As a coping mechanism, I sometimes imagine there’s a series of Anti-Mets Classics — games so variously painful, frustrating and provoking that you’d only watch them again if forced to. In a CIA black site, perhaps. Or maybe in actual Hell.
That’s actually not an unconvincing vision of the afterlife for those of us who won’t gain admission to somewhere better: You find yourself in a drab third-rate hotel, eat a half-heartedly made room-service burger and turn on the TV because there doesn’t seem to be anything better to do. Suddenly things are looking up, because you’ve found Mets Classics! Only as the game unfolds, something starts to nag at you. Something feels … off. And then you realize what it is.
Wait a minute. This is that fucking game against the Diamondbacks, the one from the last day of April in 2025!
Suddenly it all becomes clear. This is Hell, and Anti-Mets Classics are the only Mets games one can watch here. And it will be this way for eternity.
To be fair, Wednesday night’s game was frustrating even before the bottom of the ninth, when everything fizzled against Ryan Thompson (no not that one) and the Mets wound up a run in arrears. Corbin Burnes looked like he was on the ropes in the first but somehow wiggled free. Ryne Stanek faltered again and gave up the lead that had been lovingly tended by emergency bulk guy Brandon Waddell, though fairness compels your chronicler to venture that Stanek was mostly unlucky, done in by a broken-bat hit and a little parachute Jeff McNeil had no way of reaching. (Speaking of unlucky, five of the Mets’ 10 losses have been by one run, including their last four.)
The Mets kept squandering chances big and small: Juan Soto got just under two balls, eliciting Citi Field cries of delight that turned into consternation as trajectories were assessed and found wanting. Carlos Mendoza made the odd decision to send Brandon Nimmo up to pinch-hit for Luisangel Acuna despite Nimmo looking like a shell of himself both at bat and in the field. After starting off with a couple of good ABs in DC, Francisco Alvarez‘s swing looks gigantic again. And in an dizzying couple of days the Mets have gone from feeling lucky to have two capable lefties in A.J. Minter and Danny Young to the possibility that both of them have been lost for the season. (I did a double take when Chris Devenski appeared on the mound, having no idea that something had befallen Young. I believe my exact words were, “Uh-oh, why are you here?”)
The pleasures of the game? Well, let’s see. We got our first sight of 82 worn by a Met in a regular-season game, though I’d prefer that guys making a regular-season roster wear real numbers — act like they should keep you. (Waddell aced that test otherwise, though.)
I also found myself in the best crowd I’d seen in some time — sure, their attention wandered during the long slog of the middle innings, but they locked in for the final frames, cheering madly for each good turn of Met fortune and groaning theatrically when things kept coming to naught. Plenty of today’s crowds would barely have noticed what Waddell did, or grasped how difficult it was; Wednesday’s crowd gave him a standing O, and that was nice to see.
Beyond that? Well, the game was finite in length, I guess that’s something. Maybe there was something else nice that I missed … you know what? Ask me again during the afterlife, when I’ve had my 253rd viewing of this one on Anti-Mets Classics.
If Stanek’s gonna throw all FBs to someone he needs to go up and in. They weren’t solid hits but were on balls out over the plate. Is something wrong with Garrett? Hasn’t pitched since Saturday and instead we get Chris Devenski in a 1-run game? Mendy makes the right moves most of the time but IMO last night wasn’t his best. Then again, he didn’t go 0-10 with RISP either.
If Tuesday’s game was a fun day at the circus, last night’s game was cleaning up afterwards.
Stanek was poison again – but after his failure, the Mets had plentiful chances to right the ship.
How could they not at least tie the game in the bottom of the ninth? One base hit would have won the game.
Why not Garrett in the top of the ninth?
This seemed to be Mendy in very uncharacteristic mad scientist mode.
I didn’t see it as being as nightmarish at all. They used a pitcher I had never heard of until 5 PM for 4 innings and a pitcher I had never heard of until about 9 PM for two innings in a game against a pretty good team and still only lost by one run.
And they could have even won it if not for Ball 6 Alvarez trying to hit a Grand Slam Home Run when all the situation called for was a bloop single.
Imagine how good this team might be if they’d signed Juan Soto.
Oh, we’d probably be 21-11 and leading our division by three and a half games by the beginning of May. Shame we didn’t sign him.