Jon Niese
For some reason or other, the Mets went with an injured and bad Jon Niese over a healthy and ready Robert Gsellman. One thing was for certain, no matter who started, the Mets needed an early lead and hold on.
The Mets just did that. Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera led off the game with back-to-back singles, and then they pulled off a double steal. Cleanup hitter Wilmer Flores then hit a three run homer to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.
Niese would give it right back even with Ron Darling saying, “Don’t shoot the messenger, but Niese is 55-3 with a three run lead.”
Niese allowed three of the first batters to reach base narrowing the lead to 3-1. Then his knee became too much for him. Terry Collins then went to Gsellman with one out and runners on first and second. Gsellman was greeted by a Yadier Molina game tying RBI double.
Gsellman would escape the first without allowing another run. Gsellman would be in trouble most of the night, but he would bend but not break. He was really helped by some terrific Mets defense.
Asdrubal is a vacuum. #LGM #Mets 6-3 | End 4 pic.twitter.com/ttHR8efTAK
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 24, 2016
Even with the struggles, Gsellman would earn his first win in his first ever game. His final line was 3.2 innings, two hits, no runs, none earned, three walks, and two strikeouts.
Gsellman was in line for the win as the Mets offense responded immediately to losing the lead. Travis d’Arnaud would hit a one out single and move to second on a Gsellman sacrifice bunt. Reyes then singled him home as it seems every time d’Arnaud finda his way into scoring position, Reyes singles him home. Cabrera then doubled home Reyes to make it a 5-3 game.
Justin Ruggiano effectively closed the book on Cardinals Jaime Garcia with a monster home run:
Garcia only lasted four innings himself in taking the loss allowing seven hits, six runs, six earned, and one walk with six strikeouts.
Things calmed down once it became a battle of the bullpens. Alexander Reyes flashed his dominant stuff shutting the Mets down over 2.1 innings.
Josh Smoker pitched two tension filled innings, but he only allowed one run on a monster Randal Grichuk solo homer in the sixth. There wouldn’t be another as Yoenis Cespedes robbed Stephen Piscotty of a homer:
It was an even bigger play when you consider Cespedes seemingly tweaked his quad chasing down a liner in the first.
In the seventh, Jerry Blevins and his tight firearm left a runner on with one out. Jim Henderson would then make his first appearance since coming off the DL. He got the Mets out of the inning, and he punctuated it by striking out Jedd Gyorko looking to end the inning.
Like every other Mets pitcher, Addison Reed pitched into trouble, but he got out of it unscathed. Jeurys Familia was the only one of the Mets seven pitchers to have a 1-2-3 inning in recording his 42nd save.
At least for one night, the Mets and Cardinals switched places. The Cardinals were 2-10 with RISP leaving 11 men on base. The Mets were 5-10 with RISP including a James Loney ninth inning RBI single to make it 7-4.
The Mets have finally won three in a row since the All Star Break. The Mets are now 3.5 games back of the Cardinals in the race for the second Wild Card.
Game Notes: Neil Walker missed the game as he is on paternity leave. His wife gave birth to a baby girl, Nora Vail Walker. T.J. Rivera is taking his spot until he returns. Curtis Granderson didn’t start with the lefty starter. Jay Bruce would go 0-5 with two strikeouts. He is now two for his last 22.
Pennant Race: The Marlins lost to the Royals 1-0. The Nationals lost to the Orioles 8-1. The Pirates beat the Astros 7-1.
Hopefully, the Mets will be in peak defensive form as the team is going to send Jon Niese to the mound in a critical three game set in St. Louis. How did we get to this point?
Plain and simple, a mixture of bad luck and bad planning. Niese was never supposed to be a Met in 2016. The Mets traded him for Neil Walker, and with his reasonably affordable option years, it was presumed that he would be a Pirate through the 2018 season. However, Niese was horrendous this season leaving the Pirates to demote him to the bullpen. They were clearly going to let him walk after the season was over. Fortunately for the Pirates, they were able to get rid of him even sooner.
