Month: September 2016

Mets Lose Turner Tug of War

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Final Score (in 10 innings): Braves 4, Mets 3

Terry Collins ultimately blew a game the Mets really didn’t deserve to win in the first place. The Braves handed the Mets two runs in the first inning as a result of two errors. And then Terry mismanaged the bullpen and failed to pinch run in a key spot. Those poor managerial decisions cost the Mets a chance at victory.

The Freebie Runs: In the first inning, Jose Reyes walked and with one out Yoenis Cespedes hit a ball to third base and reached on a throwing error by Adonis Garcia. Then Curtis Granderson hit a double play ball up the middle and second baseman Jace Peterson made an error. That error allowed Reyes to score and made it 1-0. Then Jay Bruce hit another double play ball to the first baseman, but he managed to beat the throw to first base. Yo scored and that made it 2-0. In the first inning the Mets basically hit nothing but Taylor made double play balls and the Braves handed them two runs.

Big Sex: Bartolo Colon pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits (2 homers). He certainly gave the Mets a chance to win. He ran into some early trouble in the first inning when the first two batters reached base. But Wilmer Flores made a diving stop at first base of a Freddie Freeman hot shot, and he was able to make the throw and get the force out at second base. Then Matt Kemp hit a sac fly to make it 2-1, but that was the only damage of the inning. Nick Markakis also took him deep in the fourth inning to tie the game at 2.

One Note On The Sex: Big Sexy came up in the second inning with a man on first base and one out, and he hit into another double play. Can we please stop letting him swing with one out and men on base? Make him bunt for Christ’s sake.

Slugger Pendulum: In the fifth inning Yoenis Cespedes took the lead right back for the Mets with a solo shot off of starter John Gant. Tolo coughed it right back up in the 6th inning when Matt Kemp launched a solo shot to tie the game at 3.

The Play At Home: In the 8th inning Wilmer Flores hit a two out double off of lefty Ian Krol. Terry then pinch hit for Kelly Johnson with T.J. Rivera to get the righty lefty matchup. But Terry never pinch ran for Wilmer despite his expanded roster bench. He admitted after the game he straight up fell asleep at the wheel. Rivera slapped a single to right field and Wilmer was gunned down at the plate. So Terry blew it. That’s obviously one blunder here. The other thing that pissed me off was A.J. Pierzynski was blocking home plate. When he fielded the throw he moved more directly in the way of home plate. That’s why it wasn’t a violation of the rule. But that’s BS. It wasn’t a rule violation because MLB doesn’t care about the home plate rule anymore. It’s not a hot button issue so they aren’t going to re-hash it this year. But the bottom line is Wilmer had no lane to score and Keith said the truth during the broadcast. He said Wilmer had no choice but to barrel over the catcher. And that’s supposed to be what the rule eliminated from the game. Sooooo it doesn’t work. On a night where the Dodgers pulled starter Rich Hill while he was throwing a perfect game, we can see how the game has changed but also how it remains the same. Collisions forever!

Terry’s Blunder Count: So Terry failed to pinch run. He also brought in Hansel Robles for one batter in the 9th inning, and then brought in Jerry Blevins for the lefties. So he burned one of his top relievers. As a result of that decision he went to Erik Goeddel in the bottom of the 10th instead of Robles and Goeddel was rocked. He gave up two singles, threw a wild pitch, and only recorded one out. Josh Smoker ultimately gave up the walk-off hit but Goeddel laid the foundation for the loss.

Thank God It Ended: If that game went on any longer last night Terry was going to find a way to burn every player and pitcher on the expanded roster.

Today: The Mets fell out of the Wild Card spot last night. Old blister finger Seth Lugo needs to find a way to win the rubber game today. Let’s go baby.

Kelly Johnson And Mets Continue September Surge

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Final Score: Mets 6, Braves 4

This game felt like a certain loss. Julio Teheran basically shut the Mets offense down. But it was 4-2 in the 8th inning, the stinky Braves made a fielding error, and that opened the door for the Mets to have a big inning. The Mets took full advantage of the opportunity the Braves gave them and scored 4 runs. Boom. Just like that the smoking hot Mets kept their winning streak alive. They’ve won 6 in a row and 15 of 19.

Please Stay Strong: Robert Gsellman pitched 5 innings and gave up 4 runs on 7 hits. It was an underwhelming performance where he gave up a solo homer to Matt Kemp in the second inning and then 3 runs in the 5th inning. He undoubtedly kept the Mets in the game and with the offense as hot as it is the performance wasn’t devastating. But we need these young guys to continue to stay strong. I don’t see Jacob deGrom or Steven Matz coming back until the end of the month. It’s fully up to these new young arms to keep us in games if we’re going to win this Wild Card spot.

