There’s one fatal flaw if the strategy against the Nationals is to get into their bullpen – you have to actually get into their bullpen. With how dominant Max Scherzer has been against the Mets, and how dominant he’s been this year, that wasn’t happening tonight.
That’s not to say the Mets didn’t have their chances. The Mets grounding into three double plays only confirms the Mets had their chances. Like all double plays, these were back breakers.
In the second, Mets had first and second with no outs and a chance to take the lead. Travis d’Arnaud grounded into the double play. The Mets wouldn’t score when Jose Reyes flew out to end the threat.
The following inning, Steven Matz tried to help his own cause with a lead-off single, but he was erased when Michael Conforto grounded into the double play. The shock here was that entering tonight’s game, Conforto actually hit Scherzer well going 6-15 with three homers off him. Tonight, Conforto was 0-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
Finally in the sixth, the Mets had runners on first and second with one out. That rally ended with Wilmer Flores grounding into the inning ending double play. It was the latest sign Flores is cold. After scorching through May and earning a starting job, Flores is 2-19.
The squandered opportunities cost the Mets. It put Matz, who was making his second start off the Disabled List, in the unenviable position of having to be perfect. Unfortunately, Matz was just good.
While he generally kept the Nationals off the basepaths, he was victimized by the long ball. Matt Wieters and Michael Taylor went back-to-back to start the third. In the sixth, Anthony Rendon hit an opposite field two run homer that just cleared the wall.
With that, the Nationals were up 4-0 and in position to win despite the Matz pitching fairly well. His final line was seven innings, eight hits, four runs, four earned, no walks, and four strikeouts.
With Dusty Baker understandably not wanting to go to his bullpen, a tiring Scherzer pitched the eighth. Things got a little interesting with Reyes leading off the inning with a homer, and Curtis Granderson sending one to the wall in his pinch hitting appearance.
This is where Scherzer showed how great he is. He was clearly on fumes, but he bore down. He made quick work of Conforto before entering a battle with Yoenis Cespedes. Despite Scherzer quickly getting up 1-2 in the count, Cespedes fouled off a number of pitches, and the count would go full. On the 11th pitch, Scherzer finally got his strikeout.
Still, it was within striking distance at 4-1. That’s when the Mets defense blew their chances.
Taylor led off the inning with a well placed bunt single. Flores made a nice play, but with his arm, he had no shot at Taylor. Same went for d’Arnaud when Taylor stole second. Taylor was certainly helped by Fernando Salas not even bothering to hold him on.
Despite all of that, the Mets had a chance to get out of the ninth inning unscathed. There were runners at the corners with one out, and Brian Goodwin hit a tailor made double play ball. For some reason, T.J. Rivera lollipopped it over to Reyes, who had no shot to get the speedy Goodwin.
After a Bryce Harper single, Ryan Zimmerman hit a single to left. Goodwin seemed like he would score with ease, and for some reason, Harper headed to third. Cespedes made a one hop throw to third Flores could not field. It at least appeared if Flores fielded it cleanly, Harper would’ve been out before Goodwin scored thereby negating the run.
It didn’t happen that way and because official scorers do that the do, Cespedes was charged with the error despite his heads-up play and good throw.
Then Terry Collins does what he does best. He made a questionable move.
After walking Daniel Murphy intentionally to load the bases, Collins brought in Neil Ramirez and his 7.3 BB/9 into the game. To a surprise to no one, Ramirez walked in a run to make it 7-1.
Despite the Nationals bullpen being bad, they’re not six runs in the ninth inning bad. The real shame is the Nationals bullpen pitched as expected with Jay Bruce greeting Shawn Kelley with a lead-off home run in the ninth to make it 7-2. The Mets would get no closer.
The Mets have had two cracks at the Nationals to help them make some headway in the National League East. They responded by playing some of their worst baseball this month. They were not fundamentally sound, nor were they smart. They didn’t effectively work counts to get into that bullpen, and they played poor defense.
