Brandon Nimmo
There are a number of areas the Mets need to address this offseason including both center field and lead-off hitter. Either one of those areas could be addressed through free agency or perhaps the trade market. However, before going down that route, the Mets should take a long look at Brandon Nimmo this season.
The 2011 first round draft pick, the first of the Sandy Alderson Era, just became the fourth rookie in Mets history to reach safely in every plate appearance. That was also the second straight game Nimmo lead off the game for the Mets with a double. Simply put, this is a player with the skills to be a Major League lead-off hitter.
So far this season, Nimmo has a .410 OBP in 62 plate appearances. Dating back to last season, Nimmo has a .369 major league OBP in 142 major league plate appearances. For sure, this is a small sample size, but Nimmo has shown the ability to get on base during his minor league career. In fact, Nimmo’s .410 OBP last year was the best in the Pacific Coast League.
As for his defense, John Sickels of Minor League Ball wrote last year, “his defensive instincts are impressive and he is a quality defender in center field.” Certainly, in the small sample we have seen of him, he has shown he has the tools to be a good center fielder. He has the speed to more than adequately play the position. His arm is strong enough to play out there.
Still, there is a some lingering doubt about the Mets faith in his ability to play there. In his 21 major league starts, Nimmo has only started four of them in center. During that time, the Mets have started Yoenis Cespedes, Michael Conforto and Alejandro De Aza over him in center. Even if it is not determinative of how the Mets feel about his skills in center, it is certainly not a glowing review. Still, with his skill set, Nimmo should benefit from the coaching from Tom Goodwin, who has shown himself to be a good Major League outfield coach.
There’s also the matter of his ability to stay on the field. In four of the last five seasons, Nimmo has spent some time on the disabled list. He had knee surgery in 2013, which robbed him of some of his speed. In reality, this isn’t a matter of chronic issues, and the collapsed lung was a bit of a freak injury. Still, if you are concerned about that, you could platoon him with Juan Lagares.
With Lagares, the Mets have an elite defensive center fielder, who cannot hit right-handed pitching. You also have an immovable contract with him making $6.5 million in 2018 and $9 million the next. He also has some of his own injury issues missing time in consecutive seasons with injuries to the same thumb. Even with Nimmo having a platoon neutral bat, platooning the two players would serve to keep both fresh, and it would help the Mets get Lagares’ glove in the lineup.
However, it is more important to get Nimmo’s bat in the lineup and his glove in center field right now. The Mets need to find out if they need to address center field and a lead-off hitter this offseason. The Mets don’t really know if they need to look outside the organization to address those needs until they find out what they have in Nimmo. It’s time to find that out now.
As we have seen with Terry Collins, he is loathe to let young left-handed batters face left-handed pitching. He did it time and again with Michael Conforto, but he did it under the auspices of the team trying to win. Now? The Mets are not trying to win anything. They are trying to develop their young players so they are ready to win next year.
Despite the change in goals, Collins still sits his left-handed hitters against left-handed pitching. You understand it somewhat with Brandon Nimmo as the team is also trying to get a good look at Juan Lagares. With that said, there’s no reason why he is doing this with Dominic Smith. Since Collins has done it more than once, it is time we begin tracking when Collins let Smith face a left-handed pitcher, and when he benched him.
| Date | 8/15/17 |
| Score | 5-2 Yankees |
| Situation | Top 9, one out |
| Pitcher | Aroldis Chapman |
| Result | Jose Reyes PH |
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| Date | 8/16/17 |
| Score | 0-0 |
| Situation | Game Start |
| Pitcher | Jaime Garcia |
| Result | 0-3, K |
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| Date | 8/18/17 |
| Score | 0-0 |
| Situation | Game Start |
| Pitcher | Justin Nicolino |
| Result | Benched for Wilmer Flores |
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| Date | 8/20/17 |
| Score | 0-0 |
| Situation | Game Start |
| Pitcher | Adam Conley |
| Result | 0-3, 2K |
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| Date | 8/21/17 |
| Score | 1-0 Diamondbacks |
| Situation | 6th Inning, one out, one on |
| Pitcher | Jorge De La Rosa |
| Result | K |
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| Date | 8/22/17 |
| Score | 0-0 |
| Situation | Game Start |
| Pitcher | Patrick Corbin |
| Result | Benched for Flores |
Season Total: 0-7, 4 K
Late in the season, both Robert Gsellman and Yoenis Cespedes gave you reasons to question their commitment.
