Jacob deGrom
Matt Harvey put it best tonight in his post-game presser when he said:
Matt Harvey: "The positive is that this nightmare of a season is over for me."
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) September 30, 2017
It really has been a nightmare season where you didn’t know what was going to happen next for Harvey. Just when you thought nothing worse could happen, Harvey balked:
Matt Harvey, 2017 pic.twitter.com/81YeBdSgjW
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) September 30, 2017
That third inning balk would force in the Phillies fourth run of the game giving them a 4-1 lead.
Harvey would last one more inning. His final line was 4.0 IP, seven hits, four runs, four earned, three walks, and three strikeouts.
We can talk about a number of improvements Harvey made, but he struggled again. At the end of the day, he finished the season with a 6.70 ERA, which is the highest ERA ever for a Mets pitcher with at least 15 starts.
Harvey would also suffer his seventh loss of the season because the Mets offense could only muster two runs off a pair of solo shots. The first was a Jose Reyes first inning home run. The next was a Dominic Smith fifth inning homer.
The Smith homer brought the Mets within two. After Hansel Robles struggled in his second inning of work, the score was 6-2, and the game was well out of reach.
Watching this game, there seemed to be a malaise over this team. That should come as no surprise in the aftermath of the article wherein unnamed players are front office people trashed Terry Collins.
In the end, it took David Wright, someone who has not played a game all year to say what needed to be said:
David Wright: "For a player to not put his name on the quote and to bash Terry, who has a lot of success. …that is cowardly and lazy."
— Matt Ehalt (@MattEhalt) September 29, 2017
Game Notes: Jacob deGrom will not make his last start as he is suffering from gastroenteritis.
Yesterday, the Mets sold us own Noah Syndergaard making his first start since April followed by a “relief appearance” by Matt Harvey. T0day, the selling point was to see Jacob deGrom try to get t0 200 innings for the first time in his career and to see him get his 16th win of the year.
While the Mets largely disappointed, deGrom didn’t. Despite experiencing flu like symptoms, not too long after Amed Rosario had to be hospitalized, deGrom took the mound and gave his team every chance to win. However, deGrom would not get that win.
Part it was his giving up a two run homer to Trea Turner turning a 1-0 lead into a 2-0 deficit. Another part was his teammates really let him down today. To that end, it was not much different than most deGrom starts this year.
Things were really bad in the fifth. Michael Taylor led off the inning with an infield single to third that Phillip Evans couldn’t quite make a play on. Taylor then attempted a steal of second base, and he found himself on third after Travis d’Arnaud threw the ball into center field. A Jose Lobaton RBI single later, and the Nationals had an insurmountable 3-1 lead.
It was insurmountable because the Nationals had Max Scherzer going. As such deGrom’s final line of six innings, five hits, three runs, two earned, no walks, and 11 strikeouts wouldn’t be good enough for that win.
Really, after a Brandon Nimmo first inning home run, the Mets offense couldn’t get anything going. More than that, this offense was inept. This was apparent in the seventh when Victor Robles caught a Rosario liner in right and picked Evans off first.
https://twitter.com/mlbreplays/status/912051685534654466
The play helped kill what could have been a game tying rally. That play was even more magnified in the eighth.
With three straight singles, the Mets pulled within 3-2 with one out.
After a Nimmo strikeout and a d’Arnaud walk, the bases were loaded for Dominic Smith. It was a big moment for a big Mets prospect. The only problem is the Mets manager is still Terry Collins, a manager who has shown zero interest in developing these young Mets players.
When Dusty Baker brought in the left-handed Sammy Solis to fave him. In terms of developing Smith, you couldn’t as for a better situation. Instead, Collins went with Kevin Plawecki.
Plawecki got ahead 3-1 in the count, but Solis would get back in the count and strike him out.
That ended the Mets last chance to beat the Nationals. Not just today, but the season.
Game Notes: Nimmo has struck out in 14 straight games.
