Todd Frazier

Mets Defense Blows Another Game

The story of this game should have been Noah Syndergaard returning to form.  Like on Opening Day, he was mowing down the Cardinals, but this time, he was much more efficient in doing so.  Through six, he kept the Cardinals scoreless striking out six and allowing just two hits, and it looked like the Mets were going to cruise to a 2-0 victory at that point.

Both RBI came from Yoenis Cespedes, who snapped out of his funk going 2-5 with a double and two RBI.  The first RBI was a first inning off Carlos Martinez scoring Brandon Nimmo from first.  In the seventh, in what looked like window dressing at the plate, he plated Amed Rosario with a sacrifice fly.

However, as we have learned with Cespedes, sometimes he will giveth and sometimes he will taketh.

That was evident with Tommy Pham “doubled” on a ball that hit off of Cespedes’ glove.  Pham would then come home to score on a Marcell Ozuna single to cut the lead to 2-1.  With the way Paul DeJong kills the Mets, really it was a miracle he didn’t tie the score on his double.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter as the Mets gave up the lead in the eighth with some more poor defense.

What was interesting was Mickey Callaway let Syndergaard start the eighth while holding back Robert Gsellman.  Really, you wonder why not just go to the fresh arm after an inning in which Syndergaard faced some trouble.  Really, this is a bit nitpicky because this is Syndergaard we are talking about here.

In any event, Rosario threw a ball away on a Greg Garcia grounder starting off the inning with a runner on first instead of one out and the pitcher’s spot coming up.  Syndergaard struck out Yadier Molina before allowing a single to Matt Carpenter leading to his getting pulled from the game.

Gsellman was in a tough spot, and he didn’t deliver immediately.  The first batter he faced, Pham, singled to tie the score.  To his credit, with the go-ahead run in scoring position and just one out, Gsellman got Jose Martinez to ground into the inning ending 6-4-3 double play.

After a rusty Seth Lugo battled through a hit batter and walk to get through a scoreless ninth, the Mets would get an absolute gift run in the 10th.

After two quick outs, Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier hit back-to-back singles putting the game into Adrian Gonzalez‘s hands.  Somehow, not only would Luke Gregerson walk Gonzalez, but he would also walk Jose Lobaton to force in a run. With Jeurys Familia coming into the game, it seemed like the Mets would win a series after losing two straight.

Didn’t happen.

After two quick outs, Pham hit a ball up the middle most second baseman make fairly routinely.  The problem is Asdrubal Cabrera, even at full strength, doesn’t have much range.  With his current leg injury, he has almost no range.  Cabrera did all he could do, but he really had no shot at Pham.

Oddly enough, Juan Lagares wouldn’t have a shot at the subsequent Martinez double.  Oddly enough, Callaway went against his recent trends, and he put in Lagares for defense.  Martinez’s ball to deep center was a play almost no center fielder makes, but we have all become so spoiled by Lagares, he almost makes the impossible seem routine.  He ran back to dead center, leaped, and missed.  Instead of another highlight reel defensive play, it was a game tying double.

AJ Ramos pitched a perfect 11th, and Paul Sewald pitched a perfect 12th.  Unfortunately, the hottest pitcher in the Mets bullpen couldn’t keep the Cardinals off the board.  A Martinez walk followed by consecutive singles to Ozuna and Dexter Fowler was the ballgame.

With that, the Mets have lost three straight series, and the vibes from their amazing start have faded.  They have faded because the bottom of the lineup is black hole, but mostly, it is because this defense is bad and plays bad.

Game Notes: With the Mets out of position players, Sewald hit for himself in the top of the 13th.  Jose Reyes grounded out in the 10th to end that rally.

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Matz Bad Again In Mets Loss

Well, the rotation problem which surfaced when the team had to move Matt Harvey to the bullpen has reached near crisis after another terrible Steven Matz start resulting in a Mets 9-1 loss.

Strange thing is Matz had been looking good retiring the first four batters, and the light hitting Kolten Wong, the only lefty in the Cardinals lineup, strode to the plate.

He’d hit the ball up middle, and Wilmer Flores couldn’t make the bare-hand play. Michael Wacha bunted, Matz made a terrible throw, and Flores didn’t come off the base thereby allowing Wong to get to third.

That was the first of three Mets errors between the third and fourth.