Like he has most of his career, Cespedes has failed to hustle this year. While deemed acceptable when things are going well, this becomes an issue for everyone.
When he comes to Gsellman, he basically said as much. Well, that’s a bit of a stretch. When he was told Sandy Alderson said he needed to pitch better, Gsellman replied he didn’t care.
On the field tonight against a very good Diamondbacks team, they were both very good.
Gsellman was reminiscent of the pitcher we saw last year. He mostly kept the ball out of the air preventing him from being victimized by the long ball. With a much better defense behind him, which somehow included Wilmer Flores making some nice plays at third, Gsellman went deep into the game.
In the odd chance the ball was in the air, the outfield got to those balls. This included Cespedes making not one but two hustle plays in the outfield.
With the defense playing well behind him, and his sinker working, Gsellman arguably had his best start of the year. His final line was 6.1 innings, five hits, one run, one earned, one walk, and three strikeouts.
Even with that terrific outing, he still didn’t get the win because the Mets offense continued to squander their scoring opportunities against Taijuan Walker.
The Mets could bring home Brandon Nimmo after he lead-off the top of the first with a double.
Wilmer Flores and Dominic Smith lead off the second with consecutive singles. Amed Rosario struck out. After Kevin Plawecki intentionally walked to load the bases, Gsellman struck out, and Nimmo lined out.
Flores came up in the third with runners at first and second with one out, and he grounded into the 6-4-3 inning ending double play.
Plawecki’s two out double in the fourth didn’t amount to anything with Gsellman hitting it back to the pitcher.
Plawecki came up in the sixth with runners on the corners and two outs. It would be runners on second and third after Rosario stole second. David Hernandez came on for Rubby De La Rosa, and he got Plawecki to tap it back to him to end the inning.
Finally, the Mets broke through in the sixth.
Travis d’Arnaud, who came on for Plawecki in a double switch in the top half of the inning, hit a lead-off double. Nimmo then sacrificed him to third.
Asdrubal Cabrera and Michael Conforto then earned walks to load the bases putting the game in Cespedes’ hands. As noted above, he played this game with a different energy than he has been playing with for most of the season.
Cespedes battled back from 0-2 against Archie Bradley to rip an RBI single past a diving Jake Lamb to tie the game.
It only tied the game because David Peralta nailed Cabrera at the plate. It’s a tough play to pin blame on anyone. With it being so close, it was a good send by Glenn Sherlock. Likely, Cabrera would’ve been safe if his leg was on the ground instead of in the air. You can’t blame Cabrera because that was just tough luck.
In any event, after a Flores foul out, this was now a battle of the bullpens.
Jerry Blevins, Paul Sewald, and AJ Ramos did their jobs combining to pitch 2.2 scoreless innings helping send the game into extra innings.
The Mets went to Erik Goeddel in a rare second straight day of work to pitch the 10th. In a rare appearance on consecutive days. We saw the reason why he rarely does this.
Goeddel issued a lead-off walk to Gregor Blanco before allowing a game winning two run homer to A.J. Pollock:
https://twitter.com/citifieldhr/status/899824587944452096
The homer snapped a Meys bullpen 17.2 streak of not allowing an earned run.
Mets still has a chance in the bottom of the 10th with the heart of the lineup due up against Diamondbacks closer Fernando Rodney.
Conforto got the inning off on the right foot hitting an opposite field lead-off home run to pull the Meys within 3-2. That’s as close as the Mets got as Rodney set down Cespedes, Flores, and Smith to end the game.
The main thing that really stood out today was the Mets played with a different energy. At this point in the season, it’s all we can reasonably expect. Well that and better situational hitting.
When that happen, we will see a much better brand of baseball much like we saw tonight.
