Terry Collins
After his warm-up act in Colorado, Mets shortstop Amed Rosario is finally coming to the bright lights of New York. He’s going to run out of the dugout before the top of the first, and he’s going to go to that area between second and third base. That’s the area that should belong to him for the next decade. Maybe more.
Already, we have seen glimpses why everyone is so high on Rosario. You’d be hard pressed to name a Mets player over the past decade who is as athletic as he is. We’ve seen him go from home to third quicker than anyone over the past three seasons. We’ve seen him make plays in the hole that no Mets shortstop since perhaps Rey Ordonez could have even contemplated making a play. We’ve also seen him adapt.
Nothing speaks more to that than the grounders hit by Trevor Story on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, Rosario took a less direct route, and he tapped his glove before throwing to first. Story would be safe on the bang-bang play. On Wednesday, Rosario took a more direct route and threw on the run. This time, Story was out on the bang-bang play.
It tells you a lot about a player who can adapt that quickly.
It also tells you alot about him the way he reacted to another tough play from that Tuesday game. Rosario was in no man’s land on a DJ LeMahieu groundball. He broke to cover second because it was his responsibility to cover the position. With the ball in play, he broke back, but he could only get a glove on it. From there, Nolan Arenado would hit an RBI single ending the game. It was a tough play that caused Jay Bruce, Neil Walker, and Terry Collins to reach out and speak to him after the game.
If the play truly bothered him, we saw no ill effects from Rosario. He played just as well over the next two games. In fact, he hit triples in consecutive games to spark the Mets offense. He was also flawless in the field again making plays we haven’t see a Mets shortstop make in 20 years.
Rosario is here, and so far he’s been everything we thought he could be. Actually, that’s wrong. He’s more than that. He’s already shown the ability to put the tough plays behind him and learn from difficult plays.
In this tough 2017 season where it is has been difficult to watch the Mets at times. We now have Rosario, who with this ability and effort level makes watching games for a team playing out the string worthwhile. Between him, Michael Conforto, and soon Dominic Smith, the Mets are showing us a young core of position players who can return the Mets to the postseason as soon as next year.
It’s time to get excited about the Mets again.
With the way the Mets season has progressed, you would think when a pitcher says, “Hey! I can’t feel my fingers!” they’d pull him from the game.
Nope.
The Mets decided to keep Hansel Robles in the game. Actually, his physical problems were much worse than that:
Robles had numbness in fingers pitching the ninth. In the eighth he landed awkwardly and pinched his genitals, prompting Ray Ramirez visit.
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) August 3, 2017
So, with all of that going on, Terry Collins kept Robles in a tie 4-4 game in the ninth. Here’s what transpired:
- Jonathan Lucroy HBP
- Pat Valaika sac bunt
- Charlie Blackmon IBB
- DJ LeMahieu BB
- Nolan Arenado BB
Game Over.
The last pitch of the Arenado at-bat wasn’t even close. The 3-2 pitch was a solid foot over the strike zone. Travis d’Arnaud helplessly leaped because there was nothing much more for him to do, but not even he could have framed that pitch.
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/893239961545302016
The shame of Collins gambling with both the game and Robles’ health was the fact the Mets continuously fought back in this game.
Rafael Montero struggled, but he kept the Mets in the game. Over 5.2 innings, he allowed 10 hits, four runs, four earned, and one walk with six strikeouts.
More than anything, Montero just couldn’t hold a lead.
The Mets rallied from a 2-0 third inning deficit by scoring runs in three consecutive innings. Yoenis Cespedes got things started with a homer off Rockies starter German Marquez:
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/893202101811257344
The following inning, Amed Rosario got things started by become the first Met to hit two triples in his first three games. He did more than just set Mets records on the triple:
Amed Rosario just laid down the #Mets fastest home-to-3rd time tracked by #Statcast since 2015. Got to 3rd in just 11.32 secs on his 3B. pic.twitter.com/jNhZd2RqWy
— Matt Kelly (@mattkellyMLB) August 3, 2017
He then scored on a Montero RBI single. His first career RBI.
