Final Score: Rockies 7, Mets 4

Let me give you the pros and cons of this game before I dive into the blown call that ultimately determined the outcome.

Pros: The Mets had a ton of hits. Thirteen hits to be exact. David Wright had 2, Yoenis Cespedes had 2, Lucas Duda had 2, and Neil Walker had 3. Duda led the second inning off with a double and Walker followed with a single. With one out, Kevin Plawecki singled in a run. He’s picked things up lately. Neil Walker hit a leadoff bomb in the fourth inning. In the sixth inning Cespedes doubled, Duda drove him in with a single, and Neil Walker singled to make it first and third with no outs for Asdrubal Cabrera. But Cabrera, who’s been so hot, hit into a run scoring double play.

The post Logan Verrett bullpen was also dominant. Hansel Robles, Sean Gilmartin, Jim Henderson, Addison Reed, and Antonio Bastardo combined for 5.1 innings of scoreless relief.

Cons: The Mets once again failed to capitalize on run scoring opportunities at a high enough rate. Thirteen hits and four runs ain’t gonna cut it at Coors Field or any field for that matter. In the second inning, Logan Verrett and Curtis Granderson both struck out with two men on base. In the sixth inning after Cabrera’s run scoring double play, Kevin Plawecki walked and Juan Lagares singled. But Grandy once again failed to drive in any runs and grounded out. In the seventh David Wright hit a leadoff double and the heart of the Mets order couldn’t drive him in.

The Blown Call: The biggest con was obviously that Logan Verrett did not have a great start. But his entire line and the entire outcome of the game was determined by a blown call in the third inning. In the bottom of the third it was 2-1 Rockies. Verrett gave up a leadoff double to Nolan Arenado, a bunt hit to Gerardo Parra, and with one out he walked Mark Reynolds to load the bases. Then he walked DJ LeMahieu and consequently walked in a run. Pathetic. However, you figured with the bottom of the order coming up maybe we’d be able to limit the damage. And that’s exactly what Verrett did. He struck out 8 hitter Tony Wolters on a half swing which would have brought the pitcher up with two outs (he ended up grounding out by the way). Except the home plate umpire called the half swing by Wolters a foul tip. The bat wasn’t even close to the ball. It was an atrocious blown call. Everyone in the place knew it was a miss. When he got his second chance, Wolters roped a double that scored two runs and the wheels fell off after that. When the dust settled Terry had been ejected and it was 7-1 Rockies.

Fix Replay: The fact that people still call for the repeal of replay and seek to limit the scope of what you can review is completely and utterly insane. If you fall into this camp, I will never understand your line of thinking ever. It means you would prefer that we get the calls wrong as long as the game keeps moving. You are bananas. The blown call at home from last night’s game should be reviewable. Every play should be reviewable. One look at that half swing in the New York control room and in 5 seconds they would have called it a strikeout. As Terry said, “It cost us the game. End of story.” Instead everyone just stands on the field shrugging and being helpless.

Give Me The Robots: Can we please just install motion sensors and supercomputers all over every stadium and put these goddamn human umpires out to pasture? I am so freaking sick of game changing blown calls. Does MLB really want to reach younger fans and appeal to a broader audience? Well if they do, how about they create a game where we can ensure the play on the field is called correctly. And by the way kids love robots. I think.

I Don’t Have The Energy: I slept before writing this post because if I wrote it last night I may have said some things about umpires that would have been flagged by the internet police. But honestly I’ve been ranting and crying about crap like this for years. Blown calls in this day in age in any sport are inexcusable. Everything is filmed and every single thing can be confirmed in 5 seconds. This wasn’t about a debate over a rule like the Utley slide crap or home plate collisions. This was just a straight up miss by an umpire, and it couldn’t be rectified because the dumbass league actually carves certain plays out of the scope of reviewability (real word?). It’s a joke.

Philly Play At Plate: Speaking of plays at the plate, I saw the replay of the game ending play in the Phillies vs. Reds game. With two outs and runners at second and third, the batter hit a fly ball to left field. The ball was caught and the runner tried to tag up and he was nailed at the plate. Here it is:

Cameron Rupp fielded the throw, the runner barreled into him, and he held onto the ball for the final out. My question is how does this play not violate the home plate collision rules? The play was reviewed, and it was determined to not be a violation of the rules. I think the assertion is: If in the process of fielding the throw, the fielder has to go into the baseline, then it’s not a rule violation. When I watched the replay, I saw a catcher standing in the baseline the entire time fielding a perfectly made throw, and a runner who had no choice but to barrel into him. In other words, I saw the play that we’d seen a hundred billion times before the league supposedly changed the rules.

It doesn’t matter because the call was made, they reviewed it, and nobody seems angry. For the record, everyone is celebrating the play because the masses loved home plate collisions. I just think it’s funny that Major League Baseball is still celebrating the play too and someone like me who watches games all the time, still doesn’t quite understand their stupid, incoherent, cockamamie rule book.

Duda Lefty Troubles: Duda hasn’t hit lefties at all this season. Eric Campbell hasn’t hit anyone. Ryan Raburn sits on the Rockies bench. Raburn being a guy with experience at 1B, 3B, 2B, LF, and RF. It’s a good thing the Mets didn’t sign Ryan Raburn, otherwise we’d have no room for Soup.

Today: Let’s salvage one game in this Colorado series, end this goddamn road trip, and prepare for the series with the Nationals.