The key to winning Saturday night’s game against the Nationals can be traced to the moment the Mets determined they needed to plant a genuine slugger in the heart of their batting order. Of course I’m referring to Lucas Duda, who the Mets acquired for future considerations last week, as in Lucas being told by his manager, in essence, genuinely slug or consider your immediate future limited.
According to Terry Collins, the conversation went something like this:
“Listen, we’ve got to start producing some runs, or we’ve got to find somebody else.”
“I got it.”
Sounds about right. I assume Lucas stopped hitting home runs for a spell because he forgot he was supposed to. He just needed a friendly reminder.
Glad somebody said something. We needed his bat. We needed Yoenis Cespedes’s bat, too, but without Duda doing what we remember him doing so well and so frequently last summer, we’d lack the one-two punch we are relying on to complement our one-two-three starters in this critical series and the rest of the season beyond.
Cespedes showed up and didn’t do any hitting to speak of, but he served a pair of mammoth purposes. First, I suppose, he helped sell out Citi Field and plug it in so it could go electric. Most importantly, though, he stood in the batter’s box in the bottom of the eighth, imposingly enough to get himself ordered intentionally walked by Matt Williams, super genius. Curtis Granderson was on second, the score was tied and the specter of the Mets’ new slugger filleting or perhaps fricasseeing Matt Thornton was too frightening for Washington’s Leader of Men to contemplate.
Williams might have been so immersed in staring at The Book (specifically the Lefty Must Face Lefty chapter) that he didn’t notice waiting right behind the new bat was the bat that had been there all along, the same bat responsible for the Mets’ two runs already on the board. Lucas Duda homered in the fourth. He homered in the seventh. Why would a manager go out of his way to bring him to the plate with two on so soon after he homered twice?
“Why ask why?” the makers of Bud Dry once asked, and I’ll go with that answer. Williams was nice enough to invite Lucas to an RBI party and our cleanup hitter RSVPed with a long double to left that brought Granderson home with the go-ahead run, soon to be known as the winning run.
Duda drove in all three runs the Mets scored Saturday. He’s been doing a lot of that sort of thing lately. He’s hit eight homers in seven games, though none was quite as big as the two-base hit he delivered in the eighth. Mets starter No. 1A, Jacob deGrom, was a little off early, allowing two runs in the first, but then nothing else. Joe Ross was mostly untouchable, except for Lucas touching him meaningfully twice, both times with no runners on. Only a mope would observe seven of the eight home runs Duda’s launched dating back to last Saturday were solo shots…or that he’s hit only three home runs all year while a runner’s been on base.
Then again, since when did the 2015 Mets have baserunners until the last week or so? Cespedes was granted a base based solely on reputation. Think anybody was walking John Mayberry to get to Lucas Duda? Still, Duda had to swing and connect to make Williams live to regret his fealty to conventional wisdom, and that he did. It was been the biggest hit in the history of Citi Field, exceeding the last biggest hit in the history of Citi Field — which for now I’d say was Duda’s second home run of the game, the biggest game in the history of Citi Field, surpassing Friday’s on a list marked mostly by brevity.
I don’t believe there’s a Top Three Biggest Games in the History of Citi Field, at least not until tonight’s unfolds.
We’re in that zone where every good thing that happens at Citi Field is the biggest thing to have ever happened at Citi Field because, to date, not nearly enough has happened at Citi Field. Not nearly enough you’d call big, anyway. A handful of individual and milestone oases notwithstanding, it’s been six seasons spent trudging through the Flushing desert. As I mentioned in the wake of the latest Worst Loss Ever, I’ve attended precisely 200 games at Citi Field. There’s been plenty to see, but little that’s mattered profoundly.
The last two games have offered a refresher to Mets fans everywhere what it’s like to watch a game your team absolutely must win and simultaneously must not lose. You might have forgotten how those work in the post-2008 period during which you’d nod politely at wins, shrug cynically at losses and wonder if you’d ever be moved to care deeply again.
That’s over for now. I hope it’s over forever, but let’s work on now for now. It’s early August and you look at the standings and…well, there ya go. You look at the standings. You pore over the N.L. East and stare at the Mets’ position and it bumps practically right up against that of the team that leads the pack. Objects one game back in second place, whether Matt Williams realizes it or not, may be closer than they appear.
