Mets Fall To .500 With No End In Sight

The New York Mets briefly fooled us. For a brief moment, Mets fans actually thought the Mets were game and could possibly get a win.

The Mets had fallen behind in the fourth when Rich Hill lost it. Honestly, with Hill, you expect it to happen at some point in the fourth or fifth.

Buster Posey got it started with a double, and he scored on a Darin Ruf RBI single. Ruf then made a complete blunder not stepping on the bag when the throw came in behind him.

The rally continued anyway with the Giants getting three more hits. Wilmer Flores had the third driving home the second run of the inning. Things might’ve gotten worse, but Miguel Castro got the Mets out of the jam.

What’s shocking is the Mets, who seemed dead in the water, rallied. It was all the more surprising against Kevin Gausman.

After the first two reached, Pete Alonso drove a two RBI triple to Triple’s Alley to tie the score. He then scored on the rarest of rare things, a Dominic Smith sacrifice fly. Improbably, the Mets had a 3-2 lead.

That lead was very temporary. In the very next inning. Kris Bryant hit a two run homer off Castro. It was his first of two on the night.

Trevor May took the mound in the seventh. He struggled and didn’t look right. Theres certainly an explanation for it with his wincing on the mound. Whatever the case, Belt and Bryant homered.

Later on in the inning, Brandon Crawford hit an RBI trouble extending the Giants lead to 7-3. At that point, it was game over.

Yes, Jonathan Villar would hit a two run homer in the eighth, but it was really window dressing. The reason is the Mets ability to hit with RISP is non-existent.

Case in point was this inning. Brandon Drury followed with yet another pinch hit. The tying run was on base with one out as the Mets flipped the lineup.

Brandon Nimmo popped out. Michael Conforto grounded out. This was just another chapter which saw the Mets strand nine on base while going 1-for-7 with RISP.

At the end of the day, the Mets lost 7-5. They’ve now lost four in a row again. They’ve done it twice in less than two weeks. Heads typically roll after games and stretches like this.

Game Notes: Alonso’s triple was the first for the Mets in 68 games).

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Dodgers Effectively End Mets Season

It’s really unfair to say the New York Mets season hinged on one game. After all, there’s still 45 games remaining, and we’ve seen crazier stuff happen.

That said, the Mets showed us nothing in this pivotal game against not just the Los Angeles Dodgers, but also former division foe Max Scherzer. Absolutely nothing.

The end was quick with the Dodgers jumping all over Carlos Carrasco. Justin Turner and Will Smith homered in the first giving the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.

In the second, Trea Turner doubled home a run, and Max Muncy hit the first of his two homers in the game. After two, it was 6-0.

Being honest, if Jacob deGrom is done for the year, and he very well might, the Mets are going nowhere without Carrasco. Carrasco hasn’t seemed ready since returning from injury. He’s yet to hit five innings, and this is his second straight start under three innings.

For the first of many times in the game, the Mets had a chance to get back into the game. That’s when Luis Rojas made what could be a fireable decision.

With the Mets down six in this game, about to be swept, and with the Phillies and Braves having won, Rojas sent Carrasco to the plate with two on and one out.

What makes this decision all the worse was he was lifting Carrasco anyway. Rojas would explain he had a short bench and didn’t want to go through it.

To that, it should be noted Brandon Drury pinch hit in the eighth and stayed on to pitch the ninth. As bad as that may seem, when Drury wasn’t getting out of the inning, Kevin Pillar came off the bench to relieve him.

That’s right. For the first time in Mets history one position player relieved another on the mound.

That’s basically how to get to down six with a chance to pull closer in the second to a 14-4 loss. What makes it even worse is how the Dodgers just begged the Mets to get back into the game.

While the Dodgers had just one error, they had gaffes all over the field. Dodgers relievers walked three and the ERAs of the relievers they used were 8.22, 6.64, and 9.53.

In the end, the Mets were 0-for-12 with RISP stranding 10 base runners. Really, this isn’t new. That’s the story of the 2021 Mets offense.

