Month: June 2016

Mets Sweep Royals! In June…

On By themetssiah1 Comment

Final Score: Mets 4, Royals 3

The Only Injuries That Matter: I wanted to lead off on a positive note after a two game series sweep. I really did. But Yoenis Cespedes and Noah Syndergaard are both being examined at the Hospital For Special Surgery right now. Cespedes left the game after the fifth inning with left wrist discomfort. I’m sure it’s just some poisonous spider bite that will lead to his wrist falling off. No big deal. And Thor left the game after battling through six mediocre innings with elbow discomfort. Yeah an elbow problem. Just like Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler had recently. Greaaaat. Now we wait and see if the season is over. Yo and Thor are the two best players on our team. They are the only injuries that matter. Pray.

On To The Game: Other than the potential season derailing injuries to Yo and Thor, the Mets finally won a series against the Royals. We beat the Royals in June. Perfect timing. Sure it’s a depleted Royals squad missing Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas, but injuries are not a valid excuse when you’re playing the Mets. This was a big series win after such a brutal weekend against the Braves. And the Mets were able to win both of these games without stellar starting pitching performances. First Bartolo went down with an injury yesterday, and today Noah Syndergaard struggled due to elbow discomfort. But he still battled through 6 innings, gave up 8 hits, and 3 runs. He only struck out 4 Royals. He blew two leads. He blew a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning when he gave up a solo shot to Cheslor Cuthbert. Then in that same inning he let the Royals take a 2-1 lead when Jarrod Dyson singled, Danny Duffy sacrificed him over to second base, and Whit Merrifield hit an RBI single. He blew the lead for the second time in the 6th inning when Salvador Perez doubled, and Paulo Orlando drove him in with an RBI single to make it 3-3. But the Mets were able to score enough to win and the bullpen pitched three scoreless innings. Jerry Blevins and Addison Reed were the bridge to Jeurys Familia.

Loney And The Soup Apologists: James Loney hit a two out RBI single in the fourth inning to make it 1-0. Loney’s line before the game was at .292/.338/.417. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about James Loney. I’ve even seen people arguing he’s not a real upgrade over Eric Campbell. I don’t care that it’s a small sample size. If you’re still saying he’s not an upgrade over Soup you’re wrong. I’m not saying he’s a star. I’m not saying he’s the answer at first base. But Jesus Christ he’s better than Soup.

Asdrubal Is Today’s MVP: I don’t know if he got the Michael Cuddyer belt, but Asdrubal Cabrera had quite a day. He scored on the James Loney single and had a nice slide at the plate. He hit a two run homer in the fifth inning to make it 3-2 and retake the lead for the Mets. He even made some nice plays at shortstop.

Reynolds In LF?: Terry played Matt Reynolds in left field for the first time in his career. Terry has no fear throwing a rookie with no experience in the outfield, but he won’t consider calling up Dilson Herrera and putting Neil Walker at third base? Kind of absurd. Oh by the way Matt Reynolds hit a solo home run in the 6th inning to make it 4-3 and that was the winning run for the Mets. Lucky Terry. He’s a genius.

Pitching Injury Update: Zack Wheeler got his elbow examined today after it flared up during his rehab. No word from the Mets on that yet. Thor also went to the hospital after the game for an elbow exam as I mentioned above. After getting rocked with a liner off his thumb, Bartolo is apparently fine and ready to make his next start this weekend. He’s indestructible.

Tomorrow: The Mets head to Atlanta for a four game set. They really need to make up for that horrendous sweep at Citi Field. Light your candles for Thor, Wheeler, and Cespedes. The season could be over if those MRIs don’t go our way.

Mets Bullpen Beats Royals

On By themetssiah1 Comment


Final Score: Mets 2, Royals 1

Wow the Mets finally won a close game against the Kansas City Royals that came down to the performance of our bullpen! Lolz.

Bartolo Thumb-backer: Bartolo Colon threw four pitches and was instantly injured by a comebacker that ricocheted off of the thumb on his pitching hand. Unbelievable. X-Rays were supposedly negative. Hopefully that extra layer of hand fat helped protect the bones/muscles from any actual injury.