Back in 2012, when things were about as bad as they are right now, the most captivating moment of the season was R.A. Dickey and his push for 20 wins and a Cy Young.
Somewhat fittingly, Dickey was the starting pitcher for the Braves on a night when Jacob deGrom was going for a career high 15th win.
This was deGrom’s third chance to get that 15th win. That’s two more than he had in 2015. In 2015, he would only pitch four scoreless innings before being taken out of the game so he would be ready for the postseason. Tonight, with the Mets playing for nothing else, he would go as long as he needed.
deGrom would throw 101 pitches over seven innings. His final line would be 7.0 innings, five hits, one runs, one earned, two walks, and seven strikeouts.
The one run deGrom allowed was a Freddie Freeman sixth inning solo homer because it’s Freeman. With that homer, the only question was whether the Mets would score enough runs.
Tonight, deGrom got the requisite run support and then some thanks to the Mets offense exploding for seven runs thanks to the Mets young hitters.
The standouts were Brandon Nimmo (1-3, 2 R, 2B, BB, RBI), Dominic Smith (2-4, R, 2B, 2 RBI), and Gavin Cecchini (3-3, 2B, 2 RBI).
The scoring began with a two run second started by back-to-back singles by Smith and Travis d’Arnaud. They’d score on a pair of Juan Lagares and Cecchini RBI singles.
This would prove to be enough, but the Mets offense would keep on clicking.
A trio of doubles in the third (Nori Aoki, Nimmo, and Asdrubal Cabrera) would make it 4-0.
The doubles would continue. A fourth inning Cecchini double scored Lagares, and a seventh inning Smith double plated it two more to make it 7-1.
After deGrom exited with a six run lead, it was time for the Mets bullpen to hold the lead. After the Cubs series, it was far from a guarantee.
Jeurys Familia alleviated some of the tension pitching a scoreless eighth.
Not leaving anything to chance, Terry Collins went to AJ Ramos in the ninth to protect the lead. After a typical stressful Ramos inning, the Mets would win 7-3, and deGrom would finally have his 15th win.
deGrom winning his 15th is a big highlight in a terrible season much like Dickey winning 20 in 2012. Hopefully, prosperity will soon follow much like it did after Dickey’s magical season.
Game Notes: On Smith’s seventh inning double, Gary Cohen referred to him as Lucas Duda.
In case you forgot why the Mets are in the position they’re in right now, Terry Collins and the bullpen were more than happy to oblige in another classic Sunday afternoon debacle.
Keep in mind, the Mets are so bad on Sundays that not even the Day Man, Jacob deGrom, can get a win on a Sunday day game.
After a rough first when he allowed two runs, it looked like deGrom may not get that win. After walking Tucker Barnhart to start the second, deGrom had issued three walks in one plus innings. There was legitimate issue how much longer he would last in the game.
As it turned out, it was his last walk of the game, and he would be much better from that point forward. In fact, he’d only allows just one more hit, and he’d strike out eight batters.
His final line was six innings, three hits, two runs, two earned, three walks, and 10 strikeouts. He was in line for a career best 15th win of the season.
He was in line thanks to some help from his offense. That includes Dominic Smith. Smith was 2-5 with a run, homer, and two RBI. His third inning RBI single tied the score at 2-2. His lead-off homer in the sixth gave the Mets a 3-2 lead.
After the Smith homer, the Mets would go ahead 5-2 off a Jose Reyes two RBI double. Reyes would give those runs away in the field.
Paul Sewald was first in line to protect the lead. After allowing that first two to get on, he seemed to reblund striking out Patrick Kivlehan and getting Jose Peraza to ground into what could’ve been an inning ending double play.
