Did any fanbase need a laugher more than we did?
OK, maybe Tuesday night wasn’t exactly a laugher — call it a chuckler, perhaps — but a five-run first and a pair of homers in the second took away a lot of the tension, allowing us to monitor the “piggyback” experiment that saw Sean Manaea take over for Clay Holmes with relative dispassion. (And it went pretty well!)
Facing Michael King — like Holmes a Yankee reliever turned starter for someone else — in the bottom of the first, the Mets singled four straight times to take a 1-0 lead. Mark Vientos (who hit in buzzard’s luck all night) then spanked a ball right back to King, kicking off a 1-2-3 double play that seemed like it might scuttle hopes for a big inning. But not so fast: Jeff McNeil doubled in two and Brett Baty crashed a homer into Carbonation Ridge for a 5-0 lead. An inning later, Francisco Lindor homered off King and Pete Alonso absolutely annihilated a baseball, sending it into the rarely explored second deck above the Great Wall of Flushing.
The Padres poked at the Mets with a pair of solo shots off Holmes and another one off Manaea, but the game never felt particularly in doubt, and after three months of pretty much nothing but doubt, that felt pretty good.
* * *
Emily and I briefly interrupted cheering on the Mets to switch over to Milb.tv, where the Brooklyn Cyclones were playing for the South Atlantic League title in Spartanburg, S.C., against the rather amazingly monikered Hub City Spartanburgers. The Cyclones won, 2-1, and are league champs.
It was an odd year for the Cyclones: They crushed the Sally League’s northern division in the first half with a 46-20 record, then went 26-39 in the second half. That first half was largely engineered by guys who moved on to Binghamton (which also has its eyes on a title), but it gave their successors a playoff berth, and they played beautifully when it mattered, going on a 4-0 run against Greensboro and Hub City for a title. Flags fly forever; here’s to seeing a new one fluttering over Coney Island next year.
If this little experiment can help Manaea find his groove it may save the season. I don’t think that’s an exaggeration at this point. Not sure Holmes has a groove to find until next year. His control with the breaking stuff was off and when he came in with a fastball it got nailed – though with a 5-0 lead grooving one is better than a walk. Fortunately if we do make the playoffs he’ll likely be back in the bullpen.
I was glad not to see Helsley in the 9th, was afraid we might see him turn a “safe” game into a nail-biter. Hope Alvarez is OK, looked like it got him on the meat of the arm so he should be but with his luck who knows. I was more pissed at that than it probably deserved but with the guy’s injury history I was 3/4 hoping Manaea would plunk Merrill just to remind the world there can still be consequences.
With the way the bats went back to sleep the last 5 innings I’m not convinced but maybe we are gonna start to hit again.
Some random observations from Section 15: Manaea looked like a different guy, aggressive, working fast, sharp control, confidence. If he can let it all hang out for 4-5 innings, this could really work. Holmes does not have a consistent out pitch, remains a nibbler, 3 or 4 innings of him is more than enough. Was told by my usher that a scout for another team thinks that Sproat will be the best of the kids, but my money as on McLean and Tong. We shall see. I can still hear Pete’s bomb of a HR resonating in my ear, that was some majestic shot. Linder seems to be getting back on track. Very competitive at bats.
Very happy the Brooklyn Cyclones won another championship. I used to go every year when they first began. It was where I got my one and only foul ball from under the seat in front of me, and no ‘Karen’ was ever going to take it from me!
bumped into a friend, got yapping, and got home an hour into the game. had to double-take when i saw the score.
a shame it took this long to utilize the piggy-back start that was recommended weeks ago in other precincts (and possibly in comments here.
it went swimmingly, and we didn’t need to see the mets bullpen cough anything up, except maybe sunflower seeds.
alive to fight another day!
I was 20 minutes late myself – turned it on for the top of the 2nd. Reaction was, “Huh – what?” lol
Missed the game. I was, instead, at the Binghamton-Somerset playoff game in Bridgewater, where future closer Ryan Lambert put the cap on a game highlighted by a 428-foot home run by Ponies’ catcher Chris Suero.
Game 2 is Thursday in Binghamton.
As someone born and bred in Brooklyn a few blocks from where Lee Mazzilli attended high school, I’m glad to hear about the Cyclones winning the championship.
I took my kids to a game there many years ago when they were little. Among the future Mets in the ballpark that day were T.J. Rivera, Travis Taijeron, and Rafael Montero. Definitely a fun experience. The combination of minor league hokiness and big city pizzazz, as well as the carnival spirit of Coney Island, was a potent brew. We had a blast (and the ‘Clones won).
Hey Gates, perhaps you were around Gil Hodges Lanes that Summer night in 1977 when the Mets had a bowling event, and Jerry Grote beat Pro Bowler Mark Roth.
We were too young to get into the bar, so one of our friend’s older sister went in and got us some Mazzilli autographs.
As it happens, the night ended in a riot in the parking lot. I ran over to the car where Ron Hodges, Swan, and Apodaca were putting their stuff in the trunk in order to get out of there, and so had no interest in granting my request for an autograph.
Good times…