MIke Piazza
Across the National League, there have been a number of standout performances. Consider for a moment that this ballot omits pitchers like Kenta Maeda, Steven Matz, and Junior Guerra. It also doesn’t include the terrific shortstops Trevor Story and Aledmys Diaz. In any other season, each of these players could not only be on the ballot, but they also could win the award. In what was a loaded field, here is my NL Rookie of the Year ballot:
1st – Corey Seager
Short of Jackie Robinson and Mike Piazza, Seager has put together the best rookie season by a Dodgers player. That’s high praise especially when you consider the Dodgers organization has accumulated more Rookie of the Year Awards than any other team in baseball.
Seager was incredible this year leading all rookies in WAR, doubles, and RBI. He was also second in home runs. He was the only rookie in the National League who played enough games to qualify for the batting title. He’s also played a great shortstop with a 10.9 UZR. Overall, there is no knocking his overall game, nor is there any reason to not give him the Rookie of the Year Award
2nd – Trea Turner
It’s one thing to be a well regarded prospect. It’s another thing to come up and show the world why you were a well regarded prospect. It’s a whole other thing to do that while playing out of position.
Given Ben Revere‘s failures in center field, the Nationals had two options to fill-in the position. One was Michael Taylor, who is a well regarded prospect in his own right despite his weak bat, or move your best prospect to center field. The Nationals chose the later, and they really benefited from it.
In 73 games, Turner hit .342/.370/.567 with 14 doubles, eight triples, 13 homers, and 37 RBI. With that, he had a 3.6 WAR, which was the second highest position player WAR accumulated in the non-Seager division. In center field, Turner had a -2 DRS, which means he was slightly below average, which is really remarkable when you consider he had never played an inning in center field before the 2016 season. All of this is even more impressive when you consider Turner did this to help a team win their division.
Given the totality of the circumstances, Turner’s 2016 season might have been the most impressive by any rookie. If not for Seager, it was the best season any rookie had this year.
3rd – Seung-Hwan Oh
Where would the St. Louis Cardinals be this season had they not signed The Final Boss out of the Korean Leagues? For most of the year, the Cardinals team and bullpen has dealt with injuries. Most notably, Trevor Rosenthal went from ineffective to injured in the span of the year. With those issues, the Cardinals needed someone to step up. That person was Oh.
In 74 appearances, Oh showed all of baseball how he earned the nickname The Final Boss. He made 76 appearances going 6-3 with 19 saves, a 1.92 ERA, 0.916 WHIP, 11.6 K/9, 214 ERA+, and a 2.13 FIP. He took over the closer’s job in the beginning of July, and he was converted 19 out of 22 save chances with a 2.27 ERA, 0.958 WHIP, and an 11.3 K/9. Not only was Oh one of the top rookies in baseball this year, he was also one of the best relievers in the game. With that in mind, The Final Boss deserves to be on the Rookie of the Year ballot.
Apparently, the Mets and Nationals being rivals for a whole two seasons has lead a bunch of Mets fans to root for Chase Utley in the NLCS. Yes, rooting for the Dodgers, or against the Nationals, is rooting for Utley. As a Mets fan, I don’t get it. To me the Nationals are the lessor of two evils. Without even getting into the early years of the Mets history where the Dodgers, notably Sandy Koufax, routinely embarassed the Mets, here’s why:
Mike Scioscia grand slam off Dwight Gooden:
Jay Howell is a dirty cheat:
Orel Hershiser effectively ends the best run in Mets history:
Dodgers sign Darryl Strawberry in free agency making him an ex-Met:
And, oh yeah, Bobby Ojeda.
Guillermo Mota hitting Mike Piazza on multiple occasions and always running away when confronted.
Utley breaking Ruben Tejada‘s leg turning a potential sweep into a series:
Also, Utley’s subsequent cowardice ducking in and out of Citi Field and not taking one at-bat at Citi Field.
Speaking of which, everything Utley ever did to the Mets:
Seriously, did you know that other fans refer to the right field corner in Citi Field as the Utley Corner? It is one of the biggest humiliations the Mets have suffered at the hands of Utley and his Phillies teams including the 2007 and 2008 collapses. By the way, also part of those teams was current Dodgers catcher Carlos Ruiz.