Friday night, when not embracing the incredible, edible Wilmer Flores from my couch (honestly, he’s so frigging adorable you could just eat him up), I was on the phone offering hybrid play-by-play/analysis to my permanent bandwagoneer friend Chuck, who had called in from Illinois so we could watch the game together. We used to do that when the homers were belted by Piazza and Ventura, when it was Cook and Wendell holding the fort after Leiter or Reed had given it his all. Maybe it was Chuck’s presence in my ear provoking my dormant expert color commentary skills (“What the fuck? He didn’t hit him! WHAT THE FUCK?”) or Wilmer’s blue moon peering in from outside my living room window, but I knew I was occupying a headspace I hadn’t often visited in the past fifteen or so years, and I was reveling in it.
This was the Bobby V era version of me on the line, unironically, unabashedly convinced that the next pitch would surely determine whether our world had any reason to continue its trip around the sun. It was all highly stressful before it all became highly rewarding, yet it pleased me no end that I could still get the old angst churning on behalf of a baseball game. That feeling ensued throughout Saturday night, too. I don’t anticipate chasing it away any time soon.
“Listen,” the pennant race seems to be telling me, “we’ve got to start producing some stomach acid, or we’ve got to find somebody else.”
I got it.
I got it. Let’s just hand it to the front office on this one……..I was pulling for Ike as the first basemen and they went with Duda. They were right….can we breath a deep breath and say it together………..they were right. Now don’t we all feel better?
Next time the naysayers say nay,let’s remember this. They were right.
LET’S GO METS!
Love it. Citi was absolutely crazy tonight and I teared up listening to WFAN callers rave about it on the way home from the stadium. It’s hard to believe that any of this is real. It’s been years and we had almost forgotten how it feels to actually be watching meaningful baseball, rather than just watching it because we’re fans and that’s what we do, because we’ll miss it in the winter months.
The race is on, as Keith said after the game.
A tribute that a Yankee station is our destination for post game emotion! WOR who????
More like Yankees games are broadcast on the true radio home of the Mets.
Howie and Josh are top-notch, and Wayne Randazzo is acceptable. Pete McCarthy has grown on me, but the Sports Zone is no WFAN.
So who thinks Cespedes is getting some good pitches to hit on Sunday?
But honestly, after that first inning that went by like really old gum for deGrom, I was almost ready to throw in the towel and go to bed. Glad I stuck around. Remember kids, you should always stick around.
Now it breaks my heart that some cruel person at MLB made the Sunday game the celebrated night game, and I have to go back to the office on Monday, so no more late Sunday through Thursday games for Daniel the rest of the season … (sobs)
Although I’m exactly 4,906 miles away from Citi Field, I could certainly hear the electricity in the park from my MLB app. I like the guys on this team, with so many good dudes that are easy to root for. Even better, those good guys are producing in the most important series so far this season. Just awesome.
Just Wondering, Greg/Jason:
1. When is the last time, before yesterday, if ever, that the Mets had two position players in the same starting lineup with uniforms of 50 and above (K. Johnson 55, Cespedes 52)? Regular season games only.
2. When is the last time the Mets had back to back wins, where in each game, they score multiple runs, and all the runs are RBI’s driven in by a single player, and only ONE RBI per at-bat (Friday Flores 2, Saturday Duda 3)?
As Dick Cavett says, please have this om my desk by Monday morning.
On September 23, 2003, Tony Clark (52) started at 1B and Jeff Duncan (61) started in CF. That seems to be the last time the 50+ crowd was as plentiful in a Met starting lineup before last night. Good catch!
There were also several 2001 lineups with Benny Agbayani (50) and Darren Bragg (56); two years earlier, Benny and Brian McRae (56) occasionally teamed up.
For the RBI answer, you’ll have to subscribe to our premium service.
UPDATE: One reader here and one respondent on Twitter have a more recent answer: Eric Valent (57) and Victor Diaz (50), October 3, 2004, a.k.a. the Joe Hietpas Game. Thanks for the question and the correct answer, all!