After his single tied the game, he gave the Rockies the lead back by yielding a solo homer to Charlie Blackmon.
Curtis Granderson, who was 1-2 with two walks, got the sixth inning off to a good start by earning a lead-off walk. After a pair of groundouts, it seemed as if he’d be stranded out at third, but Rene Rivera came through with the two out RBI single.
Sure enough, Montero allowed the Rockies to take the lead again. This time it was a Mark Reynolds home run. After that homer, the Rockies would put runners at first and second with two outs. Josh Smoker, who has pitched much better of late, came in and struck out Alexi Amarista to end the inning.
The Mets then beat up on Pat Neshek in the seventh inning. Consider for a moment that Neshek has allowed just seven earned runs all year, and the Mets have scored four of them. The fourth came in this game.
Michael Conforto singled to lead-off the inning, and he scored from first on an Asdrubal Cabrera from center field. Despite there being no outs and the middle of the order coming up, the Mets couldn’t push across that last run.
With the Mets sticking with a reliever who couldn’t feel himself grip the ball, they lost the game. It was the second time the Mets lost 5-4 on a Rockies walk-off against Robles.
Game Notes: Jose Reyes started at second base for the first time with the Mets since 2004. At that time, Kaz Matsui was the Mets rookie shortstop.
Surrounding all the hoopla of Amed Rosario‘s first game with the Mets, a baseball game broke out, and it was a pretty good one at that.
Rosario’s impact was felt immediately. In the first, he made a couple of plays including turning a 1-6-3 double play.
That play helped preserve a 1-0 lead when Yoenis Cespedes doubled home Michael Conforto, who has reached with a lead-off walk against Rockies starter Jeff Hoffman.
That lead grew to 2-0 when Jay Bruce doubled in Cespedes from first in the sixth.
At that point, things looked great for Steven Matz. Despite a rough stretch over his last four starts where he pitched to a 14.18 ERA (not a typo), he was dealing.
Through the first four innings, he had a no-hitter going. That was broken up on a Trevor Story lead-off single. On the play, Rosario got to a ball no other shortstop on the roster comes near, but with one slight tap of the glove before the throw, Story was able to beat it out.
In that inning, he labored, but he managed to work his way out of the jam. He wasn’t so lucky in the sixth.
A DJ LeMahieu double set up second and third with no outs. Matz was flirting with disaster since the fifth and in the following at-bat. He fought back into the st-bat getting it to a 3-2 count, and that’s when Nolan Arenado hit an opposite field go-ahead homer.
After a Mark Reynolds double, Terry Collins finally pulled Matz. The combination of Josh Smoker and Erik Goeddel would limit the damage keeping the game at 3-2.
The Mets tied it in the seventh with some help from Rockies catcher Ryan Hanigan. When Pat Neshek struck out Jose Reyes to start the inning, Hanigan whiffed on the ball. With the ball going to the backstop, Reyes reached base safely.
Reyes moved to third on a Conforto single, and he’d score the tying run on an Asdrubal Cabrera sacrifice fly. On the play, Charlie Blackmon didn’t have much of a chance to get Reyes, but still:
Okay good catch but also pic.twitter.com/8evdHfjcZt
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) August 2, 2017
It would be untied in the eighth on a Bruce homer off Chris Rusin:
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/892587987346886657
For a moment, it appeared as if that 4-3 lead might grow.
Rosario would get his first career hit off Scott Oberg. It was an infield single to short (turnabout is fair play). Rosario moved to second on Story’s throwing error. It appeared as if Rosario was going to score his first career run when the ball left Travis d’Arnaud‘s bat.
Unfortunately, the ball ricocheted off Oberg’s leg to Reynolds. Reynolds was able to flip to Oberg to record the out. It was a bigger out than originally anticipated.