So no, there is no circumstance, unless they are playing the Cardinals, that I could ever root for the Dodgers or an Utley led team. It’s why, despite this new massive rivalry the Mets have apparently had stretching all the way back to last year, I’m rooting for the Nationals. Personally, I’d rather have a little bit more perspective on Mets history past and present. Speaking of which, just remember that while Utley was always a thorn in the Mets side, Daniel Murphy was doing this for the Mets last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQQvMmiUooY
So overall, I’m siding with the team that has been a Mets rival for exactly two years and hasn’t done much harm to the Mets as a franchise over a team that put an end to the best run in Mets history, had players who consistently threw at Piazza, and have one of the dirtiest players in baseball.
With the addition of John Olerud and the emergence of Rick Reed, the 1997 Mets made a tremendous leap forward going 88-74 to be a factor in the Wild Card race. However, they would eventually lose out to a Florida Marlins team that was literally built to win the World Series that one season.
After that season, the Marlins disbanded because, as we were first learning out, that’s what the Marlins do when they win. The Mets were one of the main beneficiaries of the the offseason sell-off with them obtaining Al Leiter and Dennis Cook. Then the real boon came when the Marlins had swung a deal with the Dodgers to obtain Mike Piazza to unload a bunch of big contracts. With the Mets struggling, due in large part to Todd Hundley‘s elbow injury, the Mets moved quickly and added Piazza. With a week left in the season, the Mets won to go to 88-68. All the Mets needed to do in the final week of the season was to win one more game to at least force a playoff with the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs for the Wild Card. They didn’t. Once again, finishing the year 88-74 was not good enough for the Wild Card.
Entering the final game of the 2016 season, with the Mets having already clinched the Wild Card, the Mets needed just one more win to finish the year at 88-74.
There was a version of me 20 years younger that wanted to see the Mets get that win to erase some of the bad feelings that an 88-74 record created. It was going to be a difficult task because the Mets objective wasn’t to win this game. The sole objective was to just get through it with everybody healthy so as not to compromise the team for the winner-take-all Wild Card Game this Wednesday at Citi Field.
For starters, it was Gabriel Ynoa who took the mound instead of Noah Syndergaard. Terry Collins would also give an at-bat a piece to Curtis Granderson, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Yoenis Cespedes. Jay Bruce would get two. T.J. Rivera, Jose Reyes, Rene Rivera, and Travis d’Arnaud would not play. This was a full-on keep people fresh and don’t get anyone injured operation.
Ynoa would acquit himself well even if he couldn’t go five. He would only throw 52 pitches in 4.2 innings allowing five hits, one run, one earned, and one walk with two strikeouts. Collins would lift him for Jerry Blevins, who is probably the one Mets reliever who could’ve used some work, to get out of the fifth. At that point, the Phillies were only up 1-0 on a third inning Maikel Franco RBI single.
The Mets would eventually go ahead in this game making the 88-74 season a reality. In the sixth, Matt Reynolds doubled, and he would score on an Alejandro De Aza RBI singles. In the seventh, Kelly Johnson hit a leadoff single, and he would score on a Kevin Plawecki two out RBI double.
The lead would not last long as the Phillies went to work against Erik Goeddel in the bottom of the seventh. After an Andres Blanco single, an Aaron Altherr walk, and a Lucas Duda throwing error, the Phillies loaded the bases with no outs. Cesar Hernandez brought home the first two runs on an RBI single, and then Jimmy Paredes knocked in the third run of the inning with a sacrifice fly. That Paerdes sacrifice fly was an extra base hit if anyone other than Juan Lagares was manning center field. Lagares once again reminded everyone that he is the best fielding center fielder in baseball, and that if he can at least manage one at-bat per game, he needs to be on the postseason roster.
The Phillies then added a run in the eighth off Jim Henderson to make the game 5-2. That would be the final score of a game where both teams reached their primary objective. The Phillies were able to provide a fitting send-off for Ryan Howard removing him from the game in the eighth so he could leave to a standing ovation. The Mets just got through the game without suffering any injuries, and also got much needed reps for Duda and Lagares.
The Mets weren’t able to get that final win to erase the angst of the past when 88 wins just wasn’t good enough for the postseason. Ironically, 87 was good enough this year. With those 87 wins, the Mets put the capper on a mostly frustrating season. However, in the end, they were able to go to make consecutive postseason appearances for only the second time in their history. When viewed through that prism, this was a successful and enjoyable season.
Back on September 25, 2004, everyone was reminded how the bottom division clubs love to play spoiler, and how the teams that seemingly have nothing to play for are the most dangerous of all.
