Series Preview: Mr. Met Goes To Washington / Murph Reunion Bowl Take 2

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mr met washington

This Could Be Fun (But Usually It Isn’t): The Mets are 35-37 at Nationals Park all-time. But between 2012-2014 they were 10-17. During that stretch, it was awful facing the Nationals. It just felt like they consistently smacked us around. That’s why the success we had against them last season was so big. We went 6-3 in Washington. The success against the Nats and particularly the success in Washington was one of the big differences for the 2015 Mets. That success started with our pitching, but it really all came together with the addition of Yoenis Cespedes. Once again, we will need him to lead our offense if we are going to come away from this Washington series with Ws.

Yo Loves The Capitol: Yoenis Cespedes was 6 for 14 with 3 doubles and 2 dingers at Nationals Park last season. It may take forever for the politicians on Capitol Hill to re-establish relations with Cuba, but Yo will be leaving his Cuban mark on Washington before this series is over, that I assure you.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Bartolo Colon vs. Gio Gonzalez

Gio has been lights out this year with a 1.86 ERA. He’s 10-4 lifetime against the Mets with a 2.59 ERA in 18 games. He beat the Mets last week at Citi Field going 6.1 innings and giving up a run. The Mets have been bad against lefties this year. But this guy isn’t going anywhere. So we need to figure out a way to beat him. Paging David Wright. Notable Numbers: Juan Lagares is 11 for 29 with a home run against Gio, and David Wright is 6 for 24 with a home run.

Bart’s recent outing against the Dodgers was ugly. His outing last week against the Nats at Citi was gross (4.2 innings pitched, 3 runs, 5 hits, 5 walks). He only had one start against the Nats last year, and it came right out the gate in April. He went 6 innings, gave up 1 run and struck out 8. He needs a Big Sexy rebound start in a big way otherwise we officially have two struggling starters in our rotation.

Game 2: Matt Harvey vs. Stephen Strasburg

The Nationals have won 13 straight Strasburg starts. He smacked the Mets around last week at Citi going 6 innings, giving up 1 run and striking out 10. Notable Numbers: Yoenis Cespedes is 2 for 5, David Wright is 7 for 25 and Neil Walker is 5 for 14 against Strasburg.

I thought last week’s Harvey start against the Nats where he gave up 9 runs (6 ER) in 2.2 innings was rock bottom. I thought for sure the Mets would skip his next start. Nope. He’s going right back out there and this time in the lion’s den. The Mets watched him throw a bullpen session this weekend, and apparently he looked good. Harvey officially has the Mets stamp of approval so it looks like we can put this Harvey debate to bed right? We’re all confident that he’s figured things out right?!? On a related note, is there a word that means “lower than rock-bottom”?

Game 3: Steven Matz vs. Tanner Roark

Tanner Roark was the odd man out of the rotation for the Nats during much of last season. He made 12 starts in 2015 and was swinging back and forth between the pen and the rotation. This year he’s rejoined the rotation full time, and he’s been very good. He’s 3-3 with a 2.89 ERA. He made one start against the Mets last year in October. He went 6 scoreless innings. He made 4 relief appearances against the Mets last year and for the most part was effective. The only time he surrendered any runs came on July 21st where he got rocked in Washington and gave up 4 runs in a third of an inning. Notable Numbers: Curtis Granderson is 6 for 16, Neil Walker is 2 for 5, and Rene Rivera is 3 for 8.

Steven Matz didn’t face the Nats last year. He missed those big series late in the season recovering from that abdominal injury. But he’s been a rookie of the year stud this year. I hope he’s in a position to help the Mets win the series or even sweep. He dominated Milwaukee this past Friday going 7 innings, and giving up 2 runs with 8 strikeouts.

Things To Look For:

Hot Nats 2.0: So nothing has really changed since last week. Daniel Murphy is still leading the league in hitting and destroying every pitcher he faces thanks to whatever remains of his Kevin Long pixie dust supply. Anthony Rendon is hitting .458 in his last 7 games. After his cold start to the season it appears he is rounding into form. Jayson Werth is hitting .333 in his last 7 games, but he did hit into a horrendous 9th inning bases loaded double play this weekend against the Marlins.

Penmanship: So the Mets have the best pen ERA in the league. But the Nationals pen has been fantastic as well. The Nats and Mets have the same strengths. Pitching, Pitching, Pitching.

Conforto Feeling The Heat: Michael Conforto has 3 dingers and is hitting .300 in his last 7 games. Some of Noah Syndergaard‘s scorching fastball heat must be warming Conforto up. Thor throws fire, loves Game of Thrones, and is clearly casting his light upon Conforto. I wouldn’t want to step foot near Harvey’s East Village apartment. That place must be colder than the ice cells at Castle Black.

Duda Dunzo 2.0: Lucas Duda spent Monday morning at the Hospital For Special Surgery being probed by Ray Ramirez. Ray is probably in the hospital men’s room right now grabbing Kleenex for the Duda “tissue sample”. Lucas going on the DL is a lock. Obviously I’m upset about Duda’s back injury considering we have no real alternative, but in truth he’s been MIA at the plate lately. If he had been on one of his burning hot streaks, I’d be devastated. That doesn’t mean his absence in the lineup won’t have a negative impact, but I suppose it makes the injury sting slightly less. Pray for Duda.

Playing Short Is Dumb: Speaking of the Duda injury, I wrote about it in my last Nationals series preview a week ago. We’ve played shorthanded now for six straight games. Playing with a short bench is the Mets favorite strategy. I still can’t believe the Mets twiddle their thumbs for as long as they do when it comes to injuries. Also, on the subject of short, how great has Asdrubal Cabrera been? Other than Cespedes and Conforto, he’s been the only real constant on offense. At some point, this guy is going to hit a rough patch and lose himself at the plate. It happens to everyone at one point or another over the course of the season. Let’s just hope by then someone else in the lineup wakes up and picks up the slack. Yeah, I’m looking at you Neil Walker. The guy has been spiraling into oblivion since he started on pace for 70 home runs. He’s .188 in his last 15 games and .167 in his last 7 games. Yuck.

Lil’ Late For New Gloves: Alejandro De Aza recently grabbed a first basemen glove to try and increase his versatility. People are calling for Neil Walker to grab a first basemen glove. I’ve even seen fans say Travis d’Arnaud should take a break from downing platelet-rich plasma smoothies in Cali to take some reps at first base. Umm I said this in February, but what the hell were the Mets thinking this spring? We never had a backup first basemen other than Eric Campbell. We claimed Wilmer Flores was the backup first basemen, but he played like two spring games at the position. How the hell did we not have d’Arnaud, Wilmer, and Kevin Plawecki out there taking grounders every single day? Duda spent time on the DL last season. This injury was a lock. This was a predictable scenario, and the Mets really blew their chance to get ahead of it.

