Terry Collins
Terry Collins and the Mets continue to push the envelope. With each and every game, they continue to make decisions which continue to de-emphasize player development.
In tonight’s example, Jose Reyes hit leadoff over Brandon Nimmo. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Collins double switched Amed Rosario out of the game in the sixth. As part of that move, Collins put Reyes at shortstop.
When you manage like this, you deserve to have Reyes thrown out trying to steal a base down four in the seventh inning.
Seriously, if Collins is going to make sure he plays Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera, he better make sure they play good fundamental baseball. If you’re having your young players learn by watching, have them learn by watching what to do.
Speaking of what to do and not to do, knowing Collins the way we do, he’ll take issue with Chris Flexen.
Sure, there were many issues with Flexen’s start. How could there not when you don’t make it out of the fifth. His final line was 4.2 innings, seven hits, seven runs, four walks, and four strikeouts.
Those four walks hurt him too. He issued two of them in the first inning to help load the bases. After a Eugenio Suarez single and a Scott Schebler grand slam, the Mets fell behind the Reds 5-1 in the first.
Flexen again walked two batters in the fifth. Not even Adam Duvall hitting into a double play would bail him out. Scooter Gennett would hit an RBI infield single off Flexen’s leg. After Flexen walked Suarez, Collins brought in Josh Smoker.
Smoker allowed a Schebler RBI single. Nimmo had a shot at Gennett at the plate, but Travis d’Arnaud could not corral the short hop. Once Smoker got out of the inning, it was 7-1 Reds with all runs charged to Flexen.
However, that won’t be what irritates Collins. It will be that Flexen showed up Reyes.
Reyes was out there playing his first career game in left field. With the injuries and the possibility Reyes could return next year in a utility role, Reyes playing left isn’t a ridiculous idea. It’s just ridiculous he would lead-off.
Reyes took a ridiculous route to a second inning Billy Hamilton fly ball. He broke in and the ball went well over his head. A clearly frustrated and dejected Flexen threw up his hand in disappointment.
Yes, Flexen shouldn’t show up his fielders. That goes double when you’re walking the ballpark and giving up a grand slam. Still, this is the same Reyes who never had an issue doing this himself. Again, if you’re holding out players as an example, this is the stuff that happens.
But this is Terry we’re talking about, and we know his veterans are Teflon. That goes double for Reyes.
The Mets would attempt to make a game of it with the help of the surprisingly not double switched out of the game Dominic Smith.
After a Cabrera walk and a d’Arnaud double, Smith hit a two out RBI single in the sixth to pull the Mets to within 7-3.
Smith came up again in the eighth, and he collected his first career hit off a left-handed pitcher. It set up runners on the corners with two outs. Unfortunately, Travis Taijeron would strike out to end the inning. So far in Taijeron’s career, he’s 0-9.
The Mets would get no closer than 7-3. In fact, things would get much worse.
While Chasen Bradford has been really good this year with a 2.38 ERA in 17 appearances, he had nothing tonight. He recorded no outs while allowing seven runs (five earned) on six hits and one walk.
The unearned runs were due to two Wilmer Flores errors in the inning.
With Collins having done all he could do to burn out a larger than usual bullpen during Sunday’s double header, Collins finally did the right thing by going to a position player to pitch.
Once again, we got to see Kevin Plawecki take the mound. Like most Mets pitchers this year, Plawecki fared better with d’Arnaud behind the plate than Rene Rivera.
Plawecki came in with the bases loaded and no outs. Phil Ervin hit into a double play. After a Hamilton double, and a Flores error allowing Cozart to reach, two of the three inherited runners had scored. Credit should be given to Hamilton who could’ve scored on the error but chose not to run up the score.
In a shock to everyone, Plawecki got Joey Votto to ground out giving Plawecki a story to tell his grand kids. It’s certainly a better story than the contents of his locker.
In the end, the Mets lost 14- 4 with that all too brief ninth inning rally ending on a Flores GIDP. Right now, it’s not about wins and losses. It’s really about developing players by playing them and having them learn from their mistakes.
