Here’s a sign of progress: The Mets lost, and I wasn’t mad at them.
Last week? I was incensed to an unhealthy degree by everything they did wrong, waiting with teeth bared for them to shoot themselves in the foot again. But Wednesday night? Yes, David Peterson gave up a grand slam to turn a 2-2 tie into a 6-2 Padres lead that would prove insurmountable, and no, Peterson shouldn’t do things like that. But he gave it up to Manny Machado, who’s an awfully good player and an even better one with the bases loaded.
Even down by four, the Mets kept scratching and clawing, working good at-bats against a parade of San Diego relievers — and coming within a whisker or two of pulling out an unlikely victory.
Whatever else you say about it, that was a deeply weird baseball game.
Dom Hamel escaped the first-ever run put on his big-league ledger when Luis Arraez got thrown out at second a moment before Elias Diaz‘s foot touched home plate — and Diaz had broken it down because Machado, who thinks everything is best done cool and casual, indicated he should ease up. (Congratulations to Hamel on escaping ectoplasm as a Mets ghost — and for becoming the Mets’ MLB-record 46th pitcher used this year. I’ll contain my excitement about the record, though, because cycling arms on and off the roster is the new normal and you can bet someone will use 47 pitchers next year.)
Francisco Alvarez got the Mets within two runs by driving a ball off the very top of the orange padding in right-center, a ball that bounced straight up before coming back, Dave Augustine-style, to Fernando Tatis Jr. The umps conferred and ruled it a home run, for reasons best left unexplored if you’re a Met fan, because I still have no idea what it hit that wasn’t orange padding or how the umpires determined that.
Then there was Juan Soto, who came up as the tying run in the seventh against Mason Miller, who really probably could throw a ball through a wall if he chose to. Miller got ahead of Soto 1-2 on a trio of fastballs all north of 100 MPH, changed Soto’s eye line with a slider below the zone, and then went back to the gas. That’s a time-honored way of getting anybody out, but Soto isn’t anybody: He whistled the ball down the left-field line, two or three inches on the wrong side of the foul pole. (Miller, undeterred, came back with a perfectly placed slider on the outside of the zone to fan Soto, then got Pete Alonso on an all-slider diet. Dude is good.)
And oh that ninth inning: Brett Baty turned in a very solid AB against Padres closer Robert Suarez, rapping a leadoff single on the seventh pitch. Alvarez, who looked compromised by his various busted fingers, made an out, as did Mark Vientos, pinch-hitting for Cedric Mullins. (A bit of an odd decision: Vientos couldn’t tie the game and is much slower than Mullins.) Francisco Lindor worked a walk to give Soto another chance to tie the game, and Soto turned Suarez’s fifth pitch into a bullet up the middle — one that, alas, Suarez corralled with some combination of glove, hand and midsection.
That’s a loss — an unfortunate one, to be sure, but not one where the Mets let the roof cave in on them or seemed to sleepwalk through the proceedings. They pushed and pushed in a game that felt like it gave us everything — well, everything except the W.
I *think* I agree with Mendoza’s strategy there, which makes me think there might be something wrong with *me.*
Mullens sucks, and Vientos has a better chance of hitting a home run than Mullens does of doing anything to get on base. That would put us down by 1 and then give the BIG 3 a chance to tie the game with a homer as well.
Nimmo has officially been expelled from the FAB 4. As I have said in this space before, “Why does Nimmo suck so much?” Somebody ought to tell him to hit the ball *forward* instead of trying to foul off every single pitch, no matter the count.
Jason, you left out the ‘W’ in your title, because the ‘W’ stands for ‘WIN,’ which we did not get.
Like in that commercial, where they take off the last ‘S’ for ‘SAVINGS!’
Yeah, the way Vientos has been swinging lately, DHing him for Mullins didn’t make a lot of sense. Not to say Mullins would have done anything either even if he’s a lefty facing a RHP.
That Alvarez ball sure seemed to defy the laws of physics. Not sure what the replay folks saw other than thinking it must’ve hit something to bounce back that way.
I’d swap Baty with Nimmo in the lineup positions. He’s gotten a hit here and there but Brandon just seems overmatched.
As losses go this one was easier to take. We didn’t blow a big lead or go down meekly after falling behind. Even the grand slam wasn’t on a terrible pitch, particularly for a bases loaded situation (low and outside, he had to reach) – that wasn’t the problem, the walk and HBP preceding it were. But the Padres are good. Winning 2 of 3 from them will work fine but we need today’s game pretty bad. Can’t keep losing series at home.
Not mad? I let loose a torrent of invective toward Mr. Peterson when he gave in and grooved a fastball on 3-2 count that was teed up similar to a whiffle ball Home Run Challenge set up. Walking in the run on a competitive secondary pitch would have been palatable, but that? Inexcusable. Please ignore me while I (repeatedly) lower my expectations for this team. Also, anecdotally speaking, it seems that Hefner rarely provides any real time strategic input when needed to struggling pitchers. I am beginning to wonder whether his reputation exceeds his actual value-add.
That was a curve – 82 mph. And it may have been a ball low. It sure wasn’t a teed up fastball.
I sit corrected, not having had the benefit of the charming pitch classification technology on television from my seat directly behind homeplate. I would not dignify that “get me over” pitch by referring to it as a curve, and I don’t think it could be identified as such in a police line-up. Tomato/to-mato.
I gotta admit I was pretty mad at this game too. “They battled” doesn’t really cut it for me after the last 4 months of torture.
Same here. Wife and I were at the game last night, and I thought it was a pretty good representation of what we’ve seen since mid-June.
– Inconsistent offense manages to scratch out a couple of runs, one by solo homer, and gain a lead.
– Underachieving starter gives it all, and more, right back.
– Sputtering offense sputters to/stays just within striking distance
– Underachieving position player actually gets a hit and is a RISP with the 2 biggest bats in the lineup coming up and less than 2 out, down by 2.
– Nada.
– Underachieving reliever immediately surrenders homer/multiple hits/walks/hits a guy/catcher’s interference and game now out of reach.
How do you pronounce the title of this post?
Same way they pronounced it on Sesame Street in the good old days….
(Minus the ‘W’ sound, of course.)
Sorry, have to recall that down only 2 runs and with a rested pen Mendoza went to Stanek–again, one good recent inning from Ryne fooled the easily fooled Mendy–and of course the do-able 2 runs quickly became the almost impossible three. Mendy had already taken the same chance with Helsley. Garrett is now out, not a bad thing, I’d say. Much rather have Devenski or MIA Dylan Ross.
Peterson’s performance was maddening or, more to the point, worrying. If the GS pitch wasn’t upsetting, then the pitches that led up to it and the other 2 SD runs were. Senga sent down. Holmes and Manaea piggybacked. Is there a fix left for Peterson?
Re: Nimmo
Somebody told him.