Curtis’ Comeback: In the 6th inning after Gsellman had just given up 3 runs, Curtis Granderson gave the team a lift with a two-run shot to make it 4-2 Braves. He’s finally picked things up here in the final month of the season. Honestly the timing couldn’t be better in terms of boosting our chances in 2016 and for his trade value. With a strong finish the Mets may actually be able to trade him for another useful piece assuming they want to do that and make room for Michael Conforto in center field. I certainly don’t want to get rid of Grandy just for the sake of a salary dump. Only if it makes the team better.

Capitalize On Mistakes: Julio Teheran came out of the game after 6 innings. In the 8th inning, the Mets finally had the opportunity to expose the Braves pen. Mauricio Cabrera walked Alejandro De Aza and then Jose Reyes hit a chopper up the middle right at shortstop Dansby Swanson. If it wasn’t Reyes on the base paths it’s a routine double play. But the out at second should have been a given. Swanson booted the ball and everyone was safe. And from there the Mets took advantage/the Braves gave them a bunch of other chances. The Braves proceeded to walk Asdrubal Cabrera to load the bases for Yoenis Cespedes. Yo hit a sac fly to make it 4-3 Braves. Then Grandy singled to score another run which made it 4-4. Then Kelly Johnson roped a double to right field to score another run. The Braves intentionally walked Jay Bruce to load the bases again. Then they brought in Jose Ramirez to face Michael Conforto, and he hit him with a pitch to force in a run and make it 6-4. The Mets weren’t able to blow the game open because Travis d’Arnaud and De Aza struck out back to back to end the inning.

Team Automatic: Those 6 runs were all the Mets needed. Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia (aka Team Automatic) locked down the 8th and 9th for the win.

Prep For The Playoffs: Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz went from shut down to supposedly throwing and getting ready for a return. The Mets smell the playoffs, and they’re getting their boys ready. I’m sure by the final week of the season they’ll have them ready for a tune-up start if it’s looking likely that we’ll win the Wild Card.

The Knee: Asdrubal Cabrera can barely walk out there. Pray for him.

Today: Bartolo Colon pitches today because Seth Lugo apparently has a blister and needs to give it an extra day. Bart is a freaking machine.

Mets Sign Divine Domestic Talent Tim Tebow

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I knew the Mets signing Tim Tebow was a lock the second he announced his plan to hold a showcase. The Wilpons will never ever ever ever ever pass on a money making opportunity that involves almost no financial commitment whatsoever. Signing Tebow is the same as signing Jose Reyes except that Tebow is a good person and Jesus’ best friend on earth and Jose Reyes is a horrible sinner. But it’s the same thing in that they cost nothing and will sell tons of jerseys/tickets. It’s already being reported that this came directly from Jeff Wilpon. People are actually saying that it can’t entirely be a publicity stunt because Sandy Alderson wouldn’t sign off on it unless Tebow had real talent. L-O-Freaking-L. Sandy has no say whatsoever when Jeff wants something. How does the media not get that yet? That’s why Mets fans regularly live in fear. We know that at any moment Jeff could make a wild card decision that destroys the franchise forever. All that being said, there’s no downside to signing Tebow. He’s just some guy. Who cares?

You Can’t Teach Power: The thing that excites me the most about Tebow is he’s an enormously jacked football freak. They say you can’t teach power. What they really mean is it’s not easy to find incredibly strong freak people who have ingested the perfect combination of supplements over the years to achieve peak physical mass. And Tebow has achieved that level of physical fitness. So I’m totally fine with the Mets bringing him in and seeing if he’s able to launch some dingers in the minors. And the guy is a talented multi-sport athlete. If he focused on baseball as a senior in high school he supposedly would have been drafted.

Domestic Talent Only: I think it’s absolutely hysterical that the Mets have passed on every single top international free agent talent from Cuba, Korea, Japan etc. But the second a popular American Christian former football player expresses an interest in playing baseball for the first time since high school and takes one BP session the Mets are inviting him to the Arizona Fall League. The Wilpons seemingly have a Trump-esque policy when it comes to international free agency. They refuse to pay for anything and want to put American talent first.

Jesus Is Good: There’s only upside with Tebow. As we all know he’s the Lord’s Chosen. He’s God’s instrument. Sure his presence failed to help the Jets in any way. But hopefully he has a few blessings left up his sleeve to raise up our cursed franchise and downtrodden fan base. Hopefully his presence alone can cure the organization of METS disease and save future generations of Mets players. We pray.