Like other Mets meltdowns, we saw runs being walked in and safety squeezes where runs score easily. At the end of it Matz didn’t get out of the fourth.

Matz’s final line was 3.1 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, and 3 K.

Matz was victimized by poor defense, but he was also victimized by poor pitching. Time and again, when he had a chance to make a big pitch, he didn’t. It should leave the Mets wondering what to do with his rotation spot.

Maybe that spot could go to Corey Oswalt.

The rookie pitcher, who was last year’s Eastern League Pitcher of the Year, came in and did yeoman’s work.

He entered into a bases loaded jam with one out, and if not for an uncharacteristic Todd Frazier error, he would’ve limited the damage to one run. As it stood, he limited the damage to two runs.

Mostly, Oswalt saved the Mets bullpen by pitching the final 4.2 innings, and he pitched well yielding just two runs on two hits. He’d walk none and strike out four.

Arguably, he’s earned another look, which is more than you can say about Harvey or Matz right now.

Game Notes: Asdrubal Cabrera was held out of the game with an injury. Jay Bruce delivered the Mets lone run with a third inning RBI single.

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Resilient Mets Win Behind Resurgent Cespedes, Bruce

If you were paying attention before the game, there was a stir over a contrived controversy featuring Yoenis Cespedes.  No, it was not the typical contrived Cespedes controversies with his golf, cars, or his hat being backwards.  No, this one was the utterly false claim that somehow Mets fans are irritated with or hate Cespedes.  Today, Cespedes set out and showed why such claims are utterly preposterous:

If you think he took out a month’s worth of frustrations and completely demolished that ball, you would be right:

The Mets really needed that homer too because the Mets have not been playing their best baseball of late, and they were not really getting anything going against Cardinals starter Luke Weaver to that point, and Zack Wheeler was struggling.

Wheeler’s day started with his allowing a Tommy Pham two run homer in the first.  He would never quite settle in with his not registering one 1-2-3 inning in the game.  While he dodged troubled in the second and third, the Cardinals got to him again in the fourth with Kolten Wong‘s second double the day scoring a run, and Weaver delivering an RBI single of his own to give the Cardinals a 4-1 lead.

The Mets lone run had come off a complete Marcell Ozuna misplay in left on what was scored a Jay Bruce RBI triple.  The Mets continued rallying from there, but they were not able to score another run in that second inning.  The seminal play was an Adrian Gonzalez hot shot Wong made a great play on which kept the slow and injured Bruce at third.

Really, the Mets looked dead in the water until there were two outs in the top of the fifth, and Weaver lost the strike zone.  He walked Wilmer Flores and Michael Conforto on eight straight balls until the aforementioned Cespedes homer.

With Wheeler lifted after four uninspiring innings, this put the game in new reliever Matt Harvey‘s hands.

In the fifth, he was victimized a bit by Bruce’s complete and utterly lack of speed.  Dexter Fowler hit what should have been a single, but with Bruce’s speed, he made it an easy double.  That allowed Fowler to score easily on the subsequent Paul DeJong double. Likely, Fowler doesn’t score from first on the De Jong double.  Still, Harvey did allow back-to-back well struck balls which broke the 4-4 tie.

Overall, Harvey pitched fairly well out of the bullpen.  In his two innings, he allowed one earned on two hits with one walk while striking out two.  Tomas Nido was helping him get those extra calls, and Harvey had better velocity than we have seen of late:

All in all, it was a positive outing for Harvey was in line for the loss partially because Mickey Callaway has been making some odd decisions of late and because of Bruce’s speed.  Really, Bruce’s speed cost the Mets at least two runs tonight – when he couldn’t even score on the Wong play and his allowing Fowler to get into scoring position.

As for Callaway, in the top of the 7th, Callaway used Juan Lagares instead of Brandon Nimmo as a pinch hitter.  Considering Nimmo’s OBP and Jordan Hicks‘ 6.2 BB/9 this year, you might as well of put Nimmo on first to start the inning.  Instead Callaway went with his best defensive outfielder who struggles historically against right-handed pitching.

Still, even with the Bruce speed issues and Callaway’s curious decision making, this is a resilient Mets team.

Paul Sewald kept the Mets in the game with a scoreless seventh, and the Mets offense went to work against Hicks in the eighth.