Amed Rosario, who was in his first game back in about a week after suffering a finger injury, made the flip to Reyes to get the out at second. However, Reyes made an errant throw allowing Peraza to reach safely. After that, Zack Cozart tied it.
https://twitter.com/reds/status/906994459044278272
Jeurys Familia couldn’t keep the game tied. This was in part due to Travis d’Arnaud not getting a tag down. It was a rare transgression for him, but nevertheless,there was one here.
https://twitter.com/mlbreplays/status/906980545942433793
Still, even if that tag does get down, the Reds still take the lead on the play. It was a lead they were not giving up.
Throw in a Burnhart three run homer off Hansel Robles in the ninth, and you have a 10-5 final score, and a Jacob deGrom no decision.
Of course with competent defense and manager, this could all turn around. That’s not happening this year.
Game Recap: Reyes continues to pack the back of his baseball.
This is a season where you can pretty much pick your nadir. Tonight might have been that night because when Jacob deGrom can’t beat the Phillies, the Mets really have no hopes of winning games.
Coming into tonight, deGrom was 6-0 with a 2.10 ERA, 0.917 WHIP, and a 9.5 K/9 against the Phillies. He was 22-14 with a 2.17 ERA, 1.033 WHIP, and a 10.2 K/9.
Tonight, deGrom allowed nine runs (six earned) off 10 hits and two walks while striking out five.
With this poor start, deGrom has allowed five plus earned runs in three of his last five starts. Given how dominant we have seen him at times this year, and how this Mets season has gone, you’re just waiting for the Mets to announce he’s injured.
It certainly doesn’t help his team let him down once again. Dominic Smith made a second inning error allowing the first run to score in a three run inning. With the game at 5-1, Nori Aoki made a throwing error on an Odubel Herrera RBI single, which made it 6-1. The error let the other runners get into scoring position, which helped facilitate the six run inning.
At the end of the day, the Mets lost 9-1.
If you’re looking for a positive, Jacob Rhame got himself into a bases loaded jam, and he worked his way out of it without allowing a run. Kevin McGowan also pitched a scoreless inning.
But really, we’re just grasping at straws looking for the positive. In the end, a bad team looked bad against another bad team. That’s it.
Game Notes: The Mets lone run came on a first inning Travis d’Arnaud RBI double scoring Aoki.
It’s a good thing the Mets had both Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera start this game. If not for them, the Mets probably would have been shut out instead of the team losing 7-2.
Reyes got things started in the first with a double off Reds starter Robert Stephenson. Naturally, Reyes was hitting lead-off because they need to see if he, rather than today’s clean-up hitter Brandon Nimmo, could be the lead-off hitter of the future. Fellow prospect, and third place hitter in the line-up, Cabrera, would boost his chances of being on next year’s team with a sacrifice fly.
After the Mets fell behind 2-1, Reyes and Cabrera showed what this young team is capable of doing by hitting a pair of singles. Reyes then scored when run producer Nimmo came to the plate and singled a ball off of the pitcher to tie the game at two.
From there, the Mets failed because they simply just didn’t have enough players who played with as much fire and passion as Reyes and Cabrera. That was evident by the Mets going 1-11 with RISP and the team leaving eight men on base. That would never happen with a lineup full of Reyeses and Cabreras.
The Reds initially took the lead on a Scooter Gennett two run homer in the second inning. Gennett would later get to Jacob deGrom again in the fifth with an RBI double.
In the third, the Reds took the lead for good on an Amed Rosario miscue. Billy Hamilton found himself on second after a lead-off single and a stolen base. If we’re being honest, there’s just no way Travis d’Arnaud is ever going to throw out Hamilton. Joey Votto then hit a grounder to Rosario. Rather than take the sure out at first, which would have been the second out of the inning, Rosario rushed the play throwing off balance pegging Hamilton in the leg. Hamilton then scurried home.
Certainly, Terry Collins can no longer justify playing Rosario at shortstop when he has both Reyes and Cabrera available to play there. Nope, that error and a .240 batting average needs to be put on the bench so the Mets can win some games.
