New Narratives

OK, so it didn’t exactly look good early.

Kodai Senga‘s second pitch of the night was redirected by Shohei Ohtani to Carbonation Ridge for a 1-0 Dodger lead.

Senga’s fourth pitch of the night skipped under Mark Vientos‘ glove, allowing Mookie Betts possession of first base.

Senga’s 13th pitch? Freddie Freeman smacked it to right-center for a double, moving Betts to third.

After a baker’s dozen of pitches Senga hadn’t recorded an out, the Mets were down by one, and they looked destined to be down by a few more. A long night seemed in the offing, marked by familiar frustrations. Would this one feature another late May glove toss into the stands, a gray City Connect ritually set on fire, or some other act of Met self-loathing?

Such unhappy questions loomed as Senga stood on the mound trying to figure things out. But to quote an eminent Dominican philosopher, youneverknow.

Senga’s 18th pitch was smacked out to Tyrone Taylor in center by Will Smith. Taylor — who’s quietly been extremely valuable this year — sprinted in to grab it and heaved the ball across his body to Luis Torrens at the plate as Betts came home.

Safe! said Marvin Hudson at home. Naaaah said the crowd — both in the moment and more full-throatedly once everyone got a look at the replay. Torrens had slapped a tag on the sliding Betts’ back before his foot came down on the plate, a sequence that the umps in Chelsea quickly confirmed. It was a double play — and though only the sunniest of optimists would have predicted such a thing, the high-water mark of the Dodgers’ evening had come and gone.

In the bottom of the first Landon Knack fanned the first two Mets, but Juan Soto beat out a grounder that Max Muncy bobbled and Pete Alonso pulled a hanging knuckle curve into the seats to give the Mets the lead. The Polar Bear had gone 65 ABs without a homer; between his returned power and Soto’s renewed commitment to running hard, that’s two annoying narratives slain in the same half-inning.

I didn’t watch any of these things happen — some A/V snafus sent me to the audio, which wasn’t a bad call given we were on ESPN, the third straight Mets telecast without Gary and Keith and/or Ron. (The only thing I missed was Francisco and Katia Lindor rather charmingly mic’ed up and discussing diaper changes, but day-after video provides.)

Once dinner began I turned off the audio and let GameDay take over, with its colorful snake trails of balls and strikes delivered to virtual batters standing stock still. That meant I couldn’t see that Senga was scuffling a bit, only that he was ducking trouble when necessary. Ryne Stanek took over in the sixth and on GameDay all was brisk efficiency: Stanek coaxed a double play ball from Andy Pages; Max Kranick navigated two innings and six Dodger hitters spotlessly (including the dreaded Big Three); and I returned to the audio feed as the Mets handed closing duties to Reed Garrett.

Buckle-up time, as a two-run lead against the Dodgers feels like the decimal point is a digit over to the left and everything could come crashing down in a hurry. But no — Garrett allowed a Muncy single with one out but got a fielder’s choice from Pages and fanned old friend Michael Conforto to secure both the victory and a series win.

The Dodgers remain a fearsome juggernaut, the final boss of the senior circuit. But the Mets have the same record they do. They won as Soto hustled and Pete went deep and Stanek and Kranick and Garrett were all but spotless. Not so long ago, none of those things was the case and we were all starting to mutter and fuss about it. But Sunday was different, coming without any of the old narratives we’d had enough of. Here’s to new ones.