If Greg and Jason don’t mind, I’ve got the first one.
The last instance I can find of two Mets position players – both wearing uniform numbers of 50 or higher – was October 3, 2004, when Eric Valent (No. 57) and Victor Diaz (No. 50) started in left field and right field, respectively. Interestingly enough, that was the last game ever played by the Montreal Expos, who became the Washington Nationals, who faced Yoenis Cespedes (No. 52) and Kelly Johnson (No. 55), who were playing left field and right field last night. Don’t you just love symmetry?
I’ll let Greg and Jason tackle the second one. I need my brain intact to cheer on the Mets at Citi Field tonight.
Good going, Bear Man!
There is hope. There is actually a chance to go deep in the playoffs. Optimists and Wilpon fans stop reading this post now.
That said, this is no way to run a franchise. Did they really need an ultimatum to start hitting? That is an indictment on Collins. Tells me also that David Wright being in California for months was a mistake. There are no good back specialists in NYC? His leadership, or even a stronger leader is always needed around. Cespedes fell into our laps, but giving away better prospects for 2 month rentals will blow up in your face most of the time. Remember the Steinbrenner 80s? Winning with the 22nd highest payroll happens once every 20 years in MLB. If they win, it is despite the way this franchise is run and purely due to mediocrity in baseball today. I’ll root like hell for the players, but it would be hypocritical to now give management a pass. We deserve a pennant run regularly, not once every 10 years.
There are 2 reasons to build up your farm system; one is to feed your major league roster, the other is to have trade chips. That the Mets acquired what could turn out to be four very useful established major leaguers in exchange for no one from the 40 man roster, none of their top prospects and kept the potential big 5 rotation intact is a good, potentially season changing and even history making set of moves, even if all four of those guys are ex-Mets by Christmas. Hoarding every prospect while neglecting to improve your major league roster isn’t rebuilding, it’s kicking the can down the road.
Alderson often moves at a pace at which single blades of grass grow through boulders, and I’ve criticized him often, but he gets an A+ from me on all of these moves. At some point you have to start transitioning from rebuilding to rebuilt.
Well said- A week ago i lose interest down 2 zip in first inning. Last night a total different story. My outcry since late May was just give me a below average line-up and we can win this thing. We had one, but it was a below average triple A line-up.
I agree it’s a balance.
At some point, the team needs to go for it, and this pitching staff is ready to go for it right now. The Mets are 1 game in the standings and 2 games in the loss column in back of the Nationals right now. It’s possible the Mets’ best chance ever to go for it with the young stud starters is right now.
To be fair, though, Steve D’s disquiet is understandable. The Mets gave away more than a garage sale. As Keith Law noted, the Mets have traded away 7 pitching prospects (5 in the last week), including 2 high-end pitching prospects, for middle relievers and journeyman bench help, most of whom are rentals.
Fulmer was a prospect on the Matz level and would have been ready for the majors next season. Meisner was projected as 2 years away. Cessa could have been in the Mets bullpen next season.
The Mets traded from the area with the most organizational depth, but at the same time, the pitching depth they mined for the trades is also the pitching depth they need the most to compete.
The various injuries to the young stud starters over the last 3 seasons show that having quality young starters in reserve and maintaining the pipeline are important. The alternative is relying on the likes of Dice-K and Gee and even Colon, veterans whose best days are behind them. The Mets are fortunate that Niese stepped up this season.
I hope the Harvey, Wheeler, deGrom, Syndergaard, Matz dream rotation comes to pass, but things happen. It may be that we’ll only ever be able to count on 3 of them in the rotation at a time, like the present case. I would have liked to have had Fulmer ready to patch the hole next season when something happened, say Syndergaard feeling a twinge in his elbow or Matz’s lat proving to be chronic. As is, even assuming he comes back from his Tommy John surgery with his stuff intact like Harvey rather than Parnell, Wheeler won’t be pitching at all until June/July 2016 and can’t be expected to return to form until 2017.
Losing pitching depth is a risk for the bullpen, too. The Mets bullpen has dealt with as much attrition as the Mets starters. A bad bullpen neutralizes good starters and cobbling together a good bullpen from the market is hard.