Todd Frazier started the inning with a four pitch walk, and he went first to third on a Bruce single which snuck just past Jose Martinez.  A Gonzalez sacrifice fly would tie the game up at 5-5.  Unfortunately, that was where the rally would end.  Luke Gregerson came on and struck out Amed Rosario and got Nido to fly out to get out of the jam.

This would be the second time the weak bottom of the lineup prevented the Mets from cashing in on an opportunity, and it was another instance where you were left wondering why Callaway didn’t bring Nimmo into the game to take full advantage of a key opportunity.

Again, even with that, Sewald was great out of the Mets bullpen again.  He had two scoreless innings keeping the Mets in the game.

Robert Gsellman would make things really interesting in the ninth by first walking Matt Carpenter, and then allowing a bloop single to Pham.  However, he would send the game into extras by first striking out Martinez and then inducing Ozuna to hit into the inning ending 5-4-3 double play.

That play loomed large as Bruce would hit a go-ahead homer in the top of the 10th off Matthew Bowman.  Inexplicably, Mike Matheny challenged whether Bruce touched first base, which only served to give Jeurys Familia more time to warm up in the bullpen.  The well warmed up Familia came on to blow through the Cardinals for his ninth save of the year.

With some questionable decisions and calls, the Mets are back to their winning ways.  They won mostly because this is a resilient club with every member of this team summoning something each night to help deliver a win.

GAME NOTES: This was the first time all season the Mets wore a blue alternate jersey.  Mets are now 3-0 in extra inning games.

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Mets Blow Another Late Inning Lead

Through seven innings, the batters in this game might as well have gone up to the plate blindfolded and holding onto a broken tennis racket.  That was how good their chances were scoring a run against either Jacob deGrom or Julio Teheran, both of whom dominate the other team and allowed just four hits apiece tonight.  Really, their final lines were practically identical:

deGrom (ND) 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 K
Teheran (ND) 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, BB, 6 K

It wasn’t until the bullpens got involved that these offenses would wake up, and with the Mets being the away team, they were the ones who went off first.

Wilmer Flores drew a leadoff walk against Braves reliever Sam Freeman, and he moved to second on a Jose Reyes single.  For Reyes, despite him entering this game 0-20, he had a resurgent game reaching in his first three plate attempts going 3-4 with a run and a stolen base.

The pivotal moment of the inning, and at that time, the game was when Ozzie Albies just botched catching the throw in his haste to turn a double play on a Michael Conforto grounder.  While Reyes was initially ruled out, Mickey Callaway challenged the call, and Reyes was ruled safe.

As an aside, it was the second successful challenge for the Mets on the day.  The other was just as important on what was initially ruled an Ender Inciarte stolen base of third with no outs in the sixth:

Todd Frazier‘s holding on the tag kept the game scoreless, and it helped allow this game remain scoreless into the eighth.

With the bases loaded and no outs, this was the spot where you assumed Yoenis Cespedes would come through.  Even with his recent struggles, and his batting .195 on the season, he’s still gotten the clutch hits, and he is still hitting with the bases loaded.  Except for tonight.  He hit a shallow fly to Nick Markakis, and with Flores on third, there was no way he was going to tag up and score on that.  With Cespedes’ failure to deliver, it put the rally in jeopardy.

That was until Asdrubal Cabrera came up and hit a clutch two run RBI single to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.  Jay Bruce followed with an RBI single, and he hustled to second on an Inciarte fielding error.

Eventually, Adrian Gonzalez was intentionally walked, and Jose Lobaton hit a sinking line drive which Preston Tucker almost misplayed.  Instead he made a sliding catch getting the Braves out of the inning down 3-0.

With his performance yesterday, you thought this would be enough for AJ Ramos to lock down.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see that Ramos tonight.

No, we saw the Ramos who has troubles maintaining the strike zone.  He’d bookend an Inciarte strikeout with walks to Ryan Flaherty and Albies.  With Mets killer Freddie Freeman coming up, Callaway understandably went to his lone lefty Jerry Blevins.

Much like how he performed on the season, Blevins failed to get the exact guy he was brought into the game to get.  Freeman hit a two RBI double to pull the Braves within one.

Blevins would strike out Markakis, but the damage was done.  It was done not just because the Braves plated two runs, but because Blevins failure to get both left-handed batters, but also Ramos’ ineffectiveness, Jeurys Familia needed to come into the game to get the last out of the eighth.