Paul Sewald started his second inning of relief by allowing a base hit to Reynolds. Collins responded to this by bringing in Jerry Blevins to face a couple of lefties.
Blevins responded by allowing singles to Gerardo Parra and Carlos Gonzalez. The hit by Gonzalez was cued right off the end of the bat, and Cabrera had little to no chance to get anyone out. With Blevins allowing yet another inherited runner to score, it was a tie game.
The Rockies rally sputtered when Hansel Robles came on to get the last two outs. Robles wouldn’t be so lucky in the ninth.
After allowing a lead-off walk to Blackmon, LeMahieu hit what could’ve been a double play ball. Likely, it was just a fielder’s choice. Still, that play wasn’t turned as Rosario broke towards second with Blackmon moving on the play. With Rosario booting it, it was first and second with no outs instead of bases empty with no outs.
After that, Arenado blooped the ball into center, and Conforto had no chance to get Blackmon. Ballgame.
Overall, it was an entertaining game where we saw all that Rosario could be. We also saw that he’s an inexperienced rookie that needs more seasoning.
Game Notes: Matt Reynolds was sent down to make room for Rosario on the roster.
Last time Conforto and Rosario were in the same lineup? May 28, 2015 when St. Lucie lost 4-3 to Lakeland.
— Mets Daddy (@MetsDaddy2013) August 2, 2017
By the end of August 2015, it was clear the Mets were going to the postseason. With that in mind, the Mets needed to do something to address their bullpen – something that has been a theme of the Sandy Alderson Era. The Mets did just that in August picking up both Eric O’Flaherty and Addison Reed. Given the Mets lack of a LOOGY, it was believed O’Flaherty was the bigger pickup. Boy was that wrong.
At the time Reed joined the Mets, he was having his worst season as a professional pitching to a 4.20 ERA with the Diamondbacks and having made a trip down to Triple-A. Due to his relatively high salary, he was likely ticketed to be non-tendered in the offseason. When the Mets obtained him, it was little more than a gamble for a pitcher with prior closing experience. Certainly, Miller Diaz and Matt Koch were worth paying for the gamble. As we know, that gamble paid off.
From the minute Reed put on a Mets uniform, it was like he was a completely different pitcher. Seemingly, he found one of the remaining telephone booths in Queens, stripped out of his Diamondbacks uniform, and emerged as an elite MLB reliever.
To close out the year, he’d make 17 appearances going 1-1 with a 1.17 ERA, 1.043 WHIP, and a 10.0 K/9. At a minimum, Reed locked down the seventh inning for a team hoping to make it to the World Series. As we know, the Mets did, and Reed played his part.
Reed would appear in nine of the Mets 14 postseason games, and he would appear in all five World Series games. Reed was reliable in those games allowing no runs in seven of those appearances and just one run in another. That one run came in Game Two of the NLDS right after Chase Utley broke Ruben Tejada‘s leg.
In the World Series, where three of the five games had been a battle of the bullpens, Reed had mostly done his job. Through the first four games, he had allowed no runs and just one hit. Unfortunately, with him being on fumes, he fell apart in Game Five of the World Series becoming the losing pitcher after allowing three runs in the 12th inning.
Reed would emerge from this heartache as possibly the best pitcher in the National League in 2016. During the 2016 season, Reed made 80 appearances going 4-2 with a 1.97 ERA, a 0.940 WHIP, a 10.5 K/9, 209 ERA+, and a 1.98 FIP. His 2.9 WAR that season was the highest among relievers. In short, he was great out of the bullpen. All year long he helped a team with little bullpen depth stay afloat, and when he last stepped off the mound in the Wild Card Game, the Mets still had a chance to advance to the NLDS.
This year, all he had to do was step in for Jeurys Familia and become the team’s closer. Like he had done in his entire Mets career, Reed took on the role the Mets needed him to do, and he was great at it. In what was his final stint with the Mets, Reed made 31 appearances going 1-2 with 19 saves, a 2.57 ERA, 1.122 WHIP, and an 8.8 K/9.