Entering the final week of the regular season, the reigning National League Central Division Champs, the Dusty Baker led Chicago Cubs, had a two game lead in the Wild Card standings and a fairly easy schedule in front of them to close it out. First, it was the 90 loss Mets followed by the 90 loss Reds, and then finally a Braves team that would have clinched and have nothing to play for in the final week of the season.
That 2004 Mets team simply wasn’t good. It was a mixture of players like Mike Piazza, who was past his prime, and players like David Wright, who were not quite ready to become the stars they would eventually become. They were lead by a manager in Art Howe, who had become a lame duck manager that was going to be fired at the end of the season. However, that didn’t mean that 2004 Mets team didn’t have anything to play for in the final days of the regular season.
Naturally, you would have expected the Cubs to roll over this Mets team because the Cubs had everything to play for, and this Mets team was playing out the string. That certainly seemed true as the Cubs carried a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth against the Mets. At that point, the Mets who had something to play for began to go to work. Eric Valent and Jason Phillips, both of whom were trying to show they could be everyday major league players drew walks against Ryan Dempster necessitating Dusty Baker to bring on his closer LaTroy Hawkins. Hawkins was rudely greeted by Chicago native, Victor Diaz, who was a Cubs fan growing up.
The Mets had acquired Diaz in 2003 in the Jeromy Burnitz trade. The Mets organization was understandably excited about player that was nicknamed “Baby Manny” after Manny Ramirez. On this day, Diaz would show everyone how he got that nickname as he launced a game tying three run opposite field homer off Hawkins. In the bottom of the 11th, the Mets would again shock the Cubs when Craig Brazell, an interesting power hitting first base prospect, hit a walk off home run against Kent Merker.
That Mets win would begin a Cubs downward spiral that saw them finish the year 2-7 and two games behind the Giants for the Wild Card. The Cubs were beat by a group of Mets players that still had something to play for in what was a lost Mets season. This is a good reminder for a Mets team heading into Philadelphia to face what could be a dangerous Phillies team.
The Phillies are already talking tough with catcher Cameron Rupp saying, “his is the last time all these guys in this clubhouse will be together. Just go out and finish hard. A lot can happen in four days. We can ruin somebody else’s season.” (Philly.com).
The Phillies have the right mindset showing they can be a dangerous team this weekend. They’re going to start young pitchers with something to prove in Alec Asher and Jerod Eickoff. They have Ryan Howard who continuously hits long home runs against the Mets. They even have Tyler Goeddel, who would probably love to stick it to his older brother Erik Goeddel. Lastly, the Phillies have a manger in Peter Mackanin, who is trying to make a case that he should continue to be the Phillies manager.
Believe it or not, the Phillies have lot to play for this weekend. The Mets cannot take them lightly. Starting with Bartolo Colon, the Mets have to go out there and just crush what Rupp has indicated could be a feisty Phillies team. The Mets are better, and they just need to take care of business. If they don’t, they may fall victim to their own Diaz and Brazell homers, and they still could find themselves on the outside looking in come this postseason.
When I first heard about the show Pitch, I have to admit I was rooting for the show to succeed. I’m a baseball junkie, and I like everything about baseball. While I don’t have an overt interest in the sport’s popularity, anything that helps increase the profile of the sport and draws more fans to it is a good thing. When I found out Zack Morris was going to star in the show, I really wanted the show to succeed. After hearing some negative reviews, I watched the first episode with some trepidation.
For starters, let’s note that this show has a greater chance to succeed because it is on Fox. Due to Fox’s relationship with MLB, you get to have more bells and whistles than other shows. Additionally, with their Fox Sports Network personalities, you get to have real sports talkers offer sports opinions like they would on their own shows. It’s also called cross-promotion. Right off the bat, we get snippets from Colin Cowherd and Katie Nolan giving their monologues about Ginny Baker (Kylie Bunbury). Reactions to her first start would be woven through the show.
With it being on Fox, you also get John Buck and John Smoltz announcing her first ever game. One thing I noted, aside from Buck’s and Smoltz’s reactions being really forced, wasthis seemed like an unusually subdued Fox coverage of the game. As someone who watches baseball incessantly, I was expecting to see Kevin Burkhardt leading MLB Whiparound with Frank Thomas and Dontrelle Willis. I expected to see Ken Rosenthal with a pink bowtie (fundraising for breast cancer) interviewing the manager Al Luongo (Dan Lauria) or the All Star catcher, face of the franchise Mike Lawson (Mark-Paul Gosselaar). I understand this is a TV show, but if you want the hardcore fan like me to buy it as a baseball show, these are the bells and whistles that are expected. In reality, this show isn’t for the diehard baseball fan. This show really uses baseball and having the first female in a men’s professional sport as a vehicle to draw people to watch a drama.