Use The Tebow Jersey ATM For Cespedes: Apparently Tebow is represented by the same agency as Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and of course…Yoenis Cespedes. People are speculating this signing is some kind of favor related to our dealings with Yo. I highly doubt that. I will say this though. Tebow will sell an enormous number of jerseys and make the Wilpons lots of cash money. Hell I want to buy a Tebow Brooklyn Cyclones jersey just so I can throw it in the trash. We already know Yoenis Cespedes is the savior of the Mets franchise. He came here last year and raised the team up from the ashes. He brought us to the World Series. Yo is the savior. But his opt-out is looming and there’s obviously a strong possibility he leaves the Mets for a big payday. If the Tebow Jersey ATM helps the Wilpons make enough money to retain Cespedes then in a way Tebow could save our savior. Which would kind of make him the new savior. If that’s the case then the Metssiah is fully on board. All hail Tebow!

Hooray! We Beat The Reds!

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Final Score: Mets 6, Reds 3

The Mets once again beat the absolutely horrendous Cincinnati Reds. Hip hip hooray! Today the Mets continued to hit home runs and the Reds just kept making mistakes. That combination enabled the Mets to walk away from Great American Ball Park with a sweep.

Calm Down: With the Mets surging the fan confidence meter is obviously at a season high. The fans went from planning Terry’s managerial funeral to planning a parade. Let’s all take a deep breath and relax. We beat the Stanton-less Marlins and the Reds are bad. We have the easiest remaining schedule of all the Wild Card teams, but we still need to keep the foot on the gas these last few weeks and actually win the games.

But Also Celebrate: On the other end of the spectrum, I’m surprised some Mets fans are still hating on this team. For almost the entire season the team failed to get hits in big spots and failed to beat bad teams. Well the team is finally doing that now. The team’s absurdly low batting average with runners in scoring position was bound to trend upwards at some point. Well it’s finally happening, and we should all enjoy it.

Don’t Crown Jose: Jose Reyes remained scorching hot in this game with a leadoff homer, and he also stole a base and scored on a wild pitch in the third inning to make it 2-0 Mets. Since his return from the DL he’s been hitting well over .300 and hitting for power. But I must say the “Reyes is on fire and therefore everyone who doubted his comeback are completely wrong forever” people on Twitter are hilarious. Just don’t forget everything that comes with Jose. Jose Reyes has played in 40 games, and he’s already had one 3 week DL stint.

My main point from day one has been that relying on Jose is a mistake. We’ve seen the Jose movie before. He sparks the team for 3 weeks and then he’s gone for a month. Then he comes back and the team is rejuvenated and…then he’s gone. It’s the same story every single time. Well the Mets are back to relying on Reyes. I’m sure it’ll work out this time! I for one plan to just enjoy the current Reyes ride and pray to the baseball gods that he keeps this crazy streak going for the rest of the season. But for Christ’s sake please don’t rip the Captain badge off of David Wright’s corpse and hand it to Jose already.

Reds Can’t Do Anything Right: In the second inning the inept Reds were caught stealing against Noah Syndergaard twice. In the third inning they were caught again when Jose Peraza was nailed heading home after Eugenio Suarez was stuck between first and second base. The Reds are the only team I can think of this season that struggled to run all over Thor.

Wild Thor: Noah Syndergaard wasn’t great today. He threw 95 pitches over 5 scoreless innings and gave up 6 hits and 4 walks. The Reds sloppy play really saved the day for Noah. I was obviously day dreaming about a Wild Card playoff during today’s game, and I was thinking about our starting pitcher. It has to be Thor right? There’s nobody else left. Bartolo Colon?

Bye Bye Balls: Curtis Granderson hit a solo homer in the 6th inning to make it 3-0 Mets, and Wilmer Flores added a pinch hit two-run shot in the 8th inning to make it 5-0 Mets. The entire team is smoking hot. Wilmer, Jose, Grandy, Asdrubal Cabrera. The bottom line is we saw this kind of production in April and then it disappeared. Whether it was before the All-Star Break with Yoenis Cespedes in the lineup or afterwards when he was on the DL, we rarely had multiple hitters producing at a high level at the same time outside of that early stretch of the season. It’s nice that it’s happening again in September.