Mets Pen Beats Royals Pen: Hansel Robles/Erik Goeddel/Jerry Blevins/Addison Reed/Jeurys Familia combined for 8.2 innings and only surrendered one run. Impressive effort from this unit. Robles threw 65 pitches over 3.2 innings. He threw like 40 pitches a couple days ago. I smell another reliever corpse. Speaking of dead relievers, Jim Henderson went on the DL. Terry killed him. RIP.

Dingers Only: In the bottom of the first inning, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a solo home run and in the bottom of the fourth inning Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo dinger to center field. That was the only offense for the Mets. Dingers only per usual. The Mets had six hits and only three opportunities with runners in scoring position tonight. Obviously they failed to take advantage of any of those chances, but they still won. I’ll take it. We stole this game. Also, check out how pathetic we are with runners in scoring position (prior to this game):

img_3442

Last place. As bad as it gets.

Plawecki Out, D’Arnaud In: Travis d’Arnaud made his return to the lineup tonight after his lengthy DL stint. Mr. Glass picked up right where he left off going 0 for 3 bringing his average to .184. Welcome back. Kevin Plawecki rightfully got demoted to Vegas after his horrendous stint filling in. Hopefully he puts things together and has an impact later this season.

Wheeler Setback: Zack Wheeler is on his way back to New York to have his elbow examined by team doctors after experiencing discomfort. It’s a setback. The Mets love setbacks. Setbacks are the key to ensuring injuries continue forever. Wheeler and Colon go down on the same day. Yeesh. Pray for Zack.

Tomorrow: The Mets have a day game with Noah Syndergaard on the mound tomorrow. Please sweep this two game set. We need wins so bad.

Mets “Promise” To Watch Cuban Workout

On By themetssiahLeave a comment

Yesterday, Jeff Wilpon popped out of his burrow and made an appearance at some fundraiser. Typically when the shadow of Jeff Wilpon makes an appearance, it means six more weeks of losing. However, Jeff decided to go on the record about his frustration with the Mets current performance and indicated the Mets need to make moves now because the losing is getting out of hand. So today, Sandy Alderson made all sorts of promises. The most significant promise by far was when Sandy said the Mets are going to do their “due diligence” on recent Cuban defector third baseman Yulieski Gurriel (previously spelled Yulieski Gourriel and also the first name might be spelled Yuliesky. If anyone gets a hold of his freaking residency papers please email me a copy so I can spell his damn name right). The Mets even said they were going to hold a private workout for the new Cuban. Forgive me if I’m skeptical, but Denard Span is still waiting for the Mets to attend his 2015/2016 offseason workout. Remember that? Sandy promised we would attend his workout and a few days later we were signing Alejandro De Aza for the outfield.

The point is don’t get your hopes up. I said weeks ago that this is the guy the Mets should be getting to fix their little third base problem. But I have a feeling that after the team’s pathetic display this weekend, the Wilpons gave the marching orders yesterday for Sandy to send out some signals of hope. This Cuban guy will require a big fat check (at least 3-4 years at 10m-12m a year). I don’t care how much the Wilpons are paying Yoenis Cespedes on this fake 3 year deal that he will certainly opt-out of at season’s end. I just can’t see them opening their check book again. At least Cespedes went on the record and said he wants the Mets to sign his boy. God I hope this happens. It’s more likely the Mets conduct their scouting by popping on the grainy YouTube video of Gurriel on the Cuban National team, and then just decide to promote Soup.

Jose Reyes Ain’t Happening

On By themetssiah4 Comments

Last week, after Jose Reyes was designated for assignment by the Colorado Rockies, the Mets said a reunion with Reyes was a long shot. Then the Mets got swept by the worst team in the National League over the weekend, and now all of a sudden every news outlet and Twitter mook is saying that the Mets are softening their stance and will consider signing Reyes. Today on Facebook, it was rumored that Jose Reyes posted the above picture with him in a Mets uniform and it read, “Thank you God for everything”. Obviously that turned out to be completely fake, and Jose doesn’t even have a Facebook account. But the point is the rumor is hot. It’s boiling hot. Mike Puma of the New York Post said a baseball official close to Reyes said “he desperately wants back with the Mets, hasn’t been happy since he left”. Ummm of course he hasn’t been happy since he left. He never wanted to leave. Who would want to leave the biggest baseball stage in the universe and spend the next five years playing for three different teams and watching their skills drastically decline? Nobody.