That really became clear when you saw Baker throw her first pitch. Her pitching ability was vastly similar to Tony Danza in Angels in the Outfield or Gary Busey in Rookie of the Year; that is, it wasn’t good. The difference between those movies and this series was the baseball is supposed to be believable. With her rotation, it just wasn’t.
You can normally brush that aside, but they really went out of their way to make it believable. There was Fox rolling out Buck and Smoltz to do the broadcast. There was a scene with her father telling her she needed to learn the screwball because no woman could compete with men without learning a trick pitch. Most baseball fans would have assumed a woman would need to throw a knuckleball, but having watched John Franco‘s career, I could buy a woman succeeding in the majors with a screwball. What I couldn’t buy was someone with her pitching motion succeeding in the major leagues.
That means that ultimately this show is going to rise or fall as a drama. That was a mixed bag.
Instead of an agent, we see Baker going with a publicist (played by Ali Larter) over a superagent like a Scott Boras. First off, this was another hit to the credibility of the show. Secondly, the interactions Larter had with team brass and the like seemed slightly over the top. As did the flirting between her and the general manager (Mark Consuelos).
Where the show settled in was the baseball interactions. There was a funny exchange with Lawson regarding whether or not a teammate can slap her on the butt like they would any other teammate. There was the team owner giving Baker the number 43 because it was one higher than Jackie Robinson‘s 42. There was the discussion among the manager and the front office about this being a sideshow. There was also the discussion in the clubhouse about not letting Baker’s call-up be a distraction and letting the team go out there and win some games. Finally, there was the Bull Durham type moment between Baker and Lawson on the mound in her second start. Overall, while the baseball part of the show failed, the talk surrounding the baseball played worked well.
Where the show truly worked was the interactions between Baker and her father (Michael Beach). Like most Dads, he wants to see his son become a professional athlete. With him having failed in the minors as a pitcher, he wants his son to be a big leaguer. When he quickly realizes his son doesn’t have it, he pours all of his attention into making his daughter a major league pitcher. You see flashbacks with him fighting to get her a shot and with him driving her to become a better athlete. Watching the show reminded me of the interactions Mike Piazza described having with his dad growing up in his autobiography Long Shot.
In sum, Pitch worked as a drama using baseball as a vehicle so long as you did not have to watch any of the baseball being played. Ultimately, while I was disappointed with different aspects of the show, there was enough there to justify tuning in for the second episode. Hopefully, it will go as well as Baker’s second effort did against the Giants.
With the Mets off tonight, it might be a good opportunity to catch Pitch as its second episode airs tonight at 9:00 on Fox.
Growing up, my family did not always go to Opening Day. It was sometimes difficult for my Dad to get off of work, and even if he could, we had my mother insisting that my brother and I could not miss a day of school just to go to a Mets game. What eventually happened is that my father, brother, and I usually found ourselves going to the last game of the season, which usually falls on a Sunday.
When you go to Opening Day, there is always hope. Even when your team stinks, you can find some reason for hope. I remember thinking back in 1993 that the 1992 Mets season was just a fluke. Bobby Bonilla was certainly going to be better. Howard Johnson was back in the infield where he belonged. This could be the year Todd Hundley and Jeff Kent break out. The team still had Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez, and Bret Saberhagen with John Franco in the bullpen. It turns out the 1993 team was even worse than the 1992 team.
The last game of the season always has an interesting feel to it. When we went to the final game of the season, it was more of a farewell to an awful season. Being ever the optimist, we still had hope for a bright future with Pete Schourek throwing eight brillant innings to cap off a Mets six game winning streak. It seemed like 1994 was going to be a big year in baseball. It was, but that’s a whole other story.
There was the devastating 2007 finale. Heading into that game, most Mets fans believed that despite the epic collapse, the Mets were going to take care of the Marlins. They just snapped a five game losing streak behind a brilliant John Maine performance and the offense coming alive to score 13 runs. Even better, the Phillies seemed to be feeling the pressure a bit with them getting shut down by Matt Chico and a terrible Marlins team. The sense was if the Mets won this game, the Phillies would feel the pressure and lose their game. Even if the Phillies won their game, the Mets would beat the Phillies and return to the postseason like everyone expected.