Collins favorite young player Jose Reyes certainly has a lot to think about tonight. Hopefully, he learns from this, and he gets better. Certainly, the team needs him over the next decade.
Game Notes: Plawecki became the second Mets position player to pitch twice in a season. The first was Matt Franco in 2000. Hat tip Greg Prince:
Matt Franco preceded him in this honor.
— Greg Prince (@greg_prince) August 30, 2017
The win snapped a Mets 14 game winning steak against the Reds.
In a four game series against the Washington Nationals, here was the allocation of games started among the Mets infielders:
- Gavin Cecchini two games
- Asdrubal Cabrera three games
- Wilmer Flores three games
- Jose Reyes two games
- Amed Rosario three games
- Dominic Smith two games
The focus isn’t where it needs to be. Once again, the Mets are failing to develop their young players. Previously, the excuse was you can’t develop young players when you’re trying to win a World Series. This team isn’t winning a World Series, and still, we are not seeing young players in the lineup getting the time they need to develop.
Terry Collins isn’t letting Smith play against left-handed batters. He’s bouncing Flores around the infield instead of giving him a place to focus on and improve. He puts Reyes atop the lineup whenever he gets an opportunity rather than let Brandon Nimmo establish himself as a Major Leauge lead-off hitter. The list goes on and on and on . . . .
Hopefully, the Mets find out what they need to know about this Cabrera and Reyes. Hopefully, they take full advantage of the development time, and they show they are ready to be the big pieces for the Mets over the next decade.
This was one of those days that makes you question why exactly the Mets are sticking with Terry Collins right now?
He’s eschewing developing young players like Dominic Smith, but he makes sure to get Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera in the lineup.
He also continues to make just poor decisions with his pitching. If you didn’t know any better, you’d expect Collins gets paid by the bullpen move, and he gets paid double for each double switch.
He really pressures his pitching staff. Today, Collins took that to an absurd level.
Even knowing Seth Lugo would be limited to 75 pitches in the second game of the double header, Collins ripped through his bullpen.
Part of that was Tommy Milone only lasting 4.1 innings. The bigger part of that was Collins managing the game like it was Game 7 of the World Series to try to protect a five run lead.
What was really irritating was Collins first ripped through the guys who could give him multiple innings – Hansel Robles, Rafael Montero, and Josh Smoker. The trio combined to pitch one inning with 35 pitches.
With all Collins histrionics, the Mets still blew the 5-0 lead. They got there because Cabrera and Flores hit a pair of homers.
With the Mets blowing the lead, they needed another homer. Amed Rosario came through with an eighth inning homer off Joe Blanton.
Rosario has 4 homers, 3 of them in the 8th inning or later, 2 to give the Mets a lead in a tie game.
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) August 27, 2017
The Mets would hold onto the 6-5 lead with AJ Ramos getting the sixth out save to preserve the rare Mets Sunday win. Of course, to get the rare win, you needed a play you rarely if ever see.
With Adam Lind getting the two out single to extend the game, Edwin Jackson pinch ran for him with Daniel Murphy coming to the plate as the go-ahead run.
Murphy ripped a liner above a leaping Cabrera. Travis Taijeron, who had some on in one of the multitude of double switches, overran the ball, and Jackson broke towards home.
Juan Lagares adeptly backup up Taijeron on the play. He then made a strong throw to Cabrera, who in turn, made a strong throw to Travis d’Arnaud. With the tag, the Mets cut down Jackson, and the Mets won the game on your typical 9-8-4-2 put out.
After this game, the question was whether the Mets pitching staff had enough bullets left to pull out a win in the nightcap. The answer was a resounding no.
The Mets had rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead in the second game.
Lagares knocked in the first run on an RBI double. He then came home to score on a Brandon Nimmo two run homer to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. It was short-lived.
After Lugo went 3.2 innings allowing two runs, Smoker came on, and he kept the Nationals at bay in his 1.1 innings of work.
Then came Robles in his second appearance on the day. After getting a Murphy line out, the Nationals had a runner on first with one out.
Robles continued by walking the first four batters allowing the Nationals to not only tie the game, but also take a lead. On the bright side, Collins double-switched Smith out of the game meaning he was willing to sacrifice development to win this one game.