The Blood Of The First Men: The Mets are likely to promote someone from Triple-A Vegas for the Nationals series once Lucas Duda is placed on the DL. Rumor has it Ty Kelly has arrived in Washington. Ty is a 27 year old journeyman utility infielder/outfielder and look at this guy:

Ty Kelly looks like he was out foraging for fruits and nuts when a time traveler showed up and brought him to the future to test his baseball skills. The blood of the Neanderthal flows through his veins. Considering he’s a minor league journeyman, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to find out he spends his offseason filming History Channel “Early Man” specials. But in all seriousness, he’s hitting nearly .400 in Vegas. Now we all know offensive numbers in Vegas are super inflated due to the thin air. But no matter where you are playing, if you lead the league in hitting, you deserve some praise. If he does get promoted, let’s just hope Ty doesn’t crack open a teammates skull with his bat and drag him back to his cave (which I’m assuming will be on the basement level of the Washington Marriott Hotel).

Today: Let’s ride the Brewers series victory wave and take the good vibes on the road tonight. Let’s go Big Sexy.

Mets Sweep Milwaukee Braves

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Final Score: Mets 3, Brewers 1

So the Brewers are the Braves of the NL Central huh? They are horrendous. But who the hell cares. We swept the crap out of them and boy did we need a sweep after losing two out of three to the Nats. The Mets pitching staff continued to come up big today despite the team’s continuing offensive woes this month.

Thor Stepped Up: Noah Syndergaard surrendered an RBI single in the first inning to Jonathan Lucroy, and that was really all the Brewers could do against him all game. Thor wasn’t incredibly efficient as he topped 100 pitches by the end of his outing. But he still got through 7 innings, gave up only 6 hits, 0 walks (again), and he struck out 11 Brewers. The guy is on fire and in the Cy Young conversation. He’s an All-Star right now for sure, and I have no doubt Terry will bring him along for the game.

Cold Turkey: So the Mets have really given up offense cold turkey in May. We’ve just stopped scoring for anybody and especially for Thor. Michael Conforto launched a first inning solo blast to tie the game at one. I’m sure he was looking forward to getting back to his apartment with Thor to watch Game of Thrones before they head to Washington for the Nats series. In the bottom of the 4th, Conforto walked and Yoenis Cespedes doubled him to third base. Then with one out, Asdrubal Cabrera singled to score both of them making it 3-1.

El Stinko Brewers: Once Asdrubal reached base on his 4th inning hit, he advanced on a wild pitch (stinko). The Brewers attempted a pickoff of Asdrubal at second base, and they had him dead to rights. He flopped back towards second base, and he landed on his stomach a foot from the bag. After missing the bag on his first dive back, he made a last ditch effort to lunge towards the bag again and somehow the Brewers failed to clearly tag him on the replay. They challenged but it was too hard to tell. Brewers had all day to apply the tag. Yeesh.

The Untouchables: The Mets pen has been untouchable. Yesterday Jacob deGrom only went five innings so the pen got a ton of work. Today, Thor gave the group a break by going 7 innings. But Jim Henderson and Jeurys Familia cruised through the 8th and 9th inning. The Mets pen has the top ERA in the league. Props to Sandy for signing Antonio Bastardo and for finding Jim Henderson on the scrap heap. Credit to Hansel Robles for putting in a ton of work this offseason and coming out the gate firing flameballs. It’s a long season, but this group is off to a promising start.

Golden Rivera: Rene Rivera may be a light hitting catcher, but the guy has a cannon behind the plate. He threw out Alex Presley trying to advance on a pitch in the dirt in the 7th inning. It’s so great watching a sure handed defender. When Yo steps to the plate I’m always confident he’s going to do damage. And I get that same feeling with guys like Rivera and Juan Lagares when they field a ball. It’s sweet.

RIP Duda: Lucas Duda is actually going to be out for a while. The Mets doctors are still studying his MRI, but I’m guessing he’s DL’d tomorrow. I’m sure he’ll spend the next month in California in the cortisone hot tub with Travis d’Arnaud. Goodbye Lucas! See you next year. Soup’s on the menu forever. I wonder if we are going to send Robert Gsellman or Gabriel Ynoa to the Braves for Kelly Johnson next month? The Indians will probably only want one prospect for Juan Uribe. We have plenty because prospects grow on trees.

Tomorrow: Now we head off to Washington with our fingers crossed hoping that our offense will magically return, Bartolo Colon will be Sexy once more, and that Matt Harvey will rise from the dead. Such modest expectations.

Wright Walk-Off Win; Brewers Are A Godsend

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Final Score: Mets 5, Brewers 4

Wright Walk Off: David Wright with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th inning is about as feel-good a victory as there can be. Unbelievable. Watching Yoenis Cespedes nearly tackle Wright and uncontrollably smile as the entire team celebrates on the field is truly special. We really needed a win like this.

Brewers Are A Godsend: Umm the Brewers are absolutely terrible. The Mets needed a matchup against a garbage team so badly. I mean let’s start with the 9th inning. They issued a leadoff single to Eric Campbell. Baaahahaha. Then they walked Kevin Plawecki who spent half the AB trying to bunt and failing. Matt Reynolds came up next and effectively executed the sacrifice bunt. Grandy was walked intentionally to load the bases, and then David roped his single on a 3-0 pitch to get the 5-4 victory. The Brewers nearly walked in the winning run anyway. They walked six Mets over the game.

Grandy Mendoza: In the first inning, Curtis Granderson hit a leadoff home run. He absolutely loves doing that. Too bad he’s hitting .197 on the season. The Mendoza line is a Mets favorite. Grandy is under it (.197), Wright is approaching it (.223), Kevin Plawecki is at it (.203), and Alejandro De Aza is too (.205).

DeGranted: I really take Jacob deGrom for granted. I just assume he’s going to jump on the mound and mow every team down. But he really didn’t have it yesterday. He struggled to get through 5 innings, he gave up 5 hits, issued 3 walks, and gave up 4 runs. His 7 Ks combined with the walks really drove up his pitch count. In the top of the second inning he walked Aaron Hill and with two outs gave up a two run home run to Ramon Flores to make it 2-1 Brewers. In the top of the 4th inning, deGrom walked the leadoff man and then surrendered a single. With first and third and nobody out, Ramon Flores hit a sac fly making it 3-1. Then pitcher Zach Davies executed a sac bunt (which the Mets staff still can’t do), and Jonathan Villar followed that with an RBI single to make it 4-1 Brewers.

Cespedes Saved Us Per Usual: In the fourth inning, Yoenis Cespedes singled with one out and advanced to second base on a Brewers wild pitch (they stink). Then Neil Walker struck out and with two outs, Asdrubal Cabrera drove in Cespedes with an RBI single. Then in the bottom of the 6th, the Brewers walked Michael Conforto with one out and Yo followed that with a two run shot. He’s just an unstoppable force. He should probably be walked every single time he steps to the plate. He’s quietly on pace to hit like 54 home runs which would be completely insane.