After Tom Glavine laid an egg, which included out and out throwing a ball into left field trying to get Cody Ross, who was going to third on the original throw to home. At 5-0, the Mets were still in the game. David Wright was having a torrid September. Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran were big game players. I don’t think Moises Alou made an out that entire month. With that in mind, I turned to my father, and I said to him, “If the Mets allow one more run, the game is over . . . .” As the words left my mouth, Jorge Soler allowed a two run double to Dan Uggla. Sure, they would play eight and a half more innings, but the collapse was over right then and there.
That 2007 finale hung over the 2008 finale. Mets fans were probably a bit more optimistic than they had a right to be. The day before Johan Santana took the ball with three days rest, and he pitched a complete game three hitter. The Mets had Oliver Perez going in the finale. Back then, this was considered a good thing. The offense was clicking again. However, that bullpen was just so awful. The Mets were relying on Luis Ayala to close out games, and believe it or not, his 5.05 ERA and 1.389 WHIP was considered a steadying presence to an injury ravaged bullpen. Beltran would hit a huge home run to tie the game, but the joy wouldn’t last. Jerry Manuel, just an awful manager, turned to Scott Schoeneweis to gave up the winning home run to Wes Helms (Mets killer no matter what uniform he wore), and then aforementioned Ayala gave up another one that inning to Uggla to seal the deal at 4-2.
Fittingly, the last out was made by Ryan Church. He was the same Mets player the Mets flew back and forth to the West Coast despite him having a concussion. Remember the days when the Mets didn’t handle injuries well? Nevermind. In any event, I was one of the few that stayed to watch Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza close out Shea Stadium. Many disagree, but I thought it helped.
Last year, was just a celebration. The Mets had already clinched the NL East, and they were off to their first postseason since 2006. The only thing left was the Mets winning one more game to get to 90 wins. The 90 wins was window dressing, but the shift from 89 to 90 is just so satisfying. It means more than 86 to 87 wins or 88 to 89 wins. That 90 win mark is an important threshold for the psyche of teams and fans.
This year was something different altogether. In terms of pure baseball, the Mets entered the day tied with the Giants for the first Wild Card with the Cardinals just a half a game behind (tied in the loss column). The night before the Mets had seen Sean Gilmartin and Rafael Montero combine to put the team in a 10-0 hole that the Las Vegas 51s just couldn’t quite pull them out from under. Still, that rally had created some buzz as did Robert Gsellman starting the game. However, there was the shock of the Jose Fernandez news that muted some of the pregame buzz.
After the moment of silence, there was a game to be played, and it was just pure Mets dominance.
Gsellman would pitch seven shutout innings allowing just three hits and two walks with eight strikeouts. More amazing than that was the fact that he actually got a bunt single. For a player that can only bunt due to an injury to his non-pitching shoulder, the Phillies sure acted surprised by the play. Overall, it was a great day by Gsellman who was helped out by the Mets offense and a little defense along the way:
It was that type of day for the Mets. After Saturday’s pinch hit home run there was a Jay Bruce sighting again on Sunday. On the day, he was 2-4 with two runs and a double. It was easily the best game he had as a Met. His second inning double would start the rally that ended with James Loney hitting an RBI groundout. Then, as Cousin Brucey would say, “the hits just keep on comin’!” No, that was not just an allusion to the Phillies pitchers who hit three batters in the game. It refers to the Mets offense.
Curtis Granderson hit a fourth inning solo shot to make it 2-0. It was his 30th of the year making it the first time the Mets have had a pair of 30 home run outfielders since, really who even knows? In the fifth, T.J. Rivera plated a run with an RBI single. Later in the fifth, Jose Reyes would the first of his two RBI bases loaded walks. Overall, the big blow would come in the seventh off the bat of Asdrubal Cabrera:
Asdrúbal does not believe in taking his foot off the gas pedal. #GrandSlam #LGM https://t.co/ruyz0Y7Ioh pic.twitter.com/ejUGq7vIRW
— New York Mets (@Mets) September 26, 2016
The grand slam put the capper on not just the game, but a pretty remarkable season at home where the Mets were 44-37 on the season. The Mets also hit 193 homers at home, which was the most ever hit at Citi Field, and more than any the Mets ever hit at Shea Stadium in any one season:
The final home game of the season is over, here are the all 193 home runs hit in Citi Field this season. pic.twitter.com/KHfkv3lXFP
— CitiFieldHR (@CitiFieldHR) September 25, 2016
In the eighth, the Mets just poured it on with some of the 51s getting into the game. Gavin Cecchini was hit by a pitch, Brandon Nimmo and Ty Kelly walked, and Eric Campbell got another RBI pinch hit. Throw in a Michael Conforto two RBI double, and the Mets would win 17-0. Exiting Citi Field, you got the sense this was not the last time you would see this team at home. As it stands now, the Mets back to being a game up on the Giants, and the Cardinals fell to 1.5 games back.
