One recipe for a good baseball game? A sequence of unlikely events. No-hitters flipped into walkoffs, storming back to a ninth-inning win, Houdini-ing your way out of what looks like statistical doom, that kind of thing.
Monday night’s game in Philadelphia was a good game, much as we would have preferred a duller one with a different verdict. And it certainly had its share of unlikely events.
For openers, a 1-0 victory — by anybody — at this bandbox?
Or how about Aaron Nola spitting in the face of a terrible season to shut down the Mets and effectively lock up the division for the Phils?
Or how about the Mets tormenting the highly capable Jhoan Duran again, except this time the ninth-inning magic fizzled?
Or how about Ryan Helsley working a 1-2-3 inning?
OK, that last one’s a little mean-spirited. But c’mon, you were as shocked as I was. (More meanness: Francisco Alvarez saved Helsley from an pitch-clock violation and a walk, and way too many of Helsley’s sliders hung in the middle of the plate. But still: progress!)
The Mets’ offense looked stagnant once again, the latest episode of ebb in a season of maddening ebb and flow. (More like once-a-generation drought alternating with flash flooding, at the risk of pummeling our poor metaphor.) But give some credit to Nola: He put aside his disobedient curve as his primary pitch and it proved a canny adjustment that left the Mets guessing wrong all night.
For our part, Nolan McLean looked good again — even better when you consider that he had to deal with a misfiring sweeper and a fingernail that ripped off early in the game. It wasn’t enough last night, but I’ll gladly take a decade of McLean departing in the sixth having given up one run in Philadelphia, thank you very much.
The Mets — perhaps you’ve heard — haven’t come back to win a single game in which they’ve trailed after eight, the only team still left bearing that burden in 2025. (It’s a quirk, however much we insist during postgame fuming that it’s a sign of weak moral fiber.)
It looked like Monday night would be the end of that streak, as Duran’s ninth inning began as a rerun of his recent nightmare at Citi Field. Pete Alonso bounced a single up the middle and then departed for pinch-runner Ronny Mauricio, Brandon Nimmo just missed a carbon copy of Brett Baty‘s little duck-snort hit to left, and Mark Vientos lined a double over the head of Nick Castellanos.
Oh, that play. I assume Mauricio would score and tie the game, and was dumbfounded when he only wound up on third. But not all doubles into the corner are the same: The ball’s trajectory was low and it wasn’t clear that it would get over Castellanos’s head, Mauricio was blocked out by the fielder, and he might have remembered that Castellanos is a terrible defender except against the Mets, whose presence seems to transform him into Garry Maddox.
So Mauricio only reached third, leaving the Mets with second and third and one out and putting the game in the hands of Jeff McNeil and Alvarez. McNeil is up there with Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor for “Met I’d most want to see when anything but a strikeout will get the job done” (maybe even a little ahead of Lindor) and he just missed a double down the line that would have given the Mets the lead and caused Duran’s agent to book a therapist posthaste.
But the ball went foul and four pitches later Duran threw 102 MPH past McNeil for the second out. Alvarez then arrived at the plate eager bordering on desperate to deliver, the kind of self-sabotaging AB he’d largely stopped having. Not on this night, though: Duran threw him three curve balls he couldn’t have hit with an oar and the game was over.
1-0 Phillies. Who’da thunk it?
We were out to dinner celebrating a family birthday, and given the game started so early, I did not see a single pitch. But I took glances at my phone and Gameday, and we were back in the car for the later innings, and I could not believe that Helsley was in that game in that situation, or as I remarked to my husband, “Apparently they want to lose by more than one run.” I also could not believe that the score remained 1-0 at that point; weren’t they playing in Philly? We were home by the top of the 9th, lost a couple of at-bats as we parked the car and went inside to hear Howie Rose (again, weren’t they in Philly?)relate the final two at-bats.
These types of games, where as a fan you are just outside of knowing what’s really going on, are almost like dream games – you wake up and can’t really remember what happened except for the end of the dream, or in this case, nightmare. It was only compounded by all the anomalies laid out by Jason here. So I am choosing to treat this game as if it really didn’t happen, and start anew this evening.
We are headed off to Cape Cod for a month for vacation and our son’s wedding, and there is no way to pick up the Mets on TV unless it’s national TV or streaming ( it’s Red Sox or bust, even with cable), so it’s Howie and co.for us. Trying to figure out if it’s worth paying for streaming SNY for the last month of the season.
(But hey, there’s always a silver lining – the game was over in time to watch the second half of Monday Night Football, just in time for Michigan Man JJ McCarthy to startle everyone but those of us who watched him in college – we know. I almost never watch MNF any more unless the Bills are playing, but JJ is the real deal. And speaking of the Bills, my Buffalo born husband went upstairs and went to bed at the end of the third quarter and missed that great comeback Sunday night. Josh Allen is also the real deal. That those two incredible comebacks were sandwiched around that Mets defeat just adds to the aura of unreality here).
