Final Score: Rockies 4, Mets 3

Sideburn Island: Since the umpires stole another game from the Mets today, and I’m on the verge of having a baseball triggered aneurysm, let’s start out with something light. I’m not hip when it comes to hairstyles but what’s with deGrom’s sideburn island? Is that a thing? Maybe his hair doesn’t grow in that spot? Do his sunglasses have built in razors that shave that area every time he puts them on? Maybe Mr. Burns has been telling him to shave his goddamn sideburns? I don’t know. Either way it’s hideous. If deGrom is going to let his signature hair get sloppy, what kind of example does that set for the other players on this team? Clean it up.

Rocky Mountain Fly: As far as the recap goes, Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo home run in the top of the second inning. It was an opposite field shot to right field. In a series where we expected a bunch of home runs from the Mets but only saw two, it’s not surprising that Cespedes hit one of them. I can’t wait until he opts out and the Wilpons don’t pony up the damn cash money. Book it.

Deadly Combination: In the third inning, Eric Campbell hit a leadoff double and Jacob deGrom continued the run of dominance our pitchers have had at the plate by driving in Soup with a single. Realistically we may never see Soup get a leadoff hit and deGrom drive him in ever again. In that same inning, Asdrubal Cabrera singled with one out moving deGrom over to second base and then Michael Conforto singled to drive in deGrom. That made it 3-1 Mets.

DeGrom Good/Harvey Bad: As far as Jacob deGrom and his performance in this game goes, overall he was fine. His velocity is still down, but unlike Matt Harvey, he’s maintained some semblance of his command which has allowed him to remain effective. Michael Conforto misplayed another ball out in left field in the second inning, which led to a double for Carlos Gonzalez. DJ LeMahieu ultimately drove him in with a single but it was another costly misplay. What a joke. In the fifth inning with two outs, a misplayed ball by Alejandro De Aza in the outfield led to deGrom throwing 17 more pitches. That contributed to Terry’s quick hook of deGrom in the 7th inning. DeGrom also surrendered a dinger to Carlos Gonzalez in the 6th inning which made it 3-2 Mets.

Did I Say It Or Did I Say It: In the 7th inning deGrom walked the leadoff hitter, struck out the next guy, and then Terry pulled him in favor of Jim Henderson. Henderson came in to face pinch hitter Ryan Raburn and gave up a two run home run that made it 4-3. Did I say it or did I say it? Yesterday I said the Mets could have easily signed Raburn for the bench at the end of the spring but instead we went with Soup-a-doop. Well unlike Soup (who sucks) Raburn (who doesn’t suck) hit a pinch hit dinger today (his fifth home run) and burned us. Whoops! I mean technically Soup didn’t suck today since he had two hits and a walk but who cares #scapegoating.

Umps Screw Mets Again: In the 8th inning, the umpires screwed the Mets for the second day in a row. With one out Juan Lagares doubled and the Rockies elected to intentionally walk Yoenis Cespedes so lefty pitcher Boone Logan could face Lucas Duda. Duda hit a ground ball to Nolan Arenado at third base. Lagares and Arenado were on a collision course, but Lagares moved slightly to avoid Arenado and made it to third base safely. Arenado didn’t even attempt to tag Lagares and instead made the throw to first base to get Duda. We should have had runners at second and third with two outs for Neil Walker. Instead, the second base umpire inexplicably decided to overrule the third base umpire and called Lagares out of the baseline. Double play. Inning over. Complete joke. Everything should be reviewable and umpires should be robots. If you want to read my thoughts on it check out my post from yesterday. Remember yesterday when the umpires screwed us? Just like today! At least I don’t need to re-type the same goddamn rant.

De Aza Lost: Alejandro De Aza totally sucked in the field today. He had at least four complete misplays or near blunders. From missing sunglasses to sloppy unnecessary belly flops in the outfield he messed up non-stop. He just doesn’t get any playing time so I don’t blame him for being rusty. That being said he better de-rust quick, or he’s going to find himself in the MLB scrapyard.

Terry’s Beat: Terry Collins didn’t even have the energy to argue the blown call in the 8th inning or talk about it after the game. This road trip really killed all of us. Perfect timing for our early season-defining meeting with Nationals. Hooray!

Booth Lag: For all the talk about deGrom and Harvey lacking velocity, Gary and Ron are missing a few MPH on their booth fastball lately. Snooze city. Taking Keith out of the booth is like taking Cespedes out of our lineup. It’s not pretty.

Sounds Similar: Imagine Justin Morneau, Dustin Garneau and Travis d’Arnaud being in the same elementary school class. It would be an absolutely chaotic role call for that hypothetical teacher.

Santa Claus Effect: One of the boring topics Gary and Ron talked about during the game was how everyone loves David Ortiz despite the fact that he failed a PED test in his career. The same thing goes for Bartolo Colon. I have to believe the Ortiz/Colon media praise despite their documented use of PEDs is primarily due to the lovable fat guy effect or the Santa Claus effect. Everyone loves a jolly fat guy. Unless they smell. I’m guessing Papi and Colon wear a lot of deodorant.

Bautista Refusing To Change: While the Mets were playing, the Blue Jays and Rangers got into a legendary on field brawl. This all started with Bautista’s BatFlipGate in the 2015 playoffs. As payback, the Rangers hit Bautista with a pitch in this game. So once he got on base, Jose Bautista decided to slide hard and extremely late into second base and he flew past the bag. He made no attempt whatsoever to stay on the bag and Rougned Odor didn’t like it one bit. So he socked him in the damn face. I like Bautista but follow the new rules. In this case, the umpires called the double play and enforced the new slide protocol. But it hasn’t been consistently enforced all season. If Major League Baseball won’t enforce the slide rules on the field or players refuse to obey them, then I’m happy to see fielders take matters into their own hands and punch the a-hole runners who won’t conform with the new standards.

Tomorrow: We get the day off tomorrow and start the home series with the Nationals on Tuesday. After this series I sure as hell need this off day. I can’t wait for Murph and the Nationals to come to Citi Field and take a dump all over this slumping squad. God I hope some home cooking cures what ails us.