The most the Mets can hope for now is a split. If they continue playing like this, it won’t happen.
Game Notes: Mets pitchers have allowed 13 home runs over the last four games. Brandon Nimmo and Matt Reynolds were called up, but they did not play.
Ray Ramirez and Barwin Method jokes aside, do we really know who to blame for all of these Mets injuries? Thi has seemingly been an issue since Pedro Martinez was with the Mets when in three straight seasons the Mets suffered a rash of injuries to their starting rotation. It should be noted, Pedro put some blame on Jeff Wilpon’s shoulder for making him pitch hurt, but that doesn’t address how Pedro go hurt in the first place.
We saw it again last year with Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Steven Matz needing season ending surgery. It is happening again this year with Harvey and Matz both landing on the Disabled List. We also have seen Seth Lugo, Jeurys Familia, Tommy Milone, and Josh Smoker land on the Disabled List.
It goes further than that. The position players keep getting injured too. This year, Travis d’Arnaud, Lucas Duda, Neil Walker, David Wright, Asdrubal Cabrera (twice), Yoenis Cespedes, Juan Lagares (twice), and Brandon Nimmo have all landed on the Disabled List. If you’ll notice, you will have seen many of those names pop up on the Disabled List last year.
There’s a simple reason for that. Here’s example of how the Mets handle the situtaion:
Maybe if the Mets continue handling training and treatment of injuries the same way, maybe they’ll have a breakthrough. Just like the Futurama clip, it’s not going to happen.
The Mets have added a whole other draft class and with them comes hope they will become great players that will lead the team to another World Series. They were close with Michael Conforto in 2015, and hopefully, they will be close again.
Overall, many will tell you the draft is a crap shoot. Sometimes the best player you draft is towards the end of the draft. The Dodgers can tell you about that with Mike Piazza. Other times, you draft the incredible talent, but you are unable to sign him to a deal. He re-enters the draft, and you see him go and succeed elsewhere. Worse yet, you do sign him, and you trade him before he figures it out.
In any event, the New York Mets have been drafting since 1965. Can you name the 10 best players the Mets have ever drafted? Good luck!
Prior to Thurdsay’s game with the Nationals, Sandy Alderson indicated he believes the Mets roster is talented, and he’s content to leave his top prospects in the minors. Another way of saying this is with Asdrubal Cabrera landing on the Disabled List with a thumb injury, he’d rather go with Jose Reyes as the Mets shortstop over Amed Rosario.
With Neil Walker going on the Disabled List for an extended period, the Mets had their excuse. But no, they’d rather go with an infield that has Reyes at SS.
Considering when Cabrera was injured, Reyes was hitting .188/.261/.293 and Reyes’ -1.2 WAR ranking him as the worst infielder in all of baseball, Sandy’s decision making here should be called into question.
In situations such as these, there’s only one thing you can do – Start a game log comparing Reyes and Rosario to see if Sandy was wrong, or if Sandy was right:
June 13th
Cubs 14 – Mets 3
Reyes 1-4, 2 K
51s 13 – River Cats 2
Rosario 2-5, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI, SB, GIDP
June 14th
Mets 9 – Cubs 4
Reyes 0-2, R, 2 BB, SB, K
River Cats 5 – 51s 4
Rosario 0-4, 2 GIDP
June 15th
Nationals 8 – Mets 3
Reyes 0-3, K
51s 12 – River Cats 4
Rosario 2-4, 2B, BB, 2 RBI
CUMULATIVE
Reyes 1-9, 2 BB, SB, 4 K
Rosario 4-13, 2 R, 2B, HR, 4 RBI, SB, 3 GIDP
Through the first four innings, this was a game. The Nationals got to Robert Gsellman, but the damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
He made two mistakes. The first Bryce Harper hit for a long first inning home run. The second was a Matt Wieters fourth inning double. He came home to score on a Gio Gonzalez single. That’s problematic because Gonzalez is terrific at Citi Field.
