Seth Lugo

Mets 2020 Roster Without Brodie Van Wagenen

For all his bravado, Brodie Van Wagenen has not only stripped the farm system down, but he did it while impinging the Major League roster’s ability to compete for a World Series. To put it in perspective, let’s just look at what the Mets roster would look like right now if Van Wagenen only kept the Mets players in the organization had he not taken the job, or, if he did nothing.

Some caveats here. This assumes free agents were re-signed. Without the Robinson Cano deal, that would’ve been possible. Also, it assumes the same players who are injured for the season would remain injured. Finally, this will eliminate those players not on active 28 man rosters. With that in mind, here’s what the 2020 Mets would’ve looked like.

Lineup

C Travis d’Arnaud

1B Dominic Smith

2B Jeff McNeil

3B Todd Frazier

SS Amed Rosario

LF Brandon Nimmo

CF Juan Lagares

RF Michael Conforto

DH Pete Alonso

Bench

C Kevin Plawecki

INF Wilmer Flores

1B/OF Jay Bruce

INF Luis Guillorme

Starting Rotation

RHP Jacob deGrom

RHP Zack Wheeler

LHP Steven Matz

LHP Anthony Kay

LHP David Peterson

Bullpen

RHP Seth Lugo

RHP Rafael Montero

RHP Justin Dunn

RHP Robert Gsellman

RHP Drew Smith

LHP Blake Taylor

RHP Bobby Wahl

LHP Daniel Zamora

RHP Paul Sewald

RHP Franklyn Kilome

This isn’t set in stone. The Mets could’ve opted for one fewer reliever for Andres Gimenez. On the subject of top 100 prospects, the Mets also would’ve still had Jarred Kelenic.

Looking at the team overall, the starting pitching is vastly superior as is the team defense. The bullpen may not be as deep, but they certainly have the arms.

Overall, this non-Van Wagenen impacted roster would’ve certainly been better than the 9-14 team his Mets roster is. This just goes to show you how bad of a GM Van Wagenen is.

He’s made the Mets worse in 2020, and he’s made the Mets future less promising. You could not have done a worse job than Van Wagenen has done.

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Wilson Ramos Cannot Be Allowed To Cost The Mets Another Game

There’s many reasons to pinpoint why the Mets lost this game in excruciating fashion to the Phillies. That’s the way excruciatingly losses go.

There’s having to start Walker Lockett because Jacob deGrom was scratched from today’s start with a neck issue. Lockett then made one of his better MLB starts, which was still bad.

There was the Mets going 2-for-16 with RISP leaving 10 runners on base.

There was Billy Hamilton‘s TOOBLAN off all TOOBLANs when he cleanly stole second, took off for third, and was easily thrown out.

Despite all that, it was tied 5-5 heading into the bottom of the ninth. Seth Lugo, who hadn’t pitched in five days, wasn’t sharp allowing the first two to reach.

Bryce Harper singled, and Michael Conforto made a perfect throw home. It was well in advance of Roman Quinn.

What ensued was the absolute worst attempt at a tag. Seriously, Wilson Ramos should be embarrassed, and frankly, he owes his teammates an apology for costing the game. It was that bad.

You don’t want to accuse someone of not trying. However, you really should question what Ramos was doing there. You should also ask why the apparent lack of a sense of urgency.

While we’re asking questions about the catcher who went 1-for-5 with a GIDP, we also need to ask what should the Mets do with him? Clearly, it seems it’s time for a switch to Tomas Nido. We know the Mets won’t do that, so we’re stuck with the awful play of Ramos.

It’s at that point where it’s overshadowing some truly terrific performances from his teammates.

Dominic Smith was 2-for-4 with a run, walk, homer, and two RBI. He also made a nice play in the field.

Robson Cano returned from the IL to go 2-for-5 with a run, homer, and two RBI. That includes a two RBI.

The biggest story right now remains Luis Guillorme. In addition to playing Gold Glove caliber second base, he’s hitting .474. With this being a shortened season, we may be having a Ted Williams discussion at some point.

However, none of this matters as Ramos continues to be terrible. It’s now at the point it’s costing the Mets games. Sooner or later, the Mets are going to be forced into making a decision on him.

Game Notes: With Cano activated, Drew Smith was sent to the alternate site. Amed Rosario returned to the lineup after battling a stomach bug. Andres Gimenez another base and is 6-for-6 on the season.