Electric Pen: Hansel Robles, Addison Reed, and Jeurys Familia combined for 4 scoreless innings of relief and 6 Ks. The pen has been electric. There’s no doubt about it. Pray that their arms don’t fall off.

Duda Dead: Lucas Duda was scratched with back pain again. He got an MRI and they think it’s a disc issue. He’s not playing in the series finale either. The DL is an absolute lock. Well so much for our plan to not have a contingency plan at first plan. Hooray! We have literally no option. It’s Soup. That’s it. We may need to consider calling up Dilson Herrera for second base and moving Neil Walker to first base even though he’s never played there before. Slowly the injuries are piling up. Pray.

Harvey Time: They said Matt Harvey had a great weekend bullpen session and is going to start in Washington on Tuesday. I suppose if Wright’s corpse can get a game winning hit then Harvey can have a rebound start.

Today: Man we really lucked out with Ryan Braun missing the first two games of the series due to injuries. Noah Syndergaard on the mound for the sweep? Yeah I like those odds.

Matzy Poo Shuts Down the Brew Crew

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Final Score: Mets 3, Brewers 2

Matz Fantastic: Steven Matz obviously gets the game ball. The early rookie of the year candidate pitched 7 dominant innings gave up 2 runs, and struck out 8 Brewers. Ryan Braun didn’t start this game due to injury or something but whatever Matz basically carved up everyone else. Other than a first inning two run homer surrendered to slugger Chris Carter, Matz was efficient and untouchable. The home run ball is great, but this is what I love to see most of all. The dominant starting pitching is the main attraction for our club. Matz was incredible. He had his velocity cranking up to 95 MPH, and he was flawlessly locating his breaking ball. Also, not to continue to dwell on the Dark Knight, but Matz is another positive sign for our boy Matt Harvey. Matzy-poo had TJ surgery back in 2010. Last season was when Matz finally got his velocity and command back. Look at him now. The guy can do it all. The point is Harvey’s post TJ struggles are to be expected and he will overcome.

Daily Soup Reminder: Let me get this out of the way because the Soup apologists came out in force last night. Eric Campbell drew a walk in the bottom of the 6th inning off of the dead tired starter Wily Peralta who was then immediately pulled from the game. Congratulations! He made a stellar play at third base to get the second out in the 9th inning. Diving stop and throw to first base. Hooray! You know what else he did? He struck out twice. In the bottom of the second inning, Neil Walker drew a leadoff walk and Lucas Duda singled. With runners on first and third and nobody out Eric Campbell struck out in pathetic fashion. Luckily Rene Rivera crushed a fantastic RBI groundout to at least give us something to show for the inning. My point? Stop giving our black hole in the lineup pats on the back.

Spoiler Alert, We Scored On A Home Run: In the bottom of the 6th, Michael Conforto launched an opposite field two run homer after an Asdrubal Cabrera leadoff single. We really only score on the home run. It’s not an exaggeration at all. We left men on base in the second, sixth, seventh, and eighth inning. A lot of Mets fans are genuinely worried about the fact that we only score on the home run. An equal number of sarcastic Mets fans mock the “chicken little” fans when the team hits a home run by saying things like “we should have went for a single there” and stupid crap like that. Ummm the Mets are 24th in baseball in runs scored. Who cares how many home runs we hit when we are objectively scoring a small number of runs relative to the rest of the league? Our inability to score consistently without hitting the long ball is a real issue. That’s the bottom line.

Summer Is For Hitting: So maybe the offense will pick up when the weather gets nicer? Offense in general picks up during the summer. But let’s be real here, the offense picked up last year in August when we dumped our black holes on the roster and started playing with a real 25 man group. Everyone talks about Yoenis Cespedes in 2015, and he deserves the praise. He crushed it. But remember in the offseason before we re-signed him, all we heard about was how big of a boost Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson were for the bench down the stretch. The Mets preached depth as the key to winning and consistency on offense. Well Soup and Rivera are not depth. The rest of the lineup is struggling too so we can’t blame Soup all day. That’s just unfair. But it’s worth talking about because eventually Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera are going to need a damn breather. Look at David Wright. He’s dying after a quarter of the season.

Here’s Why Soup Is Here: So I’m going to put financial reasons aside. It’s possible the Mets didn’t want to invest more in the bench because of penny pinching but the Cespedes signing sort of put that idea to bed temporarily. Soup is here because Sandy wants to be able to observe the roster for half the season and then make an assessment of our true needs. He wants to decide on July 10th whether he needs to trade for a reliever, bench bat or perhaps a starting pitcher/starting position player due to unexpected injury. I get the strategy, but I just hope we have the depth needed to stay competitive now. It worked last year so I can see why Sandy and his team are doubling down.

Today: As I said in the series preview, we have three of our aces going. Jacob deGrom toes the rubber today. The Brewers have poop pitching. Let’s win all these games. We really need a big rebound after our recent horrendous slump.

Series Preview: Brewers In Town To Kick Us While We’re Down

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The Brewers stink right? They are 18-23 and 5-5 in their last 10 games. They are tanking this season, and so they must be awful. Wait what’s that? They’ve scored more runs then the Mets this season? Really? They rank 15th in runs scored and the Mets are 24th despite all of our home runs. OPS? Both the Mets and Brewers have a .731 team OPS and sit behind 12 other teams in those rankings. The Brewers just took 2 out of 3 from the Cubs. Not too shabby.

Luckily, it’s the pitching staff that defines the Mets and is the big differentiator between the two teams. The Mets team ERA still ranks third in baseball while the Brewers sit at 27th with a 4.87 ERA. The Mets pen ERA is tops in all the land. The recent beatdowns of Matt Harvey and Bartolo Colon has dropped our starting staff ERA out of the top 5.

I would like to think that this is a good time for the Mets to have a big home series against a “bad” team. But the Mets are playing like crap right now. We’ve lost 7 of our last 10. As a pessimistic Mets fan, this feels like a series where a dog doo team will come to town and field goal kick us right in the face. I could easily see the Brewers snagging 2 out of 3 at Citi Field and leaving us beaten and bloodied for our trip to Washington. But we have one big thing going for us:

Three Aces: Sure the Matt Harvey reality has Mets fans down in the dumps. But the good news is we have our three ace strategy in play this weekend. Matz/deGrom/Thor go against this Brewer squad. We need to win. Let’s sweep. We have a rotation full of stoppers and that’s exactly what we need from them. Stop this bleeding.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Steven Matz vs. Wily Peralta

Since his 17 win 2014 season, Wily Peralta has been nothing short of El Stinko. He’s rocking a 7.30 ERA this season. He’s been spanked in nearly all of his 2016 starts. The Mets crushed him last May in New York. He went 5 innings and gave up 5 runs on 9 hits. Notable Matchups: Lucas Duda is 3 for 9 against him. Maybe this matchup will help Duda get out of his funk. Curtis Granderson is 5 for 8 with two home runs. Ditto on Grandy and funks. Neil Walker is 4 for 14 with a home run, Eric Campbell is 2 for 3 and Juan Lagares is 2 for 3. David Wright is 0 for 8.