Viewed as trade chips rather than back-ups, it’s true that prospects can’t be stored indefinitely. They have physical and service-time expiration dates. However, it is a fair view that the Mets should have been patient just a little longer and cashed their chips over the next 1-3 seasons in more deliberate acquisitions like the Piazza, Hernandez, Carter trades. The Gomez trade was more like that model than the reactive Cespedes and Clippard rentals.
On the other hand, the alchemy of culture matters. The formative experience of a pennant race and getting the big out or the big hit with the season on the line is a rite of passage. If the rentals help the young stud pitchers and younger position players learn to compete in a pennant race, their long-term benefit may exceed the benefit of their short-term rentals.
Losing Fulmer as a back-up has an impact on next season. The Mets lost a big chunk of organizational pitching depth for bullpen help and future trades. The Mets need to restock. But they held onto all of their position prospects (such as they are) and core major-league pitchers, including Wheeler. It’s a balance. Hopefully, the younger position players like d’Arnaud, Plawecki, Lagares, Conforto, Flores, and (soon-to-be 30) Duda learn to win in this season’s pennant race and the dream rotation comes to pass.
As Keith Law noted, the Mets have traded away 7 pitching prospects (5 in the last week), including 2 high-end pitching prospects, for middle relievers and journeyman bench help, most of whom are rentals.
Never heard of Law, but that about nails it. Cespedes is a notch above and may pull a Clendenon for all we know…and all would be worth it, even if he leaves. You are hoping for a miracle though.
Not a good long-term strategy.
It’s not like Alderson traded every single promising pitcher in the Mets farm system. There’s still Gabriel Ynoa, Akeel Morris (who was doing so well in AA that he already got called up for a spot start a few weeks ago, if you recall), and Marcos Molina, who’s a little farther away. Also, don’t forget about Montero, who will be back next year (or even by September, if he doesn’t have another setback).
(Edit: sorry, Morris was doing so well in single A that he got called up for a spot start. He’s now in Binghamton.)
Sure, Fulmer was one of the system’s most promising, but the Mets have a LOT of organizational depth at pitching, and trades cost players. The price for an extra year of Gomez would have been Wheeler and Flores. The price for a few months of Cespedes was Fulmer and Cessa.
First and foremost, hats off to this young club. But when ownership isn’t criticizing their own players, Terry is lambasting fans for looking at their phones during the game. The next time I get to CitiField, I’m going to count how many times the PA system tells us to text something or vote for something or otherwise use our phones. MLB even has an app called “@ the Ballpark” for fan use during the actual game. And that’s not even counting all the real-life necessities of glancing at your smartphone.
I KNOW this is not the time to complain, but I really want someone else managing this team next season. But again, kudos to this team that has managed to exceed expectations despite an ownership team that specializes in dissembling and self-pity (yes, irony, I get it), and a manager who aspires to be Lee Elia circa 1983.
True, Steve D., very Steinbrenner-ian trades. The team was not ready to win the past few years, and with Madoff and all, hate to say it, but might as well do nothing and save some money.
That said, the way it is now, it appears that any team can finish first or last.
That also said, what ARE we going to next year about the hitting? As Sandy says, don’t worry about it now.
When George made the trades, at least he spent the money to sign the players he got. I don’t want to be negative anymore this year and will enjoy the one pennant race we get every 10 years. Let’s go Mets!
Your concern is justified.
Until proven otherwise, the Mets are effectively a small-market team. The quality of the big league club depends heavily on refreshment from the farm system. Relying on homegrown and traded for prospects got them this far. Changing course by spending prized prospects like Fulmer for rentals like Cespedes feels like killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
Trading mid/long-term prospects for short-term rentals hasn’t been Alderson’s MO, and I don’t expect it to be his MO moving forward. We’ll find out this coming season whether he’s flipped the switch to favor instant gratification over sustainability.
We fans will have a hand in that decision. If we ease the pressure to win now, it will be easier for Alderson to favor prospect development again. In order for us to ease the pressure, though, we fans need to be satisfied by a successful season – whatever that means.
For now, we can justify the trades in the long view with the Mets reached a plateau in their development and Alderson made an aggressive, albeit expensive move to push them up on the learning curve.