He was again tonight. The Mets had just one hit through the first three innings, and he looked like he was going to make that 2-0 lead stick.
Still it was only 2-0 because in the third inning, Juan Lagares nailed Harper at the plate:
https://twitter.com/sinow/status/875504009804697600
In the fourth, Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce hit back-to-back one out doubles to bring the Mets within 2-1. Considering how terrible the Nationals bullpen has been, that isn’t a bad position for the Mets. If they kept it close, you had to like their chances.
The Mets didn’t keep it close as the Nationals went to work in the fifth inning.
Daniel Murphy continued to torture the Mets hitting a two run triple with a ball Lucas Duda couldn’t knock down and Jay Bruce couldn’t pick up. Murphy then scored on an Anthony Rendon single that tipped Lagares glove as he dove for it. The Nationals capped off the inning with a Michael Taylor homer.
At that point, it was 7-1 Nationals. The only thing left was to add some injury to insult.
Because this is the Mets that happened. On Lagares’ dive, he broke his left thumb, the same one he injured last year.
Juan Lagares left tonight's game with a fracture of the IP joint in his left thumb.
— New York Mets (@Mets) June 16, 2017
It really just kept getting better and better. With Gary, Keith, and Ron discussing Amed Rosario, Wilmer Flores made an error. With all the injuries the Mets have had, there was a Hospital for Special Surgery advertisement behind home plate. I
After that, there was insult to injury. Rafael Montero came on in the sixth, and he dominated the Nationals. He had three straight 1-2-3 innings, and he struck out three batters.
All the Mets had to do was keep it close, and they couldn’t do that. The Wilmer Flores homer off Joe Blanton was a stark reminder of that.
But no, the Mets lost to the Nationals, and they lost badly. With Lagares getting hurt and Neil Walker and Matt Harvey landing on the DL, it’s once again hard to see how things are going to get better.
Game Notes: Rene Rivera hit an opposite field homer in the fifth. Gavin Cecchini struck out in his pinch hitting attempt. Matt Reynolds was scratched from the Vegas lineup meaning he’s likely ticketed for the Mets.
Once Neil Walker pulled up lame when he tried to bunt for a single, every Mets fan had two thoughts:
- [Expletive Deleted]
- Will this lead to the Mets calling up Amed Rosario?
Apparently, the answer is no. After Walker’s injury, we were all waiting to see if Rosario would be removed from the Las Vegas 51s lineup. He wasn’t. Rather, it was Gavin Cecchini. Suffice it to say, this is not the guy Mets fans wanted to see.
That goes double when you consider how much he is slumping this year. In 62 games in Triple-A, Cecchini is only hitting .249/.313/.349 with 14 doubles, a triple, three homers, 17 RBI, and three stolen bases. In a league where everybody is hitting, Cecchini isn’t, and he has a 74 wRC+.
This is not the same Cecchini who had a breakout season last year. In 117 games for Las Vegas last year, Cecchini hit .325/.390/.448 with 27 doubles, two triples, eight homers, 55 RBI, and four stolen bases. His terrific play last year earned him a September call-up. In this limited time he played down the stretch, Cecchini did not looked over-matched. In his seven plate appearances, he hit two doubles with two RBI with a hit by pitch.
The stark difference between 2016 and 2017 leads you searching for answers. The answer is likely a mix between Cecchini has been less selective at the plate, and he’s hitting into some hard luck.
Cecchini has seen his walk rate drop from 9.6% to 8.0%, and his strike out rate jump from 11.0% to 13.5%. While, this is a relatively small move, we do see some implications across the board. Cecchini’s isolated power has dropped from .125 in 2015 and .123 in 2016 to .100 this year. His BABIP has gone from .348 in 2015 and .357 in 2016 to just .282 this year.