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Edwin Diaz Can Still Close

On July 25, the second game of the season, Wilson Ramos called for just about the worst pitch you’ll ever see. After five pitches on the outer half, he called for an outside corner. He also called for the same exact pitch Edwin Diaz used to strike out Marcell Ozuna the previous game.

When you telegraph a pitch to a Major League hitter, bad things are going to happen. That goes double when it’s a hitter as good as Ozuna. That’s exactly what happened with Diaz who blew the save when Ozuna homered.

With Diaz struggling all throughout 2019, that moment wasn’t about a bad pitch, albeit a well executed bad pitch. No, it was further evidence he can’t close.

Since that game, the second game of the season, Diaz was removed as the closer. Now, we missed it at first as the Mets played poorly and didn’t have a real save opportunity.

Since that game, Seth Lugo recorded all three of the Mets saves. The first two weren’t unusual for him as they were the multi-inning variety. Yesterday was different.

Yesterday, Diaz was brought into the eighth inning as a set-up man for Lugo. For seemingly the first time in his career, the Mets indicated they will use Lugo as a traditional closer. That means what we have long suspected – Diaz officially lost the closers’ job.

What’s interesting about that is Diaz had pitched very well of late.

After his blowup against Boston which Diaz partially attributed to non-use, he’s made four appearances, and he’s been brilliant. Over those four appearances, he’s pitched four scoreless innings striking out eight. In essence, he’s been the Diaz the Mets thought they were getting.

What was really impressive was his outing yesterday.

Mark Carlson was TERRIBLE behind the plate, and he missed what should’ve been a called strike three. On the next pitch, Ryan Lavarnway singled.

The ensuing batter, Eddy Alvarez, hit what appeared to be a routine fly ball which would’ve gotten Diaz out of the inning. Instead, it just carried over the head of Jeff McNeil and it hit the outfield wall.

The ball was carrying well to left yesterday, and there has been suspicion the juiced ball has returned. In either event, Diaz appeared to twice be out of the inning only to find himself dealing with the tying runs in scoring position.

While many expected Diaz to just melt down, he didn’t. Instead, he went back and continued making good pitches. He blew three fastballs by Monte Harrison to get out of the inning.

This was a pressure situation with the game on the line, and Diaz rose to the challenge. He was great in that spot just like he has been great in the vast majority of his save opportunities in his career.

Understandably, Diaz has lost the faith of Mets fans. With outings like this, he’ll regain that trust. However, make no mistake here. Diaz dominating in the eighth is not an indication he should be a set-up man because he’s thriving in that role.

No, this is an indication Diaz still has the ability to close. He has the stuff. He has the moxy. He has the track record.

If the Mets choose to let Lugo go multiple innings to save a game, great. Lugo is perhaps the best reliever in the game. The Mets need to put him in the highest leverage situations and get the most out of his brilliance.

However, Lugo as a one inning closer is a waste of his skill. No, when the Mets need that one inning reliever, the best guy they have for that role in the bullpen is Diaz. When the time comes for the Mets to bring in a reliever to get just three outs to save a game in the ninth, they should hand the ball to Diaz.

After all, as we saw Sunday, he’s still a dominant reliever who can get your team out of a difficult spot to preserve the lead.

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Andres Gimenez Shows Marlins He Belongs

It was a shock to see Andres Gimenez Matt the Mets Opening Day roster. It was a shock because his Double-A numbers weren’t off the charts. It was a bigger shock because there was no obvious opportunity.

With the recent slate of injuries coupled with his strong play, he’s currently an everyday player. As we saw today, he may be here to stay.

The Mets would win 4-2, and Gimenez was in the middle of each rally serving as a spark plug for the Mets offense.

In the third, he led off the inning with a single off Marlins starter Pablo Lopez. He’d immediately put himself in scoring position by stealing second.

Lopez would walk the bases loaded moving Gimenez to third. He’d then score on a Jeff McNeil RBI groundout. The second run of the inning scored when Corey Dickerson couldn’t field a Michael Conforto liner.

https://twitter.com/jgroc/status/1292525171077767170?s=21

In the ensuing inning, Gimenez again set the table. This time it was a one out double. He’d score on a Brandon Nimmo two out RBI single.

In the sixth, Gimenez laid down a great drag bunt to lead-off the inning. The Mets would load the bases, and he’d score on a McNeil sacrifice fly.