This is a team who showed their competing the first two days was more fluke than talent. They can’t get the big hit. They’re inability to take advantage of chances. They get blown out on national television after the Braves and Phillies have won.

They’re now heading out to California to play against the San Francisco Giants and Dodgers. Compounding the level of competition was the Mets being a horrendous road team.

Maybe they’ll shock us over the next week and final month of the season. That would be great. However, if we’re being honest, without magic, the Mets appear like they’re done and won’t be winning the division.

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Mets Fans Would’ve Probably Defended Trevor Bauer

Now, after we see what he’s done and has been accused of doing, it’s easy to say the New York Mets were lucky to not sign Trevor Bauer. At this point, it’s fair to question if he ever pitches again.

If Bauer took the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers in this series, he would’ve been mercilessly booed. It is certainly one of the enumerated reasons Bauer is on administrative leave. However, make no mistake, if Bauer was a Met, there would be a legion of Mets fans who would be defending him.

We have actual proof of how Mets fans would react towards players who are/were violent towards women. They get introduced on the PA system and receive a standing ovation with “Jose!” chants.

https://twitter.com/deeshathosar/status/1426693689359876101?s=21

That’s right. Despite his beating his wife on Halloween 2015 to the point she was taken to the hospital and he received a lengthy domestic violence suspension, Jose Reyes received a hero’s welcome at Citi Field.

That sends a clear message Mets fans as a collective don’t care. They cheered Reyes, and you can bet the house they’d be defending Bauer right now if he signed with the team in the offseason as many desperately wanted despite other transgressions.

If you think otherwise, the Jose chants will be drowning out your arguments.

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Mets Go From No-Hitter To Not Winning

Since some struggles coming out of the All-Star Break, Taijuan Walker has been slowly returning to his first half All-Star form. He was that and more tonight.

Walker was hitting the mid 90s again, and he was giving the vaunted Los Angeles Dodgers lineup fits. In fact, he’d no-hit them for 6.1 innings. His thanks was a no decision.

Part of the reason was Walker Buehler was also great. The Dodgers ace was going zero for zero with Walker. Buehler’s only blemish was a Michael Conforto homer in the fourth.

This was the latest sign Conforto is getting past COVID and needing the ability to carry this team offensively. He basically was the entire Mets offense driving in the only run.

Just like how Conforto broke a no-hit bid for Buehler in the fourth, Will Smith did the same in the seventh. It was his second devastating homer in as many nights tying the score 1-1.

Like with many pitchers who lose their no-hitter, Walker started to struggle putting runners on the corners with two outs. Luis Rojas responded by bringing in Aaron Loup to face Cody Bellinger.

During the at-bat, Rojas had enough with what was an erratic at best strike zone. Despite the zone, Loup got his man like he always does. It kept that game tied.

To the extent the Mets gained momentum off of that, they squandered it. They had two on and no out. For some idiotic reason, Tomas Nido was sent up to bunt. He couldn’t get it down, and the inning unraveled from there.

Fact is, that was the Mets chance. While this was a battle of exhausted bullpens with the top guys effectively unavailable, the Dodgers bullpen did their job.

The Mets got to the 10th, and they were in a bad spot. Seth Lugo made quick work of the Dodgers in the ninth, but he’s struggled going a second inning this year. With the top guys overworked or already used, Dave Jauss tabbed Yennsy Diaz.

Diaz came close to getting through the 10th, but Bellinger would double driving home the go-ahead run. In the bottom of the inning, the Mets put up little resistance to Phil Beckford and Corey Knebel.

As a result, the Mets lost a winnable game 2-1. They wasted a Walker gem, and they lost two straight extra inning games to a team who came to Citi Field 0-12 in those games. Also, they fell 1.5 games back.

This isn’t a time for moral victories. It’s a time for victories. They Mets need them, and if they don’t get them, they we’ll continue to squander away what should’ve been a special season.