GAME NOTES: Steven Matz is done for the year as he will undergo surgery to re-position his ulnar nerve. It is the same surgery Jacob deGrom underwent last year.
Jacob deGrom is all of us. He watched the Mets play behind him all afternoon with no run support and poor defensive, and he just threw his hands up in the air.
The play that caused it was a seventh inning Dee Gordon grounder to Amed Rosario. Like he did in his first game against the Rockies, Rosario did a glove tap, and that was the difference between safe and out.
Before that play, Travis d’Arnaud took the easy route getting the out at first instead of attempting to go for a double play on a poor Adam Conley sacrifice bunt attempt.
This was all prelude to another Giancarlo Stanton home run. If deGrom is Superman, Stanton is 245 pounds of Kryptonite. Stanton’s three run homer here was his fourth off deGrom in his career, and it gave the Marlins a 5-1 lead.
Not to be outdone, Yoenis Cespedes dropped a flyball later that inning. It brought the boo birds out on a day he showed continued lack of hustle. At least, he hit a homer in the first.
A Marcell Ozuna single after the Cespedes two base error gave the Marlins a 6-1 lead. It was a disappointing start for deGrom, but that’s to be expected when he isn’t getting any help in the field or at the plate.
His final line would be 6.1 innings, 10 hits, five runs, five earned, no walks, and eight strikeouts.
When deGrom threw his arms up, something he later admitted he shouldn’t have done, he spoke for all Mets fans tired of seeing the same mistakes being repeated game-in and game-out.
With d’Arnaud and Cespedes, it is more of the same. We see great defensive aspects to d’Arnaud’s game, but he just doesn’t trust his arm. For Cespedes, his lack of hustle borders on the pathological.
At least with Rosario, the play was part of growing pains. Same goes for Dominic Smith going 0-3 with three strikeouts against the left-handed Conley. It certainly doesn’t help Terry Collins having him out of the lineup against left-handed pitching.
It should be noted young players don’t just come with growing pains. They come with improvement.
We saw that with Brandon Nimmo leading off the eighth with a pinch hit double and Michael Conforto following with a one out walk. This led to the Mets making a game of this, which was a nice departure from most Sunday games.
Nimmo scored on a Cespedes double. Conforto scored on a Wilmer Flores sacrifice fly, and Cespedes scored on a two out d’Arnaud RBI single.
That made the score 6-4, which was as close as the Mets would get.
Rosario struck out to end the eighth inning rally, and Asdrubal Cabrera hit into a game ending double play in the ninth.
Like most Sunday games, this was a tough watch. It was tough seeing veterans continuing to have the same issues. The hope is that while these veterans never learned how to correct theirs, the young players like Smith and Rosario will.
If they do, these tough games will all be worth it. If they do, the Mets may very well compete again next year.
Game Notes: Gavin Cecchini got the start at second. With his ninth inning single, he now has a base hit in all five games he’s started.
In his major league career, Rafael Montero had a staggering 2-13 record. You’d be hard-pressed to say that record was the result of his team failing to pick him up. To be fair, he’s usually been so poor, he never really gave his teammates a chance. That wasn’t the case tonight.
Montero was great for five innings allowing the Marlins to just four hits and two walks. He then ran into some issues in the sixth beginning with the opposing pitcher, Vance Worley, getting a lead-off single.
The Marlins then got a trade-off they take every day of the week with a Dee Gordon, who hit a fly ball Brandon Nimmo couldn’t get, but he was still able to get Worley at second.
After a Giancarlo Stanton walk and a Christian Yelich strikeout, Montero was on the cusp of getting out of the inning unscathed.
He seemed like he did when Marcel Ozuna hit a ball to left. Mets fans thought Yoenis Cespedes could get it. Keith Hernandez gave him a pass. In any event, it was 1-0, and the way Worley was going, it seemed like that was all the Marlins needed.
That changed when Matt Reynolds pinch hit for Montero and earned a lead-off walk. That walk ignited the Mets offense.
After the walk, Nimmo singled to set up runners at the corners with no outs. Asdrubal Cabrera then tied the game with a deep fly ball to right.
