The email came from a work colleague: We’re planning our annual Mets outing, please RSVP.
My instinctive response: Oh God, do I have to?
That’s where this death march of a season has brought us: A free ticket to a Mets game feels like a burden.
The Mets have gone from confounding to infuriating and finally to the place marketing people pray their team never reaches: embarrassing.
Witness Tuesday night’s all-you-can-eat buffet of horrors. Kodai Senga was front and center, resuming his quest for the not particularly cherished distinction of Most Exasperating Starter Ever. Senga blazed through a promising first inning, pitching aggressively and annihilating the Cubs. But in the second he reported for duty with his velocity noticeably down, nibbled on the corners (without hitting them) and got strafed for five runs. I have no idea what’s wrong with Senga and no longer care: I just want him to be somebody else’s problem.
The Mets did some other embarrassing things we’ve grown used to, such as look inert on offense — no, ninth-inning lipstick on the pig of a lost game doesn’t count. And then there was whatever they were up to in the seventh inning: Down five, they made us sit around for eight minutes or so to win a challenge on a ticky-tacky overslide by Pete Crow-Armstrong of second base, which came on ball four to the batter. (Never forget: PCA was a Met farmhand whom we traded so we could watch Javy Baez sulk for two months of garbage time.) Craig Counsell‘s disgust was palpable; so was mine. By God, is that ever not what replay is for: The Mets not only shouldn’t have won the challenge, they also should have lost their right to challenge for the rest of eternity.
I felt sorry for this year’s kidcaster, who had to endure an endless half-inning of Senga being terrible before getting to call a few plays by himself. The Mets of course supplied a one-two-three half-inning with nothing worth calling; by then the poor kidcaster was in his late thirties, wild-eyed and bearded and shouting out warnings of the apocalypse from his fetid lair under a bridge. So it goes with the 2026 Mets.
Oh, and Juan Soto left with a side/back ailment. Though perhaps the real injury is to his pride from having to be a party to this shambling horror show.
By that metric, we should all be on the IL.
Oh man. We who did not attend or watch salute you.
What in the living Hell is wrong with this franchise?
It could be argued that Pete Alonso’s feeble toss to Senga last June was Mrs. O’Leary’s cow knocking over that lantern…
I’ve tried to be patient. But I go back to the saying, “Hope is not a strategy.”
Stearns’ entire offseason seems to have been based on hope.
Hope that Senga could look like the pitcher from early last year and 2023
Hope that Peterson would look like 1st half 2025 rather than 2nd half
Hope that Polanco with a history of leg injuries wouldn’t have leg injuries
Hope that Robert Jr with a history of injuries wouldn’t have injuries
Hope that Semien, showing all the signs of an aging player in decline wouldn’t continue to decline as an aging player
The only 2 major non-hope moves he made were Peralta and Bichette – reasonably young and with dependable track records. Somehow even those moves have been failures, despite Bichette’s recent awakening.
At least Ewing and Benge are showing something. Baty and Vientos sure aren’t.
Those of us who remember an episode of The Twilight Zone entitled The Mighty Casey, Senga is the living embodiment of the robot pitcher, Casey. He struck everybody out until he was given a heart. Then he felt sorry for the hitters and no longer had the will to ruin their careers. Gopher ball after gopher ball. I recommend watching this episode. It’s certainly more enjoyable than watching the Mets.