Final Score: Mets 5, Marlins 2

Here’s where I’m at right now. The Mets have played entertaining baseball over the last 10 games or so. The team is now 1.5 games behind the Cardinals for a playoff spot and “in the race”. Sure the death toll rises every single game. We lost Neil Walker last night for the rest of the season. But all that said we are fun to watch right now, and that’s what I wanted all season. My desire for the Mets to be a part of baseball’s elite class of teams like the Cubs went out the window in like June. Once Matt Harvey and Lucas Duda went down it was clear that this season was not going to be some easy coast to the finish line situation. But in May, June, July and early August I begged to be entertained. The Mets tortured us during those months. Unwatchable. And now they are fun again. If the Mets plan to be fun from today until the last game of the regular season then I’m all in.

Error City: This game started with sloppy error filled Mets baseball. In the first inning Jose Reyes let a ball go right through his legs at third base and straight into left field. Bartolo Colon was able to get out of the inning unscathed. However in the second inning, Ichiro Suzuki hit a leadoff single and advanced to second base on a pickoff throwing error by Bartolo. Then J.T. Realmuto hit a soft grounder to Reyes at third base, and he made a wild throw to first base. Ichiro scored and Realmuto ended up at second base. Those errors gave the Marlins a 1-0 lead.

Again With The Fight: The Mets immediately fought back and Wilmer Flores hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the second inning to make it 2-1 Mets.

Take The Good Sex With The Bad: Bartolo Colon pitched 7 innings and gave up 2 runs on 7 hits. Another great game from Mr. Rubber Arm. Unfortunately for the Mets, he came up to hit in two really big spots and ultimately destroyed scoring opportunities. In the second inning after the Flores dinger, Jay Bruce and Travis d’Arnaud hit singles. Colon came up with runners on first and second with one out. Terry should have had him bunting. I know he’s not a great bunter but you have him bunt. You can’t allow him to hit into a double play which is exactly what he did. Then in the fourth inning Bruce, d’Arnaud, and Kelly Johnson hit back to back to back singles to load the bases. Terry should have told Bartolo to take every single pitch. After hitting into a double play last time up you can’t let him do it again. But Terry let him swing and Tolo hit into a double play. Dumb call. Killed the rally. Tolo also let up a game typing solo shot to Christian Yelich in the 6th inning to make it 2-2.

The Big Shot: In the 8th inning, Yoenis Cespedes singled off of A.J. Ramos and then Ramos walked Curtis Granderson. Ramos proceeded to retire Flores on a fly out that advanced Yo to third base, and he also retired Jay Bruce who failed to lift a sac fly to the outfield. Ramos then walked d’Arnaud, and Kelly Johnson came up in a potentially game changing spot with two outs and bases loaded. Johnson laced a double down the right field line and the right fielder bobbled the ball along the wall. Everyone scored and it was 5-2 Mets. Jeurys Familia slammed the door with that lead and that was that.

New Arm: Last night the Mets traded Brooklyn Cyclones pitcher Erik Manoah to the Angels for reliever Fernando Salas. Salas is a veteran middle reliever. He’s pitched well in the second half this season. It’ll be nice to have an extra arm in the pen. Hopefully he magically becomes a stud like Addison Reed did. I trust Sandy and his waiver wire expertise.

Just Pray: As I said above, let’s not dwell on the negative. Forget the injuries. Forget about Neil Walker being put in a body bag. Forget about Asdrubal Cabrera and his bum knee. Don’t worry about Steven Matz and his elbow/shoulder woes. Are they all going to wind up on the DL and out forever? Probably. But this is just one of those seasons where nothing goes our way. Let’s just watch whoever is left and see where we are at the very end. In all likelihood the season will come down to the final game, and it will be devastating like in 2007.

Let’s Be Clear: I’ve already seen some crazy talk about Jay Bruce because he’s had a poor showing in 100 ABs or whatever. Let’s be clear. The Mets shouldn’t buy out Jay Bruce’s contract under any circumstances. They must pick up his 2017 option. Keeping Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce is the only acceptable course of action. You don’t let a 30 home run hitter who you just gave up a big prospect for leave because he had a rough month and a half. You keep Bruce. If you want to trade him before the 2017 season or during the season then fine. But you keep him.

Last Minor Note on Neil: I didn’t want to talk about this yet, but I’ll throw it out there. I think before this injury news there was almost a 0% chance that Neil Walker would accept a qualifying offer. Now there’s a chance. There is a chance that teams will be scared off by the fact that Neil had back surgery, and he may want to have another crack at a walk year. We may see Neil Walkyear again.

The Wave: Noah Syndergaard tweeted something negative about doing the wave at baseball games so I figured I’d give my thoughts. My beef with the wave is twofold. 1) As a lazy man I prefer sitting to standing 2) I don’t like when people block my view for no reason. So I’m against the wave. That being said, if kids like the wave and disinterested game attendees like to periodically grunt and swing their arms like a bunch of idiots, who am I to stop them? Swing away you fools.

Today: Jacob deGrom pitches today. If deGrom looks healthy and rested during today’s start the positivity meter is going to explode. If he takes another dump on the field, we may not be in great shape after all.