Spaces In Between

One of the earliest lessons for a baseball fan is that you cannot, in fact, win them all.

The Mets proved that to themselves and fans new and old Sunday afternoon, falling 4-2 to the Nationals. Squint a little and there was a lot to like, most importantly an encouraging performance by Carlos Carrasco, whose 2021 was undone by lingering injuries and then by a baffling failure to perform, problems which might or might not have been the same thing. On Sunday Carrasco looked much more like the inspirational figure who’d been a Cleveland favorite, giving up a solo homer to the ageless Nelson Cruz (a long-ago paper Met) and a single to Josh Bell in the first but nothing whatsoever after that. Francisco Lindor hit a solo homer of his own, hit machine Mark Canha drove in a run to put the good guys up 2-1, and we all waited for the Mets to follow that up with a big inning that put the Nationals away once again.

We waited, and it didn’t happen.

Instead, there were failures to move runners over and then a disastrous inning in which Chasen Shreve and Trevor Williams got three runs hung on them. That brought the season’s first second-guessing of Buck Showalter, whose Sunday included neither pinch-hitting for Robinson Cano or bringing in more front-line relievers than Shreve and Williams. But hey, Shreve got in trouble by giving up a hit to a lefty, a rare occurrence that confounded the percentage play, and Williams would have escaped unscathed if not for two lousy plays in the field by Pete Alonso, which cost the Mets an out at home plate and then a double play. Lest we be too hard on Pete, let’s remember his first-ever grand slam was not even 24 hours old when he was undone on defensive woes, and not do that.

The Mets won three out of four in Washington, an excellent blueprint they’re welcome to carry throughout the rest of the year. The starters have been pretty close to spotless and the relievers not bad at all. The hitters have ground their way through at-bats and delivered two-out hits a lot more frequently than previous incarnations of the team. Players and coaches and manager have shown proper fire and indignation in the face of probably accidental beanballs, which isn’t quantifiable but still something you like to see.

There are reasons to worry, beyond the spaces in between good things that got them in trouble on Sunday. Jacob deGrom is probably the key to the Mets’ season and likely to be MIA for some time, and the starters behind the superlative JdG carry worrisome amounts of injuries, mileage or inexperience on their resumes. But there are always reasons to worry — that’s as much a baseball lesson as the unfortunate inability to win them all. The Mets head for Philadelphia having won three of four and giving us reason to hope that may be more the rule than the exception, and whatever may lie ahead, that’s not a bad way to start a season.