Against the Nationals on Saturday, Sean Manaea saw the middle innings go awry and Will Dion pitched capably, an indication that he doesn’t belong anywhere near the Washington bullpen. But that was just the pieces being moved into place for the main event, which explored a fascinating (in a small-f way) philosophical inquiry: The Mets’ offense is reliably frustrating, while the Nats’ relief corps is reliably, well, unreliable. Both of this qualities are maddening, but which of them would carry more weight in determining the outcome of the game?
The answer, at least for the day: the Nats and their pack of arsonists. We’ll get into the details in a bit, but that doesn’t particularly surprise me, as nothing brings pointier teeth to a battered fanbase’s psyche than a bad bullpen. Even when things are going well, you wait for the dreaded other shoe to drop. And the Nats have dropped more shoes than an alcoholic cobbler: 37 losses in which they’ve held a lead.
Oh wait: 38.
Wearing their City Connects, which I’ve come to think of as Goth Rockies, the Mets took a 2-0 lead, fell behind 4-2 on homers yielded by Manaea, then crept to within 4-3 thanks to a Carson Benge homer and a laser-beam throw to deny the Nats an insurance run. Citi Field got its first look at the Jefry Yan Experience in the eighth and Yan didn’t disappoint, striking out three of the five Nats he faced. The most entertaining sequence came against Nasim Nunez in the ninth: Up 0-2, Yan thought he’d picked off the edge of the strike zone and went into celebration mode, only to literally crash to earth as the umpire signaled a ball. So Yan simply added the head pat of a challenge to his gesticulation … a nice touch until ABS churned to life and the ball remained green, just outside the zone. No matter: Yan struck out Nunez two pitches later to complete his work. And, as it turned out, secure his first big-league win.
Two notes here:
* Remember Brian McCann, the Braves’ purse-mouthed Old Man Yells at Cloud catcher? Whenever Yan does his thing I imagine McCann sitting on the periphery of some dreadful country club with persnickety rules adopted at his insistence, watching highlights and squeezing his phone hard enough to make his knuckles go white. And it makes me cackle.
* I was watching the final innings while in the stands at a Sea Dogs-Rumble Ponies game in Portland, Me., and remembered that I cannot simultaneously keep track of a live baseball game and one on my phone — I get my wires crossed about what is happening where and wind up confused. Emily and I just saw the Rumble Ponies get their brains beat in at home in Binghamton, but their lineup has been restocked with trade-deadline acquisitions, giving us our first looks at Jefferson Rojas, Billy Amick, Emilien Pitre and Gabe Davis. The result was a 14-2 romp and a good one-game impression: Rojas and Amick looked impressive, with quick bats and loud contact, while Davis is gigantic, a Tyler Glasnow-esque action figure out there on the mound. Even cautionary draft-day tale Kevin Parada had a good day, hitting a homer, though the best play of the night was made by Portland, with Will Turner going above the fence to take a home run away from Corey Collins.
From the Portland stands I saw the Mets whiff on tying the game in the eighth down in New York: Clayton Beeter looked determined to lose the game for Washington but the Mets wouldn’t cooperate. Francisco Lindor led off with a single, but got gunned down trying to take second when a ball bounced away from catcher Harry Ford — too aggressive, but it took a perfectly executed scoop and throw by Ford to get him — and Jared Young swung through a high slider with runners on second and third and one out.
In the ninth, though, the Mets went back to work against Yovanny Cruz, who has a triple-digit fastball but favors his slider, something that’s probably atop the Nats’ to-do list for him. Brett Baty drew a leadoff walk, Jorge Polanco (of all people) hit a sharp single over second, and Francisco Alvarez doubled down the left-field line. Alvarez’s double was too hard to score pinch-runner Cristian Pache from first, but just like that the game was tied with nobody out and Pache on third as the winning run.
Andy Green then did something I still can’t figure out, pinch-running Luis Robert Jr. for Alvarez. Nothing looked amiss physically with Alvarez and his run could only be cosmetic. At Hadlock Field I handed my phone over to Jordan, wondering what I was missing, but they were baffled too. A later rewatch on SNY revealed Keith and Gary were equally nonplussed. I don’t think Green is a dummy — more on that in a minute — so was there ever an explanation?
A.J. Ewing struck out, but Lindor didn’t let Cruz escape, lashing a ball to deep right that was plenty deep enough to bring in Pache and give the Goth Rockies a very satisfying walkoff win.
After the game, Green said something I thought rose above the usual manager-presser Peanuts wah-wah: “You don’t play perfect baseball when you go on winning streaks. You make mistakes: You make errors, you make baserunning mistakes, you don’t execute every pitch. But you don’t let that moment impact the next moment. I think our guys have been tremendous at that.”
Green summed that up as “resilience,” which is true but awfully well-worn. But it’s a good point: My little recap calls out Manaea, Lindor, Young and Ewing for missteps. That’s not malicious or wrong — it’s part of what recaps do — but the takeaway ought to be different, as correctly underlined by Green.
I’m not sure about the “tremendous” part — this is still a last-place team playing garbage-time baseball. But that baseball has been a lot more watchable and enjoyable. There’s a takeaway to underline.
The only thing I could think of is that Andy Green had some kind of play cooked up where Robert would wander way off second base to draw a throw from the catcher.
Granted, not the kind of thing you do when Lindor (even 2026 Lindor) is up, plus they still had two outs to play with, and in general the Mets have rarely if ever “cooked up” plays this year. But that’s all I got.