Jose Reyes is a bad choice purely from a baseball perspective. He doesn’t play second base or third base. He’s a shortstop. We’re gonna convert Jose Reyes to new positions, but we won’t try that for Neil Walker or Asdrubal Cabrera? We’re going to play Jose Reyes over Dilson Herrera who’s crushing Vegas pitching? Plus Jose Reyes is the most injury prone player I’ve ever watched in a Mets uniform. Travis d’Arnaud has won three consecutive Jose Reyes Hamstring Memorial Awards or “Hammys” as we call them. And he still hasn’t collected as many as Reyes did in his Mets career. Reyes would be on the DL in less than a month. The guy is a walking injury plague, and although that fits the theme of our current roster, it’s not a theme we want to reinforce.

The bottom line is I have one Jose Reyes related regret as a fan. I regret that the Mets didn’t ship him off at the trade deadline in 2011 for a boatload of prospects that would have helped speed along the rebuilding process of our crummy team at the time. Instead, the Wilpons kept him around to sell tickets down the stretch as he chased a batting title. Then they pretended they were going to offer him a big contract, and once the season was over they never even made an actual offer. That’s the only regret I have. If we bring back Jose Reyes knowing that he threw his girlfriend into a glass door in Hawaii and assaulted her, then the team will have another thing to regret. There are plenty of roster options out there that don’t involve signing a violent criminal. I don’t care that his girlfriend dropped the charges or got paid off or whatever. We all know what happened.

The Mets should find some other way to improve the team. The Yankees bring in violent criminals like Aroldis Chapman. They force their players to shave their beards and cut their hair and they overlook criminal acts. The Mets should do the exact opposite. We let our players grow out their beards and have wild free hair. And we should also stay away from jerks like Reyes.

P.S. It’s the least surprising thing in the world that Jeff Wilpon is reportedly the biggest proponent of bringing back Reyes on the cheap. He owns the baseball organization that is consistently involved in the most public relations nightmares, he has personally been involved in a sexual harassment lawsuit, and still he’s ready to welcome a domestic violence offender into his team’s starting lineup. He’s such a moron. 

P.P.S. We should bring back some version of Speaking Spanish with Professor Reyes. We can just use Yoenis Cespedes in the modern version. Reyes was injured so often as a Met. That jumbotron thing was basically the only way you could see him when you came out to Shea Stadium.

Terry Kills Another Reliever; Henderson To DL

On By themetssiah1 Comment

Here’s a live look at Terry Collins poking the lifeless corpse of Jim Henderson in the Mets bullpen. It’s official. The Mets put Henderson on the DL with right bicep tendinitis officially, but it’s all related to his surgically repaired right shoulder. Terry killed him before the end of June. I can’t believe TC consistently pitches these guys into the ground. All season long he’s been using Jim and his fragile right arm for two inning appearances and on back to back days. He’s had the guy throw season high pitch counts on a given day and still brought him back out there for the next game. This injury was an absolute lock. Pray for Jimbo. I hope his arm gets better soon. Otherwise we can just toss him in the reliever mass grave with Carlos Torres and Pedro Feliciano. Can somebody please take away Terry’s bullpen decision making privileges? Please? Somebody save Jeurys Familia before it’s too late.

Mets Hit Rock Bottom 2.0

On By themetssiah3 Comments


Final Score: Braves 6, Mets 0

Well I thought blowing a lead and dropping 2 out of 3 to the worst team in the National League was rock bottom for our season. Nope. Getting one hit and swept by them at home the next day is rock bottom. This weekend in totality is really rock bottom. I just thought I’d clear that up.