They weren’t going to win this one with the way deGrom struggled, or at least struggled for him. The Mets ace would allow four runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks. While he would take the loss, deGrom would strike out five. With those five strikeouts, he now has 206 on the season, which is a new career high.
After deGrom’s relative struggles, we saw the bullpen struggle as well. Jeurys Familia allowed a homer to Votto. While you hate seeing the Mets give up a crucial homer, it was alright in this instance as Votto hit the home run for a six year old boy undergoing chemotherapy:
Joey Votto will just make your day. pic.twitter.com/dGj8wFzB63
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) August 31, 2017
It’s a reminder that even with the Mets doing incredibly stupid things, the strife we face across the country, and the flooding in Houston, there are still good things and good people in this world. To that end, Votto saved the day in what was an otherwise typically lousy and wasted Mets performance.
Game Notes: Erik Goeddel‘s struggles continue with him allowing a two run homer to Stuart Turner in the eighth.
If you recall, there was a time when the Mets considered Rafael Montero to be a better prospect than Jacob deGrom. Sure, it seems silly now with deGrom winning the Rookie of the Year, being an All Star, and how great he pitched in the 2015 postseason. It seems sillier when you consider Montero has mostly been terrible with the Mets shying away from the strike zone and walking too many batters.
Recently, we have seen glimpses from Montero. He is using that change-up, the pitch that made the Mets believe in him, more effectively. He is also throwing strikes. The stretch has been good, but not great. It certainly didn’t give us any indication why the Mets thought so highly of Montero. That was until last night’s game.
Through eight innings, Montero had allowed just one base hit to a stacked Cincinnati Reds lineup. Even allowing for the obvious issues with the OPS statistic, the Reds lineup featured seven batters with an OPS over .800. Two of the players, Zack Cozart and Joey Votto, were All Stars this year. However, when you were pitching like Montero, it simply doesn’t matter.
Given the fact that you have seen Montero pitch in a Mets uniform before, it is understandable that you have to see it before you believe it. Here is a short compliation:
In case you missed it…Montero put in work last night. https://t.co/E2vRvaXUqm pic.twitter.com/q5YK2CF76e
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 31, 2017
Considering how Montero was pitching, you can certainly understand why Terry Collins allowed Montero to go out there for the ninth inning despite Montero having already thrown 107 pitches. This was Montero’s night, and he earned the right to at least try to finish the game.
After retiring the pinch hitter Billy Hamilton, the Reds finally got to Montero. Phil Ervin singled, and Cozart doubled. With him going to the plate as the winning run, the Mets understandably intentionally walked Votto.
At that point, the Mets also put an end to 8.1 brilliant innings from Montero. During his 117 pitch night, he had allowed just three hits and four walks while striking out eight. The only question remaining was whether he was going to get the win.
It was a real question because the Mets had only given him a 2-0 lead with both runs coming in the first inning off of a pair of RBI doubles from Wilmer Flores and Kevin Plawecki. By the way, if you think Montero’s emergence has been a surprise, what about Plawecki? He has gone from a guy the Mets were probably going to seriously consider cutting from the 40 man roster this offseason to a guy who is hitting .364/.440/.591 with two doubles, a homer, and three RBI in eight games. By the way, he also threw a scoreless inning in relief the previous night.
Getting back to the bottom of the ninth, the Reds had the bases loaded with one out. Once again Collins eschewed Jeurys Familia in a save situation to go to AJ Ramos. Ramos responded by striking out Adam Duvall and Scotter Gennett to end the game.
With that, the Mets now have a victory where Montero and Plawecki were key figures in the game. In what has truly been a bizarre season, this one probably ranks up there. If that isn’t enough for you consider this – the two have combined to throw 9.1 consecutive scoreless innings.
Game Notes: Amed Rosario got the night off. This led the Mets to play Jose Reyes at shortstop and have him lead-off over Brandon Nimmo because that is exactly what you are supposed to do when you are trying to develop players late in the season.
