It’s a basic rule that you cannot, in fact, win ’em all.
It’s also a common error as a baseball fan to forget this bedrock truth.
It sure felt like the Mets would win ’em all, or at least this next quantum in the set, when Mark Vientos blasted an early two-run homer off Bryce Elder to give David Peterson and the Mets a lead Sunday afternoon.
Surely the Mets would pour it on as they had the last two days, tormenting various Atlanta relievers and leaving us to wonder where, exactly, this exceptional play had been for much of the summer.
Surely Vientos — the most essential Met for the rest of the season — would stay on his recent heater for the rest of the year, lengthening the lineup as he did in 2024.
Surely Peterson would keep being the rock of the rotation, taking pressure off a still-evolving bullpen and maybe even inspiring his fellow starters.
Which delivered us to the doorstep of another common fan error: mistaking a short distance for a clear view.
This topsy-turvy, stop-start Mets season has been bad for not only our mental health but also our predictive powers, as the Mets have been reliable only when it comes to being confounding.
And so it was again: A ninth-inning flurry notwithstanding, the Mets stopped hitting. Peterson got into the sixth but found the last out elusive, departing having lost the lead. The relief faltered, with Gregory Soto hitting Vidal Brujan and giving up a two-run single to Jurickson Profar, long ago the subject of near-constant Mets trade gossip and now one of those guys who’s quietly been around forever and turns up each season on a new team. The defense didn’t get it done, as Profar’s single plopped down in front of Cedric Mullins and spurred questions about why, exactly, he was playing center instead of Tyrone Taylor.
Would Taylor have made the catch? That’s a three-in-the-morning question in a season that’s been full of them, no doubt with more to come. He didn’t, in answer to the larger question the Mets didn’t, and rather than make ourselves crazier perhaps we should draw a curtain on this one with a shrug and remind each other that you cannot, in fact, win ’em all.
“It’s a basic rule that you cannot, in fact, win ’em all”
An unfortunate corollary to that rule, at least for 2025, is that if it comes down to a bullpen game the Mets will lose them all.
I’m sure we have managed to come out ahead in a game where we’ve been tied or behind after the 6th inning. I just can’t remember when.
An excruciating loss, made more so by just how emblematic it was of everything that’s gone wrong this season. Bullpen collapse? Check. Starting pitcher unable to finish the job (i.e. go 6 innings)? Check (although from a starter who’s been somewhat reliable). Unwise deadline acquisitions exposed? Check and check. Fielding mishaps/misplays/misjudgments? Check, check and check. And this is a team that’s still headed for the playoffs. God help us.
Don’t understand social media focus last night and this morning on Mullins’ non-catch, especially since no guarantee that Taylor makes the play. The key takeaway is: Mendoza, in just one of his dozens of awful moves this season, used Diaz the night before with 9-2 lead, and he threw something like 27 pitches, natch. So no Diaz to get out of the 8th inning (and also pitch the 9th). Also used Rogers night before with 7-2 lead. When is it clear that the emperor has no clothes?
You can’t win ’em all, but can we win a World Series once in a half century or so?
The 2024 Mets would have won the game.
For the 2025 Mets, yet another frustrating loss for the little things that went just enough wrong for the starting pitching, relief pitching, defense, and hitting that, as Jason points out, added up to a 1-run loss to a bad team. It was an especially frustrating day for Alonso who left a village on base in clutch spots.
Which 2024 Mets would have won this game? There were several different versions.