Other than his horrendous opening start of the season, Steven Matz has been exceptional. This is his first start back after the first ElbowGate of the season. The doctors say he is fine. He felt fine after his bullpen sessions and whatnot. The Mets may be careful with his pitch count, but let’s hope his issues are behind him for now and he can contribute again. We need his studliness now more than ever with Matt Harvey struggling. The Brewers aren’t a particularly good lefty hitting team coming in at 18th in OPS against lefties. But Ryan Braun (.336 career average) and Jonathan Lucroy (.297 career average) historically crush lefties. Although Lucroy has been bad against lefties this season (6 for 40).

Game 2: Jacob deGrom vs. Zach Davies

Zach Davies is a 23 year old young righty that the Mets haven’t faced. He’s 1-3 with a 5.58 ERA on the season. He’s not a hard thrower. He’s the pitcher the Brewers acquired from the Orioles when they sent them Gerardo Parra at last year’s trade deadline. His first three starts of the season were poor. However, two of his last three appearances have been quality starts, and he hasn’t surrendered more than 2 runs in his last three outings.

As much as people have tried to make a big deal about deGrom’s 2016 diminished velocity, he’s been very good in all 6 starts this season but short of dominant. He’s 3-1 with a 2.50 ERA. He’s gone 5+ innings in all 6 starts and hasn’t surrendered more than 3 runs. He can be better. We all know that because we’ve seen him at his best. He dominated the Brew Crew last season (2-0). He went 6 innings and gave up a run at Citi Field last May. In Milwaukee in June he pitched 8 scoreless with 7 Ks. This home start is a great opportunity for Jake to really put together his first super dominant outing of the season.

Game 3: Noah Syndergaard vs. Chase Anderson

Chase Anderson is a back end starter type, and the Brewers acquired him from the Diamondbacks in the January Jean Segura trade. He’s 2-5 with a 5.32 ERA. He’s been bad. Last season he faced the Mets twice and went 0-1. He went 5.2 innings and gave up one run in Milwaukee last June. In July, the Mets chased him from the Citi Field game after 4.1 innings, 8 hits and 4 runs. That being said, he dominated the Cubs in his last start going 8.2 innings and surrendering two runs. Yeah that’s not a typo. This guy shut down the Cubs. Good luck to the Mets. Notable Matchups: Juan Lagares is 3 for 5 with a home run and Lucas Duda is 1 for 5 with a home run.

Noah Syndergaard has been nothing short of Cy Young caliber in 2016. That last start against the Nationals on Tuesday was uplifting. It’s been the bright spot in this recent Mets slump-a-dump. Last year he faced the Brewers at Citi. He got the win going 6 innings, surrendering 1 run and striking out 5 Brewers. I fully expect him to dominate because he’s done nothing but that all season. You raise the expectation bar and the fans expect perfection. Thor will deliver.

Things To Look For:

What’s Hitting?: We can dominate on the mound all we want this weekend, but the team won’t win if the offense continues to be MIA. Curtis Granderson, David Wright, Michael Conforto, Lucas Duda, and Kevin Plawecki have all been horrendous lately. Even Neil Walker and Asdrubal have cooled. I don’t have answers. Just prayers and uncontrollable pessimism.

Hot Crew: The usual suspects top the Brewers hot hitter list. Ryan Braun is hitting .364 with 7 home runs. Jonathan Lucroy is hitting .304 with 6 home runs. Jonathan Villar is hitting .284 and has 13 stolen bases. He’s been a solid fantasy league starter. Aaron Hill had a crummy past couple of years in Arizona, but he’s hitting .250 with 4 bombs on the season. He’s hitting .340 in his last 15 games. First basemen Chris Carter is doing his boom or bust thing with 12 home runs and a .245 average. His 12 bombs are super impressive, but he’s hitting .179 in his last 15 games.

Kirky 3 Bombs: Captain Kirk Nieuwenhius moved out to Milwaukee, and he’s having the best couple months of his career. He’s hitting .278 with an .849 OPS. He hit the game winning two run home run against the Cubs yesterday. Baaahahaha. Kirky 3 Bombs! He’s been platooning in centerfield, and is doing everything we hoped he would one day do for the Mets. Meanwhile Alejandro De Aza took up the Kirk mantle and hits under .200 while striking out whenever he pinch hits. Sheesh. The Brewers just called up centerfielder Keon Broxton, so we will see if that impacts their regular lineup.

Future Mets: Jonathan Lucroy is dying to get out of Milwaukee. He was begging off the team in spring training. I wrote about this a while back, but if Mr. Brittlesworth Travis d’Arnaud insists on staying in California and getting rehab massages all day, then we may need to explore a trade for Lucroy.

Vindicated: Ryan Braun is such a schmuck. He’s back to killing it. Juice? Magic? Skill? Who cares. I’ll never forget how he laughed in our faces. How he insisted he was innocent of steroid use and told us all off when he got off on a technicality. He ruined that poor lab technicians life because the guy mailed his steroid filled urine sample a day late. Go to hell Braun. Definitely don’t go to the Nationals when they come around shopping for an outfield upgrade. Don’t do that.

Pentastic: The few optimistic Mets fans pointed out during Harvey’s meltdown game against the Nats, that the pen pitched 6.1 scoreless innings. Oooh great I’m so happy the pen was able to preserve that humiliating 9-1 defeat for us. But in all seriousness the pen has been tops in the league. Fantastic. Keep firing away those scoreless innings. I’m sure the pen will be full of overused blue eyed corpses by the time Harvey and the rotation hits it’s stride in the summer.

Reinforcements: Speaking of the pen, Erik Goeddel and Sean Gilmartin are in town. Rumor has it Goeddel will be activated (Soup demotion?!? No way!) if Harvey stays on the roster, and if Harvey goes on the DL then Gilmartin will join the roster.

Do People Not Boo?: So I’ve been reading non-stop that people are ashamed that Mets fans booed Harvey as he exited the field after his horrendous start against the Nationals. Now I was at this game. I heard all the booing. Are people really shocked by booing? Is this a real thing? Harvey gave up 9 runs in 2.2 innings. Is there a single park or fan base in the league that doesn’t boo their starter if he gets lit up for 9 runs in 2 innings? No way in hell. People boo. Everyone boos. People complain when they aren’t satisfied with a product or service. That’s how life works. Fans go to the game and want to see an exceptional product. Booing is the way sports fans express dissatisfaction with said product. I’m not trying to lump Matt Harvey in with Time Warner Cable or your run of the mill dog crap service provider. But whenever my internet goes out I boo my cable box. And by boo I mean smash my hand on top of it until it resets. That doesn’t mean I don’t love TV. You can be mad at Time Warner or a specific clueless cable representative when they blow it. It’s allowed. My grandmother said people used to toss tomatoes at performers at legitimate theater events. Fans and audience and members always express their problems with performers and always will. That being said, I didn’t boo at yesterday’s game because I’m better than everyone else.

