Sure the Mets lost, 4-2, to the Yankees on Tuesday night in the most frustrating fashion possible, but at least it’s not like they lost, 4-2, to the Yankees on Monday night in the most frustrating fashion possible, too.
Oh.
At least the Mets didn’t put pressure on a struggling starting pitcher like Frankie Montas in the first inning only to let him off the hook.
Oh.
At least the Mets didn’t put more pressure on the same struggling starting pitcher in the second inning only to let him off the hook again.
Oh.
At least the Mets didn’t let the same struggling starting pitcher find his groove in the innings ahead.
Oh.
At least Taijuan Walker didn’t go from throwing three perfect innings to giving up a home run to Aaron Judge that landed somewhere near the Grand Concourse in the fourth.
Oh.
At least Taijuan didn’t get shaken by the experience of allowing a dinger to the major league’s leading dingerer and proceed to give up consecutive hits, then consecutive walks, ultimately walking in another run.
Oh.
At least the Mets didn’t short-circuit their next opportunity for a couple of runs by sending their most inexperienced baserunner home on a single to short right only to see him predictably tagged out to end their inning.
Oh.
At least once the Mets got a break and tied the game, they didn’t succumb at the first sight of Clarke Schmidt, the reliever who replaced Montas, who’d somehow survived five-and-two-thirds.
Oh.
At least the Mets didn’t opt to use a pair of outs on sacrifice bunts in deference to their nine-hole hitter having no obvious offensive capabilities beyond bunting.
Oh.
At least the second sac bunt the nine-hole hitter delivered didn’t go for naught in a rally that produced nothing.
Oh.
At least Buck Showalter didn’t take a well-rested Seth Lugo out after a shutout inning of relief.
Oh.
At least when Joely Rodriguez had a chance to grab a grounder up the middle, it didn’t get by him and go for a leadoff single to center.
Oh.
At least when Pete Alonso had a bead on a pop fly in short right near the foul line, he didn’t miss catching it.
Oh.
At least when Alonso didn’t catch the pop fly, it didn’t fall in fair.
Oh.
At least that pop fly that fell in fly after Alonso didn’t catch it didn’t lead to the Yankees scoring the tie-breaking run.
Oh.
At least when Adam Ottavino replaced Rodriguez, Ottavino didn’t allow Judge to drive in yet another run.
Oh.
At least the Mets didn’t put their first two runners on base in the eighth only to have one erased on a double play and the other die at third.
Oh.
At least the Mets didn’t find themselves down to their last out; have three consecutive batters work full counts; have each manage to get on base; have Schmidt finally removed from the game; have Francisco Lindor up to face Wandy Peralta, against whom Francisco homered last year and was 2-for-3 lifetime; and have our hopes raised one more time only to have Lindor fly out to end the game.
Oh.
At least the Mets didn’t leave ten runners on base and go 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
Oh.
At least the Mets’ ninth inning tease didn’t simultaneously suck you in because they’re the first-place Mets who so often come back and repel you because you knew damn well they were just going to frustrate you some more.
Oh.
At least the Braves didn’t win again and cut a game off the Mets’ first-place lead.
Oh.
Sure the Mets lost, 4-2, to the Yankees on Tuesday night in the most frustrating fashion possible, but at least it’s not like they lost, 4-2, to the Yankees on Monday night in the most frustrating fashion possible, too.
Oh, right.
This series stunk to high heaven. But at least in 2022, it’s the exception. In the Mickey Rojas era, it was the rule.
That’s quite a laundry list of transgressions. I hope this team is not simply out of gas.
I would have added, at least deGrom didn’t raise our concern about a possible injury by being pushed back. But Evan Roberts raised a good point in his Rico Brogna podcast: If the Mets use today’s and Monday’s off day to go with a 4-man rotation on regular rest, pushing deGrom back lines him up to face the Dodgers.
Walker is worrisome. He’s having another shaky 2nd half, though not as poor as last year’s 2nd half. With each injury and questionable outing, I wonder if he’ll become a playoff reliever. Not a bad thing since the bullpen needs help and he did start the game well last night.
yup
at least gary didn’t remind us that walker was perfect through first nine just before the wheels came off.
at least pete didn’t go for that pop out with outfilders nearby with a better angle on the ball…
yep, the pessimist in me is seeing a slow-motion (think frog in a pot full of increasingly warmer water) collapse of the sort that happened suddenly in 07/08.
unlike then, there is time to right the ship, but the braves’ long-predicted coming back to earth is yet to materialize. the mets appear to be stressed by their need to win every game. no cruising as they experienced earlier.
i only take so much comfort in the schedule post-LA.
bad teams live to spoil, and the cubs have shown life.
and a pressing mets team can be beaten by the worst of them. wishing guillorme a speedy recovery. new kid has a nice swing but his injection of youth is decidedly not conforto ’15.
and a vogelbach unable to run is clearly not an option beyond pinch hitting. he needs rest. they all do.
i do!
unusually happy there’s no game tonite.
LGM
With the Mets schedule easing up overall, I optimistically expect them to win series against worse teams because that’s what they’ve done consistently this season. Not sweeps. Series wins.
That would be good enough for any other division leader. The problem is the Braves are sweeping worse teams and now winning series against fellow contenders. The current 1.5 game lead won’t hold up for long, maybe not past the Dodgers series, if the Braves continue their current pace. And like you said, the Braves appear to be gaining momentum on their pace, not slowing down in the least, unlike the older, fatiguing, hurting Mets.
The Mets are still in 1st place. But right now it feels like the Mets will be the chaser playing catch up in the Braves series. Other than the fragile division lead, the only Mets advantage is that 1 win over the Braves in that series will be worth 2 wins because of the season series tie-breaker.
Not sure what Alonso is having, but give me some of that before I go to sleep. Lately, our favorite 3-tool player has turned into a no-tool player, who cannot even run the bases without almost falling down, or go back on a popup without looking like he does not know what he is doing.
Mets always get the Willies playing the Yankees anyway. Things just feel different, that’s all.
Even the morning after, I am still amazed that Pete didn’t hurt himself on that run. The dude is falling apart…
Good to know he’s kicking back in his bathrobe and polar bear slippers, downing pancakes with Mr. Met on his day off.
“Sure the Mets lost, 4-2, to the Yankees on Tuesday night in the most frustrating fashion possible, but at least it’s not like they lost, 4-2, to the Yankees on Monday night in the most frustrating fashion possible, too.”
Yankees definitely demonstrated a lot of fortitude in that series.
That’s good. Fortitudinous, even.
“Mets always get the Willies when playing the Yankees”
Unfortunately it’s Montañez and not Mays. Or even Randolph.
Not good-slow motion train derailment…
sigh…
Let’s Go Mets!
That was one of the best posts ever.
I agree this team needs a rest; the everyday players are obviously exhausted. And it needs Escobar and Guillorme back ASAP. There’s no depth at the moment.
The motif of this post perfectly captures the peak frustrating of this series and game.
That about sums it up. It’s bad to enough to lose to “that” team and it’s annoying fans but worse to lose two games in the standings to the Braves. We’ve lost five games off the lead in a week.
2 weeks, but point taken.
The Mets went 6 and 7 between August 10 and August 23, and between August 10 and August 24, the lead shrank from 7 games to 1.5 games. With the famous benchmark for the Mets losing a 7-game division lead in mind, I wonder whether the Mets will be in 1st place at the end of the 4 game set with the Rockies, let alone the Dodgers after that.