Things could’ve been worse, but Chasen Bradford enduced Howie Kendrick to hit into the inning ending 4-4-3 double play.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Erik Goeddel pitched the eighth, and Lind took him deep to give the Nationals a 5-3 lead. The insurance run loomed large with the Mets rallying in the ninth off Sean Doolittle.
d’Arnaud led off with a pinch hit single, and Gavin Cecchini singled to move d’Arnaud to second. With a 0-2 count, Reyes dropped a single right in front of Taylor allowing d’Arnaud to score to pull the Mets within one.
The tomfoolery ended with a Lagares line out to Alejandro De Aza.
Collins did everything he could to win both ends of the double header even if it meant eschewing his main responsibility right now- developing players. He didn’t care what he did to the bullpen. For all that effort, he just had a split to show for it.
Game Notes: Kevin McGowan was activated for the second half double-header as the 26th man. He would not pitch.
Terry Collins benched Dominic Smith against Gio Gonzalez, and he batted Brandon Nimmo eighth.
Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes gone for the season.
Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera played over Gavin Cecchini.
Michael Taylor nailing a slower than molasses Cabrera at home by a healthy margin:
From Downtown! pic.twitter.com/nTifaslvLw
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) August 26, 2017
Robert Gsellman certainly didn’t look like a guy who cared whether his manager thought he needed to improve.
The first inning rally got started on an error from him, and he threw a wild pitch allowing a run to score. Before the inning ended it was 4-0 Nationals.
It was a gorgeous sunny day outside, and my son wanted to go play baseball outside with me.
To paraphrase Peter Gibbons, “I wouldn’t say I missed the last eighth innings, Bob.”
No, not even with Wilmer Flores going 4-4 with a run, double, home run, and three RBI.
Judging from the 9-4 final score, I made the raise decision.
Game Notes: Travis Taijeron made his Major League debut going 0-4. Jeurys Familia made his first appearance since returning from the disabled list. He pitched one inning allowing three runs on four hits and two walks.
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.
After learning Michael Conforto is going to need shoulder surgery, there is no longer any doubt he is going to miss the remainder of the season. Unfortunately, Conforto is not going to hit that 30 home run threshold he was ever so close to hitting. He might’ve got there if he entered the season as the starter. As we all remember, he had to wait for his injuries to create an opportunity for him. Now with him being injured, there is going to be an opportunity created for two other players – Juan Lagares and Brandon Nimmo.
Lagares was once considered the Mets center fielder of the present and the future. After winning the 2014 Gold Glove, he entered the 2015 season as the Opening Day starter and the proud owner of a five year $19 million contract extension. Lagares would regress on the field and at the plate leading to the Mets obtaining Yoenis Cespedes at the trade deadline.
Since the 2015 season, Lagares’ glove has returned, but he can’t stay on the field. Two years in a row, Lagares has suffered thumb injuries knocking him out for a long duration. But when he is on the field, he has been great. Currently, he is ranked third in the majors with a 12 DRS in center despite playing less than half the innings of anyone else in the top 10. It should come as no surprise he ranks first in the majors with a 30.4 UZR/150.
The question with Lagares is and continues to be his bat. In his 60 games played, he is just hitting .246/.294/.357. He’s also not hitting well against LHP like he typically does. Still, there is a little over left in the season where Lagares can work on his offensive game where he could at least hit enough to justify putting his glove in the lineup everyday. Or at a minimum, find out if he can indeed be part of a platoon.
The perfect choice for a platoon partner for him would be Nimmo.
The Mets 2011 first round draft pick is developing into a prototypical lead-off hitter. In 34 games this season, he has a .391 OBP, and in his brief major league career, he has a .361 OBP. In his nine games hitting in the lead-off spot, Nimmo is hitting .241/.353/.414 with two doubles, a homer, and four RBI. This is a short sample size for sure, but it should be noted he was a good lead-off hitter with the Las Vegas 51s. Over parts of the past three seasons in Triple-A, Nimmo has a .403 OBP, which his having the best OBP in the Pacific Coast League last year.