The Mets had to contend with Matt Harvey‘s season ending surgery which left a hole in the rotation Logan Verrett couldn’t quite fill. Despite know this, the Mets kept turning to Verrett as they did not trust Gabriel Ynoa, Robert Gsellman, or Seth Lugo. Sean Gilmartin went down with a shoulder injury. Additionally, the Mets had the under-performing Antonio Bastardo in the bullpen. The Mets were probably the one team who could use Niese as a bullpen arm and/or a possible fifth starter. They were probably also the one team that believed they could salvage Niese.
As it turns out, the Mets desperately needed Niese. Verrett couldn’t handle being the fifth starter. Ynoa appeared as if the wasn’t ready in his short stint in the Mets bullpen. Gsellman isn’t putting up great numbers in AAA. Worst of all, Steven Matz was just diagnosed with a mild rotator cuff strain. It is quite possible the Mets will need to not only replace Harvey, but also Matz for the rest of the season. That will put Seth Lugo in the rotation. It also means the Mets will have to keep Niese in the rotation for the remainder of the season.
It’s strange to think about it. Niese was the first pitcher removed from the rotation last season. The Mets seemingly wanted to get rid of him. Now? Now, he is a key part of a rotation that is taking the ball to start what is the Mets most critical series to date.
Niese has his fair share of detractors due to his struggles and his inability to accept any blame for his poor pitching. Detractors could also be synonymous with Mets fans in this case. With a big finish to the season, Niese can win over a large group of Mets fans. That all begins tonight.
Somehow, some way, the Niese are relying on Jon Niese yet again. It’s strange how it came to this point, but here we all are. Let’s hope Niese makes the best of it because if the does, the Mets will return to the postseason.
Overall, if you want to excuse the Mets performance due to injuries, there’s merit to the argument. However, don’t let that excuse away Terry Collins’ and Sandy Alderson’s performance. They chose to go with players have established they can’t do it instead of giving other players a legitimate opportunity.
On the Fourth of July, Matt Harvey made his last start of the season. Despite Harvey’s understandably poor performance, he left behind a gaping hole in the rotation the Mets didn’t fill.
First, the Mets went with Logan Verrett. In seven starts, Verrett went 0-3 with a 7.18 ERA and a 1.541 WHIP while only averaging five innings per start. He then lost his job to “fan favorite” Jon Niese who had been demoted to the bullpen by the Pirates before being traded to the Mets. In his lone start, Niese pitched 4.2 innings allowing four hits, four earned, and two walks with six strikeouts.
Combined, Verrett and Niese were 0-4 with a 7.30 ERA and a 1.524 WHIP. Last night, Seth Lugo walked off the mound after 6.2 terrific innings having only allowed seven hits, one run, one earned, and one walk with three strikeouts. He’d leave being two base runners that Jerry Blevins would allow to score.
When David Wright and Lucas Duda went down with season ending injuries, the Mets first turned to Eric Campbell who hit .159/.270/.222 with one double, one homer, and five RBI.
Next up was Matt Reynolds, who not only helped fill-in for Wright, but also provide some days off for Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera. Reynolds hit .211/.231/.382 with seven doubles, two homers, and 11 RBI.
Next up was Ty Kelly. As an infielder, Kelly is hitting .227/.292/.364 with one homer and three RBI.
Combined, Campbell, Reynolds, and Kelly have hit .191/.264/.315 with eight doubles, four homers, and 19 RBI. These are the options the Mets went with while making excuses why T.J. Rivera shouldn’t be called-up to the majors. When Rivera finally fot his shot, he hit .355/.344/.419 with two doubles and three RBI in nine games.
So yes, injuries have impacted the Mets. However, who they chose to replace those injured players had a similar negative impact. The Mets would’ve been much better with a healthy Harvey, Wright, and Duda. It’s possible they would’ve been over .500 and in the Wild Card race if they had given Lugo and Rivera a shot earlier.
Well Jon Niese‘s first start since returning to the Mets went about as well as you expected it would go.
Niese’s defense failed him in the fourth with the Rickie Weeks and Yasmany Tomas homers turning a 1-0 lead into a 3-1 deficit. Niese wouldn’t make it through the fifth departing with two outs in the inning and a runner on second. His final line would be 4.2 innings, four hits, four runs, four earned, two walks and six strikeouts.