With the Nationals getting in at 6:00 A.M., Dusty Baker put out a lineup that looked like the Nationals Triple-A affiliate with Daniel Murphy. For their part the Mets put out a similar looking lineup because, well, the Mets are bad and injured.
If you think it couldn’t get worse for the Mets, it did. In the top of that first, Yoenis Cespedes pulled up lame running to third base. Once again, Cespedes left the game with a leg injury.
The shame of the play was the Dominic Smith single hit the second base umpire. It was a dead ball costing him an RBI, and it helped kill a Mets first inning rally.
At that point, the Mets already had a 1-0 lead. Once again, Brandon Nimmo lead off a game by getting on base. He would come home to score on an Asdrubal Cabrera RBI single.
The Mets would then load the bases with one out against Nationals starter A.J. Cole. With Travis d’Arnaud and Amed Rosario striking out, the Mets would come up short.
Speaking of short, the Mets had an insanely short bench tonight. The team had just a three man bench with one of those players being backup catcher Kevin Plawecki.
This was mostly the result of the soul crushing Michael Conforto injury, and the Mets having no viable options on the 40 man roster. With Jeurys Familia being ready to return after his rehab stint, the Mets chose to activate him instead.
The end result was the Mets having a two man bench when Matt Reynolds came in to pinch run for Cespedes.
Fortunately, it wouldn’t matter as Jacob deGrom was his deGrominant self. For a while, it seemed like he could get a no-hitter tonight. He certainly had the stuff, and the Nationals had the lineup.
Still, your heart was in your throat during the game with deGrom. First, he is a Mets pitcher. Second, the Mets luck somehow got worse. Third, he was fouling balls off his leg, and he seemed to pull up lame legging out an infield single in the second.
By some miracle, deGrom was healthy, and he was able to get the win. His final line was 7.2 innings, five hits, one run, one earned, one walk, and 10 strikeouts.
In Matt Grace‘s second inning of work, the Mets went to work. It started with a Juan Lagares lead-off double. While many were contemplating the bunt, Terry Collins let Reynolds swing away, and Reynolds rewarded Collins’ faith with an RBI single.
Cabrera followed with a double setting up second and third with no out. Collins again showed a young player some faith, and he was again rewarded. Collins left Smith in to face the left-handed Grace, and Smith delivered with a sacrifice fly to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.
The Nationals chipped into that lead. It surprisingly came from two rookie players with two outs in the eighth. First, it was an Andrew Stevenson double. Then it was an Adrian Sanchez RBI single.
With Murphy coming to the plate as the tying run, Collins went to Jerry Blevins, who got a huge strikeout to end the inning.
In the ninth, Nimmo created a run. He reached with a one out single, and he put himself in scoring position with his first career stolen base. He then scored on a Lagares RBI single making it a 4-1 game.
Even with Familia back from the disabled list, Collins stuck with AJ Ramos as the closer. Even when Ramos struggled, Collins had Paul Sewald warming instead of Familia.
He was greeted with an Adam Lind homer to dead center to make it 4-2.
Things got interesting when Wilmer Difo followed the Lind homer with a double. Ramos then gave us all a heart attack hanging one to Anthony Rendon, who just hit one foul. Instead, he walked Rendon setting up first and second with one out.
Things got really troubling when Ramos walked Matt Wieters to load the bases. For some reason while this was all happening, Collins sat Sewald and had none of his other fifty relievers in his bullpen warming up.
Nimmo came in and would catch a Difo rope, and he made the perfunctory throw home. While that was happening, Rendon strayed too far from second, but Witt the throw home, Rendon had time to get back.
It ultimately didn’t matter as Ramos struck out the final batter of the game to preserve the 4-2 win and deGrom’s 14th win of the year.