Don Mattingly tried to stem the tide by bringing in Drew Steckenrider. It didn’t work.
Runners were at the corners again after a Cespedes single and a Steckenrider wild pitch. In a tough at-bat, Michael Conforto hit a hard grounder that ate up Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas giving the Mets a 2-1 lead.
That became a 5-1 lead when Wilmer Flores hit a three run homer.
If you thought the three run homer by Flores off a right was a surprise, the ensuing two run homer by Kevin Plawecki was a downright shock.
Things heated up in the 6th thanks to these guys! ??
7-1 #Mets | End-6 pic.twitter.com/iZH4BXbcYs
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 20, 2017
That Plawecki homer put the cap on a seven run inning where the Mets batted around. It also put Montero in line to win just his third game of his career. With him getting two wins this year, this is his first major league season with more than just one win.
After that, we got to see why Dominic Smith is so well regarded by the Mets.
In the eighth, he made a diving stop to rob Yelich of a potential extra base hit . . .
Don't be scared Giancarlo Big Diesel gotcha pic.twitter.com/s754jUBz3O
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) August 20, 2017
. . . and he followed that with his first homer at Citi Field.
Dom Smith absolutely clobbered this ball. 106mph exit velocity. That is very strong. Top end Exit Velocity like that is a real skill. pic.twitter.com/8krXa2XM5s
— CitiFieldHR (@CitiFieldHR) August 20, 2017
He absolutely clobbered that ball hitting it beyond what were the original fences.
Between Hansel Robles and Chasen Bradford, the Mets locked down the 8-1 win.
By the way, for all of the Mets refusal to have even a decent defense, the team turned five double plays. The defense did its part, and as you see, when you’re this good defensively, even Montero looks very good.
Game Notes: Rene Rivera was claimed off waivers by the Cubs. With him a Cub, and Curtis Granderson a Dodger, the Mets were able to call up Plawecki and activate Tommy Milone from the DL.
In his major league career, Rafael Montero had a staggering 2-13 record. You’d be hard-pressed to say that record was the result of his team failing to pick him up. To be fair, he’s usually been so poor, he never really gave his teammates a chance. That wasn’t the case tonight.
Montero was great for five innings allowing the Marlins to just four hits and two walks. He then ran into some issues in the sixth beginning with the opposing pitcher, Vance Worley, getting a lead-off single.
The Marlins then got a trade-off they take every day of the week with a Dee Gordon, who hit a fly ball Brandon Nimmo couldn’t get, but he was still able to get Worley at second.
After a Giancarlo Stanton walk and a Christian Yelich strikeout, Montero was on the cusp of getting out of the inning unscathed.
He seemed like he did when Marcel Ozuna hit a ball to left. Mets fans thought Yoenis Cespedes could get it. Keith Hernandez gave him a pass. In any event, it was 1-0, and the way Worley was going, it seemed like that was all the Marlins needed.
That changed when Matt Reynolds pinch hit for Montero and earned a lead-off walk. That walk ignited the Mets offense.
After the walk, Nimmo singled to set up runners at the corners with no outs. Asdrubal Cabrera then tied the game with a deep fly ball to right.
Don Mattingly tried to stem the tide by bringing in Drew Steckenrider. It didn’t work.
Runners were at the corners again after a Cespedes single and a Steckenrider wild pitch. In a tough at-bat, Michael Conforto hit a hard grounder that ate up Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas giving the Mets a 2-1 lead.
That became a 5-1 lead when Wilmer Flores hit a three run homer.
If you thought the three run homer by Flores off a right was a surprise, the ensuing two run homer by Kevin Plawecki was a downright shock.
Things heated up in the 6th thanks to these guys! ??
7-1 #Mets | End-6 pic.twitter.com/iZH4BXbcYs
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 20, 2017
That Plawecki homer put the cap on a seven run inning where the Mets batted around. It also put Montero in line to win just his third game of his career. With him getting two wins this year, this is his first major league season with more than just one win.
After that, we got to see why Dominic Smith is so well regarded by the Mets.
In the eighth, he made a diving stop to rob Yelich of a potential extra base hit . . .