Terry Collins then turned to Erik Goeddel because he obsessively and compulsively overworks relievers with arm issues – just ask Jim Henderson. In a shock to no one but Collins the overworked Goeddel was wholly ineffective needing to be bailed out by Seth Lugo, who was the only effective pitcher in the night. Goeddel recorded no outs while allowing two hits (including a Weeks homer), two runs, two walks, and no strikeouts.
For the crowd suggesting Gabriel Ynoa should’ve started over Niese (myself included), Ynoa certainly didn’t make his case tonight. He pitched one inning allowing two hits, three runs, three earned, and one walk with no strikeouts.
Josh Edgin was similarly bad. His final line was one inning, two hits, four runs, four earned, two walks, and one strikeout. He gave up a long homer to Tomas is the eighth.
Overall, Mets pitching was horrendous allowing 13 earned runs.
Perhaps the only thing worse than the pitching was the offense. Through the first seven innings, the Mets only mustered one hit off Zack Godley, and that was Jose Reyes single to leadoff the game. Reyes would score later that inning on a wild pitch.
Godley’s final line was 7.1 innings, two hits, two runs, two earned, two walks, and four strikeouts. To be fair, Godley did enter the game 3-2 with a 5.24 ERA and a 1.366 WHIP.
After Curtis Granderson and Rene Rivera applied some lipstick to this pig of a game with a couple of homers, the Mets lost the game 13-5.
Worse than the pitching and the hitting is just the Mets play in general. They have gone 1-5 against the Diamondbacks, and they have gone 3-6 in the easiest nine game stretch on the schedule. It’s why the Mets are back to .500, and are now four games out in the Wild Card race.
Game Notes: Neil Walker missed his second straight game with a back injury. Jay Bruce had a RBI double in the eighth. He is no longer the major league RBI leader.
Pennant Race: The Cardinals beat the Astros 8-2. The Nationals lost to the Rockies 12-10. The Pirates beat the Giants 6-5. The Dodgers beat the Phillies 7-2. The Marlins lost to the Reds 3-2.
With the Mets finally admitting that Logan Verrett was not capable of being the team’s fifth starter for the rest of the season, the Mets had to make a decision on who should be the fifth starter for the rest of the year.
Seemingly, there were a few options. The first was Robert Gsellman who has made significant strides this year in the minors, but is struggling in AAA going 1-5 with a 5.70 ERA and a 1.406 WHIP. The other option was Seth Lugo, who has pitched fairly well out of the Mets bullpen, but he has not been fully stretched out. There was also Gabriel Ynoa, who entered the season as the Mets top rated pitching prospect in AAA as the year began. Ynoa started the year strong, but he pitched to a 6.64 ERA in June and July this year.
Given the fact that the younger Mets arms didn’t seem ready, it is no surprise the Mets turned to recently acquired Jon Niese to be the new fifth starter. Niese has been horrendous this year, but with Dan Warthen as his pitching coach, Niese has been a .500 pitcher with a 3.95 ERA and a 1.365 WHIP. These are not great numbers, but these are numbers that you can live with from your fifth starter.
However, what is surprising was the Mets calling up Ynoa to be the long man in the bullpen. First and foremost, Lugo has done a good job as the long man in the Mets bullpen. In his seven appearances, Lugo has pitched 13.2 innings with a 2.63 ERA and an 0.878 WHIP. More than that, Lugo is actually a reliever. Due to his own struggles in AAA, Lugo was demoted to the bullpen where he was used as a reliever. Lugo has actually made appearances in back-to-back games and appeared in a number of different scenarios.
Ynoa hasn’t. Before being called up to the majors, Ynoa last made a relief apperance on August 26th of last year. In that relief appearance, Ynoa was on regular rest, and he pitched two innings after a Steven Matz rehab start. Prior to that Ynoa last made a relief appearance as an 18 year old pitching in the Gulf Coast League. It should be noted that in those three relief appearances, Ynoa was piggybacking the starting pitcher. In essence, Ynoa has never truly been a relief pitcher in his entire professional career.