Going multiple innings like this was something that was once old hat for Familia, and with him doing it already two times this season, the hope was he could do it tonight.  He didn’t.

It started with a leadoff walk to Dansby Swanson, who scored the game tying run on a Johan Camargo (yes, the very same one) triple.

The Mets got a bit of a break with Kurt Suzuki lining a ball off of Frazier’s glove.  Suzuki reached first safely, but Camargo wouldn’t score on the play.  It seemed things were turning back towards the Mets direction as Charlie Culberson struck out, which at least created the possibility the Mets could get out of the inning with double play.  That didn’t happen because, as Gary Cohen predicted may happen, Inciarte dropped down the drag bunt:


With that bunt, the Mets lost the game 4-3.  More than that, the Mets blew a great start from deGrom.  More than anything, this is the second time this week, the Mets bullpen has lost a game against a division rival.  It is still too early to begin worrying about these sorts of things, but it is never to be soon to be aware of what issues it could raise for the Mets down the road.

Game Notes: Before the game, it was announced Matt Harvey was moving to the bullpen.  Joining him there was Corey Oswalt.  Gerson Bautista was sent down to make room for Oswalt.

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Cespedes Strikes Out Until Clutch Situation Arises

With the Mets blowout loss on a really bad Matt Harvey start, it looked like a team who lost three of their past four games needed to gain some momentum.  Fortunately for the Mets, in baseball, momentum in the next day’s starting pitcher, and the Mets were sending Noah Syndergaard to the mound.

Unfortunately for the Mets, the rest of the team was not quite up to the task when he was on the mound.

Yes, Syndergaard was beat by Ozzie Albies on a fastball, but that was Albies hitting a good pitch.  The other runs against Syndergaard was really on the Mets.

In the third, Jay Bruce, who has struggled in every aspect of his game lately, misplayed a John Flaherty ball leading to an RBI double that allowed Dansby Swanson to score from first.

In the sixth, Nick Markakis made the mistake of challenging Yoenis Cespedes‘ arm trying to stretch and single into a double.  As poor as the decision was to challenge Cespedes’ arm, it was a smart decision to test Asdrubal Cabrera‘s glove. With Cabrera unable to field the one hop throw, Markakis was safe at second.

Markakis moved to third on a Syndergaard wild pitch, which was partially the result of Tomas Nido not getting down, and he would score the third and tying run on a Kurt Suzuki sacrifice fly.

The shame of it was Syndergaard was very good on the night.  His final line was 6.0 innings, seven hits, three runs, three earned, no walks, and six strikeouts. He would get the no decision, partially because Wilmer Flores couldn’t quite score in the top half of the inning:

Still, the Mets did score three runs against Braves starter Sean Newcomb.

The Mets scored their first run in the third inning on an Amed Rosario double to deep center allowing Nido to score from first.  With Ender Inciarte making a throwing error on the play, Rosario was able to scoot over to third.  This allowed him to score on a Michael Conforto sacrifice fly, which, at the time, gave the Mets a 2-1 lead.

The Mets lead grew to 3-1 the following inning.  Todd Frazier drew a walk to lead off the inning, and he stole second putting him in scoring position to score on a Flores RBI single.

After the sixth, the Mets would begin to play much better in the field, including Nido, who threw out both Flaherty on a strike ’em out-throw ’em out double play in the seventh.  He would then nail Albies in the eighth.  These would be the first two players thrown out on the basepaths by Mets catchers.

As impressive as that was, the Mets bullpen was even better allowing just one hit after Syndergaard departed the game.  Seth Lugo pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth.  AJ Ramos threw a scoreless ninth. Robert Gsellman contributed a scoreless 10th and 11th.

With the tired arms in the Mets bullpen, Mickey Callaway sent Gsellman up to bat against Josh Ravin, who was in his second inning of work.

Gsellman would reach with Ravin hitting him with a pitch, and Gsellman quickly found himself on second on a successful Rosario sacrifice bunt.  For a moment, it appeared the Mets were going to squander an opportunity with Conforto popping out, and the .197 hitting Cespedes, who had already had the golden sombrero on the night, coming to the plate.

However, like Cespedes has done many times this season, despite his struggles, he came through hitting an opposite field single against the shift scoring Gsellman from second and giving the Mets a 4-3 lead.  That lead expanded to 5-3 when Cabrera hit a double off the right field wall.