Overall, Gimenez was 3-for-4 with three runs, a stolen base, and a double. He had three of the Mets eight hits, and he scored all three of the Mets earned runs. In the end, he did the near impossible in providing Jacob deGrom with run support.

With deGrom, he dealt with an issue on his middle finger. Some called it a blister. He called it a hot spot. It was no matter as deGrom is deGrom.

You could say it led to back-to-back walks in the second, but that might’ve been more the result of Home Plate Umpire Mark Carlson who was terrible, and that’s being kind.

No one had any idea what was a strike. The only thing we did know was deGrom was going to overcome it. In that second inning, he got out of a bases loaded jam unscathed.

It wasn’t until the fifth the Marlins would get to him. He missed on a pitch, and Jesus Aguilar hit a two run homer. At that point, the Marlins pulled to within 3-2. They’d get no closer even with deGrom being done after the fifth.

The Mets bullpen continued their impressive August.

Jared Hughes struck out two in a scoreless inning of work. Even with Dellin Betances hitting 92 on the gun, he pitched a scoreless seventh. Then, Edwin Diaz pitched in a set-up role.

Diaz was brilliant even if he was nearly victimized. He blew the first two Marlins away, and he should’ve stuck out Ryan Lavarnway, but Carlson blew the call.

Lavarnway singled on the next pitch. Then, Eddy Alvarez hit what appeared to be an easy fly ball. Instead, in what looks like the return of the juiced ball, it carried to the wall.

Fortunately, it didn’t go out. Diaz shook it off, and he struck out Monte Harrison on an absolutely overpowering pitch.

That left Seth Lugo to pitch the ninth. Lugo pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the 4-2 win. It was his third save of the season and first one inning save of the year.

Through it all, the Mets won their first series of the year. They did it featuring their homegrown talent, talent like Gimenez.

Game Notes: deGrom’s back-to-back walks in the second was the first time he did that in 25 starts. Michael Wacha landed on the IL with shoulder inflammation, and Ali Sanchez took his place on the roster. Dating back to last season, Nimmo has reached safely in 30 straight games.

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Mets Homegrown Talent Beats Marlins Youth

One of the most puzzling and overblown aspects of this early season was Pete Alonso struggling. The Mets made the right move for defensive purposes and to allow him to focus on hitting by moving him to DH. The move has proven to be a boon.

We saw that again tonight when he hit a two run homer off of Marlins starter Daniel Castano, who was the second straight Marlins starter to make his MLB debut. Alonso’s homer certainly got out in a hurry:

It was the Mets second two run homer of the game. The first came from Michael Conforto who supposedly can’t hit lefties. Someone just forgot to tell Conforto and MLB pitchers this year:

Notably, Conforto has reached safely in all 15 games this season. Conforto and Brandon Nimmo remain the only Mets to reach safely in every game they’ve played.

That pair of two run homers gave David Peterson a 4-1 lead. It was another strong performance for the young lefty. He allowed two earned over five on four hits and three walks. He may have only struck out three, but he did flash some filthy stuff.

The Mets would get some insurance runs with Amed Rosario setting the table both times. It was 5-2 Mets when Luis Rojas went to the bullpen.

Jeurys Familia continued his Jekyll/Hyde routine of the season struggling tonight. After allowing the first two to reach, he got Francisco Cervelli to hit into the double play he needed. Unfortunately, instead of getting out of the inning, Familia walked the next two to load the bases.

Drew Smith relieved Familia, and he made a good pitch getting Monte Harrison to hit what is normally a routine ground ball. Unfortunately with the shift, it was a two RBI single. This was a situation where the process was right, the pitch was good, but the result was bad. More often than not, if the Mets continue this approach, they’ll win more than they lose.

Smith fell down 3-0 to Jonathan Villar. Fortunately for Smith, it was a horrendous at-bat by Villar from that point forward, and Smith would get the strike out to end the jam.

Nearly a year to the date of his last performance, Robert Gsellman pitched a scoreless seventh striking out two. After Gsellman, Seth Lugo pitched a scoreless eighth. With the Mets up by four runs and it not being a save opportunity, Rojas made the right call limiting Lugo to an inning.

While eventful, Justin Wilson pitched a scoreless ninth. With that, the Mets became the first team to beat the Marlins in two weeks. That’s partially the result of the Marlins COVID19 outbreak. Whatever the case, the last place Mets beat the first place Marlins.

