In the spirit of Norm Macdonald in 1994 on the subject of Kenny G’s new Christmas album, NBC and the Mets teamed up last evening to say, “Hey, happy Sunday night, baseball fans — hope you like crap!”
“In related news, David Peterson will be starting a baseball game tomorrow night on this very network.”
Folks tuned in to enjoy the exploits of Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, and Zack Wheeler may have been satisfied with what the broadcast network version of Sunday Night Baseball presented them from Citizens Bank Park. Folks who left their televisions tuned to their local NBC affiliate after the U.S. Open ended at Shinnecock Hills and then tended to other matters were presumably tuned out. Anybody who actually expected much enlightenment regarding the baseball game playing out on their screen — or be spoken to as if the baseball game playing out on their screen was the reason they were watching it — was going to be disappointed.
Anybody who looked forward to the Mets competing let alone winning on Sunday night was courting dismay, but anybody paying attention to this team in 2026 probably knew enough to temper expectations. The matchup pitting Wheeler versus David Peterson was the first clue. Wheeler now qualifies as one of the venerated masters of his craft. He made his first major league start, as a Met, this month in 2013. He missed two full seasons due to injuries, but has compiled a ton of innings since getting healthy in 2017 and mostly staying healthy in the years that have followed. Very good innings. More Phillie innings than Met innings by far. Zack hasn’t been a Met since 2019. He last started for us in Game 159 of that year.
Peterson, who’d been working his way up the Met chain, was called up to start in the fifth game of the next year, which means he and Wheeler just missed overlapping within a Met rotation. Eight starts separated them…along with an offseason, a change of uniform for Wheeler, a promotion from the minors for Peterson, and a global pandemic that shifted and shrunk the 2020 season. Their near-proximity as staffmates is of the horseshoes and hand grenades variety, yet given that Wheeler has been around practically forever and Peterson is the senior Met in terms of service, you’d be forgiven for thinking they crossed clubhouse paths at Citi Field. Surely they nodded at one another in St. Lucie.
The two were both named to the National League All-Star team last summer. Wheeler opted out of going. Peterson was somebody else’s replacement. Only one of them figures to be considered for another invite next month. Wheeler keeps rolling along. Despite a touch of sixth-inning wildness, Zack has little problem raising his record to 7-1, which tracks with his ERA of 2.11. David, who usually has an opening act warm up the mound for him, came on cold to begin the bottom of the first. The Phillies nicked him for two runs pronto. In the second, Schwarber scorched him for a three-run homer. Down, 5-0, Petey settled in for a couple more innings. Or the Phillies got bored with hitting. Our longstanding lefty left with his ERA sitting above six.
So the ad hoc NBC crew of Jason Benetti, John Kruk, John Franco, and Anthony Rizzo would have something to do besides feign interest in and amusement with one another’s forced observations, Harper greeted Austin Warren with a leadoff homer in the fifth. National TV voices love to prattle on about Bryce Harper. The Mets, already dead, were buried. Their one modest rally followed the orange-and-blueprint with which we’ve grown familiar. Three walks led to a run-scoring groundout. Earlier, Juan Soto turned a two-out single to center into an easy out at second by inexplicably attempting to stretch his hit into a no-chance double. It was replayed and noted but not exactly analyzed, despite the presence of three analysts. Also, Carson Benge socked a homer to left, which gave the yakking quartet a few giggles when it was noticed the kid who seemed to fling the ball back onto the field in protest of the isolated Met success was actually throwing a different ball. Either way, it didn’t take the run off the scoreboard. Either way, the Mets were en route to a 6-2 loss.
After years of dreading Met visits to the ESPN Sunday night spotlight, I was curious to see how NBC would handle the assignment. The network had the Mets and Pirates on Opening Day, which now seems as long ago as 36-year-old Zack Wheeler’s major league debut representing a changing of the demographic guard. Opening Day was a Thursday afternoon, it was the first game of the season, and we were more intrigued by our new players than a new telecast. I’ve since consumed bits and pieces of NBC’s baseball coverage (sometimes on Peacock) and had been neither overly impressed nor totally repelled. Their decision to team the generally admired Benetti with voices connected to whoever was playing struck me as a good idea. I guess I was thinking of Lindsey Nelson partnering with Curt Gowdy.
Franco, bless his resilient left arm, tried his best. Now and then, when allowed to expand on pitching strategy, I came close to learning something. But then we needed to hear from Kruk, whose main selling point is his Krukness, and Rizzo, who sits near the field, and before we knew it, what a pitcher might be thinking when behind in the count got steamrolled by a critique of the local cheesesteak scene. All national broadcasts suffer to some degree from its producers deciding in advance that the audience can’t have its attention held by baseball. Let’s wander off and maybe it will be entertaining. Benetti probably isn’t helped by the panoply of parachuting partners. The viewer isn’t helped at all by any of it.
To be fair, the Mets hardly constitute compelling viewing. Since snapping their aberration of a 12-game losing streak, they have gone 27-27. If you wish to infer that a third-of-a-season’s worth of play indicates this is a .500 team rather than the one nine under in the actual standings covering the 77 games thus far completed, go ahead. Two months of win-one/lose-one haven’t gotten this team anywhere. The last two games in Philly indicate how far this team is from getting anywhere. The upward blips are instantly negated by the downward dips. Eventually, the Mets will win a game here, two games there, and it will be suggested their intermittent success is a sign that prosperity is just around the corner, what with multiple missing pieces coming off the IL and three Wild Cards in every pot.
You’ve still got to win more often than you lose over a lengthy stretch of the season. Isn’t that right, Anthony Rizzo?
Zack Wheeler is a microcosm of all the Mets mismanagement problems in the last 15 years. Carlos Beltran became Zack Wheeler, now we basically have no pitching rotation. We don’t have Carlos either, for that matter.
I was saved from watching this by divine intervention. Mildly annoying at the time as it happened in the bottom of the 1st when it looked like we might get something going but I did get to see Peterson and Baty combine to give up 2 without a ball leaving the infield (unless you count Baty’s throw).
The rest of the evening? Pre-empted by local news covering the possibility of tornadoes. I checked back once or twice and they kept showing pretty radar colors. Two hours of my life I was gonna lose otherwise. Thank You Lord (or Zeus/Aeolus).
I so loved how Peterson pitched much of last season. It was just old school. Paint the bottom of the zone and get them to pound the ball into the ground. When his first two pitches were high balls I was pretty sure it wasn’t his night. Then again, the whole season hasn’t been his night.