An oddity as this odd Mets season winds down is that I have remind myself Andy Green [1]‘s top priority isn’t winning games. That’s always welcome, but not job one — job one is to conduct a quasi-instructional camp, in which new guys and new situations get tried out to see what might work in some better, brighter future.
I get all that, but years of fan instinct have me otherwise wired. Isn’t this too big a spot for this guy? Is this the ideal matchup? Why pinch-hit here? Why not pinch-hit here? Oh yeah, that’s right — Uncle Andy’s Baseball Camp is in session.
Much of Monday night’s game against the not so big but exceptionally bad Milwaukee Brewers — best team in baseball, don’tcha know — unfolded as a relatively taut duel, notable mostly for a surprising number of runners left on base by both sides. Zac Thornton [2] looked good yet again, nicked for only an RBI single over six, and has earned not only a spot in the Mets’ starting rotation but also a baseball card without an h or a k tacked onto the end of his first name.
Thornton was in line for the win after the Mets twice ambushed an otherwise effective Kyle Harrison [3] for solo home runs. Harrison is one of the many players transformed by a sprinkling of the mysterious Milwaukee pixie dust that we thought would arrive with David Stearns, only to find out Stearns isn’t the source of this magical confetti. (Rats!) The first came off the bat of Francisco Lindor [4]; the second was struck by Luis Robert Jr. [5], going over the Great Wall of Flushing despite Robert connecting essentially one-handed. To quote a long-ago spring-training broadcast, “a grown man hit that ball.”
The Mets got two more sparkling innings from Nate Lavender [6] (including some yellow-light lefty-righty matchups, because Uncle Andy’s Baseball Camp) and handed a 2-1 lead to Austin Warren [7] for the save opportunity. But Warren didn’t have it — he’s coming back from arm woes and is still finding his sweeper — and coughed up the lead immediately, though he did strike out Luis Lara [8] with second and third and nobody out.
The next exercise at Uncle Andy’s Baseball Camp was seeing if the electric/erratic Jefry Yan [9] could get his team out of trouble, and the answer was yes … with an asterisk. Yan got Garrett Mitchell [10] on a called third strike with an ABS assist, walked Joey Ortiz [11], and gave up a liner to David Hamilton [12].
Lindor rushed a couple of steps to his right, lunged — and my Apple TV restarted. Black screen, white pinwheel, lots of bad words from the Fry couch, and an equal amount of uncertainty. Had Lindor snagged that ball? Had it ticked off the end of his glove to be retrieved by a teammate while Brewers wheeled around the bases merrily? I put the odds at 50-50 either way.
The answer was that Lindor had caught it. Whew.
The Mets tried to scratch out a conventional-nine win against Trevor Megill [13], but that’s a tall order: Megill gave up an infield hit to Lindor but picked him off to end the inning, though replays indicated he’d balked and the infraction had gone uncalled. Time for Calvinball Presented by Rob Manfred and His Team of MBAs Who Don’t Like Baseball, and new auditions in Uncle Andy’s Baseball Camp, starting with Jonathan Pintaro [14] trying to strand the Manfred Man at second.
Pintaro was up to the task, allowing only a walk to the formidable William Contreras [15], which led to Megill resuming his duties and an oddity of modern baseball. Lindor had been picked off while on first with a 1-1 count on Bo Bichette [16], so of course the tenth began with Lindor on second and Bichette at the plate with a fresh count. Eight-year-old me would have been amazed that such a thing was possible; 57-year-old me was mildly appalled though mostly numb.
Bichette popped out; Megill then intentionally walked Carson Benge [17] and unintentionally walked Robert, bringing up Christopher Morel [18] with the bases loaded. Morel looked overmatched, frankly, and rapped an 0-2 fastball to Hamilton at third. Hamilton had plenty of time: Lindor was going to be forced at home, with Morel possibly doubled up at first, and either way the game would grind on.
Except Hamilton couldn’t get the handle, made a terrible throw, or both — the ball was wide right, allowing Lindor to stamp on home plate uncontested. That gave the Mets a victory [19] and, presumably, led to s’mores getting handed out at Uncle Andy’s Baseball Camp. Good job, campers! Now let’s talk about what we learned! Nate, Austin, Jefry, Jonathan … who wants to go first?