Harvey Officially Has Curable Stage 1 METS Disease

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Final Score: Nationals 9, Mets 1

Stage 1 METS: It’s so sad when you see a young guy like Matt Harvey dealing with the mystery ailment that’s plagued Mets players for generations. It’s inexplicably taken so many Mets from us before their time. Ike Davis was officially diagnosed in 2013, and the disease took him in 2014. It moved so fast. Jason Bay was diagnosed shortly after he signed with the Mets in 2010, and the disease took him by 2012. He was so weak and pathetic towards the end. He was zapped of all the skills that made him a pro ball player. Hall of famer Roberto Alomar is another example. Traded to the Mets in 2002 at the age of 34 coming off a 2001 season that was arguably the best in his storied career. He instantly contracted METS disease and retired by 2004 with nothing left to give to the game. And now Matt Harvey has it. He comes back after his Tommy John surgery and puts together a brilliant comeback 2015 season. And now in 2016 poof. All the things that made him a studly ace have disappeared. His command is gone. His velocity is gone. His mental toughness and confidence on the mound have magically evaporated.

The Ugly Recap: Tonight, Matt Harvey was getting rocked from the get-go. He walked Jayson Werth with one out in the first inning, and then gave up a two run jack to Daniel Murphy. Murph crushed a terrible cookie of a pitch from Harvey. Everything fell apart in the third inning for Matt. He gave up a leadoff single to Ben Revere, a one out single to Bryce Harper to make it first and third for Murph. Then the Mets intentionally walked Murph (he’s batting .400 duh) to load the bases. Ryan Zimmerman hit a routine double play ball to Asdrubal Cabrera, and he booted it. He’s been so sure handed all season, and he blew a HUGE play. Revere scored on that play making it 3-1 Nats. Anthony Rendon then hit a double scoring two more. The ball he hit was roped to left field, and Michael Conforto absolutely could have caught it. But it bounced off his glove and the runs scored. Then Wilson Ramos hit a single scoring two more. Revere capped off the inning with a triple that scored the final two runs making it 9-1. Revere’s ball was also kind of misplayed by Yoenis Cespedes. The Asdrubal play was the real killer, but it wouldn’t have mattered. The wheels would have fallen off for Harvey in the next inning. He was throwing meatballs down the middle, and they were getting tattooed.

The Good News: As I said Harvey has stage 1 METS. The mysterious disappearance of pre-existing skills is the hallmark symptom of METS. But don’t worry folks. It can be cured. Sure the disease has claimed many a Mets career. But Curtis Granderson had it two years ago. He hit like .220 in his first year as a Mets. But last season it went into remission, and he had a huge season.

Shut Him Down: To me, Matt Harvey needs a freaking breather. Maybe skip a turn or two in the rotation? I wrote about this a few weeks back. I genuinely don’t believe Matt when he says he feels fine physically. No freaking way. He’s fatigued from his enormous post TJ and playoff workload from 2015. It’s obvious. That doesn’t mean his UCL is re-shredded. It doesn’t mean his arm is shot. But the Mets need to get Matty boom in a better place because right now he’s completely and utterly dunzo the second he steps on the mound. By the way, I’m not saying the workload from last season was a mistake. No waaaayyyyy. You never shut him down. We got to the World Series. He will rebound and be fine. But METS disease is a dangerous thing. You need to treat it delicately.

Serenity Now: I hope Harvey doesn’t punch anything in the clubhouse. I feel like he’s a clubhouse puncher.

De Bum: Speaking of METS disease, it feels like every fifth outfielder we bring on board gets METS disease immediately. Former Met Chris Young is like a real major league fifth outfielder with an actual skillset. He was a contributor on the A’s and Yankees. He plays for the Red Sox now and is okay. He was an auto-out for us. He hit like .100. John Mayberry Jr. wasn’t quite that level of player, but he was supposed to be able to hit lefties at least a little. He did nothing. And now Alejandro De Aza seems to be on the same track. He had a hit today, but he’s batting like .170. Brutal.

Murph The Gamer: In the second inning, Yo led off with a single and with one out Neil Walker lined a single over Murph. Murph pretended to catch the liner and did a faux throw to first to “double up” Cespedes. Yo motioned to head back to first but caught on to the deke and scurried to second base. He almost fell for it. Murph is such a damn gamer. I’m sure he’s going to crush Neil Walker or Asdrubal Cabrera at some point this year on a takeout slide. Bastard.

Plawecki Can’t Fly: Still in the second inning, Kevin Plawecki came up with runners on first and third and one out. Plawecki couldn’t get a damn sac fly with Harvey on deck. It didn’t really matter since the game was a freaking blowout, but can we please get some key situational hits or a damn sac fly?!?

Duda Stinky: So I think we can officially say that Lucas Duda is having a bleh season at the dish. He was 0 for 4 tonight. The guy has a .300 OBP. He’s batting like .220. Him and Grandy are essentially batting .400 combined. Together they hit like Murph. Hooray!!!

Strasburg So Back: I mean it’s old news at this point, but Stephen Strasburg has been absolutely nasty this season. I was at the game tonight, and he looked fantastic. His velocity was there all game, and his breaking stuff was working. He’s a perfect example of why we need to be patient and be careful with Harvey. TJ surgery ain’t no joke. Strasburg took a while to get back to the pitcher he was capable of being. As I said in my series preview, Strasburg was bleh in the first half of 2015 and then surged. A dude on Twitter said this:

We have to hope that Matt Harvey can have a similar kind of turnaround if we choose to handle him with care.

Tomorrow: Speaking of handle with care, Steven Matz gets back on the mound tomorrow night as the stanky Brewers come to town. I realize the west coast sluggishness was a fun excuse, but it’s clear at this point the Mets are in a slump. The Mets are 3-7 in their last 10 and in third place in the NL East. After this joke of a home series, the Mets are 2.5 games behind the Nats. It’s time to turn it around. Also, what are the odds Kirk Nieuwenhuis hits four home runs in a game this weekend? Cap’n 3 dingers is coming back to the Big Apple!

