Triple Your Displeasure

I liked the part where Juan Soto tripled. The ball he walloped to deep right at Coors Field in the top of the third Thursday afternoon would have been out of every other park, including the one with the Grand Canyon in it, but triples are fun. We’re here for the fun of baseball, aren’t we? Watch Juan chug! Watch Juan round second! Watch Juan go for it!

Juan Soto indeed tripled. It was fun. Besides, there was one out and the Mets were ahead by two runs. Somebody’ll knock him in soon enough and the rout will be on.

Where did I get the idea it would be that easy? Two batters later, after Bo Bichette walked, Mark Vientos rapped into a 4-6-3 DP to end the inning. The Mets still led. Christian Scott was still on the mound, continuing to look hale, hearty, and effective. So what if it was only 2-0? We’d gotten to Jose Quintana twice in the second, and we’d probably take care of him in due order. Scott was cooking, Soto was tripling, snows were melted, it was a fine day for a sweep.

The Mets never had another runner reach third, let alone home. Quintana, my favorite Met of 2023 and 2024, battened down his hatches until there were two out in the sixth. Scott, embodiment of my fondest Met hopes in pre-OMG 2024, before Tommy John surgery removed him from the radar, was allowed to pitch with a 2-1 lead only as far as two outs in the fifth. He’d struck out six, walked two (including his final batter), and had thrown 82 pitches. During the postgame scrum, he told reporters he “respected” his manager’s decision, pitcherspeak for why the eff is he taking me out? I respect that attitude. Still, can’t be too careful with an embodiment of renewed hopes in 2026. There’s been so little basis for hope to begin with.

Our two runs were the product of people in whom no Met hope was ever invested. A righty-heavy lineup was unleashed to go after lefty Quintana. It worked, for a spell. An Austin Slater single in the second turned into a run because of Andy Ibañez sac fly. Put those names in your Met-Libs and smoke them. Another run scored when Tyrone Taylor singled, though Taylor was thrown out trying to stretch for a double. Taylor is speedy and gets erased on the basepaths. Soto lumbers but makes it to third. Vidal Bruján — he was the starting shortstop for whom the Mendoza Line remains aspirational — swings for the fences and comes up a little shy. So much to process. Not that much to etch in the runs column.

Balls just missed going out. Balls just missed staying fair. Calls just missed going the Mets’ way. Huascar Brazobán stranded Scott’s baserunner in the fifth, but not one of his own in the sixth. Tie game. Austin Warren set things right. Austin Warren sets himself to be sent down by his episodic success, option-laden as he is. Carlos Mendoza (not to be confused with Mario Mendoza of Mendoza Line infamy) could use only so many relievers on Thursday because he had to use too many relievers on Wednesday during a game that was seemingly in hand. Is anything in hand except your forehead when it comes to the 2026 Mets? On the radio, Keith Raad foreshadowed how badly this was gonna go by pre-rationalizing how splendid it was that the 14-22 Mets had already won this series, even if this Getaway Day contest got away today because of the short pen. Is this industrywide reasoning or just the brand of analytical thinking that’s been spread internally by David Stearns? “Just win series” is something you lean on for long-term perspective — I defaulted to it plenty when the Mets were postseason-bound in 2022 — not when you’ve taken two of two, and a third remains within reach…and you’re 14-22.

Craig Kimbrel came into a tie game in the eighth and batted a series sweep out of reach. I’m not usually prone to “well, that’s it,” the instant a pitcher appears, but I was very much well, that’s it the instant this pitcher appeared. I likely would have responded differently during Craig’s prime, helluva prime that it was. I’m sorry Kimbrel didn’t get a check-swing call in his favor amid his loading of bases. I’m sorry the Rocky Mountain High grand slam he was bound to give up, the one that apparently soared directly above the right field foul pole, couldn’t be nudged into foul territory via chief review. It was close. It was blasted by Jake McCarthy. Jake McCarthy’s walkup music is the segment of “Stairway to Heaven” in which Robert Plant wails, “And as we wind on down the road…” which, until I looked it up, I swore for the last 55 years was, “And there’s a wino down the road.” It’s a song that has a piper who will lead us to reason; a bustle in your hedgerow; and something about a May queen. Why wouldn’t a wino wander into all that? This has nothing to do with the grand slam Kimbrel may or may not have permitted, but McCarthy’s use of Led Zeppelin certainly caught my attention.

Certainly, nobody was catching McCarthy’s deep fly ball, unless it was fan in the far right field stands, right of the pole. Now down, 6-2, the Mets wouldn’t be catching the Rockies, either. They’d get a couple of men on in the top of the ninth, but, as we’ve already established, third base became the unreachable star after Soto got stranded there. You can’t touch home if you don’t touch third. I forget if that’s from Led Zeppelin or Casey Stengel. Either way, the Mets are now 14-23.

I really did enjoy that triple, though. I’ll close my eyes, think about it a little longer, and then try to forget most everything else about the Met loss that surrounded it. I mean the Met series win that was already achieved.