Final Score: Dodgers 3, Mets 2

The Mets lost last night on a Trayce Thompson pinch hit ninth inning walk-off home run with two outs. Honestly, the outcome of the game itself became less meaningful to me once Yoenis Cespedes rolled his ankle in the 6th inning while returning to first base to beat a pickoff attempt. He rolled the ankle, he fell, he grabbed his leg and all I could think was “well the season’s over”. In the end he stayed in the game and afterwards he said he was completely fine. But the moment of injury uncertainty served as a reminder of how things can go south for the Mets in an instant. No matter what anyone says, don’t be fooled. The entire offense is built on Cespedes being in the middle of the lineup. We already watched four months of this team without Cespedes. The 2015 pre-Cespedes offense was unwatchable and anemic. Sure this season’s team is better. We have Michael Conforto and Asdrubal Cabrera. We have a better team in 2016. But we live and die on offense with Yo. So today, just be grateful that the baseball gods smiled upon us and we live to play another day with La Potencia.

DeGrom Grits and Jam: Jacob deGrom gave the Mets a gritty 7 inning performance and surrendered 2 runs. His fastball velocity was back up around 94 MPH. He surrendered both runs during a rough first inning. Chase Utley led off the game with an opposite field double and Corey Seager doubled to drive him in. Seager advanced to third base on a Justin Turner groundout. And then Adrian Gonzalez got a sac fly to make it 2-0. DeGrom battled out of jams in the second, third and fourth innings.

Alex Wood and Buttley Utley gave the runs right back to the Mets in the second inning. Yoenis Cespedes and Wilmer Flores both singled to start the inning. Then Michael Conforto reached on a terrible throwing error by dirtbag Utley. Cespedes scored on the error as well. Kevin Plawecki followed with a single that scored Flores and just like that the score was tied at two.

We Blew It: The Mets were 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position in this game. They didn’t hit any dingers tonight. This is what people mean when they say live by the long ball, die by the long ball. We are 4-8 in games when we don’t put the ball in the seats. That doesn’t mean home runs are bad. Obviously a home run is superior to any other hit. But we can’t ignore the reality that when we fail to hit home runs we often fail to score runs entirely.

Cespedes Cannon: Speaking of Cespedes’ survival, he made a great catch of a Yasiel Puig ball to the wall in the fourth inning, and he gunned down Adrian Gonzalez in the 5th trying to stretch a single off the centerfield wall into a double. He’s the most talented man on the field day in and day out.

Corner Boy: I understand that Terry gave Curtis Granderson the night off and preferred to play Juan Lagares in right field instead of playing Cespedes or Conforto at an unfamiliar outfield position. But I still really hate when Juan starts in a corner spot and Yo plays centerfield. I stand by the assertion that our gold glove outfielders should play where they earned their gold gloves. That being said, Cespedes made a bunch of great plays in center last night so it’s hard to argue that the alignment hurt us yesterday.

Poopy Lineup: Just a friendly reminder that I hate when Eric Campbell plays because he stinks. He went 0 for 3 with 2 Ks.

Gee Starts Now: On the ex-Mets front, the Royals are officially plugging Dillon Gee into their rotation and moving Chris Young to the bullpen. Dayton Moore is such a hoarder of mediocre back end starting pitchers. I bet his garage is full of piles of 5th starters from the last 20 years that he “might need someday”.

Juicing Accountability?: Raul Mondesi Jr. got a 50 game suspension for a banned substance and was able to negotiate it down from 80 to 50 because he proved it was from cold medicine. He said, “There are no excuses for my carelessness in not being fully informed of what I put in my body.” I just want to note that the statement from Mondesi is all I really want from these players. I’m not going to debate whether the positive test was from cold medicine or not. That’s for the league to decide. But at least the guy admitted he screwed up and took responsibility. I’m so sick of the players shrugging and offering the “only god knows” response to why they tested positive for a banned substance. Thank you Raul.

Harper Is A Naughty Boy: On Monday, Bryce Harper got tossed from the Nationals game against the Tigers and then after the Nats hit a walk-off home run he returned to the field to celebrate and cursed at the umpire. I’m totally fine with the Bryce Harper umpire FU. He got emotional. It happens all the time. There’s nothing special about Bryce’s move. He’ll probably be fined, suspended or both for returning to the field. My only takeaway from Bryce Harper #CurseGate is it reminds me how composed this Mets squad is. You never see these guys lose their cool with umpires. Also Dusty Baker said he loves Harper but added, “Will I have to spank him sometimes? Maybe.” Between Jonathan Papelbon choking Bryce and Dusty spanking him, all we need is Daniel Murphy to show up wearing assless chaps and the Nats can be the official BDSM club of MLB.

Today: Wilmer Flores’ face embodies how I feel every morning after watching these West Coast games. They’re killing me. Tonight Noah Syndergaard faces off against Kenta Maeda. This should be a pitching matchup worth staying up for.