Dumb Old Terry: Terry Collins brought in minor league starting pitcher Gabriel Ynoa to pitch the 8th inning. He asked a guy who wasn’t pitching in relief in the minors to pitch on back to back days. Terrible managing. Furthermore, in my mind Ynoa is the best option to replace Rafael Montero in the rotation. That seems unlikely now. It better not be Logan Verrett. Well Terry brought Ynoa in, and he loaded up the bases. Terry was forced to bring in Addison Reed to bail him out. Reed surrendered an RBI single to Tucker Barnhart and a 2 RBI double to Jose Peraza to make it 5-3 Mets. But Reed escaped without giving up the lead, and Jeurys Familia closed the game out. Yoenis Cespedes also added an RBI double in the 9th to swing the momentum right back for the Mets.

Tomorrow: The Mets have the day off tomorrow and then head to Atlanta. Remember back in June when the Braves embarrassed this team? The Mets should probably change that narrative this weekend. Also for the record, this sweep of the Reds was the first one since the Mets swept four games from the Cubs before the All-Star Break in July. How insane is it that we demolished the Cubs, but struggled all season to beat the Rockies, Braves, and D-Backs? Baseball is crazy.

Yoenis Blessedpedes

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Final Score: Mets 5, Reds 3

Yoenis Cespedes won yesterday’s game against the Reds with a two-run homer in the 7th inning that gave the Mets a lead they never relinquished. Nothing new on that front. Extra, extra read all about it! Yo is the best player on the Mets! The only development from last night was I finally noticed the 2017 Season Ticket Ads the Wilpons are running on SNY. The montage shows all the young pitchers that are currently waiting in line at the Hospital For Special Surgery to get their arms glued back on. And then of course the montage showed a million clips of Yo hitting bombs. Not so fast Fred and Jeff. Don’t sell us on that BS and then let him walk once he opts-out. Don’t be fools Mets fans. Wait to reserve your 2017 tickets. Wait for YoGate to be settled once again. He’s the star of the damn show.

We Deserve Our Fate: The other thing that frustrated me last night was I’m starting to realize how crappy the best case scenario is for the Mets. I’ve been the biggest opponent of a one game Wild Card playoff since it was created. Making these guys play 162 games only to have it all riding on one BS crapshoot of a game is so dumb, and it’s an embarrassing ratings ploy by MLB to try and attract viewers. I keep wishing we hadn’t played like garbage for almost the entire season. But the fact that we played like garbage all year is precisely why we don’t deserve a real chance at a first round playoff series. If we play in the Wild Card game and win then great. But we made our damn bed in 2016.

Live By The Dinger, Die By The Dinger (Again): On offense this game was consistent with the Mets 2016 story. We hit a bunch of homers and won. Curtis Granderson hit a solo homer in the second inning, and Jose Reyes hit a solo homer in the third inning to give the Mets an early 2-0 lead.

Half Monty: Rafael Montero pitched 4.1 innings and didn’t really have strong command at all. He walked 4 and gave up 3 runs. Adam Duvall hit a two-run homer in the third inning, and in the 5th Joey Votto hit a sac fly to make it 3-2 Reds. I think Montero should lose the rotation spot to Gabriel Ynoa at this point. Montero hasn’t really impressed like Robert Gsellman or Seth Lugo. I suppose they’ll just make his rotation spot a mix and match day since our roster/bullpen is expanded now.

Pen Mixer: Terry mixed and matched with the bullpen for the rest of the game. Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia ultimately closed it out. But along the way we got to see Josh Edgin return and also his twin-like lefty Josh Smoker. They’re both chunky bear-like hard throwing lefties.

Yoenis Blessedpedes: As I said up front, Yoenis Cespedes came up in the 7th inning after Asdrubal Cabrera hit a single. He proceeded to launch a two-run home run to dead center field to give the Mets a 4-3 lead. He also nailed Brandon Phillips trying to turn a single into a double in the 8th inning on a ball Brandon hit off the left field wall. He’s electric.

Alejandro De Long Ball: In the 9th inning Alejandro De Aza hit a solo homer to give the Mets insurance and make it 5-3. De Aza has had quite a turnaround this season. I can’t believe he was so useless before the All-Star Break.

Desperation Play: In Wild Card news the Pirates and Marlins both continued collapsing. The Cardinals came back to beat the Pirates and the Giants did the same against the Rockies. So the Mets remain a game back of the second spot. In a desperate move, the Marlins activated an injured Giancarlo Stanton for strictly pinch hitting chances. I feel bad for the Marlins. Baseball without Stanton isn’t as fun for their team or fans. Same goes for the Mets and Yo!

Today: Day game with Noah Syndergaard on the mound against the stanky Reds. Let’s make it 5 in a row and sweep.

It’s A Race!