Since joining the Mets, Reed was one of the best relief pitchers in baseball. He has pitched the fifth most innings (142.0) while maintaining a sterling 2.09 ERA. He has fulfilled whatever role the Mets needed him to fulfill by going from 7th to 8th and finally to the 9th inning. In that sense, Reed has become the rare pitcher in baseball. He took on whatever role was asked of him, and he performed well in that role.
In essence, Reed was exactly what you want in a bullpen arm. He was a guy who went out there and did whatever the team needed. He was used frequently, and he was one of the few arms who was not burned out by Terry Collins during his Mets tenure. He was a great reliever, and some would go so far as to say he was Raddison.
Reed is now a member of the Boston Red Sox. He goes to a team in need of a reliever capable of setting up for Craig Kimbrel. As we have seen during his Mets tenure, Reed can certainly do that. He can also give Kimbrel the occasional day off.
In the end, Reed is where he belongs. He is with a contender. Hopefully, he gets that ring he feel agonizingly short of winning in 2015. Hopefully, he will have the same success with the Red Sox he found with Mets. Hopefully, with his being an impending free agent, Reed finds his way back to New York.
Even if he doesn’t, Reed was a good Met who twice helped pitch the Mets into the postseason. Now, it is time to wish him well as he once again pursues October glory. Here’s hoping he finds it this time.
This was a Mets game that went from promising to false hope, to utter surprise, to more often same, to sheer shock, and finally joy.
The Mets were off to a quick lead thanks to homers from Jay Bruce and Michael Conforto:
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/891129995120316417
The homer must’ve been extra special as he was back in his hometown in front of his friends and family.
The Mets lead grew to 4-0 when Wilmer Flores hit a third inning sacrifice fly scoring Asdrubal Cabrera. Cabrera found himself on third because while advancing to second on a Ariel Miranda wild pitch, catcher Mike Zunino hit him with the throw. With no one guarding third, Cabrera was able to get there without a play.
For an ever so brief moment, this seemed like enough for Rafael Montero, who started the game terribly. Through the first four innings, Montero had allowed just one hit – a homer by Zunino. It all came crashing down for him in the fifth.
There were some reasons why. Montero was facing the Mariners the third time through the order. He was getting squeezed a tad by the home plate umpire. As Keith Hernandez pointed out, Rene Rivera was not calling a good game. No matter what the reason, the biggest issue was Montero stopper executing.
Montero loaded the bases with no outs, and he threw a wild pitch allowing a run to score. It was definitely a wild pitch, but it’s also true Rivera didn’t get down completely to block that pitch.
Montero then walked Jean Segura to re-load the bases, and Robinson Cano hit a sacrifice fly to pull the Mariners within one. Montero then issued another walk, this one to Nelson Cruz, to re-load the bases. At this point, Terry Collins did what he had to do, and he pulled Montero.
Unfortunately, Josh Edgin didn’t get the job done. He allowed a two run RBI single to Kyle Seager. With that, the Mets 4-1 lead became a 5-4 deficit.
Through the work of Hansel Robles and Jerry Blevins, the Mets remained within a run.
The Mets got that run back when Conforto hit not just his second homer of the game, but his second homer of the game against a lefty. This time it was Marc Rzepczynski.
This led to the Mariners bringing in a friendly face – David Phelps. Entering the game, Phelps had a career 6.09 ERA against the Mets. The ERA would go up.
Cabrera and Bruce each singled, and Flores hit what could’ve been a double play ball due to his lack of speed. With Flores just barely beating the throw, the inning continued.
Neil Walker would go the other way with the ball hitting an opposite field RBI single against the shift. Flores would then score on a Curtis Granderson RBI single off the glove of Mariners first baseman Danny Valencia. The single gave the Mets a 7-5 lead.
Like we’ve seen with Paul Sewald on a few occasions this year, he got himself into some trouble. With the Mets having used both LOOGYs, Collins stuck with his young reliever in this spot.