Every night I wonder which Mets team is going to show up. The pitching version or the hitting one? Or those lifeless impostors? I know that there’s a fourth one, the Unstoppable Juggernaut, but their appearances are growing more and more rare and are remarkable only for their inability to budge the team in the standings. Regardless, it does not last long except to spark a burst of equally short-lived optimism until the impostors arrive.
I just hope they’re still standing 19 games from now. It would ease some of whiplash that this season has visited upon all of us.
@Fred: You have captured this season perfectly. It may be too late for the juggernaut Mets (e.g, the 1986, 2006, 2022-type Mets) to fully show up, but I think the rare but wonderful Ya Gotta Believe Mets ( 1969, 1973, 2015, 2024) may yet redeem this season. Because after all, what fun is following a team unless you are convinced they may be out there?
Just here to point out that Citizens Bank Park doesn’t always play like a bandbox, it’s usually in the hotter weather when the balls just fly out of the park.
Going into this series my mantra was, “Don’t get swept.” Sure, losing 3 of 4 wouldn’t be good but given how the WC candidates behind us have largely been floundering, we’d probably still be OK. Though I’m not sure about the Giants – surely their pixie dust supply has to run out sometime, right?
This looked like the game to get given Nola’s season so far. I have to give him some credit as he did pitch pretty well and the curve they were knocking before the game seemed to have pretty good life. Still, you’d think we’d have gotten to some of the 90 mph fastballs.
Helsley actually looked like a major league pitcher. Whodathunkit. When he came in I cringed wondering where Rogers was. At least what fastballs he threw were up. Other pluses were McLean and Alvarez throwing out Bader, first throw I’ve seen from him with the hand taped up.
Speaking of Alvarez, his AB in the 9th may just be the worst I have ever seen. Waving at three balls a foot or more outside. That really was pathetic.
Game gave me a bad feeling but lots of games have given me bad feelings. There’s no telling what we might see tonight, heck we may hang 10 on Suarez.
It’s like that one at-bat completely nullified any progress Alvarez has made.
Alvarez has yet to grow out of his adolescence.
Don’t get too excited about Helsley. Last time he pitched a good inning Mendoza put him in again right away and he got bombed–his usual approach with Stanek.
Last night a classic in revealing again the hapless work Stearns has done in most of the off season and in season. Mullins is 0-26 and even popped up a bunt (adding “can’t bunt” to can’t hit or throw). But then he gets hit for against a lefty by our only good pinch runner, Acuna, who can run–but can’t hit. Meaning when Pete gets on first in the 9th Mendoza pinch runs…Mauricio…who can hit (maybe) but can’t run! Metrics show he is as slow as Pete. Acuna scores on that play.
And won’t even mention Robertson, who we could havegot for nothing but money (compare this to Helsley), shutting us down very very easily.
After five games McLean is the ace of the staff, followed by Sproat and Tong. Who’da thunk it? That notion will either be confirmed or (I hope) refuted over the next three games as the other pitchers take their shots.
The revisionist history of those feisty, courageous 2024 Mets is that they always found a way to pull games like this out of the fire.
Except that they went into the final Sunday of that final regular-season weekend in Milwaukee having lost four of their last six. And nobody had any faith that they’d either win that final Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee, let alone win either game they needed in Atlanta the next day.
Does anyone actually have the figure handy of what the 2024 Mets’ record was in games that they trailed after eight innings?
I had to laugh at the declarations that the “division is gone” after losing the first game in Philly last night. The division has been “gone” for the last four weeks. And with the division no longer a realistic quest, these Mets have been playing with an alarming lack of urgency that looks to all the world like they’re just taking their wildcard spot for granted and casting games to the wind in an effort to get Ryne Stanek right and to get Ryan Helsley right with a minimal concern for the actual outcomes of games.
Oh, we lost again? That’s OK to them. They still got to celebrate bases-empty singles and doubles when behind with their maddeningly childish and self-flagellating double arm-roll gesture. THAT, and team photo poses in front of the dugout camera after fourth-inning home runs, apparently matter a lot more to this team than wins or losses.
So, yes, Jason, I will suggest that their 100% failure rate in games when trailing after 8 innings might indeed be a sign of “weak moral fiber,” or, perhaps, complacent indifference.
yup. this team’s DNA is big on indifference.
and mendoza is reminding me more of luis rojas every day.
for years now, mets teams were mostly known for pulling wins out of
the fire, thin air…and projected a sense that every game could/would be won.
these mets – and their inability to win a single game late – is pretty
startling.
and yes, after that horrible game-ending at bat, i’d say let alvarez get repaired and ready for next season – but for torrens now being hurt himself.
i hate to say it but absent a return to an inspiring sense of urgency, i’d just as soon see the mets come up short of a post-season spot.
they have inspired in me my own indifference – and i’d just as soon see this season end.
sad but true.
All right, once again I think it’s time to close comments.