Don't be scared Giancarlo Big Diesel gotcha pic.twitter.com/s754jUBz3O
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) August 20, 2017
. . . and he followed that with his first homer at Citi Field.
Dom Smith absolutely clobbered this ball. 106mph exit velocity. That is very strong. Top end Exit Velocity like that is a real skill. pic.twitter.com/8krXa2XM5s
— CitiFieldHR (@CitiFieldHR) August 20, 2017
He absolutely clobbered that ball hitting it beyond what were the original fences.
Between Hansel Robles and Chasen Bradford, the Mets locked down the 7-1 win.
By the way, for all of the Mets refusal to have even a decent defense, the team turned five double plays. The defense did its part, and as you see, when you’re this good defensively, even Montero looks very good.
Game Notes: Rene Rivera was claimed off waivers by the Cubs. With him a Cub, and Curtis Granderson a Dodger, the Mets were able to call up Plawecki and activate Tommy Milone from the DL.
Don’t read too much into tonight’s game. The game started off on a strange foot when Neil Walker was pulled off the field (and his being removed from the lineup) during batting practice with his reportedly being dealt to the Brewers.
There was also the matter of Aaron Nola, who has been pitching like a Cy Young contender of late. Including tonight’s start, Nola now has a 10 start streak with him pitching at least seven innings while allowing two or fewer runs.
Tonight, that one run came off a Yoenis Cespedes fourth inning homer that briefly gave the Mets a 1-0 lead. There’s the argument it should have been a 2-0 lead.
In the third, Amed Rosario hit a one out double. He found himself on third when Brandon Nimmo struck out on a wild pitch. The wild pitch allowed Nimmo to reach first instead of the inning ending.
Rosario and Nimmo then attempted a double steal. Cameron Rupp threw through. Seeing this Rosario took off. With Nimmo seemingly having the base, Freddy Galvis didn’t hesitate coming off the bag to meet the throw and go home nailing Rosario.
That play would loom large during a two run fifth inning.
Up until that point, Steven Matz was cruising. He had four no-hit innings, which ended with the Phillies hitting back-to-back singles to start the fifth. Matz was so close to getting out of this jam.
First, Rupp popped out, and then Nola laid down a sac bunt. Matz couldn’t get the big out yielding a game tying single to Cesar Hernandez. Galvis then hit a seeing eye single that was just past Jose Reyes giving the Phillies a 2-1 lead. Ultimately, that was the game-winning hit.
Nola continued to shut down the Mets. His final line was seven innings, two hits, one run, one earned, one walk, and eight strikeouts. This made Ricardo Pinto a welcome sight in the eighth.
Curtis Granderson and Reyes each walked setting up two on and two out for Cespedes. Pinto would strike out Cespedes on three straight pitches to end the rally.
From there, the Phillies would add an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth off Erik Goeddel giving them a 3-1 lead.
Ultimately, the Mets lost a difficult game. They lost a teammate, and they faced a tough pitcher. With that said, they did the right thing and played some young guys. More than that Matz progressed from where he has been.
Given how the Mets are constituted, they’re going to lose a lot of games. That’s understandable. The only thing you can reasonably ask is when they lose, it’s a good game, and the young players are getting their feet wet. That happened today, so all-in-all, that’s not too bad a day.
Game Notes: Michael Conforto started the game in center, and Nimmo played right. Reyes wasn’t initially supposed to be in the lineup, but took over for Walker in the lineup and played second. Asdrubal Cabrera played second.
One of the reasons Mets fans were angry about the return of Ryder Ryan for Jay Bruce was the fact many believed the Mets could have offered Bruce a qualifying offer, and they then could have recouped a second round pick when Bruce signed a big deal elsewhere. While we all should be able to agree Ryan was not second round value, the point that Bruce would automatically reject a qualifying offer is flawed.
This past offseason teams have shown they no longer value players like Bruce the way they once did. If the Mets inability to move Bruce this offseason wasn’t any indication, and if the return the Mets got for Bruce wasn’t any indication, then look at what happened to Mark Trumbo last year.