After a Jarrod Dyson sacrifice bunt, the Mariners had runners at second and third with one out.
Sewald escaped the jam striking out Zunino and getting Segura to strike out.
This set the stage for what may very well be Addison Reed‘s last save opportunity as a Met.
With a Ben Gamel grounder eating up Walker, it appeared as if this could be another tense outing. Reed settled down, and he erased Gamel inducing Robinson Cano to hit into a 4-6-3 double play. After a Nelson Cruz fly out, Reed had his 19th save of the year.
It was a good win. At a minimum, it shows even with the Mets selling this team is still playing hard.
Game Notes: Lucas Duda homered in his first game with the Rays. The Mets obtained AJ Ramos in a deal with the Marlins. Segura tried his best to get on base by pretending to get HBP (overturned by review):
Jean Segura a proud graduate of Derek Jeter Thespian School pic.twitter.com/Tcgllxt7qz
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) July 29, 2017
This was about a bizarre a debut as you will possibly see. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always a good thing for Chris Flexen.
On the third pitch of his Major League career, he allowed a homer to Manuel Margot. The inning would continue, and the Padres would have runners on the corners with one out. That’s when Travis d’Arnaud would help his young pitcher with two outstanding tags:
Two clutch plays from d'Arnaud in the 1st! ? pic.twitter.com/8dHX8rZGRf
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 28, 2017
The first was off a nice play from Flexen to field a Cory Spangenberg safety squeeze. d’Arnaud then blocked the plate and get the tag down on Carlos Asuaje.
During the next at-bat, Spangenberg broke for second. With d’Arnaud throwing through, Wil Myers broke for home. Wilmer Flores made a strong albeit slightly offline throw. In one motion, d’Arnaud caught the throw and just tagged Myer’s hand before his foot touched the plate.
The second inning didn’t go as well for Flexen.
The Padres loaded the bases with no outs, and Margot struck again hitting a double to the wall. Luis Torrens originally stopped at third, but he came home to score as Asdrubal Cabrera forgot how the pick up a baseball. For reasons that cannot be explained, Michael Conforto got charged with the error.
Flexen was able to navigate out of this inning, and he pitched a good third. With his having thrown 69 pitches, and his turn due up, Terry Collins lifted him.
Flexen’s final line in the loss was three innings, five hits, four runs, three earned, four walks, and two strikeouts.
The young pitcher was shaky in the first couple of innings, and by the time he settled in, his manager went elsewhere. Hopefully, he will get one more start to prove himself.
With Flexen out, Collins went to Tyler Pill despite Pill having thrown two innings yesterday. It came back to burn the Mets as a gassed Pill allowed three runs to give the Padres a 7-1 lead.
In another bizarre twist, the Mets used both Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz as pinch hitters. This was due to Lucas Duda getting traded and T.J. Rivera.
The real shame in all of this is just with one or two different things happening, the Mets might’ve won this game. Case in point was the seventh inning outburst.
With the Mets down 7-1, Yoenis Cespedes hit an RBI double leading the Padres to pull starter Luis Perdermo and bring in Jose Torres. Torres immediately balked home a run, and then allowed a home run to Jay Bruce pulling the Mets to within 7-5. They’d get no closer.
After the homer, it was 7-5 Padres. The Mets would get no closer giving the rookie his first major league lost in his first career start.
Game Notes: Flexen became the first Mets pitcher to make the jump from Double-A to the majors since Mike Pelfrey in 2006.
Last year was an abomination for Travis d’Arnaud. The catcher had another injury plagued year, and he eventually lost his starting job to Rene Rivera. Part of the reason was his manager did not trust him catching Noah Syndergaard because he could not hold on base runners. The other part was he believed Rivera to be some sort of pitcher whisperer leading him to catch Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo when they joined the rotation. With d’Arnaud hitting just .247/.307/.323, he didn’t exactly force his way into the lineup.