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Final Score: Mets 5, Reds 0

The baseball scheduling people/the morons at ESPN forced the Mets to play a 1pm Labor Day Game in Cincinnati after playing the 8pm game of the week in New York the night before. But that didn’t stop the surging Mets from winning again. Bartolo Colon pitched another sexy 6 scoreless innings, and the Mets put up 5 runs against the Reds with a lineup full of backups (no Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Reyes, Asdrubal Cabrera, Curtis Granderson). The Pirates and Marlins both lost. The Marlins are completely fading without Giancarlo Stanton (Duh!) and the Pirates are fizzling out as well.

Wild Card Race: This Wild Card race brings me back to my high school track days. I remember watching the elite runners (i.e. The Cubs) race in the first heat. They were so fast and had amazing form on the track. They were constantly setting new personal records and impressing all the other participants at the track meet. And then I’d step on the track in the final heat with all the slowest dudes left in the building (i.e. Pirates, Marlins, Mets, Cardinals). The gun would go off and halfway through the race my form would be awful, and I’d be struggling to breathe. Half the runners in my race would slow down to a snails pace as they tried to catch their breath with the finish line in sight. And that’s the Wild Card race this year. The Pirates and Marlins are fading like the fat kids I used to run with. And I like to think of my high school self as the Mets. Injured and struggling to get to the finish line but still managing to beat my second rate competition.

Mets Are Hot, So Am I: Not only are the Mets hot, but I’m hot as well. I picked up the Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis in my fantasy league just for this week, and he tossed a complete game two hit shutout against the Giants. It really doesn’t get much better than a fantasy league player going off against a team that your favorite squad is competing against in the actual MLB playoff race. The Mets are a game behind the Cardinals and now 1.5 behind the Giants. It’s a race! And the Mets are inching closer to the lead.

Ding-Dongs: Matt Reynolds hit a solo homer in the third inning of today’s game and Kelly Johnson launched a solo shot in the fifth inning to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.

7th Inning Explosion: In the 7th inning the Mets piled on more runs. Travis d’Arnaud walked and James Loney singled. Then Matt Reynolds added another RBI on his 3 hit day. He hit a single up the middle that scored d’Arnaud and made it 3-0 Mets. The scorching hot Asdrubal Cabrera then pinch hit for Colon and hit a single to right to make it 4-0 Mets. Pray for Cabrera. He’s really hobbling out there because of his banged up knee. Please give him the shot doc. He’s seemingly in so much pain. Alejandro De Aza added a sac fly to give the Mets a 5-0 lead. That was the final score.

Need The Sex: Bartolo pitched 6 scoreless innings and gave up 5 hits. He said before the game he’d love to come back next year. Umm re-signing Bartolo is literally the next priority after we sign Yo. He’s essential innings insurance for our rotation. I’m happy the Triple-A young arms are emerging, but the Mets need to stock up this offseason on rotation arms like the Dodgers did last offseason. With all the questions marks surrounding the health of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, and Zack Wheeler, I won’t feel confident unless we have a couple of veteran contingency plans for 2017.

Wilmer’s Game: Wilmer Flores is now batting .269. He had another 3 hits today. Yeesh. Talk about making a statement regarding your future with the club. Wilmer doesn’t just want to stick around and platoon. This guy wants to play everyday. Good for Wilmer and good for the Mets for sticking with him.

Gsellman Pinch Ran: In the 7th inning, Terry brought in Robert Gsellman to pinch run. On a day where we brought up a bunch of position players from AAA with the expanded rosters, Terry decided to put one of our last remaining arms on the freaking basepaths. Terry can really be an idiot sometimes. I hope Sandy ripped him a new one for that decision.

Tomorrow: More of the crappy Reds tomorrow. This time Rafael Montero takes the mound. Hopefully the new young arms can help us maintain our momentum.

Hello League! We’re Back!

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Final Score: Mets 5, Nationals 1

The Mets have won 11 of 15. Clearly the team’s play has been trending upward for a couple of weeks now. But this was the series that sold me on our Wild Card chances. We finally beat Washington, and we did it without our elite well-known starting pitchers. Instead we beat Washington with new young arms and some old bats we’ve been waiting to hear from again.

Grandy Is Back: In the first inning Jose Reyes walked and Asdrubal Cabrera singled. Then with Yoenis Cespedes up the runners advanced on a wild pitch. Yo ended up striking out but Curtis Granderson came through with a sac fly to make it 1-0. In the third inning, Cespedes hit a bloop single to right field with two outs and Grandy followed that by launching a two-run homer to make it 3-1 Mets. Grandy having a big time September could be the lift this team has needed on offense.