Going a little deeper, Cecchini is hitting more fly balls than last year and fewer ground balls and line drives. For a player who is a gap-to-gap doubles hitter, this is death. At this point in his career, Cecchini just doesn’t have the type of power to make his living as a fly ball hitter.
It is possible Cecchini’s struggles has to do with his position change. With his defensive struggles last year and with Rosario starting the year in Las Vegas, Cecchini has transitioned to second base. At the same time, he is working on becoming more versatile in the field. He has played six games at shortstop this year, and he has reportedly been working at third base.
Fortunately, the switch to second base has gone extraordinarily well for Cecchini. He has really put his time in there, and he has become a good defensive second baseman. Of course, the time he has spent there may have detracted from the work he has typically done at the plate. If that isn’t the answer, it could just be the mental drain from shifting positions. Long story short, there’s no simple explanation.
Whatever it is, Cecchini has an opportunity here. He is likely getting called up soon where he will at least have a chance to compete with T.J. Rivera for the starting second base job. He will also have the opportunity to work with Kevin Long to help him return to the hitter he was the past two years. He also has a chance to show the Mets he is the second baseman of the future.
Like it or not, Cecchini is the guy getting called up now. There is every chance this is the right move for both him and the Mets. The Mets calling him up is certainly a defensible choice. Still, Rosario should have been on the plane from Vegas with him.
One of the major reasons for the Mets run in 2015 was the Nationals bullpen. That bullpen had the third most blown saves in the National League.
It was a bullpen those Mets beat up on to win some key games. In the push to win the division, the Mets swept the Nationals twice. The Nationals bullpen blew four of those six games, and the Mets got the win against the Nationals bullpen in five of those six games.
The 2017 Nationals bullpen might even be worse than that bullpen.
After failing to obtain a closer in free agency or to acquire on in a trade, the Nationals went in-house for their closer. This has led to Dusty Baker playing Rusdian Roulette with Koda Glover, Blake Treinen, and Shawn Kelley. The end result has been the Nationals blowing the second most saves in the National League.
But it’s not just the rotating ineffective closers who are poor. It’s the entire Nationals bullpen:
- Koda Glover 5.12 ERA
- Blake Treinen 6.33 ERA
- Shawn Kelley 7.47 ERA
- Enny Romero 4.13 ERA
- Oliver Perez 4.97 ERA
- Jacob Turner 4.30 ERA
- Joe Blanton 8.78 ERA
About the only competent bullpen arm the Nationals have is Matt Albers, who is having an extreme outlier season partially fueled by an unsustainable .220 BABIP. In fact, he just blew a save against the Braves last night.
This bullpen is horrendous, and they’re killing the Nationals. Their 11 blown saves are the second most in the National League, and their 5.11 bullpen ERA is the worst in the National League.
The bullpen has played a major role in the Nationals losing four straight and five of six. In that timeframe, the Nationals lead over the Mets has shrunk from 12.5 games to 8.5 games in less than o r week.
Despite all that has happened to the Mets this year, they’re still in the National League East race thanks in large part to the Nationals bullpen. Who knows? Maybe a few months from now, we may be saying the Mets won the division because of that Nationals bullpen.
This game started just like yesterday’s game with Anthony Rizzo leading off the game with a home run. Then, things were worse than where last night’s game started when Ian Happ followed with a home run of his own to make it 2-0 Cubs before there was an out in the game.
It seemed Iike things were going to be worse than that. It has become passé to say Matt Harvey didn’t have it, but he really didn’t have it tonight. He was throwing his two seamer in the high 80s. Even when Harvey’s been at his most injured, he was never there. The Cubs would take advantage too.
Kyle Schwarber was chief among them with this shot OVER the Shea Bridge:
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/875145071343128578
The Cubs would go up 4-1, and Harvey would only last four innings.
However, unlike last night, the Mets were in this game.
In the second, the Mets took advantage of an error by Kris Bryant to cut the lead to 2-1. Bryant’s throw in the dirt allowed Jose Reyes to reach safely, and it allowed Jay Bruce to score.