That made the 2017 season a pivotal one for d’Arnaud.
Things started out well for him. Fifteen games into the season, d’Arnaud had seemingly recaptured his 2015 hitting .270/.357/.541, and then as always seems to be the case with him an injury happened. While following through on a throw to second base, d’Arnaud’s hand hit the bat of Aaron Altherr causing him to the leave the game. With the Mets being the Mets, they had d’Arnaud play through the injury until he could no longer.
In the subsequent 10 games, d’Arnaud would hit .091/.167/.364. With him obviously unable to play, the Mets finally put him on the disabled list with a bone bruise in his wrist.
When d’Arnaud came back, he struggled at the plate hitting .234/.278/.430 from the date he was activated from the disabled list into the All Star break. Part of this was his extremely low .247 BABIP. Now, d’Arnaud has typically always had low BABIPs with a career .273 mark entering this season. Even in his career year in 2015, it was just .289. Still, he was never a .247 BABIP hitter.
There may be many reasons for this. Players tend to suffer the ill effects of hand and wrist injuries after the injuries have been deemed healed enough to play. It’s also possible d’Arnaud suffered from Terry Collins‘ time sharing system with d’Arnaud having his pitchers and Rivera having the others. It’s possible this prevented d’Arnaud from getting into a rhythm. It’s also possible it was just a stretch of bad luck.
Whatever the case, d’Arnaud has been a much better player coming out of the All Star break. Over the past nine games, d’Arnaud is hitting .333/.394/.400 with two doubles and five RBI. Despite his not hitting for much power, he’s gotten some big RBIs.
But it’s more than just his hitting. Recently, d’Arnaud has done more to take over the game from behind the plate. The other day when Addison Reed was in a war of words with Home Plate Umpire Dan Iassogna, d’Arnaud stepped in, and he probably saved the closer from an ejection from a hot headed umpire. We’ve also seen him make more mound visits to get a pitcher back in the inning and the game.
No, he’s still not doing a good job throwing out base runners going 0-3 in the second half. In a surprising turn of events, d’Arnaud actually has poor pitch framing numbers. Still, we know he’s been typically very good in that area, and he’s likely going to return to being good in that area again. Just watching games, it seems like he’s getting that outside corner again.
Overall, it appears d’Arnaud is finally showing the Mets he is a complete catcher. It’s coming at an important time as well. The organization is in a period of transition with the team being in a position to sell at the deadline. When you have a season like the Mets have had you have to reassess everyone . . . d’Arnaud included. If he continues to catch this well, he is going to cement his status as the Mets everyday catcher in 2018.
The caveat of course is he needs to stay healthy. That’s always easier said that done with him.
During last night’s game, we got to see the full experience of what it has been like watching Yoenis Cespedes in a Mets uniform. Much like he did in 2015, we got to see Cespedes make an immediate impact in the first inning with a home run off of Padres starter Kyle Lloyd:
https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/890034579041636353
After the Padres played some Home Run Derby of their own with Hunter Renfroe and Allen Cordoba each hitting a pair of third inning home runs off Seth Lugo, the Mets were trailing 3-1. For Renfroe, it was his second homer in as many at-bats against the Mets, and it was his third homer in three days. Thank God he plays in the NL West.
After the Mets pulled themselves within a run in the fourth with Travis d’Arnaud getting another two out RBI in this series, it was time for Cespedes to go back to work and help take this game over.
Cespedes joined the doubles hit parade in the fifth. After Curtis Granderson and Asdrubal Cabrera led off the inning with a pair of doubles, Cespedes followed with one of his own to give the Mets a 4-3 lead.
It was just one of those nights where things weren’t going to be easy. After Lugo surrendered a lead-0ff single to Matt Szczur, Cabrera didn’t get down low enough to field what should have been a Jose Pirela ground out. This set up first and second with no outs. Both runners would advance on a deep Carlos Asuaje fly out. Lugo did his best to limit the damage by allowing just one run to score on a Wil Myers sacrifice fly.