Then for the second time in a week, Cabrera made a really bad base running mistake.  On the way to third on what should have been a stand up triple, he did one of his slides to stop himself, and he went back to second.  He was beaten back to the base by Swanson leading to the third out of the inning.

The good news is that play needed a replay review giving Jeurys Familia more time to warm up and get into the game.  Between that and the two run lead, the Mets had all they needed to lock up this 5-3 win.

Once again, the Mets are back to their winning ways, are still in first place, and are sending another ace to the mound in tomorrow’s game.  Once again, things are looking up for the Mets.

Game Notes: With a bloop opposite field double in the sixth, Bruce snapped an 0-19 skid.  He then went hitless in his next two at-bats.

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Mets Blogger Roundtable: Pleasant Surprises of The 2018 Mets Season

After the Mets lost a brutal game to the Washington Nationals with an epic eighth inning meltdown, you’d be hard pressed to think of anything good about the 2018 Mets even with the team having a 12-3 record.  Of course, last night, the Mets had their own eighth inning rally to remind everyone just how good this Mets team can be.

With there being so many different surprises this season, our Mets bloggers answered the question about what they believe to be the most pleasant surprise of the 2018 season:

Roger Cormier (Good Fundies)

I would have to say it’s all of the winning. Now don’t get me wrong – I didn’t expect a 1-161 season (the Mets always win Opening Day), but boy, all of the winning at the jump? It was an embarrassment of riches. I would *never* ask for 11 wins after 12 games. Yet the other shoe kept refusing to drop. My shoes just stayed on my beach blanket as I danced in the sands of glory. I have pneumonia now of course thanks to this weather, but boy was it fun. They say you never know when you’re living in a golden age, and I wanted to prove this ‘they’ wrong. Back to reality though. *Nyquil chug* Sorry, what was I saying? Oh right, the winning. Yes, the surprise was all of the winning.

Joe Marcic (Loud Egg)

I was going to say the bullpen… but maybe not.

Besides the bullpen, I’d say the DL. I do not want to say this too loudly and jinx things, but Mickey Callaway‘s handling of his players (especially pitching) has been great. Both catchers being out hurts, but it’s not too bad this early in the season. Unpleasant surprise: Jose Reyes not getting a hit. Did not see this coming.

Metstradamus (Metstradamus Blog)

Adrian Gonzalez. Everything else is a distant second.

Greg Prince (Faith and Fear in Flushing)

The most pleasant surprise of the early season was that the ugly 8-6 loss to the Nationals fifteen games in was considered a total shock as opposed to business as usual. Wouldn’t have seen the status quo reshaping itself so definitively prior to Opening Day.

Mets Daddy

The Todd Frazier effect on everything Mets.  He’s brought a winning attitude to the team.  He’s become the upbeat clubhouse guy, and he’s started this fun friendship with Yoenis Cespedes.  He also helped start that goofy grinder thing that has someone become not just a team bonding thing, but a thing Mets fans have come to actually like.

Speaking of Mets fans, Frazier is one of the good ones, like Wilmer Flores, who takes time to interact with the fans.  He’s already making himself a fan favorite, and he seems like one of those players we will irrationally love for the next 40 years.

While the Mets have been a surprise this season, the excellent work from the participating bloggers isn’t.  As always, I encourage you to visit their sites to get their unique, thoughtful, and interesting takes on the Mets.

 

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This Time, The Mets Own The Eighth Inning

Considering what happened the last two nights, the Mets really could have used a fast start to this game.  Instead, they got Steven Matz threw a 3-2 changeup that Ryan Zimmerman hit for a three run home run to give the Nationals an early 3-0 lead.

After the Zimmerman homer, Matz would allow a Moises Sierra single before going on a tear where he retired the next 11 Nationals in a row.  That stretch included a pick-off (scored a caught stealing), no walks, and five strikeouts.  He was at 74 pitches, and he looked good to go for a few more innings.

Essentially, Matz settled into the game.  However, where Matz settled in, his manager Mickey Callaway, did not.

With Tanner Roark starting to bark at the home plate umpire over some borderline calls, the Mets began to rally in the bottom of the fourth.

Asdrubal Cabrera led off the inning with a double, and Todd Frazier would follow with a one out walk.  Once again, it was Adrian Gonzalez delivering a key and unexpected RBI single.  The single scored Cabrera and allowed Frazier to go to third.

