Mets Sweep Reds; Take Out The NL Trash

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Final Score: Mets 5, Reds 2

It didn’t look good at the start tonight when Matt Harvey gave up a leadoff home run to Zack Cozart. Then Ivan De Jesus Jr. hit a comebacker single off of Harvey’s butt and that seemed to get him into gear. When Joey Votto struck out, De Jesus took off on the play and advanced to second base when Lucas Duda flubbed the rundown. But it didn’t end up mattering because Harvey struck out the next two batters. The Mets got that run back and more in the 2nd inning thanks to the stanky Reds. Alejandro De Aza led off with a single. Then with two outs Lucas Duda hit a fairly routine fly ball to left field and the Reds dropped it. That scored De Aza and Neil Walker followed that with a single to make it 2-1.

Harvey almost got Murph’d by Walker in the 3rd. With a man on and one out, he muffed a routine grounder to second base. Then Joey Votto followed that with a bloop single to load the bases. But with the bases loaded and two outs, Walker redeemed himself. He was perfectly positioned and snagged a liner up the middle by Devin Mesoraco to retire the side. If that wasn’t enough, the next inning Neil Walkyear tied the Mets club record for most home runs in April with his 9th. A solo shot that made it 3-1.

Harvey gave up another run in the 5th to make it 3-2, but he limited the damage by getting a key double play to end the inning. In the 6th inning, after leaving six men on base over the course of the game, Michael Conforto lined an opposite field two out double that scored 2 more runs and that gave us the final score of 5-2.

The pen continued to dominate and shut down the Reds over the final three innings. The Mets were even able to give Jeurys Familia the night off. Considering he’s on pace for like 100 appearances, it was much needed.

Knight Terrors Subsiding: Matt Harvey took a step forward today with a quality start. He took that liner off of his ass, and from then on he seemed to stay fairly focused. The Mets played crappy defense behind him tonight. But his stuff was crisp, and he finally put up some strikeouts albeit against this crummy Reds lineup. This start is something to build on.

B-Squad Triumphs: The Mets starting lineup today was the unquestioned B-squad. Juan Lagares and Alejandro De Aza starting in the outfield and Kevin Plawecki behind the plate. And you know what? We easily slapped around the garbage Reds. Depth!!! Not just depth. Quality depth. It’s fun to watch our A lineup, and it’s not a major letdown to see our supporting cast. That’s how it should feel when you watch a playoff caliber roster.

The Quest for 74: After today’s game, Neil Walker is on pace for 73 home runs. As improbable as it is, Barry Bonds congratulating Neil Walker on his 74th home run in Miami on September 28th is a quality daydream.

Thor in Times Square: Today Noah Syndergaard hit up Times Square (i.e. New York’s anus) dressed as Thor. I’m surprised he voluntarily rubbed elbows (his priceless pitching elbow no less) with the other costumed riff raff. He’s truly a man of the hoi polloi because I wouldn’t let those degenerates anywhere near my body and mine’s worthless.

Panic City: The Mets have won 6 in a row and 11 of 13. They are now a game behind the Nationals who just lost a series to Philly. Here’s a live look at Panic City:

Tomorrow: Well we officially beat the hell out of the Phillies, Braves, and Reds. The Mets have the day off tomorrow, but the run of games against NL trash teams comes to a screeching halt this weekend as the Giants come to town. Let’s hope these Mets are up to the challenge.

Yoenis Benchbedes: Yo Hits Game-Tying Pinch-Hit Dinger In Mets Win

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cespedes-ap-esny

Final Score: Mets 4, Reds 3

On a night where the Mets got the leadoff man on base in 5 of the first 6 innings but couldn’t find a way to score a run, Yoenis Cespedes reminded us that he’s the spark plug that keeps this offense rolling. After missing three straight games with his balky knee, Yo pinch hit in the bottom of the 7th inning and on the first pitch from starter Brian Finnegan he launched a three-run game-tying laser that just snuck out of the stadium. It would have been off the Great Wall of Flushing at Old Citi Field. But at new Citi it was a goner and it made the game 3-3.

The Reds young lefty Finnegan was really great all game. Until that 7th inning he had only given up a hit and a couple walks. The Mets were 1 for 15 with runners on base in this game. So Finnegan really kept getting himself out of any trouble until the 7th. And as I said in the series preview, the Reds have the worst bullpen ERA in the league. So they left Finnegan in the game because their bullpen is awful. In fact, once Finnegan got pulled and they went to the pen, Curtis Granderson (who’s heating up) hit an opposite field triple. He then scored when David Wright hit a two out single. That made it 4-3 and Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia did the rest for us.