Lugo’s final line was six innings, eight hits, four runs, three earned, no walks, and one strikeout. He got the win in large part because of Cespedes.
The game winning runs came on what was about as bizarre as a Little League home run as you are ever going to see:
Yoenis Cespedes tried to check his swing, he instead hit a Little League homer. #Mets (? @MLB) pic.twitter.com/8rhUyB8yaf
— RealClearSports (@RealClearSports) July 26, 2017
Where do you begin with this one? The check swing triple? Myers throwing the ball away when there was no play at third? Cespedes’ head first slide into home? The offline throw from Cory Spangenberg? Or was it that Hector Sanchez failing to both catch the ball and tag Cespedes? It was the typical comedy of errors you see in your standard Little League home runs, but with Major League Baseball players.
With the triple, Cespedes found himself a single short of the cycle – the easiest one to get. Cespedes didn’t get that chance.
Despite Gary Cohen trying to assure us Michael Conforto was coming into the game in left field in a double switch so Terry Collins could get two innings out of Paul Sewald, we all knew better. Cespedes left the game with leg problems, which were later described as a quad tightness. Who knows how many games he will miss if any.
With Cespedes being the dominant figure in the game, putting the Mets on his back offensively, and leaving the game with a leg injury, Mets fans got the full Cespedes experience. Or at least very close to it as we did not get to see Cespedes unleash his cannon of an arm.
From there, Collins went to Addison Reed, who must be on fumes, in the ninth. The closer, who the Mets are trying their best to keep up his extremely high trade value, had another shaky ninth. He allowed a Dusty Coleman two out RBI double to bring the Padres to within 6-5. Much like he did last night, Reed then shut the door to preserve the victory.
With the win, the Mets are now just four games under .500, and they are nine games behind the Colorado Rockies (seven in the loss column) for the second Wild Card. Of course, this all means little when Cespedes leaves yet another game with a leg injury.
Game Notes: Conforto was initially out of the lineup to give him a day off.
For those of us that forget, the New York Mets really had no interest in re-signing Jose Reyes after the 2011 season. When he signed with the Marlins in the offseason, there was a war of words between the two camps with Reyes saying he never received an offer, and Sandy Alderson saying Reyes’ agent was aware of the framework of the type of deal the Mets might be willing to do.
Since leaving the Mets, Reyes was roundly booed as a member of the Marlins, was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, and finally had an overly brief and turbulent career with the Colorado Rockies. For reasons we all know, and need not be discussed in-depth at the moment, it led to the Rockies releasing Reyes. This also led to Reyes re-uniting with the Mets.
Last year, he was decent with the Mets helping the team make the postseason by obtaining the top Wild Card spot. The Mets brought him back as David Wright insurance, and he has struggled for most of the season. So far, Reyes is hitting .231/.293/.392. That’s good for a 79 OPS+ and a -0.8 WAR. Not to belabor what you already know, but Reyes has been a bad baseball player.
It’s bizarre we all know it, but the Mets don’t. Reyes’ 90 games played leads the Mets this season. Part of that is he hasn’t been hurt. An even bigger part of that is Terry Collins and the Mets organization won’t or can’t admit Reyes isn’t good. This is of course reflected in how the social media team has inundated us with Reyes since the All Star Break with tweets like this:
A man of the people. pic.twitter.com/Ovn5sg29Ce
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 12, 2017
Jacob deGrom is the ace. Michael Conforto is the All Star. Yoenis Cespedes is the most important player. Curtis Granderson is the role model. Addison Reed, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Jay Bruce are the players on the trade block. Yet, somehow, the Mets have made it a point to feature Reyes despite his poor play and his personal issues.
Yes, Reyes has played better of late, but he has been nowhere near as good as Conforto, Duda, deGrom, or Seth Lugo. You wouldn’t know that by looking at how the Mets promote their players.