Teuf Is Back: In the second inning Jay Bruce singled. With two outs Seth Lugo singled and Jay Bruce was thrown out trying to advance to third base. It seemed like Tim Teufel was the one who told Bruce to try and take third base. If so it confirms what we already know about Teuf. He’s had a rough season as third base coach. If Bruce made the call it was a bad decision. I have no clue what happened because ESPN didn’t talk about it, and they also didn’t show a decent replay. He kind of seemed safe on the play. But ESPN was too busy talking about other unimportant BS to focus on a key play in the game.

Bruce Is Back: Jay Bruce made up for his base running blunder in the 6th inning when he launched an opposite field two-run home run to make it 5-1 Mets. He had two hits in the game and is 8 for his last 19. He has completely started to take off since his rough start as a Met.

The Dumbass Media Is Back: Also the media is really so goddamn calculated. Today a story dropped that Bruce asked the Reds to trade him to any team other than a New York team. The Mets have the first feel good weekend in a long time and the media doesn’t even want to let them have the moment. It’s also absurd that they feel the need to push the negative stories. Have they paid attention to the Mets news cycle at all this season? Don’t they realize something terrible will happen this week that will eliminate the good vibes anyway?

Young Pitching Is Back: Seth Lugo was fantastic last night. He pitched 7 innings and gave up 1 run on 6 hits. He made one mistake to Danny Espinosa when he served up a solo homer in the second inning. Lugo’s curveball is incredible to watch. Mike Petriello from MLB.com talks about how Lugo’s curve spin rate is one of the highest recorded since they started using the Statcast system to document spin rate a year ago. So yeah it’s nasty.

It’s really exciting to see these young guys step up, and I hope it continues. Obviously Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo, and Rafael Montero have only made a few starts and their performance could take a downward spiral at any moment. But the cushy soft schedule presents a great opportunity for all these young arms to succeed. It’s interesting that this new wave of young arms tends to pitch to contact while relying less on strikeouts yet they still have hard fastballs and sharp secondary stuff. I like a little variety.

Reed/Familia Never Left: Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia shut the Nationals down in the 8th and 9th as we’ve come to expect. They sealed the 5-1 win and the series win.

Soup Is Back: The Mets announced their next wave of 40 man roster call-ups. Matt Reynolds, Gavin Cecchini, Brandon Nimmo, T.J. Rivera, Eric Campbell, Josh Edgin and Erik Goeddel will all join the team. As long as Soup is just here to warm the bench it’s fine by me. I’m sure Terry will start using some horrific James Loney/Soup platoon at first base.

Today: The Mets open a series against the Reds in Cincinnati. Screw the scheduling people for giving the Mets the 8pm Sunday game of the week and then a 1pm Labor Day Game in Cincy. I guess I’ll give them a pass since the September schedule is actually really easy overall.

Please God Let Us Win This Series 

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Final Score: Mets 3, Nationals 1

According to all the Weather Channel fanatics a storm’s a -comin’. Some Hurricane/Tropical Storm is ripping down the east coast per all my second hand news sources. If that’s the case then maybe tonight’s game will be a washout. Or even worse, maybe it’ll be one of those ESPN televised games in the rain where the Mets make a million sloppy rain induced errors and guys slip and we embarrass ourselves on national television.

But if the storm veers off course and this game is playable, I really hope we win. Please God let us win! We need to beat the Nationals. A home series win against the Nationals won’t do a damn thing to impact the NL East race. The Nats locked that up long ago. A loss tonight won’t kill us in the Wild Card race. All the Wild Card contenders stink. We’ll still be in the playoff race no matter what happens. But I’ll feel great about our chances if we beat the Nats tonight on the big national stage. At least it would represent a little bit of vengeance after Daniel Murphy and Co. have embarrassed us so much in 2016.

Long Hair Equals Success: Robert Gsellman outdueled Tanner Roark. Gsellman pitched 6 innings and gave up 1 run on 6 hits. He struggled in the first inning after giving up back to back singles to Jayson Werth and Daniel Murphy and then walked Bryce Harper to load the bases. But he limited the damage to an Anthony Rendon sac fly to make it 1-0 Nats. He wiggled out of a jam in the fourth inning and the sixth inning. He also held runners on base unlike Noah Syndergaard last night. He picked off Bryce Harper in the fifth inning. The long haired fill-in dude stepped up. I like what I’m seeing from him. Seemingly for the Mets, long hair has a Samson like effect. Long hair equals success.