Game Notes: Albert Almora was optioned to Syracuse. Drew Smith was placed on the IL. Jake Reed and Geoff Hartlieb were recalled from Syracuse.

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Mets Platoon Obsession Dodged A Win

With the left-handed Julio Urias starting for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Mets panicked and sat most of their left-handed hitters. That meant the Mets sat their best hitters.

What’s annoying about it was Urias has reverse splits. It’s all the more annoying because players like Dominic Smith are better against left-handed pitchers than their right-handed hitters.

Well, the Mets shot themselves in the foot. Brandon Drury, Kevin Pillar, and Albert Almora combined to go 0-for-6 with one walk and two strikeouts. In defense of Almora, that walk was a great at-bat, and it began the way towards Luis Rojas substituting players into the game to undo the inane front office lineup.

The irony of the game would be the Mets didn’t do anything until the left-handed bats could themselves in the game.

Down 4-0 after a strong effort from Tylor Megill and some gaffes by James McCann, the Mets rallied starting with a Michael Conforto two out double.

The left-handed batters did their job. Smith followed with an RBI single getting the Mets on the board.

Brandon Nimmo walked (of course), and Alonso was walked to load the bases. Jeff McNeil, another LHP not in the starting lineup, hit a two run single pulling the Mets within one. That run scored on a Will Smith passed ball.

The bats who couldn’t be trusted to be in the starting lineup, the Mets best bats, tied the score with a big two out rally.

Edwin Diaz got into trouble in the ninth starting with his walking former Met Billy McKinney to start the inning. Diaz got out of the inning leading to more platoon based nonsense.

Now, Aaron Loup has been the Mets best reliever all year, and he was fresh pitching just once over the last week. Meanwhile, Jeurys Familia has been heavily worked lately, and he has been starting to show the strain.

Well, despite Loup’s success against right-handed batters over the past two years, and the reverse splits of Smith, the Mets opted for Familia. The end result was a tired Familia giving up a go-ahead two run homer.

The Mets did get one back in the 10th, but it wasn’t enough. They lost 6-5 in a game they severely hampered themselves by being overly beholden to 1960 platoon theory.

It’s annoying the Mets handcuffed themselves like this unnecessarily and really purposefully ran converse to the analytics. They need to be better and do better than this.

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All Star Game Should Be Played At Field Of Dreams

Watching that Field of Dreams Game, you couldn’t help but be overtaken by how extraordinary it was. The players coming out of the cornfield. The views on TV. The game. All picture perfect.

What raised the game to another level was the game itself. Getting huge homers from legends like Tim Anderson, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton elevated that game. You can argue they’re not legends, but what they did on the field will elevate them to that status as we’ll be talking about it forever.

Whether you liked the movie, or not, there’s no denying there’s some magic to seeing the game there. That’s because the field is about the magic of baseball.

Put aside the hand wringing over Shoeless Joe and the Black Sox. Part of the magic and mystique was seeing the all-time greats emerge from the cornfield. There were players like Babe Ruth, Mel Ott, and other legendary all time greats – just not Ty Cobb.

There was a magic to seeing those players emerge from the cornfield and play. There was magic seeing the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees emerge in the Field of Dreams Game, but it meant something extra to see players like Judge and Stanton.

There can be an argument to rotate this game to other teams for the experience. There’s some problems there. First off, it’s not just the same the second go-round.

Due to the book and movie, the White Sox should also be taking part. After all, a large part of it is it’s their story. Mostly, you’re going to miss the opportunity to see some of the true greats emerge from that cornfield.

We should be seeing Mike Trout and Jacob deGrom. Without a doubt we need to see other future Hall of Famers like Mookie Betts, Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw, Francisco Lindor, Buster Posey, and many more. Essentially, what you need and want is all of the greats of the game emerging from the cornfield like in the movie.

The best way to accomplish that is an All-Star Game, and what an All-Star Game it would be.

Instead of the awful uniforms from this year, Nike can design the throwback (or for newer teams throwback feel) jerseys. Instead of seeing players looking for reasons to opt out, you may find those same players pushing up get in and participate.

