The Pickup Artists

On Jay Horwitz’s Amazin’ Conversations podcast this week, Jay reminisces with the SNY booth trio in this, their twentieth year on the mic. The host eventually retells the story of how he first met future color analyst Keith Hernandez…or attempted to meet him.

JAY: In June of ’83, Frank Cashen calls me. “Jay, we traded for an All-Star and MVP, but he hates New York. What are you gonna do?” I said, “Frank, I’m gonna go to Montreal airport, pick him up in the biggest white limo we can, and I’ll soften him.” So I go to the wrong gate.
KEITH: Yes, you did.
JAY: I went to the wrong gate.
KEITH: I went to baggage claim.
JAY: No Jay, no limo.
KEITH: Crickets. So I got a cab.

Moral: when somebody fails to pick you up, it stays with you.

Conversely, whether it’s someone you work with, someone you live with, or someone you hired, little in life is as satisfying as seeing someone come into view to make like Keith Hernandez in the clutch and pick you up. Watching from a nearly transcontinental distance, I know I got very excited to see several different Mets standing in what is known as scoring position get picked up in Phoenix over the course of Wednesday afternoon. For all the Mets had been doing right most of this still young season, it felt like that relatively simple task was going unfulfilled for too long, at least on this road trip.

But in the late innings of the Mets’ Chase Field finale, the picking up commenced in earnest.

Luis Torrens is standing on third in the seventh — Luisangel Acuña picks him up with a single!

Acuña is standing on second in the seventh — Jeff McNeil picks him up with a triple!

Jose Azocar is standing on second in the ninth — Francisco Lindor picks him up with a double and brings Tyrone Taylor, who’d been on first base, along for the ride! Of course he does, because Francisco is always doing something extra.

Lindor then finds his way to third — and he gets picked up by a Juan Soto sacrifice fly!

No need to get fancy when a base hit or sac fly will do.

Soto had already given lifts to a pair of pitches for solo homers, so when you add together all the pulling up to the curb, opening of doors, and dropping off at the plate, you had seven Met runs, a total easily outdistancing the one the Diamondbacks managed. Snappy Met defense (featuring Torrens firing a bullet to Lindor to cut down a thieving Corbin Carroll in the first; and Taylor, Lindor, and Torrens combining on a seamless 8-6-2 putout of Eugenio Suarez in the second) compensated for some Kodai Senga wildness, en route to the ol’ Ghost Forker straightening himself out to transport six scoreless innings. Toss in three frames from the Effective Relief Committee (Members Kranick, Brazoban & Stanek presiding), and you had a six-run win and a happy flight east.

You also had the all-important tying of the now-concluded season series between the Mets and D’Backs. Three for them, three for us. This is all-important in case a playoff berth comes down to these two clubs holding identical records. Actually, there is no telling whether that’s going to be all-important this year, but it turned out to be all-important last year. Last year was last year, but these things live on in your consciousness until something more relevant replaces them. By late September, not having conceded a tiebreaking edge to this one given opponent will likely have receded to the back of our collective statistical mind. Maybe we’ll be far beyond the need to break a tie with anybody. Or we’ll be entangled with some less Snaky rival. Or — though I don’t believe this will be the case, as long as we continue to drive in runs that are begging to be driven in — the postseason for others in the highly competitive National League will be the offseason for us. Shudder at that last possibility.

At the moment, winning the last game against Arizona and splitting six overall with them is as much a pick-me-up as any RBI of an RISP.