As eric1973 points out, though, the rentals are a Band-Aid. As is, they’ve only improved the Mets offense from worst in the MLB to below-average.
Below-average hitting is enough to compete for now, but the same basic problem of bad hitting that Alderson failed to solve going into this season will be on his desk going into next season. If anything, the Mets will be in a worse position because Murphy is likely gone, Wright will play the rest of his career with the same back condition that derailed Mattingly’s career, and of course, their stack of trade chips has been cut down.
The hope is the position players become hitters and reduce the need to trade for bats, the pitchers stay healthy and reduce the need for back-ups, and by the time the young stud starters are peeled off in free agency (or traded for prospects to refresh the farm), a new crop of young stud starters will be ready.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: a relaxed Duda is a dangerous Duda. His resurgence, I believe, has something to do with the addition of players with batting averages above .200 like Uribe, Johnson, Conforto, d’Arnaud and now Cespedes. When he feels he has to carry the team offensively he flails and fails. But when the burden is shared, he calms down and, yes, gets it.
1000% agree. Duda probably doesn’t have the makeup (personality or skill-wise) to be the superstar, face of the franchise, alpha dog. But as you said, when he isn’t the total focal point, man can he deliver big-time.
Credit to the bullpen.
They’ve held the line – a razor thin line – against the Nationals.
Upon Thursday’s debacle, the seemingly avalanching collapse of the bullpen worried me more than the vacuous hitting because good pitching can compensate for bad hitting, but a bad bullpen neutralizes good starters who don’t pitch complete games due to pitch counts and innings limits.
Moneyball 101, right? Work the count, drive the typically fearsome Mets starter out of the game, then put the screws on the vulnerable Mets relievers.
Mets relievers entered this series throwing batting practice for the opposing team. Yet in the 2 biggest games of the season so far:
Mets aces, 13.2 innings – 3 runs allowed.
Mets relievers, 7.1 innings – 0 runs allowed.
By now, we expect Harvey and deGrom to pitch like aces. They delivered. Harvey unpacked his A game from 2013 (including his vulnerability after 100 pitches). deGrom aced his game the other way. On a night he did not have ace stuff, deGrom bore down like an ace to hold the Nationals at their 2 1st-inning runs and squeeze out 6 innings.
But the starters’ efforts would have been wasted and there would have been no opportunity for Flores and Duda’s heroics if the bullpen did not step up. Upon Thursday’s debacle, I didn’t believe they would hold the line against the Nationals. And they have.
Moneyball 101 says that attriting a pitching staff by working the count forces the opponent to rely on their 11th and 12th pitchers by the end of the series. The Nationals have done that. I assume Alex Torres and Gilmartin are on deck for tonight’s game. I hope the bullpen’s rediscovered resoluteness includes them, too.
Kudos to the bullpen, indeed. Good comeback efforts by Parnell and Familia. And a BIG BALLS appearance by Turk…er, Hansel Robles! Glad we got Clippard a night off, because, I assume, he’s our closer tonight. We’ll need everyone (except Familia, Robles and, maybe, Parnell) to be ready tonight, but please, can someone hide A. Torres helmet, so he can’t play.
Carlos Torres with a big inning on Friday, too.
I know this isn’t the place to do this, but you guys deserve the embarrassment. Have you checked your email for this site? I sent you a several things a couple of weeks ago but haven’t received a response.
If you’ve sent anything to the FAFIF address, I haven’t seen it. I check regularly and happily respond to all readers. (Though I ignore most mass PR pitches & solicitations from betting sites, et al). Please label specifically what it is and try again: faithandfear@gmail.com.
We do have an aggressive spam filter, so perhaps it went to that folder, which I tend to clear out quickly.
I left my TV after the 2nd inning as the wife had planned a family dinner excursion to the Farmer’s Market at The Grove.
During the ride there, Duda homered.
During dinner, Duda homered.
During dessert, Duda doubled home the go-ahead run.
During the trolley ride, Duda told Familia, “Listen, we’ve got to start saving games, or we’ve got to find somebody else.” Familia said, “I got it.”
