Nolan McLean [1] keeps getting better and better — but not even he can escape the Mets.
In just his 12th start as a big leaguer (!!!), McLean was nicked for a first-inning run but looked sparkling after that, making the best team in baseball look downright silly for the rest of a long night at Dodger Stadium. Shohei Ohtani [2], Freddie Freeman [3], Max Muncy [4], Teoscar Hernandez [5] … they and their fellow Met tormenters all got undressed by McLean over seven superb innings. McLean — and again, let’s note he’s only made 12 starts as a big leaguer — is channeling peak Jacob deGrom [6] or once-upon-a-time Dwight Gooden [7], with the first hit against him feeling like a surprise bordering on a betrayal.
Alas, the Mets looked downright silly with bats in their hands for most of the night too. Francisco Lindor [8], who’d been on the back of a milk carton as a hitter with nary a 2026 RBI to his name, started the night promisingly with a Daniel Murphyesque home run off Yoshinobu Yamamoto [9]. But that was all the Mets would do to support McLean for the evening. A continuation of the team’s baffling, nauseating offensive blackout? Yes. Testament to Yamamoto being every bit as good as McLean? Also yes.
Maybe the Mets should take a page from Yamamoto’s mound mate Ohtani and let McLean be a two-way player again. He swung a bat in anger as a professional not so long ago, after all, and he can’t fare any worse as a hitter than the pacifist band sent out on his behalf.
I’m not entirely kidding. Hell, I’m not kidding at all. Remember the night Noah Syndergaard [10] beat the Dodgers and hit two home runs? I miss stuff like that [11]. (Good recap title too!)
With McLean not allowed to ride to his own rescue, the game wound up as a bullpen affair, and I waited grimly for the fatal mistake to come, which it did in the form of a little Kyle Tucker [12] ducksnort against Brooks Raley [13] in the eighth. The Mets were at least spared a reunion with old friend Edwin Diaz [14], whose velocity hasn’t been to the Dodgers’ liking; it didn’t matter, as Alex Vesia [15] needed only one extra pitch to strike out the side in the ninth and seal a Dodger victory.
A Dodger victory, a seventh straight Met loss [16]. If the Mets quietly disbanded rather than return to New York, would anyone notice? Would we not on some level be relieved?