In the fourth, the Mets loaded the bases with no outs with Harvey due up. Yoenis Cespedes wasnot yet warmed up to play, because, why have all your players ready to play the game. Michael Conforto likely wasn’t an option with the left-handed starter Mike Montgomery on the mound. Terry Collins opted to go with Steven Matz as the pinch hitter.
Matz made Collins look like a genius (nah) with an infield single in a ball Javier Baez didn’t get quite cleanly enough. After Juan Lagares‘ sacrifice fly, the Mets rally sputtered, and the Mets went to the fifth inning and their bullpen down 4-3.
The Mets pitchers contributions were terrific. Matz had the RBI single. Paul Sewald pitched two scoreless. Fernando Salas pitched two-thirds of an inning scoreless. Jerry Blevins had his longest outing of the year pitching 1.1 scoreless innings. Robert Gsellman entered the game as a pinch runner.
Their collective work allowed the Mets to stay in the game and have a chance to win.
The chance came when Curtis Granderson earn a lead-off walk. Two outs later and two strikes on Lagares, it appeared as if the Mets might squander the opportunity. Then, Lagares hit a ball off Pedro Strop only Lagares could’ve caught:
We're tied in the bottom of the 6th! @juanlagares2 with an RBI triple! #MLBNShowcase pic.twitter.com/XGy5T90Gsd
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) June 15, 2017
The score remained tied until the eighth when Granderson did what Granderson does when the Mets need a huge hit:
The @Mets take the lead thanks to an 8th inning homer from @cgrand3. #MLBNShowcase pic.twitter.com/vkZ8BOCwuM
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) June 15, 2017
The homer ignited the Mets offense. The next big hit came from Lucas Duda:
Breathing room for the @Mets as Lucas Duda hits a 3-run dinger. It's 8-4, New York in the bottom of the 8th. #MLBNShowcase pic.twitter.com/wtzOaWGNkx
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) June 15, 2017
As it turns out, Duda wasn’t even supposed to be in the game. With the left-handed starter on the mound, he was on the bench. However, when Neil Walker suffered a leg injury attempting a bunt single, Duda came in the game.
The homer didn’t kill the rally either. The Mets poured it on against Carl Edwards, Jr. Three more hits would follow culminating in a T.J. RBI single to make it 9-4.
Collins went to Addison Reed to close out the game. It wasn’t easy with the Cubs loading the bases with two outs and Rizzo coming to the plate. Rizzo grounded out, and the Mets won 9-4.
This was a huge win in front of a huge series this weekend. Things are definitely looking up for this Mets team.
Game Notes: Walker is getting an MRI tomorrow and is likely DL bound. Gavin Cecchini was held out of the 51s game, and he looks like he will get the call once Walker is put on the DL. Granderson’s eighth inning home run was the 300th of his career.
Despite teams pouring a tremendous amount of money into the topic, no one is still definitive on what causes pitcher injuries. Many will suggest it is fatigue, but even that is inconclusive. The Verducci Effect has been debunked time and again. Moreover, there was a 2003 Nate Silver and Matt Carroll Baseball Prospetus article which suggests the link between fatigue and arm injuries might be overstated. Still, there is evidence there is a link between fatigue and arm injuries. That is especially the case with pitchers over 25.
It is that link that made what Terry Collins did last night inexcusable.
Now, if you want to argue the inning snuck up Collins, you could make that argument. There were two outs in the second inning with Jon Lester coming up. Reasonably, a manager should expect his pitcher to get out of the inning. As we all know, Zack Wheeler didn’t. He grooved a pitch right down the middle to Lester, who hit a single to left. From there the doors fell off and the inning fell apart.