The question for Nimmo is whether his bat will truly translate to the majors. Yes, his patience and his knowledge of the strike zone has and will translate well. However, the question is whether he would hit enough to justify him playing everyday. This is his chance.
Between Lagares and Nimmo, they needed an opportunity to play everyday to show the Mets they could be considered the team’s center fielder next year. They have it now, and now the Mets can make a better educated decision this offseason as to whether Nimmo and Lagares could be part of the solution or whether the team needs to go out there and obtain a Lorenzo Cain.
Of course, the key to all of this is Terry Collins putting both Lagares and Nimmo in the lineup everyday. There are no excuses now with the team no longer having any more major league quality outfielders on the 40 man roster.
As we have seen with Terry Collins, he is loathe to let young left-handed batters face left-handed pitching. He did it time and again with Michael Conforto, but he did it under the auspices of the team trying to win. Now? The Mets are not trying to win anything. They are trying to develop their young players so they are ready to win next year.
Despite the change in goals, Collins still sits his left-handed hitters against left-handed pitching. You understand it somewhat with Brandon Nimmo as the team is also trying to get a good look at Juan Lagares. With that said, there’s no reason why he is doing this with Dominic Smith. Since Collins has done it more than once, it is time we begin tracking when Collins let Smith face a left-handed pitcher, and when he benched him.
| Date | 8/15/17 |
| Score | 5-2 Yankees |
| Situation | Top 9, one out |
| Pitcher | Aroldis Chapman |
| Result | Jose Reyes PH |
ad
| Date | 8/16/17 |
| Score | 0-0 |
| Situation | Game Start |
| Pitcher | Jaime Garcia |
| Result | 0-3, K |
ad
| Date | 8/18/17 |
| Score | 0-0 |
| Situation | Game Start |
| Pitcher | Justin Nicolino |
| Result | Benched for Wilmer Flores |
ad
| Date | 8/20/17 |
| Score | 0-0 |
| Situation | Game Start |
| Pitcher | Adam Conley |
| Result | 0-3, 2K |
ad
| Date | 8/21/17 |
| Score | 1-0 Diamondbacks |
| Situation | 6th Inning, one out, one on |
| Pitcher | Jorge De La Rosa |
| Result | K |
ad
| Date | 8/22/17 |
| Score | 0-0 |
| Situation | Game Start |
| Pitcher | Patrick Corbin |
| Result | Benched for Flores |
Season Total: 0-7, 4 K
Even with him being limited due to injuries, Steven Matz was still one of the better starting pitching options left for this team. However, with impending season ending surgery, he’s shut down, and the Mets went with recently activated off the disabled list Tommy Milone.
Milone entered this game with a 7.91 ERA, 10.50 with the Mets, and he picked up where he left off with J.D. Martinez hitting a first inning three run homer.
He allowed a Chris Ianetta one out double in the third. With Amed Rosario being unable to field an A.J. Pollock grounder, it was 4-0 Diamondbacks.
The remaining two runs were on Milone. He allowed an Adam Rosales homer in the fourth and a Paul Goldschmidt RBI double in the fifth.
At that point, it was 7-0 Diamondbacks. If you were still watching at that point, the question is why?
Michael Conforto missed the game with a thumb injury. Dominic Smith wasn’t in the lineup because the Diamondbacks started the left-handed Patrick Corbin, and Terry Collins apparently breaks out in hives and hyperventilates when he has to play a young left-handed hitter against a left-handed pitcher. Using the same logic, Collins played Matt Reynolds over Brandon Nimmo in right.
Really, there were not many reasons to watch this game. Sure, things are bad right now with the Mets, but with the team they put on the field, this was downright unwatchable. Most 7-1 games are.
The one run was a Rosario home run, his first at Citi Field.
Other notable events was Gavin Cecchini going 1-2 at the plate and making a decent play in the field:
I GOT IT I GOT IT IT'S ALL YOURS pic.twitter.com/nqQBLoLh6n
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) August 23, 2017
Of note, Cecchini has a base hit in every game he’s started this year.
Kevin McGowan made his major league debut pitching 1.1 innings. He left the bases loaded in the seventh, and Hansel Robles walked in a run.