Sure, this is a silly gripe, but when the Mets have nothing to play for this season, you tend to notice these things. Maybe if the Mets did the right thing by calling up Amed Rosario fans could focus on that. Maybe, just maybe, the team could promote him. I think we can all agree that is beneficial for everyone.
It is nice to see the Mets win a game because the other team had mental lapses in the field, poor managerial decisions, and had a bullpen blow a late lead and finally the game. Through the first 82 games, that seemed to be the Mets specialty. Today, in what was mostly a lethargic afternoon game, the Mets got bested by the Cardinals in something they had seemingly mastered.
Through the first 4.2 innings, Seth Lugo had a no-hitter going. Somewhere someone must’ve taken notice and said something because Greg Garcia hit a double for the Cardinals first hit of the game. Still, things were in good shape for the Mets because Lugo erased Garcia, and the team had a 1-0 lead.
That lead came because Lucas Duda hit a second inning homer against Cardinals starter Lance Lynn:
https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/888078198524841984
The sizzling hot Duda has homered three times over his last five games. Duda was also good in the field saving his infielders from a few errors. Most notably, his scoop of a bad T.J. Rivera throw in the seventh saved a run. Hopefully, one of the teams that needs a 1B/DH, and there are more of them than people will lead you to believe, have taken notice.
That 1-0 lead evaporated in the sixth. After a one out walk to Matt Carpenter, Tommy Pham, who has been killing the Mets of late, doubled him home to tie the score. Once again, Lugo settled in, shut the door in the sixth, and he pitched a scoreless seventh.
The Mets hurler deserved the win with his outstanding performance, but will have to settle for a no decision. His final line was 6.2 innings, four hits, one run, one earned, one walk, and five strikeouts. With him and Lynn out of the game, it became a battle of the bullpens, and a battle of wits between the managers.
With Erik Goeddel getting the last out of the seventh, Terry Collins turned to him to pitch the eighth. It’s hard to fault Collins when everyone else in the bullpen is terrible, but the decision backfired when Pham hit a 3-1 pitch out of the park to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. With the way this game was going, and with how poorly the Mets have played of late, it seemed like this was how the game was going to end.
That was until Mike Matheny thought it was a good idea to let the left-handed Brett Cecil pitch to Wilmer Flores in the eighth. Everyone and their mother knows Flores crushes left-handed pitching. Matheny either didn’t know that, or didn’t care. That decision cost him as Cecil hung one to Flores:
https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/888108826888556544
From there, the Mets turned to the one reliever in their bullpen that they can have confidence – Addison Reed. Reed did his job pitching a scoreless ninth thereby giving the Mets a chance for a walk-off victory.
The ninth inning rally started with Michael Conforto drawing a lead-off walk against Trevor Rosenthal. It was another excellent game for Conforto that has gone unnoticed. On the day, the Cardinals allowed eight baserunners (six hits and two walks). Conforto accounted for four of those with him going 2-2 with two walks on the day.
Conforto would be erased on the basepaths on what initially appeared to be a double play ball off the bat of Yoenis Cespedes. Credit should be given to Cespedes for busting it down the line and keeping a runner on base. It paid off as he went first to third on a Rivera single. He would then score on what should have been the last out of the inning:
https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/888108826888556544
That Jose Reyes “single” was the improbable winner that sent Mets fans home happy, and it enraged Cardinals first baseman Matt Carpenter:
I love Matt Carpenter. The look on his face, exasperation as he yelled "Trevor!" was priceless. Furious and rightly so. #STLCards #Mets
— Mike Vaccaro (@MikeVacc) July 20, 2017
It was nice to be on the other side of one of these games this year. It was also nice to earn a split in the series. Even if the Mets aren’t going anywhere, it is still always a joy to beat the Cardinals. At the very least, it was a pleasure helping ensure they didn’t get the sweep they needed to get back into an NL Central race that is suddenly in flux.
Game Notes: Neil Ramirez was designated for assignment before the game to make room for Josh Smoker on the roster.