That didn’t stop the Mets from making him one for the first time in the majors. Not only that, it didn’t stop Terry Collins from using Ynoa in back-to-back games. That is all the more startling when you consider the fact that Ynoa HAS NEVER pitched in back-to-back games in his professional career. This is no way to treat a 23 year old pitcher who very well could be a part of the Mets rotation within the next year or two.
If the Mets truly believed he was ready to get called-up to the majors, it is hard to dispute that especially seeing how poised he was on the mound in his first two appearances. However, with that said, if you’re calling him up, why not put him in the rotation and leave Niese in the bullpen where he has had some experience and some success? It’s not like Niese is fully stretched out, and it’s not like Niese has exactly earned the opportunity especially since Niese was given the rotation spot AFTER allowing six earned runs in an inning.
Instead of doing the obvious, the Mets are putting Niese in the rotation and Ynoa in the bullpen. It doesn’t make any sense.
Somewhere, someone is giving Terry Collins and his rant yesterday credit for helping inject this lifeless Mets team with some fight. Those people are mistaken.
The game started ugly. Logan Verrett immediately loaded the bases by allowing a hit and issuing two walks. Then Dan Warthen made a mound visit and for some reason or other told Verrett to throw the grand slam pitch to Ryan Schimpf. Verrett obliged. Then for good measure he gave up a homer to Jabari Blash.
Before there was an out in the game the Mets were down 5-0.
Travis d’Arnaud tried to start the comeback by hitting a two run homer in the bottom of the second. Overall, d’Arnaud had a great night going 3-4 with two runs, two RBI, abd a homer. and throwing out a baserunner. Still, pointing out d’Arnaud had a great night is like saying the Hindenburg was a nice looking Zepplin.
Verrett made sure d’Arnaud’s effort went to waste immediately surrendering three runs in the third off another Schimpf homer and a Christian Bethancourt solo shot. 8-2 Padres.
Why Collins allowed Verrett to continue pitching is stupefying. The Mets demoted Michael Conforto to recall the long man Seth Lugo. The explanation was yesterday’s hero, Jon Niese, had a bum knee. However, you can’t discount the Mets punishing Conforto for having the audacity to have a tough year with an injured wrist and a manager giving him inconsistent playing time.
In any event, Collins allowed Verrett to effectively put the game out if reach before turning to Lugo. Verrett’s final line was 2.2 innings, six hits, eight runs, eight earned, three walks, and four strikeouts.
The Mets mustered a rally in the sixth. A Matt Reynolds RBI double, Ty Kelly RBI single, and a Wilmer Flores RBI groundout pulled the Mets to 8-6. Before the Flores groundout, Curtis Granderson had a chance to tie the game with a homer and struck out. With two outs, Neil Walker was in the same situation, and he geounded out to end the inning and the rally.
It’s the last time the Mets mounted much of an fight. It also marked the end of the days of the Mets being .500 or better.
The Mets lost 9-0. Seriously, what do you need to know about a game in which the Mets seemingly didn’t even bother? That’s right, you should know where to direct your anger. Here’s the starting lineup:
- Alejandro De Aza (CF) 1-4, 2 K
- Neil Walker (2B) 1-3
- Jay Bruce (RF) 0-3
- James Loney (1B) 0-4, GIDP
- Kelly Johnson (LF) 0-2, BB, K
- Michael Conforto (RF) 0-3, K
- Rene Rivera (C)1-3
- Matt Reynolds (SS) 1-3, K
And the pitchers:
- Noah Syndergaard (L, 9-7) 5.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, BB, 6 K
- Jon Niese 1.0 IP, 3 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
- Josh Edgin 1.2 IP, H, 0 R, 0 ER, BB, 2 K
- Jerry Blevins 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, K
Just pick any of the above to direct you ire. Don’t forget the subs, Ty Kelly (0-1), Curtis Granderson (0-1, K), T.J. Rivera (1-2), and Wilmer Flores (0-1).
By the way, the Diamondbacks were 4/4 in stolen base attempts.
Don’t forget the manager, Terry Collins, who made his latest entry into the case as to why he should be fired.
Game Notes: This team stinks, and it was swept at home by the Diamondbacks.
Pennant Race: Reserved for teams over .500.