Bartolo Colon tallied his 3000th inning pitched last night. He was mediocre though. He didn’t go 6 innings, and he gave up 8 hits over 5 innings. He was getting smacked around every inning, so I was on board with Terry getting him out of the game when he did. He gave up a two-run homer to Ivan De Jesus Jr. but he was one bad pitch away from doing it again.

Sly Dog Award: The Sly Dog Award goes to Terry Collins for faking out Reds manager Bryan Price. When Brian Finnegan ran into trouble in the 7th inning and Price went to talk to him, Terry sent Duda to the on deck circle. Maybe Price thought Cespedes was unavailable. Maybe Price liked the Duda/Finnegan lefty on lefty matchup. Maybe he just knows his bullpen sucks. Either way Terry’s fakeout worked, and the tired Finnegan stayed in the game to get rocked by Cespedes. Terry you old sandbagging son of a gun.

Wilmer’s Struggling: Wilmer Flores is batting .083. He’s 2 for 24. He made an error at first base last night. We expect nothing in the field from Wilmer, but whether he’s starting or on the bench he must hit. It’s only been a month. It’s only been 24 at-bats. But it won’t be long before people are calling for Matt Reynolds (.288 average in Vegas) to get a chance.

Sample Size Police: So the Mets score all their runs on the home run. I don’t have the exact percentage breakdown, but if we aren’t top 3 in the league in percentage of runs scored via the home run I’d be shocked. Is it too early to conclude that our inability to make simple contact with runners on base or in scoring position is some type of flaw in our offensive design? Will the sample size police arrest me? Home runs are great, but other than Yo’s bomb, we once again struggled to score runs last night despite getting the leadoff men on base a bunch.

With or Without Yo: God the lineup is so different with Cespedes in it. He is electric. It is known. He also bailed postgame without giving any interviews which is super ballin. He just limped to his sports car and sped off. I really hope his injury is healed because the last thing we need is to bring him back too soon and do the setback dance.

Today: Matt Harvey gets another chance to give us a quality start and keep the brooms swinging. We have 5 straight wins and have won 10 of 12. We are creeping up behind the Nats. It’s also April, but winning any time of year is sweet.

Travis “The Human Game of Jenga” d’Arnaud to the DL

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Travis d’Arnaud has been placed on the 15 day disabled list. Whoever had David Wright in the “first position player to the DL” office pool must be livid. David Wright was the sure favorite in Vegas, but Travis wasn’t far behind.

Travis is really something else. “The kids!!! They called me Mr. Glass.” Maybe he’s got that Benjamin Button syndrome. Maybe he’s actually 75 years old and his body is just disintegrating from within. I mean the guy is a walking game of Jenga. Every time he throws, every time he swings, every time he runs hard, every time he gets hit by a pitch, every time he slides into a base, every time he takes a foul ball behind the plate, it seems like his entire body crumbles before our eyes. He makes six throws on stolen base attempts last night and after the game his damn arm falls off. I think it’s technically a rotator cuff strain, but it’s still pretty ridiculous. 

Honestly Travis “Mr. Glass” d’Arnaud is really just one of those injury prone players. He’s the guy who you caveat everything with “as long as he’s healthy”. And he seemingly never will be. I hate to say it, but he is what he is. You know how some players magically stop being injury prone sometimes? That actually happens on occasion. You know how? They do steroids. It’s always some form of cheating. They either get the special secret foreign surgeries like Kobe Bryant or Bartolo Colon, or they get the stem cell injections or human growth hormone treatments. I really really hope Travis can find an ethical way to shake these injury issues that have plagued him his entire career. I’m sure at some point we will move him to a different position to “preserve” him like he’s some priceless piece of art or an ancient artifact. But the bottom line is he’s a “forever hurt”. It is what it is. Now it’s time for Kevin Plawecki to step the hell up. You want reps? You want playing time? Here you go man. Earn them. Take the job away from Travis.

Also pray for Travis. God I want him to stay healthy and have a big time major league career. I really do. But I especially want him up here because now we have to watch Rene Rivera once a week. He’s a .200 career hitter which is an enormous upgrade from Anthony “Golden Chin” Recker but still dog doo. Also I asked Jeff Wilpon if he had a positive spin on the d’Arnaud injury. He said, “at least we didn’t have to pay to fly him back to New York for his MRI while we were on the road”. Then Jeff went back to auctioning off old Shea Stadium seats and miniature Jackie Robinson statuettes on eBay.

