A day after a near-perfect game, the Mets looked once again lacking in all too familiar ways: Kodai Senga was mediocre, and the offense’s comeback stalled when Cedric Mullins couldn’t hit a medium-depth fly ball, beginning a maddening streak of futility against the Nationals’ terrible bullpen.
(Before we move on, though, let’s note Brett Baty‘s majestic homer, struck though it was in defeat. Watching the replay, I told my kid “I didn’t think Baty had 455 feet in him,” to which the kid replied, “I don’t think Baty thought he had 455 feet in him.)
We missed the first two-thirds of Mets-Nats, for a defensible reason: We were at Portland’s Hadlock Field to watch the Sea Dogs take on the Binghamton Rumble Ponies in a clash of the Red Sox’ and Mets’ Double-A clubs. This look at the future seemed to have lost some of its juice a few days ago, when the Mets promoted Jett Williams, Ryan Clifford, Carson Benge and Jonah Tong to Syracuse.
But we had a fine time anyway, and not just because hey, it was baseball on a summer night. Binghamton’s R.J. Gordon took a no-hitter into the seventh, the Rumble Ponies got a laser-beam homer from Jacob Reimer and a ringing double from A.J. Ewing (who has a Winkeresque swagger certain to get under opponents’ skin), and the entire game saw eye-opening defense, with center fielders Nick Morabito (Binghamton) and Allan Castro (Portland) putting on a show and Portland third baseman Ahbram Liendo vacuuming up anything in his neighborhood.
The Rumble Ponies won, even if the parent Mets did not, and it was a welcome reminder that the future is always edging a little closer, bringing new players and stories into view.
I was @ Tong, et.al.’s last Ponies game a week ago Sunday vs. Somerset & had similar feelings … he’d struck out 8 but Ponies bolluxed up on base paths… and while they lost 2 Sundays ago, We saw a more + future too. THAT helped me balance out the persisting 4th/5th inning sinkholes the Mets haven’t yet shaken off. And Wed’s comeback was an improvement! And if Mendy does have Holmes in pen next yr, that’d be a good thing… too bad Seth Lugo re-signed tho… cheerio, despite disappointment pending now…. Continued thanks for reading my Mets-fan mind!
Last night was full of Mets moments that can be summed up as “not quite good enough.”
Senga, 3 runs across but nothing with bases loaded one out when they gave us an extra out, flailing against the worst bullpen in the league. All not quite good enough. The only plus was the bullpen.
Far from the worst loss we’ve had this year but a nice showcase of our deficiencies.
Need today’s game. If we want to contend we need 2 of 3 from the last place team in our division. And Manaea – and Senga – need to start looking like the 1 and 2 pitchers on a playoff team.
Mendoza as usual awful in 9th innings. Lets auto out and dp looking to happen Torrens bat when at least Mauricio might hit one out or at least avoid dp or possibly not swing at a 2-0 pitch with Lindor on deck.
But this brings up again the question many have asked for months now: Why is Tyrone Taylor on this team? Last night he was (probably correctly) seen as no better than Torrens for a pinch hitting role. He is not platooning with almost as bad Mullens. He wasn’t used as pinch runner last week in another classic Mendoza non-move that might have cost us a game. He is not a defensive replacement for Mullens. So why is he on our team?
And all this shows again the utter failure of Stearns to (among other things) never get a major league starting CF going back to last winter. Somehow they are now praying for Jose “.198” Siri to return. I guess he is below one Mendoza line but not the other.
yea i was just thinking/hoping about the minor leaguers.
i thought the mets were en route to a 100-win season.
they’ll be much closer to a 100 loss season at this rate
would love to see some promotions to the big club.
it. would make it worthwhile to watch or hear a game.
mostly avoiding them now.
^yea greg = is anyone actually *running* this team??
mullins fits right in – he adds nothing to the pulse of the team.
actually seems glum. welcome to flushing.
was good to see stanek out there again. did montas actually come in?
after warming him up quickly?
go rumble ponies and syracuse.
SOS!
wow, it seemed odd that montas, a starter would be rushed into action…this pointed out by b’cast crew as well.
just saw the post article about a UCL tear, season over…where dark humor meets reality!