Final Score (in 13 torturous innings): White Sox 2, Mets 1

The Quick and Dirty: Jacob deGrom pitched a brilliant ballgame. He went 7 innings, gave up 5 hits, 2 walks, 1 run, and struck out 10. Unfortunately, he surrendered a solo home run to Todd Frazier in the top of the 7th inning and with this anemic Mets offense that was a guaranteed death blow. Poor Jacob. The pen was stellar as well. Addison Reed, Jeurys Familia, Antonio Bastardo, Jim Henderson, and Hansel Robles combined to pitch 4.1 innings of scoreless ball. Last night’s loser Hansel Robles came in to pitch the 12th inning, retired Tyler Saladino, and then keeled over in pain. Apparently he twisted his ankle or some crap. He left the game and Logan Verrett came in. Verrett got out of the 12th, but in the 13th he surrendered a double to relief pitcher Matt Albers. Then he threw a wild pitch and let Albers get to third base. Jose Abreu then hit a sac fly and that gave the White Sox the second run they needed. Sox won 2-1.

So Embarrassing Part 1: I already typed it, but it’s worth re-typing. Logan Verrett surrendered a leadoff double to relief pitcher Matt Albers, Albers advanced on a wild pitch, and scored the winning run on a sac fly. Are you freaking kidding me? That might be the Metsiest thing the Mets have done all season. Total loser trash ending to a total loser trash baseball game.

So Embarrasing Part 2: Yoenis Cespedes didn’t start today’s game, so it’s not that surprising we couldn’t score at all. The Mets only run came on a second inning RBI single by Rene Rivera. The Mets offense collected 13 walks in this game. The Elias Sports Bureau said they became the second team since 1893 to draw 13+ walks and score 1 or fewer runs. The other was the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953. Jesus H. Christ.

They hit into 5 double plays. Curtis Granderson walked in the first inning and Asdrubal Cabrera hit a single to get him to third base. They had runners on the corners with no outs and failed to execute thanks to a Michael Conforto strikeout and a Neil Walker double play. They squandered opportunities thanks to double plays in the fourth inning (Ty Kelly) and fifth inning (Grandy). Other than the 8th inning, the Mets really didn’t threaten the rest of the way. Grandy came up in the 11th with two men on and two outs, but flew out. Asdrubal led off the 12th with a walk and Conforto instantly hit into the fifth double play. It was a brutal day at the ballpark.

Playing Short: In the 8th inning with one out, James Loney singled and Juan Lagares walked. The Mets had a real chance to take the lead and hand the ball to Familia. But because they are playing short handed, the Mets couldn’t pinch hit Yoenis Cespedes for Ty Kelly. Wilmer Flores was the only infielder left on the bench, and I guess Terry was too worried to play without any infield option left. I would have been scared too quite frankly considering we can’t score for shit and everyone keeps getting injured. And what did Kelly do? Double play. He stinks too, but we already knew that when they called him up.

So Embarrassing Part 3: The White Sox came into Citi Field on goddamn crutches, bleeding out, struggling to breath, with their season spiraling out of control. After the Mets took game one of this series, the Sox had lost 7 in a row and 15 of 19. They leave Citi in an all out sprint ready to conquer the world. Looks like Robin Ventura gets to keep his job a little longer thanks to his old team.

Jesus Christ Conforto: Michael Conforto is funkalicious right now. Actually that sounds like a good thing. Let me clarify. He’s in a terrible funk. He went 0 for 6 with 4 Ks. He’s going to have to adjust because the league sure has. He will.

Fan Interference: In the 6th inning, James Loney hit a ball down the left field line and a fan interfered. Melky Cabrera would have caught it in foul territory and the umps agreed. People who interfere at baseball games should be taken to the dungeons at MLB headquarters and spend the rest of their days in solitude. For the record, the dungeons are right below the MLB replay review center.

The Answer was Three (Or One): So the answer to the question “How many injured starters does it take to turn the Mets offense back into the anemic 2015 version?” is three starters. The absence of Travis d’Arnaud, Lucas Duda, and David Wright has finally taken its toll and the Mets are back to being the worst offense on the planet. Also an alternative answer to the above question is one injured starter when that guy is Yoenis Cespedes. Without him the Mets have no chance.

What Do We Do?: Sooooo this was a brutal homestand. We lost 4 of 6. I mean it’s the same story over and over again. We have nobody to step up for these injured players. Kevin Plawecki and Rene Rivera can’t hit. Eric Campbell couldn’t hit. Ty Kelly can’t hit. Wilmer Flores can’t hit. And right now Cespedes and Conforto ain’t hitting either. I have no idea why the Mets didn’t do exactly what the Cubs did. The Cubs had arguably the leagues best starting position players last season. And they had some of the best backups as well. What did they do? They kept all those guys and signed Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist, and re-signed Dexter Fowler. They’ve had major injuries, and they have the depth to make up for it. The Mets let Daniel Murphy walk, Kelly Johnson walk, Juan Uribe walk, and they dumped Ruben Tejada. The only reason they signed Alejandro De Aza was because they thought they weren’t signing Cespedes. We all thought Wilmer would at least hit off the bench. But he’s regressed into oblivion. What do we do? We wait for Sandy to make one, two, three moves and pray. This roster ain’t going to cut the mustard and Duda/Wright/d’Arnaud may never come back. Seriously. Lucas Duda is out for months. Terry said yesterday that d’Arnaud isn’t even close to a rehab assignment. And David Wright is the most dunzo of all these guys. Every time Terry talks about David it feels like he’s reading his eulogy. He’s got his lower lip trembling with sadness permeating in his voice. Just awful.

Tomorrow: Day off tomorrow to mourn after that horrible loss then off to Miami. I’m shocked that we only went 14-15 in May. June is looking like it’s going to be a lot worse. Goddamn Mets. Of course Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom start to kick things into gear right as we finish making headstones for three of our starting position players.