Baseball, I’ve long insisted, is humanity’s acme of artistic expression. But that’s not to say every game is a work of art.
Whatever that was that the Mets and Blue Jays foisted on us tonight would definitely not qualify. It was a mess, with Tylor Megill [1] mowing down anonymous Blue Jay recruits (and a morose-looking Vladimir Guerrero Jr. [2]) like a combine but then inexplicably leaving with 88 pitches on his odometer and a 1-0 lead. I dislike second guesses, but that counts as a first guess — Gary and Keith were wondering why Megill was taken out, as was I, as was you, as was everybody.
The decision immediately imploded as the Mets got a run of bad relief pitching: After recording an out Danny Young [3] hit a guy and gave up a single, which led Carlos Mendoza [4] to signal for Jose Butto [5]. Recently Butto’s looked like he’s auditioning to return to starting, needing time to fine-tune his control regardless of whether or not time is available for him to do that. Butto fell behind and gave up a hit, leading to a mound visit in which Francisco Alvarez [6] gave him the Full Lasorda, a mix of exhortation and can-do and stern warnings. It was an impressive Come to Jesus moment from a young catcher, but it also didn’t work: Butto hit the next guy to tie the game, then yielded a sacrifice fly to put the Mets behind.
(So of course he got the win. For the 845,093rd time, it’s an unfair game.)
(Edit: The above was based on SNY’s postgame screen, which was a placeholder; in fact the below-mentioned Ryne Stanek got the win, and properly so. Reset the Unfair Game counter to 845,092.)
The Blue Jays gagged up a game on Sunday against the Braves; tonight, wearing City Connects best described as Marlins North, they demonstrated admirable even-handedness in gagging up a game against us. I’ll leave the details smudgy to avoid further embarrassment for all involved, noting simply that the Mets got two runs on one hit, and the one hit was an oopsie cue-shot infield single. The rest was a slapstick farce of walks and errors and wild pitches and passed balls, best witnessed through the holes of a bag over one’s head regardless of your rooting interests. The winning run was scored by pinch-runner and former speed-skating medalist Eddy Alvarez [7], who replaced Pedro Reyes [8], whose own lone appearance also came as a pinch-runner. Should some waiver-wire guy named Delgado or Beltran wind up as a Met in the next few days, I’d advise them to rent and not buy.
Anyway, Ryne Stanek [9] worked a blessedly blame-free eighth and Edwin Diaz [10] came in for the ninth. Diaz’s final pitch was a fastball that Leo Jimenez [11] whacked to right for what looked like a crushing walkoff homer, or at least it looked like that for 90% of its flight, until the ball’s momentum sagged and it came down in Starling Marte [12]‘s glove in front of the fence. The Mets celebrated with the dazed smiles of a tour group that just exited a van that’s screeched to a stop inches from a ravine: Well, that’s a story to tell the grandkids!
Still, the ugly ones count just as much as the pretty ones, and right now each and every win [13] is to be cherished and fussed over and smooched like a beauty-pageant winner arrived to take you for a spa weekend. Hello, aren’t you lovely and wasn’t that a delight? Smooch smooch smooch.
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We’ve lost our fourth ’69 Met of the year with the death of Forever Met Ed Kranepool [14]. Read Greg’s tribute — from our 2020 A Met for All Seasons [15] series — here [16].