You can even expand it. Each team could send a living legend to take part in the festivities and emerge from the cornfield. You can see Johnny Bench, Ken Griffey, Jr., Willie Mays, Mike Piazza and other living Hall of Famers. Invite them all to come and be a part of what could be the greatest event in all of pro sports.

This could be pure magic. It could be all that we love about what makes baseball great. It can all we love about it. You will get the entire sports world excited, and you will make new fans.

Yes, there are obstacles. There are All-Star Games already assigned. Certainly, you can overdo it by making it a yearly event.

However, if you do it just right, say one or twice a decade, it will be perfect just like how baseball can be perfect. This can be the best thing to ever happen to the sport in years. Hopefully, it will happen.

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2021 Mets Biggest Problem

When trying to digest and assess how the New York Mets went from in control for the division to second place in a dogfight, there’s a lot of areas you can analyze. When this happens, there are some issues.

Assuredly, the injuries to Jacob deGrom and Francisco Lindor are devastating. The struggles of players like Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil don’t help.

They don’t hit with RISP and sometimes not at all. Their depth across the board has been tested and exposed. If you pinpoint these, you’re not wrong, but there’s a bigger issue.

The 2021 New York Mets are a horrible road team.

Just dreadful.

So far, the Mets have a 23-35 (.403) road record. No other team with a record over .500 has been anywhere near this bad on the road. This is a road record more indicative of the Chicago Cubs, who traded Javier Báez and Trevor Williams to the Mets at the trade deadline.

This isn’t just because of injuries. It happened right out of the gate. They lost their opening series at the Phillies. After winning a series in Colorado, they were swept in Wrigley.

So far, the Mets have played 20 road series. They’ve lost 11, and out of those 11, they were swept twice. They lost three out of four three times. What’s incredulous is that came against the Washington Nationals, Pittsburg Pirates, and Miami Marlins.

The Mets have one just six road series with one of those coming against the Yankees. It shouldn’t be discounted as happening in New York because of their Subway Series history. That said, there may be something to just being home and that routine.

The biggest reason could be the pitching. While the Mets pitchers are dominant at Citi Field with a 3.03 team ERA (third best in the majors), they’re poor on the road. That road ERA rises to 4.39.

Combine that with the Mets actually hitting worse on the road (90 wRC+) than at home (100 wRC+), and you have what looks like a second division team on the road.

The question is what this means for the Mets chances of winning the division. On that keep in mind, they’re tied in the loss column meaning they’re effectively tied for the division lead.

They have 48 games remaining. Of that 48, half of them are on the road. If they keep the same road winning percentage, that drops their record from 59-55 to 69-69.

As such, if they want to win 90 games, they’ll have to finish the season 21-3 at home. The near impossibility of doing that is magnified by the Mets still needing to host the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and New York Yankees.

This means if the Mets want a road to the postseason, they’re going to have to be better on it. They won’t have an easy path facing the Giants and Dodgers on the road next week with a series against the Boston Red Sox on the horizon.

It’s difficult, but so is winning a World Series. If the Mets want to do that, they’re going to have to earn their way there. The talent is here. Lindor and Noah Syndergaard aren’t too far away.

This Mets team is good. They’ve already proven they can beat anyone. They now need to prove they can beat anyone anywhere. We have 24 games to see if they can.

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Alonso Walks Off Nationals

For the first time in the second half, and the first time in nearly two months, the New York Mets swept an opponent. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

Trevor Williams, who came to the Mets in the Javier Báez trade, was recalled from Syracuse to make this start. He looked to be more than just a player thrown into the trade.

He had shut down the Nationals for four innings before getting in trouble in the fifth. In that inning, the Nationals had runners at the corners with one out. With the Mets only having a 2-0 lead, Luis Rojas tabbed Seth Lugo.

Lugo, who hasn’t been great inheriting runners this year allowed a sacrifice fly pulling the Nationals to 2-1. The Mets would get than run back and then some on a Jonathan Villar two run homer in the sixth.