Mets Offense Recap: N/A

Mets Pitching Recap: Jacob deGrom was mediocre today, but he fired a quality start going 6 innings, giving up 5 hits, 3 runs, and striking out 6. On the New York Mets, when you meet the bare minimum criteria of a quality start and give up 3 runs over 6 innings, you lose 100% of the time. Julio Teheran pitched a complete game shutout. Duh.

A Bastard On Father’s Day: Antonio Bastardo gave up 2 runs in his inning of relief in this game. In the inning he hit Mallex Smith with a pitch, and he balked in a run. That moron Bastardo broke Mallex Smith’s thumb. I guess the scouts who said Bastardo was inconsistent and unreliable were right. The Mets thought he’d be a good setup man like Tyler Clippard. Antonio Bastardo is an erratic, horrendous, useless, left-handed version of Tyler Clippard. We probably should have kept Clip. Jim Henderson and Antonio Bastardo officially stink. Now we wait for Addison Reed to turn back into a pumpkin.

Winds Of Change: Terry said after the game that change is coming to the roster. The Mets are a joke right now so this is a no brainer. I’ve been preaching it for weeks. Activate Travis D’Arnaud and call up Brandon Nimmo/Dilson Herrera next week. Change things up immediately. Spoiler Alert: It won’t make a difference. The guys we have in the lineup right now are going to have to make things happen or we are screwed.

This Isn’t Just About Injuries Anymore: Just an FYI, the injury excuse is wearing thin. Kevin Plawecki sucks I’ll admit that. But Curtis Granderson, Neil Walker, Asdrubal Cabrera, Yoenis Cespedes, and Michael Conforto are all Opening Day starters that are supposed to hit. Wilmer Flores and James Loney have contributed at a reasonable level. And it still hasn’t mattered. We can’t score runs. The Mets have big problems right now. The offensive blueprint isn’t working.

Tomorrow: The Mets get the day off tomorrow before the Royals come to town to embarrass them again. Make changes on Monday Sandy. Black Monday. Shake up the roster. We have to do it. Pray.

Mets Hit A New Rock Bottom

On By themetssiahLeave a comment

Final Score: Braves 4, Mets 3

When your team blows a lead to the worst team in the National League and drops 2 out of 3 at home to them, it’s safe to say your team has reached a new rock bottom. Honestly, the Mets have had so many horrendous games and moments this year, that it’s hard to comprehend how they continue to lower the bar and find new ways to demonstrate their complete and utter incompetence as a ball club. But here we are on this Sunday, and the Mets are 6 games behind the Nationals for the NL East lead. For those of you monitoring the standings at home, the Mets are now further behind the Nationals than the stinking Yankees (5.5 games back) are behind the Orioles in the AL East. The Mets still hold a Wild Card spot, but we are only a few days away from falling out of that spot and living in full blown Panic City mode. It’s safe to say that in June of 2016, the Mets are nowhere near the team they were last September/October. I don’t know what the future holds. But the present state of the team is bad.

Yo Bomb: Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo blast in the third inning to make it 1-0.

Flo Bomb: Wilmer Flores hit a solo blast in the fourth inning to make it 2-0. Did you know the Mets like to score on the long ball?

Lone Doggz: James Loney went 3 for 3 with a walk in this game. Truly a breakout performance on the night of a big dumpster fire game. In the fourth inning with one out, he hit a triple and Rene Rivera hit a sac fly to score him and make it 3-0.

Leave On A High Note: Steven Matz had a nice rebound performance after a couple of mediocre starts. He went 6 innings, gave up 4 hits, 2 runs, and struck out 7. He didn’t run into trouble until the fifth inning when he gave up a leadoff double to Brandon Snyder. Then with two outs he gave up an RBI single to Chase d’Arnaud to make it 3-1. I wonder if Chase is brittle like his brother Travis. The entire d’Arnaud family seemingly has bones made of Saltine crackers. Also Matz picked off Chase to end the inning. Dope. In the 6th inning, Matz gave up a solo blast to Jeff Francoeur to make it 3-2. He finished that inning and Terry yanked him. I was hoping he’d pitch the 7th, but at the time of the hook I figured Terry wanted him to leave on a high note. Nope. Turned out he had elbow tightness. Greeaaaat.