Mets Beat Reds; Conforto For President

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Final Score: Mets 5, Reds 3

There’s no doubt that Neil Walkyear had the game winning dinger, but Michael Conforto continues to be the star of the Mets show. He was on base all four times tonight with a home run, single, double and walk. His solo shot in the bottom of the 1st inning got our dinger parade going. Lucas Duda had a two run blast in the bottom of the 3rd. Guess who was on base? Conforto.

Noah Syndergaard was dominant through 6 innings. As he approached 100 pitches, the Reds started to get to him. Terry kept him in too long and yanked him with two outs in the 7th after he gave up his second run which made it 3-2. Antonio Bastardo came in and promptly walked a man and then gave up an RBI single to Joey Votto which tied the game at 3. But Logan Verrett got a big strikeout to end the inning.

Neil Walker immediately helped us retake the lead with a two run home run in the bottom of the 7th. Conforto was on base for this bomb as well. Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia then proceeded to dominate out of the pen to close it out and give us the 5-3 win.

Luck O’ The Maverick: Back to Conforto. This guy is an absolute immediate impact star. It’s unbelievable, and we are so lucky Sandy and Co. drafted him. I can’t help but let the thought creep into my head that the Wilpons will ultimately use Conforto as the rationale for letting Cespedes walk if he opts out of his deal at the end of the season. But I must push that glass half empty crap aside and focus on the now.

Mr. Glass Leaves Game: Speaking of glass, Travis d’Arnaud left the game with shoulder soreness. They said it was from all the throwing he had to do as a result of the Reds running on him non-stop. I think the Reds stole on him 5 times. God he’s so fragile. First Cespedes and now d’Arnaud with the day to day crap. I wonder if we will DL someone because we can’t play with one catcher. It’s really poor timing for Mr. Glass to strike again.

Bastard of Citi: Bad performance tonight from the natural born reliever Antonio Bastardo. He was wild and walked the first batter he faced. Occasional wildness was the knock on Bastardo. He’s also struck out a bunch of people on the season and been solid for the most part. You got to take the good with the bad.

Bullpen’s Lil Secret: Logan Verrett has been cranking out stellar spot starts and nice relief appearances. He’s been a real secret weapon for us. It’ll be interesting to see if he continues to have success or if the league adjusts and exploits any weakness they can find.

Tomorrow: Bartolo Colon goes up against a young lefty Brandon Finnegan. Let’s hope the wind remains favorable and the long balls keep flying. I’ve never seen anything like this. Strikeouts AND home runs? I’m just grabbing the popcorn and savoring all this power baseball.

Series Preview: Battle Of The Baseball Headed Mascots

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Mr. Red versus Mr. Met, the epic battle of estranged baseball headed mascot cousins. Mr. Red was born a sleeve patch in 1955, and Mr. Met was born a scorecard illustration in 1963. Mr. Met appeared as a live action mascot in the 60s and Mr. Red appeared in the 70s. Mr. Met has been happily married to Mrs. Met since the 1960s. According to the Reds website, Mr. Red’s wife “Rosie Red” cheered the Reds to the 1939 National League pennant and then to the 1940 World Series championship. In other words, she’s even older than Mr. Red. I guess it took the wisdom of an older woman to see through Mr. Red’s ridiculous mustachioed outer shell and find the kind-hearted soul within. That being said, in the photo above Mr. Red is holding a gun and his eyes give the impression he’s on PCP or something. So he may have undocumented character flaws.

I would also like to note for the record that Mr. Met mysteriously disappeared from 1979-1994. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Wilpons bought their first stake in the Mets in 1980. The entire thing reeks of foul play, but the Wilpons refuse to comment on anything related to the Mets so it’s doubtful we’ll ever uncover the truth.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Noah Syndergaard vs. Raisel Iglesias

Iglesias is a young pitcher with an odd delivery. The only person on our team that has faced him is Neil Walker. He’s been very effective so far this season going 1-1 in 4 starts with a 3.09 ERA.

Perfect Game Watch: Noah Syndergaard has been dubbed a video game create a player by David Wright. The Reds have a competent enough offense (they’ve scored more runs than the Mets), but at this point you never know how dominant Thor will be on any given night. Plus he beat the Reds twice last season.

