Who are these guys and what have they done with the 2023 Mets?
Actually, don’t answer that, because who cares? And don’t look for them, because this is fine.
Unlike Wednesday’s heroic, up-off-the-mat victory [1], there wasn’t a lot of sweat expended Thursday in urging the Mets across the finish line. The game was essentially over in the first, when Pete Alonso [2] followed a Francisco Lindor [3] triple with a laser beam over the left-field fence. That gave the Mets a 2-0 lead, and they were just getting started: Alvarez homered again, Daniel Vogelbach [4] was heard from, and Lindor went 5-for-5, missing a double and a cycle by a couple of degrees of angle off the bat. (Points to Todd Zeile [5], who noted after the game that Lindor might well have had the cycle if the D-Backs’ ballboy hadn’t made a startlingly athletic move to avoid one of those two triples.)
With Met hits raining down all night — 17 of them, a whole week’s worth in June! — it was easy to miss Carlos Carrasco [6] completely smothering the Diamondbacks, who looked befuddled early and then dispirited late. (In part, alas, because the marvelous rookie Corbin Carroll [7] suffered a scary-looking injury to a shoulder that’s cost him considerable time in his young career.)
Carroll’s health aside, it was a laugher [8], when we’re all still reeling from a June that featured barely a guffaw. A night to hope for cycles and tut-tut about benches clearing (an overreaction) and admire young rookies and appreciate old veterans, instead of waiting for something else to go wrong.
Everything worked all night, after a month when pretty much nothing worked. I’d say go figure, but baseball will make you look foolish all the time. It sure is a lot more fun when you’re surprised by things going well, though.