Game Notes: Billy Hamilton made his second start in center for the Mets. With the left-handed starter, Brian Dozier started at second. He’s 1-for-11 on the season with four strikeouts.

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Brodie Van Wagenen Is Comically Bad

Last night, Travis d’Arnaud was 3-for-4 with five RBI. Three of those five RBI came on an eighth inning double which put the Braves ahead 11-10. This was the same d’Arnaud he rage released last year.

Since d’Arnaud was released he outplayed Wilson Ramos. That was readily apparent when Ramos’ framing, if you can call it that, cost Seth Lugo a strike in that fateful d’Arnaud at-bat.

You couldn’t help but notice the same game d’Arnaud won, the .208/.269/.250 hitting Ramos flew out with the tying run on second to end the game.

Ramos’ failures go beyond his offense. He can’t frame and his game calling has been poor. It’s one of the reasons Edwin Diaz has struggled in a Mets uniform.

Case-in-point, Ramos called six outside pitches when Marcell Ozuna was up last week, and on a 3-2 pitch, he called the same pitch Ozuna struck out on the previous day. Short of using a megaphone, Ramos couldn’t have made the pitch type and location any more obvious.

This is normally where we go to Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn. On that note, the Mets called up Brian Dozier despite his bit really fully preparing for the season and his not taking part in summer camp.

By hastily starting an ill-prepared Dozier, the Mets have admitted Cano is no more than a platoon player making that trade somehow worse.

On the topic of the platoon, you know who was a really good right-handed platoon option? Wilmer Flores.

However, the Mets non-tendered Flores partially because of a knee condition he never actually had. Instead, they replaced him with Jed Lowrie, a player who actually had a knee injury.

That knee injury is the invented condition of PCL laxity. Even better than the conjured up diagnosis was it taking nearly a year-and-a-half to get a second opinion.

On the topic of the IL, Jake Marisnick landed on it. The Mets could’ve just signed a player like Juan Lagares for cheaper, but instead, they chose to trade Marisnick.

While the Mets are getting nothing from the impending free agent Marisnick, and their bullpen has been struggling Blake Taylor has been terrific out of the Houston Astros bullpen.

The list with Van Wagenen goes on and on. He told us he was replacing Zack Wheeler with Marcus Stroman, who was in the same rotation. He then let Wheeler walk and actually replaced him with Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha while trying to tell us the pitching improved.

Don’t forget his continuously telling us he wasn’t going to fire Carlos Beltran only to fire Beltran before he managed a game.

It’s like Van Wagenen is George Costanza. Every instinct is wrought with failure. The key difference is Costanza was the assistant to the traveling secretary, and Van Wagenen is the GM.

The other difference is Van Wagenen is real. He’s all too real.

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d’Arnaud, Bullpen, And Defense Deliver Dreadful Mets Loss

Well, after losing two in a row, Rick Porcello got to play the role of stopper for his hometown team. Initially, it didn’t look good.

After two quick outs, notorious Mets killer Freddie Freeman got the rally started with a single. That started a string of four starting singles. The last two came for Matt Adams and former Met Travis d’Arnaud. That gave the Braves a 2-0 lead when if they lowered Porcello’s ERA.

Porcello would actually settle in, and he’d put up some zeros. Thanks to a six run fifth, he’d be in position to pick up the win.

Robinson Cano, who easily had his best game of the season, led off the inning with a solo homer off Sean Newcomb to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. The Mets were far from done.

After Wilson Ramos singled, Andres Gimenez dropped down a perfect drag bunt. Brandon Nimmo would hit a single to load the bases for Pete Alonso.

Alonso walked to force in a run, and then Michael Conforto showed incredible wrist strength on a 3-2 check swing and also walked to force in a run. Yoenis Cespedes hit a two run double. The Mets then batted around with Cano hitting an RBI single increasing the Mets lead to 8-2.

You’d think the Mets should cruise, but then again, this is the Mets.

After Porcello issued a lead-off walk to Dansby Swanson, J.D. Davis just flat out dropped a fly ball. His error was dubbed the Mets worst error of the year by Gary Cohen. Instead of one on, one out, it was two on, no outs. That led to Paul Sewald replacing Porcello thereby cheating Porcello of the chance of getting the win.

Again, it was Adams and d’Arnaud hurting the Mets. Adams hit an RBI double, and d’Arnaud singles to pull the Braves within 8-4. An Austin Riley RBI groundout made it 8-5.

