The Mets are 3-0 in Friday night West Coast games in 2026. Maybe they should schedule some more of them. Or maybe we should just play every Friday night from 9:40 PM Eastern time forward, regardless of locale. The same team that toppled the Giants [1] in San Francisco on a Friday night in April and edged the Angels [2] in Los Angeles of Anaheim on a Friday night in May pounded the Padres in San Diego on a Friday night in June. If that’s not a trend, it’s at least a trendlet. Reserving one of these spots every month for the rest of the season would seem to loom as imperative.
What’s that? We’re out of Friday nights on the West Coast? Actually, that makes sense. It was bizarre and absurd — bizsurd, too — that we winged west over and over and over and over to get this season off the ground. Perhaps the surfeit of transcontinental travel contributed to the Mets falling on their collective face early and often, sprinkling of Friday night successes notwithstanding. The Mets have played 27 games on these four trips thus far. Not all of them have been in the Pacific Time Zone, but each has been wrapped up in the same hither-and-yon itinerary. Their record in (deep breath) St. Louis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Anaheim, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, and San Diego (let it out) between March 30 and June 5 is 11-16, with two Petco dates remaining.
That feels somewhere between not as bad as one could have expected and emblematic of a team that can’t quite manufacture momentum. Unless the latter is what they’re beginning to do now, what with winning in Seattle on Wednesday afternoon before flying south. It’s hard to gauge, considering Friday nights in California seem to define the Mets’ small sample size sweet spot.
[3]On this particular Friday past dusk in the Golden State, Lesley Gore, having celebrated warm California nights [4] nearly sixty years ago, might have been moved to sing some new verses to acknowledge all the Metsian wonders sprouting along The Coast. Jared Young [5] belted a homer to lead off the second inning. Bo Bichette [6] tripled in the Mets’ second run of the evening in the third. Luis Torrens [7] earned his first donning of the home run hard hat with a two-run shot that highlighted the fifth. And Christian Scott [8] is suddenly making a habit of notching Ws. The righty went five-and-two-thirds, pulled with two out and two on in the sixth, up 4-0. No doom followed his exit, as Huascar Brazobán [9] informed the Padres in no uncertain terms, “It’s my party, and I’ll get out of this jam if I want to.”
HB mowed down SD in the seventh as well. I didn’t see that, nor the zeros wrought by Luke Weaver in the eighth and A.J. Minter in the ninth. I also missed Brett Baty driving in A.J. Ewing after Ewing singled and stole two bases versus the usually untouchable Mason Miller, because, well, live from California, it was Friday night. Nodding off comes with the territory, no matter that the territory became the land of a Mets 5 Padres 0 [10] final once the wee hours arrived.
One more late-night start in San Diego tonight. One more long flight back to New York tomorrow. Then first pitches that don’t automatically augur yawns. I won’t miss the challenge of staying awake. I won’t mind more Friday night wins.