On the ride home, I played the videos of Duda’s home runs and doubles multiple times for my six and three-year-old to watch along with me, mixing in Familia’s strikeout of Taylor for fun.
Back at home, while the rest of the family watched The Empire Strikes Back, I googled Duda and read a bunch of articles about the game. It’s so much fun to have games in August truly matter again.
Of course, tonight I’m attending a wedding so will see about the same amount of innings. Here’s hoping for the same winning team, but maybe doing it in an easier fashion. Then again, if they did, would we recognize them as the Mets?
It would be just like them to sweep the Nationals tonight then promptly trip over themselves against the Marlins and lose all the ground gained over the weekend.
It’s been that kind of a sweet-and-sour roller coaster of a season.
But at least we’re getting something besides sour this year.
So much of the last few seasons have been focused on “the future” and payroll and the f***ing Wilpons. I’m just feeling a little relief right now that they’re finally focused on winning ballgames…NOW…and on making a legit run. I hate seeing valuable prospects go but hey, just about every MLB player was a valuable prospect at one time or another. We needed a real bat, we got one. We needed a set-up RP, we got one. We needed some bench, we got it. If you’ve followed this team for any length of time you know that being a game out in August is not exactly SOP, the future is right now. If they can nudge their way into the tournament anything can happen. So I’m going to refrain from complaining, at least until they give me a real reason to (knocks on wooden surface).
The future is now.
Alderson did say 2015 would be a year of contention, did he not?
True, he meant at the time that Duda, Flores, Lagares, and d’Arnaud would come into their own alongside former all-stars Granderson, Murphy, Cuddyer, and Wright. And Mejia would be closing with Familia as the set-up man.
Plan A didn’t work out, but with an ad hoc Plan B, the Mets are contending.
The hard part will be getting there. A wild-card game against a pitcher like Cole would be tough, too. Put the Mets in a play-off series, other contenders have 1 or 2 pitchers that can match up with the Mets’ aces, but not 3 or 4.
They also walked Murphy. Bet they won’t any more.
Hey, Conforto’s back (like he never left) with Nieuwenhuis going on the DL.
Makes sense. Lagares and Nieuwenhuis are redundant as defensive replacements and Conforto is potentially a better lefty bat off the bench.
Playing everyday at AAA would undoubtedly benefit his development, but hanging out with Cuddyer and Granderson should help him, too.
Sure has been fun watching one of the most likeable Mets in recent memory go on a tear like this. Fun, but not that surprising to intelligent baseball fans who’ve been paying attention. He’s got a great natural power stroke and has improved by leaps and bounds vs. lefties. All that was missing was some lineup protection and the patience to lay off the garbage off speed pitches. I think he got frustrated and started chasing In the middle of the season when the offense was tanking and he tried to carry the whole team. And to think, this is only his second full season. He’s shown us a lot, but there could be even more upside. LGM!
Great Job, Bear Man! And thanks to you, Greg, as well! Great stuff!
Looks like we may be tied for first soon, but after the events of Thursday afternoon, Yogi’s words could not ring more true.
Thank goodness someone hit the CTRL+ALT+DELETE buttons on Duda and gave him a re-boot. After all, he was manufactured in a lab in California (great line, Greg).
Beware, however: Can’t be “lights-out” for 5 weeks and “lights-off” for 12 weeks too often, or Sandy will eventually hit plain old “DELETE.”
And next year we start again from scratch.
Lucas is a solid player and has been a fairly consistent offensive contributor to the Mets organization.
Ladies and gentlemen- we are in a penant race!!! Isn’t this fun? Lets go Mets!!!!!!!!!!
I checked the standings and we are tied for first…less than a percentage point back. Our run differential is -2…surprising for a “first place” team. You have to give Collins credit for winning games with a negative differential. Toronto is +106 and has a worse record than us. WOW.
[…] Lucas, Like Us, Responds » […]
As I continue my day by day reading of this blog I have grown to really dislike both erics.
Paul wilson bill pulsipher david west tim leary have as much chance of being michael fulmer as they have of being matt Harvey doc gooden jerry Koosman and jon matlack.
Cespedes and clippard among the rentals has worked out pretty well. DDon’tcha think?