Normally, with a game like this, you would leave the game feeling good about the Mets. deGrom was great, and he recorded his 200th strikeout of the season. Nimmo looks like a lead-off hitter reaching base three times, and his stealing his first career base. Lagares’ bat got going. The young Mets beat the Nationals.
However, there is still a hangover with Conforto’s injury and uncertain future. On top of that, Cespedes is once again on the shelf.
Really, this team continues to finds ways to make things more depressing.
Game Notes: For Player’s Weekend, the players were allowed to put nicknames on their jerseys. For the newer call-ups, there apparently wasn’t enough time to get them a nickname jersey. With respect to Nimmo, his choice, “You Found Nimmo” wasn’t permitted due to potential Disney copyright violations.
Back in 2005, Pedro Martinez was having a Cy Young caliber season that was about to be cut short due to a toe injury. From Rick Peterson to Willie Randolph to the training staff, they all agreed with the Mets out of the race, Pedro should shut it down for the rest of the year. However, there was one person that didn’t agree – Jeff Wilpon.
As Pedro would later tell in his the eponymous book “Pedro,” Jeff Wilpon approached him telling him to pitch to help the Mets sell-out a September 22nd game against Dontrelle Willis and the Marlins. Pedro protested leading to an argument where Pedro even offered to give back the rest of his contract. Ultimately, he pitched because, as Wilpon told him, “While I’m the boss here, you’re going to have to do what I say.” (Tyler Kepner, New York Times).
While we can never be sure of the root cause of the injury, this moment resonates as Pedro would suffer a torn rotator cuff making him unavailable for the 2006 postseason. That was one of many what-ifs that happened that year.
Fast forward a decade.
Last year, Steven Matz had what was described as a massive bone spur the team knew needed to be removed surgically. Rather than have the surgery right away, Matz was pumped full of cortisone shots, told to scrap the slider, and pitched until he could no longer pitch. The odd thing is Matz initially didn’t want to go this route.
As Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball reported, “[Matz] was seriously considering surgery, and maybe even leaning that way, before a meeting with the Mets brass.” Sound familiar?
During Spring Training this year, Matz had arm issues, which he self-described as a strained flexor tendon. The team disagreed with an unnamed Mets official with knowledge of Matz’s medical care telling Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record, “Our [doctors] found nothing wrong.”
The answer was once again to pitch through the pain and to abandon the slider. Matz continued to pitch despite his elbow reportedly swelling to the size of a grapefruit.
One thing that is quite notable is a passage from Marc Carig’s Newsday column on the topic, “Matz insisted on powering through, perhaps in defiance of a reputation he’s gained for often being injured. And the Mets proceeded as if he were dealing with inflammation.” More damning was this statement, “One source described a belief by some in the organization that Matz was simply learning to get over the ‘mental hurdle’ of pitching through pain.”
Certainly, this wasn’t the first time we’ve heard people discuss Matz needing to learn the difference between pitching through pain and pitching hurt. Ron Darling has made the point a number of times during games. His manager Terry Collins previously said Matz needed to learn how to pitch through his issues. (Anthony Rieber, Newsday).
Seeing these comments, we should not be surprised the Mets were completely blind-sided by Matz’s recent ulnar nerve injury and need for surgery. It is even less surprising considering the team and team doctors dealt with the same issue with Jacob deGrom.
Seeing this happen time and again, we all look to point the finger at someone. Over the past decade, we have see a change at General Manager, manager, and pitching coach. The Mets have been affiliated with the Hospital for Special Surgery, which is one of the top hospitals in the country. Many will point to Ray Ramirez, but he is actually well-regarded in his field. No, the issue is the Mets organizational culture.
In 2005, they forced Pedro to pitch. In 2010, they were livid Carlos Beltran had knee surgery, which turned out to be a necessary and possibly career saving procedure. Now, they have both pressured Matz to pitch and are surprised by his suffering as a result. Really, the only thing that isn’t surprising is the Mets culture not changing over the past decade. How can it with Jeff Wilpon still calling the shots?
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.