals but these days being a fan in a different city is pretty easy. The first few years after the Expos moved here were pretty great — I got to see the Mets in person for nine games a year, and Mets fans pretty much dominated the sparse crowds at RFK. It’s different now as the Nationals have developed a fan base, but there’s always still a decent Mets contingent here.
How You Became a Mets Fan
I was born in ’79 and started paying attention to baseball in ’85. My brother is a couple years older, and we started collecting baseball cards, watching games, etc. We got an exemption from bedtime for the ’86 World Series, and I’ve been pretty much hooked ever since — although I’ve tried to quit a few times!\n
Favorite Mets Player
Dwight Gooden was my guy as a kid (my brother was a massive Darryl Strawberry fan), so I guess I’d go with him. For a long time, my automatic answer would have been Todd Hundley, but after the Mitchell Report, he’s disqualified. Yoenis Cespedes is my favorite current Met. Hope he brings back his custom walk-up song “The Power” this year — it’s the best.
Favorite Moment in Mets History
Can’t top “Little roller up along first,” but the other big one for me personally was the Dave Mlicki shutout at Yankee Stadium in 97. It was about a month after my 18th birthday, and I went with my little brother. Nonstop trash talk with the Yankees fans, and Mlicki was in and out of trouble every inning but somehow managed to pull it off.
Message to Mets Fans
This team is hot garbage.
With the Mets blowing two games to the Yankees as part of an eight game losing streak, there wasn’t much reason to be optimistic the Mets would pull out a win tonight.
The Yankees were throwing their ace, Luis Severino, and, after a setback, the Mets were without Noah Syndergaard. Making matters worse, during the game, Asdrubal Cabrera tweaked one of the myriad of leg injuries he’s currently suffering leading to Jose Reyes taking over for him at second.
Well, a funny thing happened.
Seth Lugo, who has been terrific all year, not only matched Severino pitch-for-pitch, he was also better.
Emerging from the bullpen, Lugo went much deeper into the game than most expected. Through six innings, Lugo limited the Yankees to just two hits with no Yankee even reaching second base. Additionally, he walked none while striking out eight.
Amazingly, he departed with the lead.
Probably because the entire Yankees team fell asleep at the switch, Reyes hit a two out single in the fifth, which put him on base ahead of Todd Frazier‘s homer.
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2-0 #Mets | End-5 pic.twitter.com/ArCL6EeqAG
— New York Mets (@Mets) June 11, 2018
Mickey Callaway then did what he had to do and had Robert Gsellman pitch the seventh and eighth.
It almost came back to bite the Mets because Reyes is terrible.
After a Miguel Andujar one out single, Aaron Boone sent up Aaron Judge to pinch hit, and he hit what should have been an inning ending double play.
Not only did Reyes fail to touch second, but, with Andujar nowhere near him, he threw the ball away. Everyone was safe.
Given how the Mets season has gone, this is where it all typically falls apart. It didn’t with Gsellman getting Gleyber Torres to foul out before getting Brett Gardner to fly out to end the inning.
With Jeurys Familia going to the DL, the question was who would close games for the Mets. Tonight, the answer was Anthony Swarzak.
It was a little dicey with a one out walk to Greg Bird, and a 2-0 count to Gary Sanchez. Sanchez ripped a liner . . . right at Frazier, who made the quick throw for an inning ending double play.
With that, the eight game losing streak is over, and the Yankees were shut out for the first time all year. For this game to mean anything, the Mets will have to build off of this and win the ensuing series against the Braves.
Game Notes: For the second straight game, Cabrera led off and Brandon Nimmo by third.