Final Score: Braves 9, Mets 7

Don’t let the final score fool you. The game wasn’t close at all. Jay Bruce hit a grand slam with two outs in the 9th inning off Braves mop up reliever Matt Wisler which made the game seem like it came down to the wire. It didn’t. The Mets lost and dropped back into last place in the NL East.

So Deep: In spring training Sandy Alderson boasted that the Mets pitching staff is deep. Fast forward to now and Noah Syndergaard has been injured due to the organization’s incompetence, Steven Matz never recovered from his 2016 injuries, Matt Harvey is still recovering from major surgery, Zack Wheeler is a five inning pitcher, Seth Lugo has a shredded UCL, and Robert Gsellman is pitching like a rookie that doesn’t belong in the majors. Other than all that the GM totally nailed his assessment of our pitching depth.

It Wasn’t Actually Close: Matt Harvey had no command and couldn’t get his breaking ball over the plate. He gave up 6 runs on 8 hits over 5.1 innings. Many fans are questioning Harvey’s toughness and commitment. I’m pretty sure he’s still recovering from a major operation, and it’s the organization’s fault for forcing him to pitch right out the gate. If they cared about Harvey they would have signed some veterans and took the pressure off him. Instead we have no depth, and we need him to perform like an ace. That’s not happening right now folks.

King Bruce: Jay Bruce hit a two run homer in the first inning and a garbage time grand slam. Asdrubal Cabrera also hit a solo shot in the third inning. We scored runs on homers. Surprise. Jay Bruce has been fantastic. If we’re still in last place in July I’m sure Jay will fetch a decent minor league piece at the trade deadline.

Travis Out Forever: Travis d’Arnaud took some knocks behind the plate last night, but he left the game with some wrist soreness. Apparently Terry knew about it before the game and for some reason Travis still started. Pure incompetence. Travis said after the game he wasn’t concerned about the wrist. I’m sure he’ll ice it, miss 60 games, and then he’ll be ready to play this summer.

Worst Pitching, Best Hitting: Mets fans spent the last two years being tortured by the fact that we had elite starting pitching but a horrendous offense for long stretches of the season. The team wasted so many quality starts by our young arms. Well now we’re going to witness a new brand of torture. We’re going to watch a competent offense and a pitching staff that gets rocked each and every day. The Mets need to sign a starting pitcher immediately. The only thing worse than frantically searching for a competent bat on the MLB waiver wire during the season is dumpster diving for a competent starter. But honestly I’d rather watch Jake Peavy get shelled than watch Rafael Montero.

Yankees Position Player Studs: The Mets built their franchise around young pitching, lost in the World Series, and two years later it’s all coming apart. The Yankees went the Cubs route and focused on acquiring/developing quality young position players, and they are now dominating. Aaron Judge is leading the league in everything, Gary Sanchez is on his way back from injury and Clint Frazier and Gleyber Torres aren’t far behind this first wave of young talent. I’m sure they’ll immediately win a World Series.

MachadoGate: I only have one comment on the Manny Machado/Red Sox controversy from last night. To summarize: Red Sox and Orioles have ongoing beef and Chris Sale threw at Manny Machado at the beginning of last night’s game. Machado went ballistic after the game saying he has no respect for the Red Sox franchise. My only comment is Thor did the same thing with Chase Utley last year, and he was instantly tossed from the game. MLB sucks, and they need to consistently enforce their stupid rules. They should be tossing Chris Sale immediately for a play like that and suspending him for 3 starts. If they really wanted to stop it that is what they would do.

Today: Jacob deGrom vs. Bartolo Colon tonight. Perfect game for Tolo?