Pen Implosion: Anyway Jim Henderson came in to pitch the 7th inning and instantly gave up a solo blast to Tyler Flowers to make it 3-3. He didn’t even finish the inning. He left with shoulder/biceps tightness. Terry officially killed him before the All-Star break. His ERA is up to 4.26. He stinks.

Pen Implosion 2.0: In the 8th inning, Addison Reed gave up a leadoff double to Ender Inciarte and intentionally walked Freddie Freeman. Jeff Francoeur then lined out, but Inciarte was able to advance to third base on the throw. Then Addison struck out Nick Markakis. But with two outs, the mook threw a wild pitch and after all that Inciarte scored to make it 4-3 Braves. Rene Rivera probably should have blocked the ball. Inciarte took a risk. But if you put pressure on the Mets they crumble. So smart move by Ender.

Teufel The Moron: In the 9th inning, Wilmer Flores reached first base on a straight up error by Erick Aybar at short. The Mets got a huge break from a bad team. But the Mets are worse. Somehow the Mets are worse. James Loney came up, doubled, and moron Tim Teufel sent Wilmer home. He was dead to rights at the plate. Even our coaches suck. Terrible send. You never send Wilmer in that situation ever. Just horrendous. Ty Kelly then flew out, Alejandro De Aza got hit by a pitch (supposedly), and then Curtis Granderson struck out to end the game.

We Leave Men On Base Always: The Mets left two men on base in the first inning, one in the second inning, one in the 7th, one in the 8th inning, and two in the 9th. That’s our favorite thing to do.

Injury Bug: Jim Henderson and Steven Matz hurt their arms on the same night. They both say they are fine. Yeah right.

Double Promotion Time: The Mets need to consider the Dilson Herrera and Brandon Nimmo double promotion ASAP. The last two bullets in our minor league chamber. Michael Conforto isn’t hitting, and we need a spark. The same old thang ain’t working. Time for a change.

Today: Let’s see if we can win one game at home against the worst team in the National League.

Mets Lose Boring Snoozefest

On By themetssiah1 Comment


Final Score: Braves 5, Mets 1

I have been to 4 games at Citi Field this season, and the Mets are 0-4 in those games. I’m a freaking mush. I’m just going to stay away from the stadium from now on. This game was an absolute snoozefest. Super boring. It was Neil Walker t-shirt night, and the highlight of the game was in the first inning when this enormous fat guy sitting in front of me removed the t-shirt he wore to the game exposing his hairy body. He then proceeded to sit in his seat shirtless for a good 30 seconds before he put on his new McDonald’s sponsored Walker t-shirt that barely fit him. That guy was a big fat dynamo, and he had more swagger than the entire Mets team did tonight.

Dark Dump On The Field: Matt Harvey battled despite not having his best stuff, but the Braves beat him good. He went 6 innings, gave up 7 hits, 4 runs and only struck out 5. Crappy all around performance from Matty. Harvey walked the leadoff hitter Erick Aybar in the third inning. He was sacrificed over to second and then a grounder allowed him to advance to third. Then Ender Inciarte crushed a double that scored the run making it 1-1. Then Freedie Freeman crushed another two out double to make it 2-1. In the fourth inning, Jace Peterson doubled and with one out Harvey gave up an A.J. Pierzynski RBI single to make it 3-1. In the fifth, Harvey walked leadoff hitter Mallex Smith, and with two outs gave up a RBI single to Nick Markakis to make it 4-1. Harvey sucked tonight.

Walk It Up: Antonio Bastardo had a crappy inning of relief giving up a hit and a walk but no runs luckily. Erik Goeddel walked the leadoff man (notice the theme of the night?) and ended up giving up a run to make it 5-1. The Mets walked five Braves. They don’t normally walk people. Let’s not make that a new habit.