Jose Lobaton followed with what should have been an inning ending double play.  The only problem for the Nationals is Zimmerman can’t throw anymore, and he pulled Trea Turner off the bag not only preventing the Nationals from getting the double play, but also them getting even just one out.

On the play Frazier scored pulling the Mets to within 3-2 with runners on first and second and just one out and Matz due up.  Instead of using Matz in an obvious sacrifice bunt situation, Callaway pinch hit Brandon Nimmo.

Considering the events of the past two days, this reeked of a panic move.  You could only hope it would work out.  Initially, it looked like it would with Roark hitting Nimmo, who smiled and cheered all his way to first base.  Still, the move blew up as Amed Rosario hit into the inning ending 6-4-3 double play.

Considering how the Mets left a small island nation on the bases yesterday, and the team going all-in on the fourth inning, there was legitimate concern the Mets blew their shot.

That’s where Paul Sewald came in, and he gave the Mets another incredible three inning relief appearance.  If not for an extremely ill advised Jay Bruce dive, it’s likely all three innings would have been scoreless.  Instead, his final line would be 3.0 innings, one run, one earned, one hit, no walks, and five strikeouts.

Sewald both saved a taxed bullpen, and he gave the Mets a chance to win.  For once this series, the Mets took advantage of that chance.

With Ryan Madson working a third day in a row, the Mets offense would immediately go to work starting with back-to-back-to-back singles from Michael Conforto, Yoenis Cespedes, and Cabrera to load the bases.  After an injured and struggled Bruce popped out, Frazier delivered with the game tying RBI single. On the single up the middle, Cespedes would get his hand in just ahead of the Severino tag.

The Mets weren’t done either.  Gonzalez was intentionally walked to re-load the bases, Madson struck out Wilmer Flores leaving the game in the hands of Juan Lagares.  Historically, Lagares has struggled against right-handed pitching, but this season he can do no wrong, and he did no wrong in this at-bat hitting a go-ahead two RBI double.

As the inning continued, and the Mets batted around, Sammy Solis would issue a bases loaded walk to Conforto giving the Mets a 7-4 lead.  The capper would be Cespedes hitting a grand slam to give the Mets an 11-4 lead.

No, it wasn’t quite the Nationals coming from down 6-1, but it still felt good and nearly as important.  Also, it might have demoralized a Nationals team who thought they were going to return the favor to the Mets for them sweeping them at home last week.

Thanks to the heroics of Sewald and a revitalized Mets offense, the Mets won 11-5, and they are well back on track as they go on the road to make a statement against the Braves.

Game Notes: Jose Reyes grounded out to the pitcher in a seventh inning.  He’s now 0-18 on the season.

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Mets Don’t Execute, Callaway Makes Another Mistake, Mets Lose

In the top of the first, the Nationals quickly loaded the bases against Zack Wheeler with one out.  This is normally where Wheeler would implode, and based off of what happened last night, you’d think this was a spot where the Nationals would jump right out and put up a crooked number on the board.

Instead, Wheeler induced Moises Sierra to hit into the inning ending 6-4-3 double play.

What this told us about the Mets was this was not a completed deflated team.  They still had fight in them despite last night’s horrendous loss.  So, yes the fight was there.  The question was if the execution would be there to pull out a win.

As far as the Nationals were concerned the theme of the nights would be soft hits.  They’d use them to set up a Bryce Harper sacrifice fly in the third, and they’d use them to score two runs off Wheeler in the fourth to give the Nationals a 3-0 lead.

By that time, you were left wondering if the Mets had a rally in them.  They would in the bottom of the fifth with a leadoff single from Wheeler of all people.

Wheeler quickly found himself on third after an Amed Rosario double, which might have been a triple had Wheeler not been ahead of him on the basepaths.  Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a sacrifice fly.  With Michael Taylor overthrowing the cutoff man, Rosario moved to third allowing him to score on the subsequent Yoenis Cespedes RBI groundout.

That pulled the Mets to within 3-2.  The Mets would have their chances to take the lead, but they couldn’t get out of their own way.

