A day after a near-perfect game [1], the Mets looked once again lacking in all too familiar ways: Kodai Senga [2] was mediocre, and the offense’s comeback stalled [3] when Cedric Mullins [4] couldn’t hit a medium-depth fly ball, beginning a maddening streak of futility against the Nationals’ terrible bullpen.
(Before we move on, though, let’s note Brett Baty [5]‘s majestic homer, struck though it was in defeat. Watching the replay, I told my kid “I didn’t think Baty had 455 feet in him,” to which the kid replied, “I don’t think Baty thought he had 455 feet in him.)
We missed the first two-thirds of Mets-Nats, for a defensible reason: We were at Portland’s Hadlock Field to watch the Sea Dogs take on the Binghamton Rumble Ponies in a clash of the Red Sox’ and Mets’ Double-A clubs. This look at the future seemed to have lost some of its juice a few days ago, when the Mets promoted Jett Williams [6], Ryan Clifford [7], Carson Benge [8] and Jonah Tong [9] to Syracuse.
But we had a fine time anyway, and not just because hey, it was baseball on a summer night. Binghamton’s R.J. Gordon [10] took a no-hitter into the seventh, the Rumble Ponies got a laser-beam homer from Jacob Reimer [11] and a ringing double from A.J. Ewing [12] (who has a Winkeresque swagger certain to get under opponents’ skin), and the entire game saw eye-opening defense, with center fielders Nick Morabito [13] (Binghamton) and Allan Castro [14] (Portland) putting on a show and Portland third baseman Ahbram Liendo [15] vacuuming up anything in his neighborhood.
The Rumble Ponies won [16], even if the parent Mets did not, and it was a welcome reminder that the future is always edging a little closer, bringing new players and stories into view.