Grandy and RISP: In the third inning with two outs Jose Reyes walked, Asdrubal Cabrera doubled, and Yoenis Cespedes was intentionally walked to load the bases. And of all people Curtis Granderson singled to drive in two runs. The guy has failed all season with runners in scoring position, but he came through last night to make it 2-1 Mets.

Stinko Loney: In the sixth inning with two outs, Travis d’Arnaud singled and then James Loney ripped a double down the right field line to score Travis from first base and make it 3-1 Mets. The Loney saga in 2016 has been an amazing storyline to follow on MetsTwitter and in my opinion really sums up why we struggle to compromise on important issues as a society. Here’s what happened in reality. The Mets took a flier on Loney on like June 1st. It was a no brainer move considering they were playing him over Eric Campbell. Anyway he’s essentially played everyday since. For about a month and a half he hit .285 and played dependable defense. And since early August he’s been a terrible hitter and has showed his flaws in the field as well. It’s become very obvious why he was in the Padres minor league system, and Terry probably should have benched him long ago.

The reason I say it’s been an interesting storyline on MetsTwitter is because initially some fans overreacted to Loney’s performance and said things like “he’s better than Duda” which is objectively wrong. Because of that reaction half the prominent writers were against Loney from day 1 and made it their business to point out how crappy he is and basically have rooted against him for months. And now that he’s playing poorly, we still have the same fans saying he’s better than Duda and the same beat writers rooting against him and hoping he gets released. Seemingly nobody can agree on all the objective facts I pointed out up front and would prefer to continue to argue about the same stupid issues. Ridiculous.

Big Smoke: In the 7th inning Jim Henderson retired a batter but then gave up a single to Jayson Werth. Terry brought in Josh Smoker to face Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper. Murph lined a ball to center field and Michael Conforto made a diving catch. If the ball went past him it would have been a disaster. But Mikey made the big play. Then Smoker struck out Harper on a nasty 1-2 breaking ball to end the inning.

Big Pen Doggz: Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia shut down the Nats in the 8th and 9th inning. 2016 has been a tough season, but the reliable back end of the pen has been an incredible luxury. The Mets basically have 7 inning games when they have a lead. I hope that magically continues next year. If Reed matches his 2016 numbers next year he’ll go somewhere else and close for big money. So we better enjoy him now.

Duda Comeback: The Mets said Duda is swinging a bat and may be back before the end of the season. Yeah right. The next time Duda’s ready to suit up it’ll be as Santa Claus for the annual Christmas party.

Not What MLB Had In Mind: This Wild Card race can’t be what MLB had in mind. The Pirates, Marlins, Cardinals and Mets are just constantly losing and showing new weaknesses. It’s a race to be the last mediocre team standing.

Today: Seth Lugo goes tonight in the big night game on ESPN. Please God let us win this series.

Still Can’t Beat The Nats

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Final Score: Nationals 4, Mets 1

We always knew it would come down to beating Washington. If we wanted to take the NL East we needed to beat the Nationals. 2016 wasn’t going to be like 2015 where they handed us the NL East. We were going to have to take it. Well that ship sailed shortly after the All-Star Break when we decided to play like crap for 3 months. But even if the Mets want to keep pace in the Wild Card race (still 2 games out), they are going to need to show some life in this series and the one in Washington starting on September 12th. In last night’s loss Thor was great and the Mets offense did absolutely nothing. We ain’t off to a good start.

The Last Hope: Noah Syndergaard is literally the last young ace standing. He pitched great. He went 7 innings and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits. He only struck out 4 because he’s clearly revamped his first half blow em’ away style. Now with these elbow spurs he’s clearly being a bit more conservative in the velocity department. Anyway we wasted Thor’s fantastic start. Flushed it down the old toilet.

He’s So Hot And…He’s Dead: Remember when Neil Walker was the hottest hitter on the team and launching home runs and then he said his back was sore and 12 hours later he was out for the season? Well bum knee Asdrubal Cabrera is the hottest hitter on the planet. He hit his 19th homer in this game giving the Mets their only run. Pray for Cabby. We can’t afford to lose him.

Some Chances: Curtis Granderson came up with two men on and one out in the 4th inning and popped out to the third baseman. In the 7th inning Jose Reyes came up with two men on and two outs and struck out. Other than that A.J. Cole and the Nationals pen shut the Mets down.

Silly Terry: Terry used Fernando Salas (which autocorrects on my phone to Fernando Salad) in the 8th inning which worked out great. He pitched a scoreless inning. But for some reason in a 2-1 ballgame Terry didn’t go to Addison Reed or Jeurys Familia in the 9th. He’s overused both of them all season, but last night’s game didn’t feel like the right spot to him? Well in the 9th inning Jerry Blevins and Hansel Robles combined to give up 2 more insurance runs which made the game 4-1 and put it out of reach.