Wheeler was still only 18 pitches deep into the inning when he walked Albert Almora on four straight pitches. However, at this point, it was clear Wheeler was losing it, and to make matters worse, the Cubs lineup had turned over. From there Collins allowed Wheeler to throw 28 more pitches before lifting him for Josh Smoker. In total, Wheeler threw an inexcusable 46 pitches in the second inning.
This is the same Wheeler who missed two years after having Tommy John surgery. This is the same pitcher the Mets were rumored to want to limit to 125 innings this year. You need to be careful with Wheeler. Collins wasn’t. He would then compound his error with Wheeler by abusing Smoker.
Last year, Smoker’s high in pitches thrown in a game was 32. This year, he has already topped that six times. However, last night took the cake. Collins pushed Smoker to pitch four innings throwing 81 pitches. That’s a starter’s workload, not a reliever’s. There was a tangible effect.
Smoker is a pitcher that can get his fastball up to 97 MPH, which he did a couple of times last night. By the time Collins finally lifted Smoker in the sixth inning, he was throwing 89 MPH.
Collins went ahead and asked more from Smoker than he could possibly give. He did it despite the Mets bullpen only having thrown only 6.2 innings over the past four games. That was also despite the fact Jacob deGrom gave the bullpen a night off with his complete game. By the way, the only reason the Mets were able to obtain Smoker was because the Nationals former first round pick was released after two shoulder surgeries.
It’s not that Wheeler and Smoker need to be babied by their manager. Rather, they need their manager to not push them past the breaking point. This is no different than the protection Tim Byrdak, Scott Rice, Jim Henderson, and any number of pitchers Collins has left in his wake as manager.
In the modern game of baseball, the most important job a manager can do is managing his pitching staff. He needs to do all he can do to get them through a season both healthy and effective. Time and again, Collins has failed in that regard. Last night was the latest example. For his part, Collins has never had to face any ramifications for his actions. Unfortunately, his pitchers have. We should all cross our fingers Wheeler and Smoker will not be the next.
Prior to joining the Mets, Addison Reed had a career 4.20 ERA and a 1.327 WHIP. During his time with the Diamondbacks, he was sent back down to the minors because he was struggling. Despite all of this, a Mets team that was on the verge of making the postseason for the first time in 15 years took a flyer on the former White Sox closer.
The minute Reed put on a Mets jersey he became a completely different pitcher.
In his time with the Mets, Reed has made 97 appearances pitching 93.0 innings. In that time, Reed has gone 5-3 with two saves with a 1.84 ERA, 0.957 WHIP, and a 10.5 K/9. His ERA is the best of any reliever with at least 90.0 innings pitched. He also has the second best WHIP and the third most strikeouts over that stretch. With him and Jeurys Familia, the Mets had the best 8-9 combination in all of baseball.
Then Reed became the closer for the Mets. He became the closer because of Familia’s suspension and ensuing surgery. He struggled.
In his first 18 appearances in his role as the Mets designated closer, Reed was 0-2 converting seven of nine save attempts. During this time, Reed had a 3.72 ERA, 1.138 WHIP, and a 10.2 K/9. Overall, Reed looked more like the pitcher who was an average to struggling reliever with the White Sox and Diamondbacks than the dominant reliever he has been with the Mets. About the only thing that resembled the Reed we have come to know with the Mets was his excellent 22:3 strikeout to walk ratio.
If you have taken notice recently, Reed is looking more and more like the pitcher we have come to know him to be with the Mets. In the month of June, Reed has made four appearances pitching 5.2 scoreless innings with a 0.706 WHIP converting all four of his save opportunities.
With his stretch, Reed’s stats are looking more familiar. Overall, he is 0-2 with a 2.70 ERA, 11 saves, 1.050 WHIP, and a 10.0 K/9. He is once again a pitcher the Mets can rely upon to dominate out of the bullpen. The team needs it too with the relievers who are struggling.
The Mets are at a cross-roads right now, and they need everyone to be at their best. Fortunately, Reed is, and he once again gives the Mets the best chance to win each and every time he takes the mound.