An Amed Rosario homer to lead off the sixth began a two run inning giving the Mets a 10-5 lead. It still wasn’t enough.

Chasen Shreve, easily the Mets best pitcher of the night still allowed a run in his two innings. On the bright side, five of his six outs recorded were strikeouts. His one non-strikeout was a great play by Gimenez

The Mets brought on Dellin Betances to start the eighth, and that’s when the wheels fell off.

Betances didn’t have it both in terms of control and stuff as he was only hitting 94 MPH on the gun. The bad inning started with a leadoff single by Adeiny Hechavarria. Then, Betances walked Ender Inciarte.

Swanson singled to pull the Braves within 10-7. Then, Betances nearly hit Freeman on a 3-0 pitch. That pitch got past Ramos. Betances was late to the plate, and he still almost got the tag down on Inciarte. In fact, it appeared he did, but replay confirmed the run.

Now, it should be noted Seth Lugo was ready, and yet Luis Rojas initially stuck with Betances. It wasn’t until the wild pitch and walk to Freeman that Lugo entered the game.

Lugo wasn’t sharp. He walked Marcell Ozuna. That was the seventh walk Mets pitchers issued and the fifth by the Mets bullpen. After Lugo got Johan Camargo to hit a shallow fly ball, d’Arnaud came up to the plate.

d’Arnaud would hit an RBI double to right center. Notably, on that play career right fielder Ryan Cordell, put in center for defense, couldn’t cut it off in time. As a result, it was a bases clearing double giving the Braves an 11-10 lead.

Of note, the Mets called up Cordell over Juan Lagares when Jake Marisnick hit the IL. Lagares cuts that ball off earlier and keeps the score tied.

Instead, the Mets fell behind. The decisive blow was delivered by their former catcher, a guy Brodie Van Wagenen cut. Last year, d’Arnaud was more productive than Ramos, and tonight, d’Arnaud was 3-for-4 with a double, walk, and five RBI.

In a nice juxtaposition, it was Ramos, who is hitting .208 this year, who flew out to end the game with the tying run at second. That saddled Lugo with the loss and the entire Mets team with an uglier loss.

This was an ugly loss which exposed the Mets bullpen and only further highlighted the team’s bad defense. When you have that, you’re going to have more than your fair share of these losses.

Game Notes: Gimenez started at third over Jeff McNeil. Mets scored 10 runs tonight. They’ve scored 12 runs in five home games.

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20/20 Hindsight: Mets Disappointing Red Sox Split

With the crazy 2020 schedule, the Mets had a four game two city set with the Boston Red Sox. The road teams had the better of it.

1. Luis Rojas hasn’t been any different than Mickey Callaway in his decision making.

2. Andres Gimenez having more PA than Dominic Smith is inexcusable. It’s even worse when Gimenez is getting critical at-bats late in games over Smith.

3. With Smith and Luis Guillorme, it’s hard to conclude anything other than the Mets aren’t prioritizing getting them into games. After all, Brian Dozier wasn’t in full game shape and missed Summer Camp, yet he was activated and started the finale.

4. While people are over-focusing on Edwin Diaz‘s tough inning, they’re missing just how bad Wilson Ramos has been in every aspect of his game.

5. Diaz imploding again, and the Mets essentially admitting Robinson Cano is now a platoon player, that trade somehow got worse.

6. Speaking of awful trades, Blake Taylor has been terrific in the Astros pen while the Mets can’t figure out the pen, and Jake Marisnick is on the IL.

7. Aside from Rick Porcello, the Mets have gotten good starting pitching. Their offense, while disappointing, has been good. And yet, they’re under .500. Why? Because they’re the worst defensive club in baseball.

8. Much of that is attributable to J.D. Davis, who has been dreadful in left. Much like last year, he’s the worst defensive LF in baseball. It was his defense which led to the game winning rally on Wednesday.

9. The Mets need to go back to the drawing board and re-figure things out. Davis doesn’t belong in left. Amed Rosario is not a lead-off hitter. Your top OBP guy in Brandon Nimmo can’t hit ninth. Jeff McNeil is struggling at third.

10. Seth Lugo is far too versatile and important to be just a closer. If the Mets are moving on from Diaz, a committee led by Jeurys Familia is the right approach.