Forget About Playoffs: Jacob deGrom apparently went for a precautionary MRI and the results showed no structural damage but inflammation in his pitching elbow. He’s supposedly missing his next start. But in reality Jacob and Steven Matz are completely out. This idea that we are trying to win a World Series and accomplish what we failed to do last year is out the window. I still can’t believe we had a run of solid health last August/September. I wonder if that will ever happen again.

Young Guns Season 2: It’s all up to the young arms. Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo, Rafael Montero and Gabriel Ynoa are going to get the chance to audition for next year’s team. Also as a side note I realized R.A. Dickey is a free agent at the end of the season. Imagine we go from the dream of 5 young aces to a rotation headlined by Bartolo Colon and Dickey in 2017.

Today: Robert Gsellman vs. Tanner Roark tonight. I have Roark in fantasy. I hope we score 50 runs off of him. But a complete game shutout seems more likely.

DeGrom’s Not Right

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Final Score: Marlins 6, Mets 4

For the third straight outing Jacob deGrom didn’t have his best stuff or his command. The Mets also rested Yoenis Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera in this series finale. So they essentially conceded the game. The Mets may have won 3 out of 4 against the Marlins, but as I said yesterday another poor deGrom start is cause for concern.

DeGrumpy: Jacob struggled to get through 5 innings. He gave up 3 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks. That ain’t the Jake we all know and love. He waved for the trainer when he departed the game. Obviously the fans freaked out but he said after the game he was healthy. He said his problems were mechanical. That’s what Matt Harvey said for months.

The Bruce Is Loose?: With the Marlins up 3-0 in the 6th inning, Jay Bruce smashed a solo homer. Bruce is slowly starting to come out of his funk. He’s really exactly like Lucas Duda. He gets pull happy and looks lost at the plate for long stretches. Then he gets a couple of opposite field knocks. Before long he’s mashing dingers again.

Smoker For Two?: So Terry brought in Josh Smoker in the 6th inning and he pitched a 1-2-3 inning with 2 Ks. But then he brought him out for the 7th inning, and he was crushed. He gave up a single to Ichiro Suzuki, a walk to Martin Prado, and a three-run shot to Christian Yelich to make it 6-1 Marlins. Terry saw that Smoker throws 95+, and he’s overusing him like crazy. Back to back to back days and multi-inning appearances. The guy is a regular one inning type of late inning reliever Terry. Don’t kill him/put him in a position to fail.

Filling Stanton’s Shoes: Speaking of Christian Yelich, he really played the role of Giancarlo Stanton Metkiller in this series. And we were more than willing to let him beat us. At least all his hits and homers only equated to one Marlins win.

The Lost Inning: In the 8th inning, Curtis Granderson doubled, Kelly Johnson singled, and then Jay Bruce hit an opposite field single to score Grandy and make it 6-2. The Mets had a rally cooking. Then the Marlins made a pitching change and brought in Kyle Barraclough. He promptly walked Wilmer Flores to load the bases with nobody out. Michael Conforto came up and hit a ball right in front of home plate. The catcher stepped on home for one out and then threw Conforto out at first for the double play. It was the worst thing he could have done. Then the Mets pinch hit Cespedes with runners on second and third and he struck out. I suppose the Mets could have brought Yo in to pinch hit for Conforto with the bases loaded. But they both blew it. Whatever.

Out Of Position: Right after Yo pinch hit for James Loney, Terry brought in Rene Rivera to play first base. So we expand the rosters and now we have guys playing out of position? Right. Makes sense. Great roster management Terry.

Cabby So Hot Right Now: Asdrubal Cabrera pinch hit in the 9th inning and launched a two run homer to make it 6-4 Marlins. The Mets couldn’t spark a rally after that homer though, and they lost. Cabrera needs that knee to magically heal ASAP. He’s so hot he could hit a homer in his sleep right now.

Video Tribute: If the Mets fire Ray Ramirez at the end of the season I hope they give him a video tribute with all his best injury moments set to the song “O Fortuna”.

Stinko d’Arnaud: Has anyone figured out why Travis d’Arnaud stinks this year? Is he just hiding an injury? Is there a running theory?

Today: Well in the end it still comes down to beating the Nationals. Noah Syndergaard pitches tonight. The Mets must stay in the WC race and win 2 of 3. Let’s go Mets.