Mets Walk The Park And Lose To Nats

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Final Score: Nationals 7, Mets 1

Walk This Way: Well it’s time to drop Bartolo Colon in your fantasy league. Bartolo was awful last night along with the rest of the Mets pitching staff. As good as Noah Syndergaard was on Tuesday, was as bad as Tolo was in this game. The Mets and Bartolo did something they never do. They walked everybody. Eleven walks in total. Bartolo pitched 4.2 innings and surrendered three runs, but he walked five Nationals. He was in trouble every inning. He walked Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper back to back in the first inning, but escaped unscathed. With two outs in the third inning, he walked Werth and Harper back to back again. Then Daniel Murphy drove in Werth with an infield hit. The wheels completely came off for Bartolo in the 5th inning when Werth and Harper reached base to start the inning. AGAIN. Anthony Rendon drove them both in with a two out single. Tolo got pulled before the inning was even over. The Mets pen had a terrible night as well. Antonio Bastardo gave up a couple runs in the 7th inning and hit a guy. Logan Verrett and Jerry Blevins walked two apiece when they eventually entered the game. In the 9th inning, Jim Henderson gave up a couple runs. It was an awful game from our pitching staff, but let’s be real here. Our pitching staff has been incredible all season, and they never walk anyone. The entire staff had a collective bad day. In the end, the walks and runs didn’t matter because we couldn’t score at all. We only managed to create one real opportunity all game to score against Gio Gonzalez, and it came in the 7th inning. And the Nats pulled Gio before we even had a chance to beat him. Kevin Plawecki faced Felipe Rivero with men on, and he couldn’t get the big hit. We got shut the hell down.


No Support For Bartolo: Speaking of no support, the “big” story yesterday before the game was that Bartolo Colon has two illegitimate children with a random woman, and apparently he hasn’t been paying his child support. First of all, I’m almost certain I already knew about his natural born children and his second lover. I couldn’t find a story to evidence how I knew, but I’m pretty sure it’s common knowledge. Second of all, we don’t know all the facts. Maybe he pays a certain amount of support and his extra lover is demanding more. But the bottom line is he should pay for his kids, hopefully he will, and this story has been told about a million athletes a billion times. I can’t believe people are questioning Tolo’s character now. He’s a known steroid cheat. We already know he has no integrity. Also as an FYI, I made that picture of the Bartolo-headed baby months ago. I just randomly made it because baby headed Bartolo is hilarious. Who knew it would become so topical in May.

Wright’s Spine: David Wright struck out three times and was 0 for 4. He looked terrible. His average is down to .221. The “David Wright is dead” truthers came out in force post game “But he’s getting on base!” they all shouted in unison. Pray for David and his pretzel rod of a spine.


Duda Back?: Duda apparently shrugged when he was asked if he would be available to pinch hit in last night’s game. At least the muscles in his upper back work. Man I hope he is in the lineup for tonight’s game because we have no alternative. I’d rather watch a pine cone take ABs then Eric Campbell.

Can We Get A Righty?: Speaking of my favorite scapegoat Soup, can we get a freaking right handed bench bat? We can’t hit lefthanded pitching at all. Gio is a stellar pitcher so I’m not trying to take anything away from him, but this has been one of our big weaknesses all season. Is anyone available? Michael Morse? Someone on our Vegas Triple-A team? Anyone? Help!!!!!

Yo Duh: Yoenis Cespedes drove in our only run with a laser solo shot. Duh!

Juanny Mays: Daniel Murphy had a hit with 2 RBIs. One of those RBIs came on a 7th inning sac fly, but it would have been a double if it wasn’t for Juan Lagares doing an over the shoulder catch Willie Mays impression.

Yea We Lost But: I don’t really like this Nationals team. I’m not talking about the personalities. I’m talking about the lineup and the bullpen. I can’t believe one of their prized offseason pen acquisitions was our boy Oliver Perez. And their lineup just doesn’t scare me. It’s going to suck when they call up Trea Turner to play shortstop and trade for another big bat.

Today: I’ll be at the game tonight, so I’ll make sure to fix Matt Harvey‘s mechanics before first pitch #MakeHarveyGreatAgain.

Thor Outduels Mad-Eye Max

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Final Score: Mets 2, Nationals 0

Thoooooorrrrrr: Noah Syndergaard was completely and utterly dominant. The Mets had two late pregame back-related injury scratches from the lineup after Lucas Duda and David Wright spent Monday helping Ray Ramirez move his grand piano. We had to throw Eric Campbell and rookie Matt Reynolds in the lineup at the last minute, and it didn’t matter with Thor on the mound. He went 7 scoreless innings and struck out 10 Nationals. He punched out Bryce Harper twice, Jayson Wethless twice and future backup shortstop Danny Espinosa three times. His stuff was straight nasty. My god. And by the way, in the 6th inning Kevin Plawecki threw out Ben Revere trying to steal second. I thought Thor had a problem holding men on base? Based on the replay Revere was safe by a mile, but we won so who cares!

A Couple Of Bombs: Curtis Granderson hit a leadoff solo blast in the first inning and Michael Conforto hit a laser solo dinger in the third inning. Speaking of dingers, I can’t believe it took the Mets so many goddamn years to move the walls in at Citi Field and draw those orange home run boundary lines. The Conforto dinger barely snuck out, and it was a freaking laser. Stupid Wilpons and their dumb cavernous Ebbets field tribute.

Grandy Heard Me: I called out the Grandyman for being stinky lately in my series preview, and he went 2 for 2 with 2 walks. All is forgiven.

Who Needs Runs: Thor didn’t even need all that run support. One was all he needed, and honestly he was lucky because it was almost all he got in this game. Max Scherzer aka Mad Eye Max was almost as dominant pitching 6.1 innings with 10 strikeouts of his own.

Set-Up Man Impersonator: How about Addison Reed? The guy spent a part of last season in the minors figuring out his mechanics, and he’s been lights out this year. He basically has the same ERA as Jeurys Familia. Jim Henderson has been good, but he’s struggled with pitching in back to back games. Reed on the other hand has just been a straight up reliable ol’ set up dude. We could use another guy, but if we can run Soup a doop out there all the time for the first couple months, I suppose the pen can wait for an upgrade until the trade deadline as well.

Murph Reunion: Daniel Murphy got a pregame video tribute, a hit, and he turned a highlight reel double play. But we won so it ain’t no thang. I really thought he was going to burn us tonight. I let the Panic City pessimist take over my mind. The pregame injury flood was so Mets that it hurt, so it makes sense that I reacted that way. But these aren’t our typical loser Mets. At least not tonight.

Tomorrow: What a great win. This emotional roller coaster of a season certainly continues to move all over the place. The four game losing streak has been snapped, and now we look to win the series with Bartolo Colon on the mound tomorrow.

Series Preview: Mets vs. Nats In NL East Showdown / Murph Reunion Bowl Take 1

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Make Baseball Fun Again: Rivalries! Competition! This is what we all want to see. I’m totally down with Bryce Harper and his make baseball fun again movement. I wrote it about it at the beginning of the season. I’m done with the unwritten rules, the anti-bat flip agenda, and the handling things with “baseball plays” on the field. The handling things with baseball plays mentality is what led to the Blue Jays and Rangers brawl over the weekend. The Rangers hit Jose Bautista with a pitch as payback for his bat flip and Bautista slid late into second base as payback for the hit by pitch. And you know what happened? Bautista got knocked the hell out by Rougned Odor because handling things with baseball plays doesn’t resolve anything. It’s all BS.