Trumbo took a one year flier with the Orioles, and he had a monster year leading the majors with 47 homers. In total, Trumbo hit .256/.316/.533 with 27 doubles, a triple, 47 homers, and 108 RBI. That was good for a 122 OPS+ and a 123 wRC+.
On the strength of this season, the 30 year old Trumbo would reject the qualifying offer only to be met with a tepid free agent market. Without Trumbo being able to garner the interest he believed would be present, he went back to the Orioles on a three year $37.5 million deal.
It wasn’t just Trumbo either. Other sluggers like Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, and Chris Carter were met with surprisingly soft markets this offseason.
The conclusion that can be best drawn for this is the market just doesn’t value sluggers the way it once did. With the qualifying offer being worth around $18 million next year, there was a very real chance Bruce was going to accept that qualifying offer meaning the Mets got no draft pick compensation.
It would also mean the Mets outfield would have been a disaster defensively. We know Bruce is not a center fielder, and we also know Yoenis Cespedes no longer belongs out there. The argument would be Michael Conforto could. He has shown he can handle it in spurts, but long term that is a bad proposition. In 327.2 innings there, Conforto has a -2 DRS and a 0.2 UZR.
Seeing how the Mets played this year, the biggest thing they need to do is to upgrade defensively. That goes double for key defensive positions like shortstop and center field. Fortunately, the Mets have Amed Rosario at short. Who knows if the answer is Juan Lagares or a name outside the organization for center. The one thing we do know it’s not Bruce.
There’s another consideration as well. The Mets need to make wholesale changes this offseason, which is going to require a lot of money. For a team that took a lesser return for Bruce partially due to the savings it brought them, we should worry about Bruce’s $18 million hindering the Mets ability to fully address all of the teams needs just like it happened last year when Neil Walker accepted his qualifying offer.
Overall, the Mets needed to trade Bruce to get some return for him. The return was lackluster for many, but in reality, it reflects more upon how teams value sluggers like Bruce. At a minimum, the Mets got something for him, and they have freed up playing time for Dominic Smith and Brandon Nimmo. All they have to do now is actually play those players.
Look, we can all agree the Dodgers are a much better team than the Mets. There are several reasons why this is the case, and there is another time to re-evaluate how the Mets have gone from beating the Dodgers in the 2015 NLDS to being completely over-matched in a three game series where Clayton Kershaw didn’t even pitch.
Teams have bad series all the time. Even when the Mets are good, we see clunkers like this from time to time. However, this series seemed more than that. This was a team thoroughly out-classed on the field. It makes you shudder when you consider the Mets had Jacob deGrom and Seth Lugo going.
At this point, it’s time to press the reset button. We all know the Mets aren’t going to the postseason. With each passing day, even getting to .500 is a pipe dream. For what it’s worth, getting to .500 is detrimental. The Mets need to lose as many games as they can to get the best possible draft pick they can in the 2018 draft. You want the Mets to be able to go and draft the next Michael Conforto.
No matter what happens, we know the Mets are going to continue to lose a number of games to close out the season. That’s fine. We’ve all accepted it. What we cannot accept is turning on the game and watching a team lose without any purpose whatsoever.
What is the team accomplishing by playing Wilmer Flores and Jay Bruce at first base? Neither one of them are going to be the first baseman next year. That job is going to Dominic Smith. With each game Flores and Bruce play first, and Smith remains in the minors, the Mets have accomplished absolutely nothing.
What does playing Curtis Granderson everyday accomplish? He’s been a good Met and an even better man. He’s also accepted a role as the team’s fourth outfielder. It’s likely he will be gone after the 2017 season. With each game he plays, you learn nothing about him. All the while, Brandon Nimmo sits languishing on your bench not even getting at-bats in Triple-A to help him improve as a player.
For that matter, why is Gavin Cecchini in Triple-A? Do we really need to learn more about Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera? Isn’t one or two of them likely gone after the season? If not, aren’t their roles going to be much different in 2018? Reyes should be firmly on the bench in 2018, and Cabrera has shown he should be at third base. If that is the case, why isn’t Cecchini playing second base over these two?