That should’ve been it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. With the Mets using Edwin Diaz to close out the first end of the doubleheader, they gave the bell to Trevor May.

While May has been great in the second half of the season, he didn’t have it in this save opportunity. He loaded the bases with one out leading Rojas to tab closer of yore Jeurys Familia.

This was one of those frustrating Familia blown saves of yore. First, he had a wild pitch scoring run. Truth be told James McCann should’ve had a better effort blocking that ball.

With the game 4-2, Andrew Stevenson pulled a ball to right. It was a ball Jeff McNeil needed to get. It didn’t happen, and as a result, it was a tie game.

Familia navigated his way through the inning to keep it tied into the bottom of the seventh. After McNeil grounded out, Pete Alonso ended the game.

Back when the Mets suffered a brutal loss, Alonso told fans they shouldn’t believe. They should know. Seeing this fame, Alonso gave the Mets reason to know they’re making the playoffs.

The Mets swept the Nationals like they should. Now, they’re in second place with things getting more interesting in the NL East. Now, it’s time to step up and win.

Game Notes: Williams was called up as the 27th man.

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Nationals Found Nimmo Beating Them

While he may not normally be recognized as such, Brandon Nimmo is the best hitter on the New York Mets. The Washington Nationals got a first-hand glimpse of that in the first end of the doubleheader.

Nationals starter Sean Nolin allowed a leadoff single to Jonathan Villar in the second. He was close to getting out of it until Marcus Stroman had a bunt base hit. Yes, this is the same Stroman the Mets once refused to let swing the bat with the bases loaded.

That brought Nimmo to the plate, and he gave the Mets an early 3-0 lead:

This marked the first time the Mets scored first in a game since August 4. It would set them on the path to win consecutive games for the first time July 21-23.

Nimmo would strike again in the fourth. There were runners at second and third with one out after singles by Michael Conforto and Tomas Nido.

Nido singled after Conforto and stole a base. That meant Nido had a stolen base and caught stealing. Nimmo would drive home Conforto increasing the Mets lead to 4-0.

In that inning, Pete Alonso would get hit by a pitch by Nationals reliever Andres Machado. Machado clearly wasn’t trying to hit Alonso, but Alonso was jawing. Both sides would, but eventually, cooler heads prevailed.

The Mets would load the bases in that inning with one out, but they wouldn’t increase the lead. Machado settles down after the hullabaloo getting two strikeouts including J.D. Davis.

It’s difficult to say Nimmo was the Mets entire offense on a day where the Mets had 12 hits over seven innings. That said, Nimmo was the only Mets player who drove in any runs.

These four runs were more than enough for Stroman. For the first five innings, Stroman was locked in limiting the Nationals to one hit and one walk. As alluded to earlier, Nido eliminated one of those base runners with a caught stealing.

There was some concern Stroman wouldn’t get to that point. He labored in the fourth. As he admitted later in the postgame, he needed to do a better job hydrating. With the extreme heat today, that was important.

The Nationals finally got to Stroman in the sixth. It started with Stroman losing Riley Adams after being ahead in the count 1-2. It certainly didn’t help Stroman the umpire missed strike three and called it a ball.

The Nationals followed this with a single from Andrew Stevenson and an RBI double by Victor Robles. Stroman settled back in to strike out Alcidies Escobar for the first out.

With the lefties due up for the Nationals, Luis Rojas turned to Aaron Loup. Loup was phenomenal again. While he did lose and walk Juan Soto, he rebounded to get Josh Bell to hit into the inning ending double play.

Edwin Diaz came on in the ninth and would record his 25th save of the season. With that, the Mets put themselves a half game out of first, the ability to tie atop the division with a win in the second game of the doubleheader, and their first sweep since they took two from the San Diego Padres in June.

Game Notes: This is the first time a Mets starter won a game since Tylor Megill on July 23. The four RBI tied a career high for Nimmo.

