A Middling Case of Met Lag

So the Mets came home fresh off a heady, game-saving final play by Luis Torrens … and looked pretty much like the Mets we increasingly have no interest in watching.

Francisco Alvarez returned from the IL, which seemed heartening, and Tylor Megill pitched well in the early innings against the Marlins, looking like a young hurler who’d kinda sorta maybe figured some things out. But then came a fifth-inning implosion in which Megill was shoved off a cliff by his defense. With runners on first and third and one out, Bryan De La Cruz hit a ball to the gap that went off Harrison Bader‘s glove as Brandon Nimmo strayed into Bader’s airspace, bringing in Tim Anderson with the tying run. (But not Jazz Chisholm Jr., because he is fundamentally unsound as a ballplayer in addition to being selfish.) No matter: After a flyout Mark Vientos didn’t take his time on a hard grounder to third from Jake Burger and made an errant throw to first, giving the Marlins the lead.

You can put asterisks on things if you like: The play Bader didn’t make was one of those “two center fielders” misplays that will happen until guys sort things out, and Vientos only made a throwing error because he first made a great stop on a hard smash. But that’s cold comfort: The Mets forced Megill to get two extra outs, it cost them the lead, and in another hour or so it had cost them the game, with an insurance run coming in following an Alvarez throwing error and the Met bats slumbering against whatever Marlin reliever was sent out to shush them.

Jet lag? The Phillies looked just fine in beating the Red Sox, though I suppose it’s true that Boston is closer to London than Queens is.

Nope, chalk it up to Met lag. You’ll know you’re a sufferer if the doctor finishes his examination, sighs, looks you in the eye and says, “Maybe you’re just not very good.”