In the sixth, the Mets had runners at the corners after back-to-back one out singles from Juan Lagares and Tomas Nido.  For reasons that defy all logic, Mickey Callaway decided to pinch hit Jose Reyes instead of using Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Adrian Gonzalez, or even the newly called-up reliever Gerson Bautista.  If you thought Callaway had a rough night last night, he showed he learned nothing.

Reyes struck out in an ugly at-bat against Gio Gonzalez, and Rosario followed with a weak pop out in foul territory to end the inning.

In the seventh, runners were once again on the corners with one out.  This time it was due to a Wilmer Flores and Cespedes single.  They’d be stranded when Todd Frazier had an ugly strikeout, and Jay Bruce got rung up on a pitch on what the umpire believed was the inside corner.  Bruce disagreed.

In the eighth, it was a two out rally that sputtered out after a Conforto walk and Rosario single.  Brandon Kintzler would completely overmatch Cabrera to strike him out for the final out of the inning.

While the Mets were failing to cash in on rallies going 0-9 with RISP, the Nationals were tacking on runs to give themselves some breathing room.  They’d push a run across in the seventh and eighth, both against Robert Gsellman expanding their lead to 5-2.

The run in the eighth was a little troubling.  Michael Taylor singled and stole second.  On the stolen base, Nido’s throw was there by Rosario whiffed on the tag.  Later in the inning, Pedro Severino hit the ball directly to the drawn in Rosario, who froze thereby allowing Taylor to score easily.

In the end, the Mets lost this game not because they didn’t have fight after last night’s loss.  No, they lost it because they didn’t execute against a Nationals team they breathed new life into.  As a result, the Mets have now lost their first series of the year and are now looking to prevent getting swept.

Game Notes: Bautista made his MLB debut in the ninth walking one, allowing a hit, and striking out on in a scoreless inning.

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Wilmer Homer Was a Family Affair

Due to a family event, I was unable to use the Mets tickets I had originally purchased for the game.  Considering it was me who scheduled the family event, it was REALLY poor planning on my part, except for one thing . . . .

With the exception of one of my uncles, an uncle who harbors no ill-will towards the National League team, we are all Mets fans.

We are all split on football and hockey.  Generally speaking, we all prefer NCAA basketball to the NBA, with us each having our own colleges we support.

Despite the many differences we have as a family, it is our being Mets fans that bind us.  Perhaps more than the blood itself.

So, when you have a group of us together, if there is a television around, any and all family occasions will eventually turn into us sitting there watching and rooting for the Mets.  Yesterday was no exception.

We talked about what a great and underrated pickup Todd Frazier was when he delivered an RBI single in the first.

While we all agreed we loved Mickey Callaway, we loudly wondered what the (blank) he was thinking pinch hitting for Tomas Nido with an open base and Thor on deck.

This led to a discussion as to what exactly the Mets should be doing about the cdatching situation.  Some wanted J.T. Realmuto.  Others, myself included, wanted the Mets to go with the catcher who would get the most out of this pitching staff.  Regardless, we all debated what the Marlins would want for Realmuto presuming the discussions would start with Justin Dunn and Peter Alonso.

We marveled at just how dominant Noah Syndergaard was with him finally returning to form early this season with his striking out 11.  We also groaned in that sixth inning when the Brewers plated two unearned runs on an Amed Rosario throwing error.

My family had smiles bigger than the one on Brandon Nimmo‘s face when he hit a game tying homer in the bottom of that inning.  All right, almost as big a smile.

We got nervous and held on for dear life as AJ Ramos had one of those heart in your throat innings, and he was not helped by Jose Lobaton. To a man, we agreed wild pitch or not, your catcher has to get that.  Regardless, Ramos got out of the inning with some help from Jerry Blevins.

Surprisingly, no one seemed that nervous about Hansel Robles anymore.  Sure, he may not have been everyone’s first choice, but there was a calm believing he could get the job done. For Robles, that must’ve been a different feeling from past years.

And in my family, we are smart baseball fans, so there was no waiting for Jeurys Familia to lose the game in the ninth.  We’re better than that, and with his stretch, I hope all Mets fans are getting to that point as well.

Finally, like Citi Field and wherever you were, we cheered and celebrated when Wilmer Flores hit the walk off homer.

Did I get to go to the Mets game yesterday?  No, I didn’t.  However, one of the reasons we go to games is to sit in the stands and have a shared experience.  Considering I watched yesterday with my family, and it was bitterly cold yesterday, I think watching it from an Italian restaurant a state away was probably a much better experience.