Well a good old fashioned battle between two top division rivals is the perfect example of how baseball can be fun. Mets vs. Nats down the stretch last season was extremely exciting for Mets fans. It was mainly exciting because the Nats rolled over and died. But this season I’m hoping for a good old fashioned dog fight. I’m hoping these teams take this pennant race down to the damn wire. Am I happy that the matchup kicks off with the Mets in a bit of a slump after a tiring west coast road trip? No. But it’s not as if the Nationals are boiling hot. They got swept in a four game set against the Cubs in Chicago. Then they took two out of three against the Tigers at home before splitting a series against the Marlins to conclude their home stand. But this battle had to start eventually, so let’s do this thing.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Noah Syndergaard vs. Max Scherzer

Max Scherzer needs no introduction. That crazy-eyed bastard struck out 20 Tigers in a complete game the last time he took the mound. He’s a perennial Cy Young candidate. He faced the Mets four times last year and had a 1-2 record. However, he pitched great in his two losses, and in his final start of the season against the Mets last October he struck out 17. He’s 4-2 this season with a 4.15 ERA, but it’s mainly due to the beating he took from the Cubs where he gave up 7 runs. The Mets overall have a lot of experience against Scherzer. Notable numbers: Asdrubal Cabrera is 12 for 45 with a home run, Yoenis Cespedes is 3 for 9 with a home run, Alejandro De Aza is 11 for 43 with a home run, Curtis Granderson is 7 for 23 with a home run, and Neil Walker is 3 for 9 with two home runs.

Last year, Thor faced Washington three times with two very solid starts at Citi Field. At Citi, he pitched 8 innings, gave up 2 runs and struck out 9 in August, and at the very end of the season in October he went 7 innings, gave up 1 run and struck out 10. Get your popcorn ready for this pitching matchup.

Game 2: Bartolo Colon vs. Gio Gonzalez

The Mets rank 21st in the league in OPS against lefties. Pretty stanky if you ask me. Gio has been lights out this year with a 1.93 ERA. He was 2-0 against the Mets last year in 4 starts and 3 of the 4 were quality starts. He also surrendered 2 runs or less in all four outings. Notable Numbers: Juan Lagares is 10 for 26 with a home run against Gio, and David Wright is 6 for 21 with a home run.

Big Sexy only had one start against the Nats last year, and it came right out the gate in April. He went 6 innings, gave up 1 run and struck out 8. His last outing against the Dodgers was ugly, so let’s hope that it was a blip on the radar and not the start of a May dip in performance.

Game 3: Matt Harvey vs. Stephen Strasburg

I wish I could get excited for this matchup. Poor emo Matt Harvey. He’s just so sad lately with his stinky ass performance and his wacky mechanical problems. The Mets were 1-1 against bleh first half 2015 Strasburg. And in both games the Mets had positive results against him. He went 5.1 innings in both starts and gave up 3 runs in one and 2 in the other. He also surrendered a bunch of hits in each outing. When we faced Strasburg in the second half (September) he was surging. He went 7.1 innings and gave up 3 runs, but he struck out 13 Mets. However, he took the loss in that early September game. That was the September sweep Yo home run game where Yoenis Cespedes executed Drew Storen on the field for the world to see. Notable Numbers: Grandy is 3 for 13, David Wright is 6 for 22 and Neil Walker is 3 for 11 against Strasburg.

Harvey faced the Nats six times in 2015. He went 2-2. He pitched 5 quality starts in those 6 games. But honestly, considering how different and unpredictable he’s been this season, it’s hardly worth re-hashing his results from last year. Let’s just hope Citi Field, and the Nationals bring back his competitive fire and the heat on his fastball. And also his command. He could probably use that too. Bryce Harper is 0 for 20 against Harvey lifetime. God I hope that stays the same.

Things To Look For:

The Heavy Hitters: If you’ve followed baseball at all in 2016, you know that Daniel Murphy is doing a Ted Williams impression. He’s hitting .400, and he has 5 home runs. So Murph is still showing some of that playoff power. Bryce Harper is still doing his MVP thing with a 1.066 OPS and 11 home runs. The Nats thought they’d lack production out of the catcher spot, but Wilson Ramos is hitting .350. But other than those three guys, the Nats lineup has been a barren wasteland. Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman have been garbage. Anthony Rendon has disappeared. I guess they really could have used Cespedes. Phew.

Hot Nats: Well as I said, on the pitching side Scherzer just struck out 20 Tigers. Murph has been scorching hot all season. Danny Espinosa is hitting .321 over his last 7 games. He probably knows young shortstop Trea Turner is going to take his job soon.

Heavyweight Bout: The Mets have the third ranked team ERA in the league and Washington has the second. The Mets have 53 long balls and Washington has 47. We are evenly matched rivals. Pitching and power baby. After years of the Nats blowing us out and then last season where Washington had a complete meltdown, we should finally have a real even matchup.

Zimmerman’s Not Wright: Ryan Zimmerman has been awful. He’s battled injuries for years like David Wright. B.J. Upton, Ryan Zimmerman and Wright all played together in high school in Virginia on the Tidewater Mets. Maybe they all spend those years drinking the same contaminated tidewater because all these dudes have either deteriorated due to injury or lost their skills.

Top O’ The Order To You: Grandy has straight up disappeared. It’s amazing how much goodwill you can earn from one amazing season. I spent years booing Jason Bay, but I don’t think I could ever say a bad thing about Curtis. I just remember all those playoff dingers. Plus he does great things for kids and charities. I love him even when he stinks!

Matz Is Back But Not: So the doctor said Steven Matz‘s elbow is fine and his arm is A-Okay. But the Mets are going to have him skip this series against the Nats. That is totally fine by me. Rest. Look at the numbers that Brian Mangan tweeted out yesterday.

We can undoubtedly afford to give these young pitchers the rest they need.

Yo Flips Off Nats: Cespedes said this week that he never really entertained signing with the Nats. He straight up openly admitted he was using the Nationals for leverage. Now it’s time for Yo to show the Nationals why all the star free agents from the offseason used them as leverage. It’s time to put them in their place before Dusty Baker and his “spanking hand” beat us to it.

Frank Reynolds Trueborn Son: The Mets recalled infielder Matt Reynolds from AAA to join the bench while Wilmer Flores is rehabbing his hamstring. By the time you finish reading this sentence, Reynolds will have already passed Eric Campbell on the depth chart at SS/2B/3B. In all seriousness though, this call-up says a lot about our lack of depth. Reynolds was hitting like .230 in Vegas. Ty Kelly (who nobody on earth has ever heard of) is hitting like .400 in Vegas for the Mets. A .230 average when adjusted for Vegas inflation is like .080. That’s a Kirk Nieuwenhuis level of ineptitude. Speaking of Kirk he’s hitting .275 for the Brewers with a .383 OBP. Whoops!