11. Don’t discount Drew Smith who has been terrific.

12. Speaking of terrific young Mets pitchers, David Peterson took his velocity and game to another level in his first career start. It this is who he is now, his ceiling is much higher.

13. Despite what delusional Yankees fans will tell you Jacob deGrom is the best pitcher in baseball. He now has a 2.23 ERA in no decisions.

14. deGrom should’ve had the win, but that’s nothing new. He needs more run support.

15. The Mets had some very ugly ABs in crucial situations. Michael Conforto had a few of those. Don’t make too much of that as Conforto is a terrific hitter.

16. It’s interesting Dozier was activated but not Juan Lagares when both were very similarly situated. It’s all the more interesting when the Mets activated Ryan Cordell over Lagares when the team needed to replace Marisnick’s defense.

17. Overall, this Mets team should be better. It’s just better situational hitting (which comes and goes) and playing a better defensive lineup, which the Mets refuse to do.

18. You wonder how much longer the Mets can stick with Yoenis Cespedes. At times, he looks lost. Other times, he’s battling in AB and seems very close.

19. Speaking of Cespedes, it seems odd today is July 31 and we’re not awaiting Brodie Van Wagenen making a dumb trade.

20. We may never reach that new trade deadline with the Phillies on the cusp of an outbreak themselves, no one knowing when the Marlins can play again, and with Rob Manfred not taking this pandemic seriously.

Game Recaps

No Joking: Wacha And Mets Offense Were Terrific

David Peterson Debut Knocked The Red Sox Off

Mets Loss Was Not Luis Rojas Best Managed Game

Vazquez Beats Matz

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Mets Loss Was Not Luis Rojas Best Managed Game

Oft times, managers catch too much blame for team losses. For example, last year, people were livid with Mickey Callaway for bringing in Seth Lugo, the best reliever in the game. That actually happened.

Then, there are times like tonight where you really have to wonder what the manager was thinking. Tonight was one of those nights for Luis Rojas.

The Mets had entered the bottom of the seventh with the game tied 3-3. Because life isn’t fair, the Mets failed to get Jacob deGrom a win.

deGrom has allowed just two runs over six innings. Both runs came in the fourth. Rafael Devers and Mitch Moreland hit a pair of doubles, and then deGrom unleashed two wild pitches allowing Moreland to score.

At that time, the Red Sox were up 2-1 with the Mets first run coming on a Dominic Smith RBI groundout with the bases loaded. The Mets would tie it in the fifth on a Brandon Nimmo homer.

In the sixth, Andres Gimenez, who got his first Major League start at short, came up huge hitting an RBI triple in the sixth. It was his first career triple and RBI. With Lugo coming in, you had to feel good about the Mets chances.

Unfortunately, Lugo hung a curve to Christian Vazquez, who hit a solo homer to tie the game. Still, it was only tied, and the Mets had a chance in the bottom of the seventh.

Jeff McNeil was hit by a pitch, and Pete Alonso singled putting two on with one out. Michael Conforto failed to deliver the RBI, but he did advance the runners. That should have brought up Smith, the team’s RBI leader up against a tired Josh Osich.

Instead, Rojas went to J.D. Davis as a pinch hitter, and the Red Sox countered with Heath Hembree. Hembree completely overpowered Davis to end the inning.

To compound the mistake of using Davis as a pinch hitter, Rojas put him in left. That proved wrong when Kevin Pillar hit a fly ball literally every other LF in baseball, Smith included, catches. But that’s what happens when you have to play very deep to accommodate insufficient range to play the position, and Davis lacks the instincts and ability to read the ball causing him to let an extraordinarily playable ball drop in front of him.

That play was all the more problematic because Justin Wilson was on fumes. To put it in perspective, this was Wilson’s fourth appearance, and this was the Mets sixth game.

He would load the bases with one out. After Wilson struck out Devers, the bad luck would start. Moreland has a swinging bunt McNeil could not cleanly pick up. Then, for some reason with Dellin Betances earning and ready in the pen, Rojas stuck with the fatigued Wilson to face the right-hand hitting Vazquez.

Vasquez hit a bleeder past a diving Alonso scoring two giving the Red Sox a 6-3 lead. After Wilson walked Alex Verdugo to reload the bases, Rojas finally went to Betances, who got the Mets out of the inning.

From there, well, the Mets did what they do best. They ripped your heart out.

Heading into the bottom of the ninth, it was 6-4 because Cespedes crushed his second homer of the season in the eighth.