Also of note, the Mets went with an all shortstop infield:
1B – Wilmer Flores
2B – Gavin Cecchini
3B – Asdrubal Cabrera
SS – Amed Rosario
If you don’t think of Flores as a shortstop, then the all shortstop infield was accomplished with Reynolds moving from right to first in a double switch.
If you do consider Flores a shortstop, then six of the Mets position players in the starting lineup were shortstops or former shortstops as Juan Lagares was originally signed as a shortstop out of the Dominican Republic.
Admittedly, this is a rather long tangent, but these are the things you dwell on when your team is as listless and over-matched as the Mets were today. Trust me, this tangent was more interesting than anything that happened in the field tonight.
There was a ninth inning rally against Matt Koch, one of the two relief prospects traded to obtain Addison Reed in 2015. where Smith hit a pinch hit RBI ground rule double making it 7-2.
Andrew Chafin came on and allowed a Reynolds RBI groundout followed by a Rosario RBI triple to make it 7-4.
This lead to the Diamondbacks bringing on Fernando Rodney to get the final out of the game. After he retired Cecchini, the tomfoolery was over.
Game Notes: David Wright player a rehab game for St. Lucie. He was o-4 with two strikeouts as the DH. Jeurys Familia made a rehab appearance for Brooklyn throwing a scoreless inning.
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?
Jacob deGrom is all of us. He watched the Mets play behind him all afternoon with no run support and poor defensive, and he just threw his hands up in the air.
The play that caused it was a seventh inning Dee Gordon grounder to Amed Rosario. Like he did in his first game against the Rockies, Rosario did a glove tap, and that was the difference between safe and out.
Before that play, Travis d’Arnaud took the easy route getting the out at first instead of attempting to go for a double play on a poor Adam Conley sacrifice bunt attempt.
This was all prelude to another Giancarlo Stanton home run. If deGrom is Superman, Stanton is 245 pounds of Kryptonite. Stanton’s three run homer here was his fourth off deGrom in his career, and it gave the Marlins a 5-1 lead.
Not to be outdone, Yoenis Cespedes dropped a flyball later that inning. It brought the boo birds out on a day he showed continued lack of hustle. At least, he hit a homer in the first.
A Marcell Ozuna single after the Cespedes two base error gave the Marlins a 6-1 lead. It was a disappointing start for deGrom, but that’s to be expected when he isn’t getting any help in the field or at the plate.
His final line would be 6.1 innings, 10 hits, five runs, five earned, no walks, and eight strikeouts.
When deGrom threw his arms up, something he later admitted he shouldn’t have done, he spoke for all Mets fans tired of seeing the same mistakes being repeated game-in and game-out.
With d’Arnaud and Cespedes, it is more of the same. We see great defensive aspects to d’Arnaud’s game, but he just doesn’t trust his arm. For Cespedes, his lack of hustle borders on the pathological.
At least with Rosario, the play was part of growing pains. Same goes for Dominic Smith going 0-3 with three strikeouts against the left-handed Conley. It certainly doesn’t help Terry Collins having him out of the lineup against left-handed pitching.
It should be noted young players don’t just come with growing pains. They come with improvement.
We saw that with Brandon Nimmo leading off the eighth with a pinch hit double and Michael Conforto following with a one out walk. This led to the Mets making a game of this, which was a nice departure from most Sunday games.
Nimmo scored on a Cespedes double. Conforto scored on a Wilmer Flores sacrifice fly, and Cespedes scored on a two out d’Arnaud RBI single.
That made the score 6-4, which was as close as the Mets would get.
Rosario struck out to end the eighth inning rally, and Asdrubal Cabrera hit into a game ending double play in the ninth.
Like most Sunday games, this was a tough watch. It was tough seeing veterans continuing to have the same issues. The hope is that while these veterans never learned how to correct theirs, the young players like Smith and Rosario will.
If they do, these tough games will all be worth it. If they do, the Mets may very well compete again next year.
Game Notes: Gavin Cecchini got the start at second. With his ninth inning single, he now has a base hit in all five games he’s started.