Duda Dunzo: Speaking of lack of depth, I was shocked to see Eric Campbell in the game 1 starting lineup tonight. I was shocked until the Mets announced Lucas Duda got an injection in his back to combat stiffness. A back injection certainly explains why Soup is on the menu in this series. Duda will also miss game 2 because Gio G is a lefty. And we’re off to a fantastic start.

Wright Dunzo: Well I was about to publish this series preview and then the Mets scratched Wright from the lineup to go along with Duda. Why? You guessed it. The old back flared up. Ray Ramirez better get the postgame back injection machine fired up for Wright and Duda. I tried to stay positive throughout this entire post, but goddamn. Two back related scratches in one day? Let’s just get this damn thing over with.

Mets Swept By Rockies; Umps Screw Us Again

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Final Score: Rockies 4, Mets 3

Sideburn Island: Since the umpires stole another game from the Mets today, and I’m on the verge of having a baseball triggered aneurysm, let’s start out with something light. I’m not hip when it comes to hairstyles but what’s with deGrom’s sideburn island? Is that a thing? Maybe his hair doesn’t grow in that spot? Do his sunglasses have built in razors that shave that area every time he puts them on? Maybe Mr. Burns has been telling him to shave his goddamn sideburns? I don’t know. Either way it’s hideous. If deGrom is going to let his signature hair get sloppy, what kind of example does that set for the other players on this team? Clean it up.

Rocky Mountain Fly: As far as the recap goes, Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo home run in the top of the second inning. It was an opposite field shot to right field. In a series where we expected a bunch of home runs from the Mets but only saw two, it’s not surprising that Cespedes hit one of them. I can’t wait until he opts out and the Wilpons don’t pony up the damn cash money. Book it.

Deadly Combination: In the third inning, Eric Campbell hit a leadoff double and Jacob deGrom continued the run of dominance our pitchers have had at the plate by driving in Soup with a single. Realistically we may never see Soup get a leadoff hit and deGrom drive him in ever again. In that same inning, Asdrubal Cabrera singled with one out moving deGrom over to second base and then Michael Conforto singled to drive in deGrom. That made it 3-1 Mets.

DeGrom Good/Harvey Bad: As far as Jacob deGrom and his performance in this game goes, overall he was fine. His velocity is still down, but unlike Matt Harvey, he’s maintained some semblance of his command which has allowed him to remain effective. Michael Conforto misplayed another ball out in left field in the second inning, which led to a double for Carlos Gonzalez. DJ LeMahieu ultimately drove him in with a single but it was another costly misplay. What a joke. In the fifth inning with two outs, a misplayed ball by Alejandro De Aza in the outfield led to deGrom throwing 17 more pitches. That contributed to Terry’s quick hook of deGrom in the 7th inning. DeGrom also surrendered a dinger to Carlos Gonzalez in the 6th inning which made it 3-2 Mets.

Did I Say It Or Did I Say It: In the 7th inning deGrom walked the leadoff hitter, struck out the next guy, and then Terry pulled him in favor of Jim Henderson. Henderson came in to face pinch hitter Ryan Raburn and gave up a two run home run that made it 4-3. Did I say it or did I say it? Yesterday I said the Mets could have easily signed Raburn for the bench at the end of the spring but instead we went with Soup-a-doop. Well unlike Soup (who sucks) Raburn (who doesn’t suck) hit a pinch hit dinger today (his fifth home run) and burned us. Whoops! I mean technically Soup didn’t suck today since he had two hits and a walk but who cares #scapegoating.

Umps Screw Mets Again: In the 8th inning, the umpires screwed the Mets for the second day in a row. With one out Juan Lagares doubled and the Rockies elected to intentionally walk Yoenis Cespedes so lefty pitcher Boone Logan could face Lucas Duda. Duda hit a ground ball to Nolan Arenado at third base. Lagares and Arenado were on a collision course, but Lagares moved slightly to avoid Arenado and made it to third base safely. Arenado didn’t even attempt to tag Lagares and instead made the throw to first base to get Duda. We should have had runners at second and third with two outs for Neil Walker. Instead, the second base umpire inexplicably decided to overrule the third base umpire and called Lagares out of the baseline. Double play. Inning over. Complete joke. Everything should be reviewable and umpires should be robots. If you want to read my thoughts on it check out my post from yesterday. Remember yesterday when the umpires screwed us? Just like today! At least I don’t need to re-type the same goddamn rant.

De Aza Lost: Alejandro De Aza totally sucked in the field today. He had at least four complete misplays or near blunders. From missing sunglasses to sloppy unnecessary belly flops in the outfield he messed up non-stop. He just doesn’t get any playing time so I don’t blame him for being rusty. That being said he better de-rust quick, or he’s going to find himself in the MLB scrapyard.

Terry’s Beat: Terry Collins didn’t even have the energy to argue the blown call in the 8th inning or talk about it after the game. This road trip really killed all of us. Perfect timing for our early season-defining meeting with Nationals. Hooray!

Booth Lag: For all the talk about deGrom and Harvey lacking velocity, Gary and Ron are missing a few MPH on their booth fastball lately. Snooze city. Taking Keith out of the booth is like taking Cespedes out of our lineup. It’s not pretty.

Sounds Similar: Imagine Justin Morneau, Dustin Garneau and Travis d’Arnaud being in the same elementary school class. It would be an absolutely chaotic role call for that hypothetical teacher.

Santa Claus Effect: One of the boring topics Gary and Ron talked about during the game was how everyone loves David Ortiz despite the fact that he failed a PED test in his career. The same thing goes for Bartolo Colon. I have to believe the Ortiz/Colon media praise despite their documented use of PEDs is primarily due to the lovable fat guy effect or the Santa Claus effect. Everyone loves a jolly fat guy. Unless they smell. I’m guessing Papi and Colon wear a lot of deodorant.

Bautista Refusing To Change: While the Mets were playing, the Blue Jays and Rangers got into a legendary on field brawl. This all started with Bautista’s BatFlipGate in the 2015 playoffs. As payback, the Rangers hit Bautista with a pitch in this game. So once he got on base, Jose Bautista decided to slide hard and extremely late into second base and he flew past the bag. He made no attempt whatsoever to stay on the bag and Rougned Odor didn’t like it one bit. So he socked him in the damn face. I like Bautista but follow the new rules. In this case, the umpires called the double play and enforced the new slide protocol. But it hasn’t been consistently enforced all season. If Major League Baseball won’t enforce the slide rules on the field or players refuse to obey them, then I’m happy to see fielders take matters into their own hands and punch the a-hole runners who won’t conform with the new standards.

Tomorrow: We get the day off tomorrow and start the home series with the Nationals on Tuesday. After this series I sure as hell need this off day. I can’t wait for Murph and the Nationals to come to Citi Field and take a dump all over this slumping squad. God I hope some home cooking cures what ails us.