Shame, Shame, Shame…

Final Score: Marlins 2, Mets 1

This was by far the Metsiest game of the season. It was really the first game where we had a bunch of opportunities to score and straight up squandered every one. Noah Syndergaard had one of the best starts of his career. He went 7 innings with 12 strikeouts and only 1 walk. He got every big K he needed all game long. But we failed to give him any support. It was an utterly disgraceful performance by our offense.

And as I said, we had many opportunities. In the first inning we got a leadoff double from Curtis Granderson. David Wright walked. Then Yoenis Cespedes struck out, but Lucas Duda picked him up by slashing an RBI single. Unfortunately bonehead Duda got thrown out trying to advance to second base. It was a terrible baserunning blunder. Neil Walker grounded out to end the inning, and we ended up with one pathetic run to show for getting the first two batters on base.

In the second inning, Michael Conforto got a leadoff walk. Travis d’Arnaud got a 1 out single. Thor sac bunted them both into scoring position. Then Grandy walked to load the bases. And after doing so much last night, Captain Wright couldn’t get it done. He flew out, and we wasted another early opportunity. We blew our chances against the Marlins ace Jose Fernandez when he was visibly struggling with his command on the mound. Absolutely unforgivable.

In the third inning, the wind stole a leadoff home run from Cespedes. He tossed his bat and started admiring it, and it died right at the wall. Mother Nature is so cruel. She stops the rain so we can watch Thor dominate, but her wind kills our best chance at a second run.

The Marlins tied the game in the 4th inning. It all started on a ground ball by Marcell Ozuna to second basemen Neil Walker in the hole between 1st and 2nd that led to a close play at first. Unfortunately Duda’s foot came off the bag during the stretch and the challenge led to the first base runner. Then the Marlins grounded into a couple of force outs. But with two outs they got two straight singles by Justin Bour and Derek Dietrich that led to their run. Thor managed to strike out Adeiny Hechavarria to end the threat.

In the bottom of the 6th, we had another opportunity when Mattingly yanked Jose Fernandez from the game. Cespedes got a leadoff hit. Duda struck out like a jerk, but then Walker singled. And of course Michael Conforto followed that up with a big fat double play. Some people wondered why Juan Lagares didn’t get a pinch hit opportunity against the lefty Craig Breslow, but you keep Conforto in the game there. I don’t want to hear about hitting splits and crap.

In the 8th inning, the Marlins finally took the lead. Dee Gordon led off with a 16 pitch AB that included fouling off 11 straight pitches before flaring a little BS hit off of Jim Henderson. Then after getting one out, Henderson walked a couple to load the bases and Jerry Blevins gave up a sac fly to give the Marlins the lead for good.

And that was it. The Mets didn’t do anything on offense the rest of the way. We went out with a pathetic whimper.

World Series Throwback: In the 7th inning, Asdrubal Cabrera made an amazing play on a ball Ichiro hit in the hole at short and threw to first but Ichiro beat the throw. But Derek Dietrich, who had been on second base, sprinted home and Duda in a World Series déjà vu moment made the throw home. But this time it was on time and on target to the plate. Better late than never (inserts gun in mouth).

We Are Struggggling: Lose two series against NL Least teams at home? Check. On the verge of getting swept by the Marlins at home? Yup. This is a brutal start. You know who’s not off to a brutal start? Daniel Murphy and the Nationals. We better shape up because the race for the division is 162 games. They all count. Hopefully this is a blip on the radar. But getting a dominant performance from our ace and then not scoring any runs to support said ace was the groundhog’s day story of pre-Cespedes 2015. We definitely cannot allow that to be the 2016 narrative for any extended stretch of time. If that happens then we stink.

Everyone’s A Damn Psychic: I saw literally a billion of the same tweet. “Umm friendly reminder, I told you Thor was going to win the Cy Young this year.” Thanks for your bold prediction everyone. You all really went out on a limb predicting that a guy who dominated in the 2015 playoffs and throws 100 MPH is going to win the Cy Young award.

Hit Some Dingers: Umm I don’t mean to get all scientific here, but we have two home runs this season. That’s our team number. That is not enough. We are really struggling to get anything going on offense. We have so many accomplished hitters, I can’t imagine this drought goes on all season long. I certainly hope it’s not some sort of fundamental flaw in our offensive dynamic. Best not to think about it. After all, do you want to know the terrifying truth about the Mets, or do you want to see them sock a few dingers?

Tomorrow: We have a day game to close out the series with Logan Verrett on the mound. Jesus Christ can we salvage one game? Please?