Of Course He Did: John Gant, the pitching prospect that the Mets gave up in the Juan Uribe/ Kelly Johnson deal from last year, pitched 6.2 innings, gave up 2 hits and 1 run. He completely shut the Mets down other than an RBI groundout from Yoenis Cespedes in the first inning. In the 7th inning, he walked Kelly Johnson and the Braves yanked him. Reliever Chris Withrow gave up a single to James Loney and walked Kevin Plawecki to load the bases. The Braves then brought in lefty Hunter Cervenka to face announced pinch hitter Alejandro De Aza and the Mets countered by pinch hitting with Wilmer Flores. Flores struck out on three pitches. In his defense strike two was a ball. Horrendous call by the umpire. He wasn’t good tonight either. In the 8th inning, Curtis Granderson singled and Asdrubal Cabrera promptly hit into a double play. Then Yo singled, Neil Walker singled, and Michael Conforto struck out.

The Good: Grandy seems to be back. He had two hits.

The Bad: Everyone else really stunk. Conforto went 0 for 4 with 3 Ks. Brutal. Kevin Plawecki walked twice but he’s really overmatched every time up. We need Travis d’Arnaud back ASAP.

Tomorrow: Steven Matz vs. Aaron Blair tomorrow. The rookie Aaron Blair is 0-4 with a 7.59 ERA. Expect him to shut out the Mets.

The Mets Can’t Afford To Trade Wheeler

On By themetssiah1 Comment

This season, the injury plague has spread throughout the Mets clubhouse much like it did in 2015. As soon as David Wright went down, the fan base started clamoring for a big time trade. Every fan has a pipe dream proposal where they just name a bunch of guys on the Mets top prospect list and assume the package will land the Mets a franchise type bat. But I’ve poured over the lists of prospective trade options as well as the Mets farm system, and I keep coming to the same conclusion. If the Mets want to land a big time bat that is under team control for more than just this season, the trade talks will begin and end with Zack Wheeler. For most fans, that price doesn’t seem to be a deterrent. Well it should be. Trading Zack Wheeler would be a mistake, and it’s a price the Mets cannot afford to pay if they want to remain competitive over the next few seasons.

In 2015, the Mets had a pitching surplus. They had arguably the top rotation in the game and two frontline starter types in Zack Wheeler and Michael Fulmer that weren’t even a part of the major league equation. The Mets knew they had the flexibility to deal from that surplus, and at the deadline they clearly made Wheeler/Fulmer available. We saw the Carlos Gomez for Wheeler trade play out and ultimately fall through. And we saw the Mets ultimately pull the trigger on the Michael Fulmer for Yoenis Cespedes deal that catapulted the team to the NL East crown. In his brief major league stint so far this season, Fulmer looks like he’s going to be a top of the rotation starter (7-1, 2.52 ERA). The Mets already knew that was the likely outcome with Fulmer. It’s the reason they were hesitant to deal him. But that trade netted the Mets Cespedes, and it’s a deal the 2015 Mets make 10 times out of 10. Why? Because the 2015 Mets had the pitching depth to afford it. Unfortunately, after dealing Fulmer and a number of other pitching prospects in 2015 deadline deals, the 2016 Mets lack that luxury.

The Mets blueprint for making the playoffs includes them putting an ace on the mound every single day. Five aces baby. That’s been the plan for years. Wheeler is that fifth ace. The one area the Mets have been blessed this season is the health of their young pitchers (Yeah I said it. I’m ferociously knocking on wood. Relax). Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely that run of luck lasts year after year. In order to make the most of this championship window and have any chance of sustained success, the Mets are going to need all five aces to carry them. Period. You think Bartolo Colon will be around forever? You want to trade Wheeler and possibly roll with Logan Verrett or Sean Gilmartin as the fifth starter next season? Trust me, don’t look at the list of available free agent starting pitchers for next offseason. There’s a reason front line guys get paid so much. There’s not that many of them.