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Suspended Mets Offense Awakens

The New York Mets began the suspended game down 3-1. Rich Hill volunteered to pitch earlier than his spot because the Mets needed a starter. He’d be far from the only person who stepped up on the day.

Now, while Hill stepped up, he wasn’t great. The deficit grew to 4-1 in the second when Victor Robles hit an RBI double.

Then, something happened to the Mets offense. That something was Joe Ross. As fans, we tend to focus on the Mets killers of the world, but we overlook the Rosses of the world who just wilt when they see the orange and blue.

Brandon Nimmo awoke the offense with a leadoff double in the third. That led to the dreaded bases loaded no outs situation. Michael Conforto got the Mets past the mental hurdle of never scoring with an RBI groundout. This sparked a three run inning tying the score at 4-4.

It was the first time in a week the Mets scored more than three and just the second time all month. Whether it was Ross or not, the Mets offense seemed to be clicking.

They needed it to because Hill ran out of gas in the fifth. After allowing the first two to reach, he allowed a Luis Garcia two RBI double putting the Nationals up 6-4. That’s when the Mets went to the bullpen to ask Jeurys Familia to stop the bleeding.

Familia didn’t exactly do that. The first batter he faced, Riley Adams, drove home Garcia with an RBI single. After a sacrifice bunt, he was in scoring position. That set the stage for Jeff McNeil to save the game.

In what was a flashback, Alcidies Escobar, a 2015 Kansas City Royal, was up against Familia with the opportunity to end the game. He’d rip a liner, but McNeil got higher than we’ve ever seen him robbing an RBI base hit and ending the inning.

The Mets then started chipping away at that lead. In the bottom of the inning, McNeil drew a leadoff walk, and he was still there with two outs. On a 3-2 pitch, a clearly hobbled McNeil was running when Conforto ripped an RBI single through the shift.

Thanks to a double clutch from Carter Kieboom on the relay McNeil scored easily. Conforto tried to advance on the throw, but he was caught in a run down easily making the last out.

Gabe Klobosits relieved Ross to start the seventh. Nimmo would led off the inning with a single. Two batter last later, Pete Alonso came sooo close to giving the Mets the lead. Instead, it was an RBI double pulling the Mets within a run.

While the Mets wouldn’t get the lead there, they finally would in the eighth. With a runner on second, Jonathan Villar was up there hybrid bunting, that is, he was up to sacrifice, but he always bunts to get a base hit.

That always puts extra pressure on the defense, especially with his speed. Nationals pitcher Mason Thompson fielded it rather cleanly and easily, but he appeared to rush the throw leading him to throw it away. The tying run scored, and Villar was in scoring position.

Later in the inning, we’d see pinch hitting extraordinaire Brandon Drury. For some reason, just like Matt Franco in 1999, some pinch hitters just get locked in at the plate. That’s been Drury this year, and he delivered again with a go-ahead RBI single through a drawn-in infield.

Astonishingly, that was the first Mets lead in 43 innings. Somehow that seems impossible. Then again, the Mets have been terrible of late losing four straight and nine of 10.

The Mets got to this point not just due to the offense but the bullpen as well. Familia, Miguel Castro, Drew Smith, and Trevor May combined to pitch four scoreless allowing just the two hits. They walked none and struck out two.

While the Mets were armed with the lead heading into the ninth, they weren’t out of the woods. The very mercurial and rusty Edwin Diaz was coming in for the save, and the first batter he’d face was Juan Soto.

Diaz made quick work of Soto striking him out on four pitches. With Soto down, it was effectively game over at that point. Diaz hit the easy save, and the Mets finally won a game.

This is what we envisioned the Mets offense can and should be. There are reasons why he saw it happened with Ross being one of them.

There was also Nimmo being a table setter. McNeil was spraying the ball, and Alonso’s talk about the process produced tangible results.

Mix in Conforto getting further away from COVID and returning to form with some luck, which is always needed, and you get a huge Mets win. The key now is to build off of this.

Game Notes: The second game of the doubleheader was rained out. The Mets signed Josh Reddick to a minor league deal.

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