The Mets didn’t build on that partially because Jose Peraza would not only rob Wilson Ramos of a base hit, but he would also start a gorgeous inning ending 6-4-3 double play.

Brandon Workman had no command whatsoever, and the Mets loaded the bases with no outs. The Mets failed to tie it.

Conforto, who struggled mightily today, struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch on the corner. After an infield single pulling the Mets to within 6-5 because Devers couldn’t make a string enough throw, Cespedes came up.

Cespedes had a poor AB swinging at a 2-0 pitch out of the strike zone and whiffing on a 3-2 flat cutter in the middle of the strike zone. That put the game in Robinson Cano‘s hands. Sadly, he lined weakly to short to end the game.

Frankly, this was an abominable loss. The game was replete with poor at-bats in key spots, and Rojas made a number of mistakes. With Rojas, this is game six for him. We can and should expect better from him.

Game Notes: Jake Marisnick was put on the IL. Ryan Cordell was called up to take his place on the roster. Jordan Humphreys was designated for assignment to make room on the 40 man roster. Alonso had a four hit game.

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David Peterson Debut Knocked The Red Sox Off

The fun part about MLB debuts is you can never quite be sure how it will go. Will they be the player they were in the minors? Will the stage be too big for them? Or, will they rise to the occasion and take their game to the next level?

On the last one, we have seen Jacob deGrom and Seth Lugo do that. They’re now the best starter and reliever in the game. That should get you all the more excited seeing David Peterson tonight.

Peterson raised his velocity from the high 80s to low 90s to 94 MPH. He showed slightly better control. He rose to the big moments.

Case in point was the third inning. Former Met Kevin Plawecki hit a routine fly ball J.D. Davis misplayed into a double. After an ensuing walk to Andrew Benintendi, Brandon Nimmo sprinted and dropped a deep Jose Peraza fly ball to load the bases.

Peterson responded by striking out J.D. Martinez. Then, he got the ground ball he needed. It was an odd play where Robinson Cano was ruled to have caught a ball he seemed to short hop. The second base umpire had a delayed out call leading to Benintendi taking off for third.

Benintendi was finally tracked down in the run down as Plawecki scored. At that time, it was 3-1 Mets.

The Mets got that lead with a three run third. The first run game on a Cano RBI double. After that double, Nimmo was walked to load the bases. Amed Rosario then delivered a bloop single scoring two.

With the lead, Peterson was pitching well despite not getting much help from his defense. As mentioned above, Davis misplayed a ball, and we’d see Jeff McNeil throw a ball away. On McNeil, his arm may be something which needs monitoring because his throws to first haven’t been good. Really, the only standout defensive play came from Michael Conforto.

After that odd third inning run, Peterson starting putting up a string of zeros. That I included his inducing an inning ending double play to end the fifth.

Peterson hit the end of the line in the sixth. Rafael Devers and Kevin Pillar hit a pair of doubles pulling the Red Sox to within 5-2. Drew Smith came in for Peterson, and he had another impressive performance striking out Mitch Moreland to end the inning.

While Smith was impressive, the story was Peterson. He was much better than you could’ve hoped. With the increased velocity and better control, he suddenly changed what could be his ceiling. You could not ask for a better debut than this.

Justin Wilson and Dellin Betances each put together scoreless innings out of the bullpen. In a three run eighth, Nimmo and McNeil hit a pair of RBI doubles to increase the Mets lead to 8-2.

On that note, Cano started that rally. TGIF was a great night for him where he seemed rejuvenated. Overall, he was 2-for-3 with a run, double, and an RBI.

In fact, for the second straight night, the Mets offense was clicking. Overall, Yoenis Cespedes and Pete Alonso were the only two Mets without a hit. However, both would reach base safely with Alonso drawing a walk and Cespedes getting hit by a pitch.

Overall, if you’re looking for something to lament, Hunter Strickland struggled again allowing a run in the ninth. Still, there’s no need to focus on that with the Mets beating up on the Red Sox again and getting to over .500.

Today would normally be a good day. With Peterson’s great debut, it was a phenomenal day.

Game Notes: Despite entering the game as the team’s RBI leader and homering yesterday, Dominic Smith was benched again. In response to the Marlins COVID19 outbreak, they’re being shut down for the week. The Phillies series against the Yankees has been canceled, and the Yankees will play the Orioles instead.

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