Ultimately, you can justify playing any of the aforementioned veterans you want. Certainly, you want Neil Walker to showcase himself to teams after a lengthy disabled list stint. However, the aforementioned veterans have already been showcased and teams have passed on them for a variety of reasons. Playing them everyday serves this Mets team no purposes. That is unless the Mets are going to have a huge push to celebrate Bruce passing Carlos Beltran and Todd Hundley for the Mets single season home run record like they pushed Reyes winning the Mets first ever batting title. Note, Reyes’ batting title didn’t exactly draw fans to the park.
Calling up Amed Rosario was a step in the right direction. Seeing Paul Sewald pitch in some high leverage situations is another step. Taking a chance on Chris Flexen was inspired. However, it’s simply not enough. Sooner or later, Mets fans are going to tune out these games . . . if they haven’t already.
To that end, it’s time to get Smith and Cecchini up here and play them everyday or close to it. Fans would rather see them work through some growing pains at the major league level than watch Bruce, Cabrera, Granderson, Reyes, and Walker lose in lackluster fashion.
It’s time to turn the page if for no other reason than it’s time to give fans a reason to watch what has become a dreadful team.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Mets play in a real Coors Field game, but the stage was set with Chris Flexen and Tyler Chatwood being the starters for tonight’s game.
Flexen was getting hit hard all night, but he dodged a number of bullets thanks to some good defense from Amed Rosario and Yoenis Cespedes throwing out a runner at the plate.
The floodgates would eventually happen in a five run third punctuated by a Carlos Gonzalez two run homer to dead center.
After that Flexen was done having thrown 64 pitches in the three innings. He might’ve been coming out anyway, but his developing a blister on the index finger of his pitching hand essentially sealed the deal.
Normally, you’d expect for this game to be over, especially with this Mets bullpen. Then again, this is Coors Field.
Michael Conforto and Asdrubal Cabrera got things started in the fourth hitting back-to-back singles to set up first and third with no outs. The rally sputtered a bit with Cespedes hitting into a double play allowing Conforto to score. The Mets would pull to within 5-2 on a Jay Bruce solo shot:
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/892932832791801856
In the fifth, Curtis Granderson got things started by ripping a ball past Rockies first baseman Mark Reynolds. The play was scored as an error. Granderson would then score on a Rosario ground rule triple. Yes, you read that correctly.
Rosario hit a call down the third base line. As Rosario was beginning to round second, a fan touched it before Gerardo Parra would get to it. This was Rosario’s first extra-base hit and RBI.
Travis d’Arnaud was then robbed of a base hit by Trevor Story. Instead of an RBI single, d’Arnaud had an RBI groundout, and the Mets pulled themselves within one.
It’s in the sixth then the Mets offense really broke out.
The sixth started with Cespedes doubling home Cabrera tying the game. . Bruce followed with a walk. After Brandon Nimmo hit into a force play, it was runners at the corners with one out for Granderson. Granderson untied the game:
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/892944145559539712
The rally wouldn’t end there. d’Arnaud, Jose Reyes, and Conforto hit consecutive singles making it 9-5. A Cabrera RBI ground rule double made it 10-5.
In that inning, the Mets batted around scoring six runs.
What is truly remarkable about this game wasn’t the rally. It was the Mets bullpen keeping the Rockies at bay:
- Chasen Bradford 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2K
- Fernando Salas IP, H, 0R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
- Paul Sewald 2.0 IP, H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
The Sewald outing was particularly informative for a player who may still yet be an important part of the Mets bullpen next year.
After a clean seventh, he was called to pitch another inning. He then worked around a Reynolds double. This is the latest example we’ve seen with Sewald where he’s comfortable pitching when there’s pressure. Better yet, he typically works his way out of if.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ramosaj01.shtml
The good bullpen work carried forward to the ninth with AJ Ramos.
This was all part of pitchers making the adjustments they need to make to succeed. Wins and losses don’t matter much when the Met is going nowhere. Rather, you’d like to see them improve at their role. At least for tonight, we saw them successful in both fashions.
Game Notes: Josh Edgin cleared waivers and was sent down to Triple-A. This was Bradford’s first career win.