I’m not saying the Mets shouldn’t look to deal some minor league talent to upgrade the roster. But the available crop of infielders that I’ve been reading about (e.g. Danny Valencia, Yangervis Solarte) does not include a franchise level bat, and Jonathan Lucroy is a catcher. I realize Lucroy can play first base, but it’s not his true position. He’s started just over 30 games at first base in his 7 year career. Travis d’Arnaud is supposed to be back next week, and Lucas Duda is supposed to be back before the end of the season. To give up Zack Wheeler for a player that ultimately creates a roster conundrum for the end of the season and into next season seems foolish to me. In the short term for this season, I think the best move for the Mets is to look to make marginal upgrades to the roster via trade, utilize internal options (e.g. Dilson Herrera, Brandon Nimmo), or make a big international signing (*cough* Yulieski Gourriel *cough*).

In the long term, I think the Mets are better served holding on to all the pitching and looking for ways to upgrade the major league roster in the offseason via free agency. To me that’s the most effective route to elevate this specific roster to a championship caliber level without sacrificing the key strength upon which all the hope for success is predicated. We will live and die with our core of five aces. We cannot afford to compromise that blueprint for the sake of a quick fix. At least not this year.

Big Sexy and The Bomb Squad Victorious

On By themetssiahLeave a comment

Final Score: Mets 6, Pirates 4

This was a huge series win for the New York Metropolitans. The Pirates are one of our primary Wild Card competitors, and we managed to take the series despite all of our injury problems.

Sex Machine: Bartolo Colon was absolutely electric in this game. He went 7.2 innings, gave up 7 hits, 2 runs and struck out 8. He held the Pirates scoreless on 5 hits over the first 7 innings before they started to get to him in the 8th inning. In the 8th inning, Matt Joyce hit a solo blast. Then with two outs, Sean Rodriguez doubled and Josh Harrison hit an RBI single to make it 6-2. Then Sexy was pulled, and Jerry Blevins got out of the inning. Addison Reed nearly blew it in the 9th when he gave up a solo shot to Andrew McCutchen to make it 6-3 and a double to Jung Ho Kang. But Jeurys Familia managed to bail Reed out and finish this game off.

Bomb Squad Resurrection: The Mets won with home runs and strong starting pitching. Surprise, surprise! Curtis Granderson hit a solo blast in the first inning. In the third inning, Bartolo a Colon hit a glorious leadoff double, Curtis Granderson singled to get Tolo to third, and with one out Yoenis Cespedes hit a sac fly. Then Neil Walker hit a two run blast and Michael Conforto went back to back with his own solo shot to make it 5-0. Neil Walker added an RBI double in the fifth inning to make it 6-0. Conforto, Walker and Grandy all had two hits each. It was great to have Conforto and Walker back in the lineup.

Goodbye David: David Wright officially got surgery on his neck today. It was a cervical discectomy and fusion operation. In case you couldn’t tell from the name of the surgery, it’s a season ender. I wrote about it earlier today. Bye David.

Wilmer’s Out: On David Wright surgery day, Wilmer Flores got hit by a pitch on his hand and left the game. X-Rays were negative. I’m sure he’ll just sit out for a week on the active roster, and then he’ll be back.

Juan’s Out: The torn thumb ligament that Juan Lagares was supposed to play through officially landed him on the DL today. Real smart move keeping him on the active roster for over a week. The Mets say they will wait to see how his thumb responds to rest before making a decision on whether or not he’ll get surgery. Spoiler alert: He’s going to get surgery. He’s out forever.

Seriously?: The Mets promoted Ty Kelly to take Juan’s place on the active roster. Promoting Ty Kelly is the wrong decision. The promotion has to go to Brandon Nimmo, even if it’s for a short term stint. I don’t care that Nimmo bats left-handed. I don’t care that Nimmo won’t play everyday. Promoting an auto-out is absolutely ridiculous. The notion that the Mets should promote bad players because the good young players need to play everyday and will have their growth stunted by sitting is asinine. It’s a foolish move to keep the top talent in the minor leagues if the team feels the young player is major league ready, and the team is also trying to win a championship. We need to go to war with the top 25 major league ready guys in the organization. Any other approach unnecessarily handicaps the team.

Tomorrow: The Mets get the Braves for the weekend. The Mets need to handle their business against this NL Least foe and take advantage of this homestand.