The next experience will hopefully be the group of us at Citi Field as we look to recreate one of our old traditions.  Hope to see you all there.

Game Notes: Wilmer’s second career walk-off happened against the very same Brewers team he was supposed to be traded to back in 2015.

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In Change of Pace, Mets Win

Coming into today’s game against the Brewers, the Mets had lost more catchers (Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki) than they had games on the season.  One of the reasons why that was the case was this Mets team has gotten contributions from almost everyone on the team and each night presents a new hero.

Early on, that hero was Todd Frazier. Up until today, he had been homerless in a Mets uniform.  That changed rather quickly when he hit a homer off Brewers starter Zach Davies to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.

The Mets first run came in the first when Yoenis Cespedes followed an Asdrubal Cabrera one out double in the first inning.

After cruising through the first three innings where just about Lorenzo Cain being the only Brewer to challenge him in any way, Steven Matz would have a tough fourth inning allowing a double to Jesus Aguilar and a homer to Hernan Perez in consecutive at-bats tying the game at 2-2.

Of course, much in the same way the Mets have done all season, they immediately responded.  This time the response came in the form of Frazier hitting his second home run of the day.  That gave the Mets a 3-2 lead which would expand in the fifth inning.

The inning began with Michael Conforto drawing a lead-off walk against Davies and a Cabrera single.  After Davies struck out Cespedes, Craig Counsell went to the lefty Dan Jennings to face Jay Bruce and Adrian Gonzalez.

The move was completely ineffective as Bruce hit an RBI double to score Conforto, and Gonzalez brought Cabrera home with a sacrifice fly.  Apparently not having done enough damage to the Brewers’ chances of winning, Jennings threw a wild pitch allowing Bruce to score from third giving the Mets a 6-2 lead.

With the Mets having a lead and winning streak like this, it appeared the Brewers were going to have to be unconventional to try to beat the Mets.  In retrospect, they probably want to take back challenging Cespedes in the field:

Hyperbole aside, with Matz cruising and the way the Mets bullpen has been pitching of late, this game seemed like a lock for the Mets.  As we would soon see in the sixth inning, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The inning started when Bruce dropped a Domingo Santana fly ball.  The Brewers immediately capitalized with a Ryan Braun two run homer to pull them within 6-4.

After striking out Travis Shaw, the book on Matz was done.  He would be in line for the win after striking out five allowing four runs (three earned) on three hits and two walks in 5.1 innings.  With Seth Lugo coming in, it seemed like this game was a lock.  Instead, the Mets would find themselves hanging on to try to capture the victory.

Lugo was immediately met with back-t0-back singles by Aguilar and Perez.  Lugo would get out of the inning after inducing Orlando Arcia to ground into the 5-4-3 inning ending double play.

Lugo would be bailed out a bit again in the seventh.  After Cain reached on a single, he thought he would challenge Cespedes on a Santana single.  Cespedes nailed the speedy Cain to help snuff out that rally.

Even with Lugo not being himself, Mickey Callaway sent him back out for the eighth.  Finally, the Mets got burned as Shaw hit a solo homer to pull the Brewers within one run.  After an Aguilar single, Callaway was not about to let this one get away.

Callaway pulled out all the stops to make sure this one didn’t get away.  First, it was AJ Ramos to get Perez to fly out.  Then it was Jerry Blevins to face Eric Sogard.  After Sogard singled, Robert Gsellman came on to get Jett Bandy to get out of the inning.

The only thing left was for Jeurys Familia to come on in the ninth and get his Major League leading seventh save of the season.  Familia did that with a rare and much needed 1-2-3 inning to get the Mets to 11-1.

So far, the Mets have won games a number of ways during this nine game winning streak.  The handing on for dear life win we saw tonight was a different one than the other wins we have seen the Mets amass this season.  It’s just more evidence that no matter what happens this team will find a way to win.

Game Notes: Since joining the majors in 2012, Cespedes has a MLB leading 65 outfield assists.  Mets became the first New York team to start the season 11-1 since the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers.  Before the game, Jacob Rhame was sent down to Triple-A, and d’Arnaud, who elected to have Tommy John surgery, was put on the 60 day disabled list.  Brandon Nimmo and Jose Lobaton were called up in their stead.  Lobaton tripled in his first at-bat as a Met.

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