There haven’t been many final games to the season like this one, and I’m not sure there ever will be. Overall, it was a great way to close out the regular season at Citi Field. However, for right now, it is not good-bye like it was in 1993, and it certainly isn’t good riddance like it was in 2007. Rather, this game had more of a feeling of, “See you again soon.”
Last night, with the Mets trailing 8-6 in the 11th inning, Asdrubal Cabrera not only hit a walk-off three run homer, he also had a bat flip for the ages:
It reminds you of epic bat flip we saw last postseason.
With the NLDS between the Mets and the Dodgers tied at one apiece, Yoenis Cespedes hit a three run bomb to left to blow Game Three open:
So that begs the question, which bat flip was better?
For me, it may be recency bias, it may be the utter celebration involved, but Cabrera wins this round in my mind. While Cespedes’ was in the NLDS, Cabrera’s was a game-winner in a game the Mets absolutely had to have.
Honorable Mention should go to Mike Piazza for this mammoth shot against the Yankees in what was an incredible back-and-forth game:
Today is the 15th Anniversary of the most important home run ever hit:
Thank you Mike Piazza.
Back in 1998, a Mike Piazza led Mets team was in prime position for the Wild Card. They were one game up on the Cubs with five home games left in the season. First up was the 97 loss Montreal Expos followed by the clinched a long time ago Atlanta Braves. The Mets wouldn’t win another game.
In the process, the Mets would finish one game behind the Chicago Cubs AND the San Francisco Giants. Behind Steve Trachsel, the Cubs would win the Wild Card in the one game playoff. The Mets would stay at home watching as they couldn’t beat a bad team or the Braves.
That and tonight’s game is a reminder that the Mets have not locked up one of the Wild Card spots.
Simply put, Noah Syndergaard was not good tonight. He only lasted 3.2 innings allowing eight hits and five earned. It didn’t matter that he was throwing his fastball over 100 MPH and his slider was back to 95 MPH. He wasn’t locating, and the Braves were hitting him.
As usual, it was Freddie Freeman who killed the Mets. He homered in the third to make it 3-0. He then effectively knocked Syndergaard out if the game with a two run double in the fourth.
Conversely, the Mets weren’t hitting. The sum of their offense through the first eight innings was a T.J. Rivera two run homer off Braves starter Aaron Blair. This was the same Blair that entered the game 0-6 with an 8.23 ERA and a 1.774 WHIP.
Simply put, the Mets offense laid an egg. Still, the Mets were only down 5-2 after the Rivera homer. The game was within striking distance.
Josh Edgin and Hansel Robles would combine in the seventh to put the game out of reach. Edgin, in his second inning of work, would load the bases. Robles came on in relief, and he allowed a Dansby Swanson two run bloop single to left making it 7-2.
By the way, Swanson is becoming an annoying Brave. He opened the scoring in the second with an RBI single in addition to the aforementioned two RBI single. Overall, he was 3-5 with one run, three RBI, and one stolen base.
The Mets did get something going on the ninth. Michael Conforto led off with a single. Ender Inciarte then misplayed a James Loney line drive single into an RBI double. The Mets had something brewing. It ended when Terry Collins turned to Ty Kelly and Jay Bruce to pinch hit for Kevin Plawecki and Rafael Montero respectively.
Kelly struck out looking and Bruce popped out to right. After a Jose Reyes popped out to left to make the final out, the Mets have given the Giants and Cardinals an opportunity to cut into the Mets narrow lead in the Wild Card race.
Game Notes: Loney was 3-4 with an RBI double. Curtis Granderson was 3-4 with a run. As a team the Mets were 0-7 with runners in scoring position.