Game 2: Bartolo Colon vs. Brandon Finnegan

Finnegan is another young starter. The Reds got him in the Johnny Cueto deal with Kansas City. He’s a lefthander so we may see Wilmer Flores at second base or first base in this game. Although with Walker’s success batting right-handed lately, maybe Terry will ignore career splits. Yoenis Cespedes, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Alejandro De Aza all faced him at some point when he was with KC. He has a 3.74 ERA in 4 starts this season.

Bartolo didn’t face the Reds last season, but he’s starting on my fantasy team this week so he better fire off a quality start. Other than Thor, Bartolo has been the Mets most consistent starter in 2016.

Game 3: Matt Harvey vs. Jon Moscot

Moscot (not to be confused with Mascot) is another young starter that we’ve never faced. If Matt Harvey is ever going to get his groove back, a home start against the Reds should help do the trick. He had two quality starts against the Reds last season. If a dose of the Reds doesn’t help lower Harvey’s ERA, he should consider Pilates as I’ve heard they’ve done wonders for Jake Arrieta during his inexplicable late career resurgence.

Thing To Look For:

Citi Field Power Outage: The Mets had an absolute power surge on this past road trip. Bombs all day every day. Back to back jacks, grand slams, fan interference reversed home runs and everything else under the sun. We are fifth in the league right now with 25 long balls. But now we head home where we haven’t had nearly as much success with the home run. We need to score somehow. If we aren’t going to score with the long ball then we better start bunching some hits together.

Red Pen: Scoring against the Reds shouldn’t be too much of a problem considering they are 28th in ERA overall at 5.58. The Reds have the second most innings pitched out of the pen so far in 2016 and their bullpen ERA is the worst at 6.26. Their pitching staff overall has been miserable. That being said, let’s get to their overworked pen.

Water In The Knee: Yoenis Cespedes said his banged up leg is feeling better. But the Mets doctors are going to take a look at his knee and conduct tests anyway. Once Ray Ramirez lays a finger on that knee it will most certainly swell up like a cantaloupe. Pray for Cespedes.

Murphometrics: So I think all Mets fans have been praising the middle infield defense of Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera this season. We are all amazed at how easily they make the routine plays and how effectively they turn double plays. When ground balls come their way, they hardly ever go under the glove or off their foot as we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. Anyway, look at what Mark Simon from ESPN tweeted over the weekend.

Wow! Walker and Cabrera still give us below average defense relative to the rest of the league. Honestly that tells you all you need to know about how bad Daniel Murphy and Wilmer Flores were in the field. Mets fans are rejoicing like a starving population being fed for the first time in months. And the truth is we have been defensively starved in the middle infield for years. Even if it’s not top quality defense, Mets fans were so famished for competency up the middle that we are shouting our praises from the rooftops despite being handed the equivalent of moldy bread. But moldy bread sure as hell beats the sawdust that Murph represented.

Phillips, Murphy; Tomato, Tomahto: Speaking of Murphy, wouldn’t it have been nice if Brandon Phillips waived his no trade clause and joined the Nationals so we wouldn’t have to hear the daily Neil Walker/Daniel Murphy comparisons? But Phillips refused to uproot his family for what could be the final years of his playing career. That’s just great. That being said, Phillips is killing it so far this season batting .297. So maybe it’s one of those pick your poison scenarios.

Lefty Sluggers: Joey Votto is off to a terrible start batting around .200. Jay Bruce is supposedly going on paternity leave and will miss some of these games. Hooray! Quite frankly I’m surprised he’s still on the team. How the rebuilding Reds haven’t dealt him yet is beyond me. I would say it’s a lock that he won’t be on the team when we face the Reds again in September.

Mets Sweep Braves; Game Of Thrones Returns

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Final Score: Mets 3, Braves 2

Jacob deGrom is back. He got the win in today’s series finale going 5.2 innings and giving up 1 run. Michael Conforto got two RBIs today with a sac fly in the 1st inning and an RBI double in the 6th inning. Asdrubal Cabrera has stayed scorching hot going 2 for 4 and raising his average to .333. We swept the series with Wilmer Flores, Juan Lagares, and Kevin Plawecki all in the lineup. Our B-squad had no problem with this Braves team. What a fantastic road trip. It doesn’t get much better than going 7-2 on the road. As I’ve said over and over, you must beat these bad teams. So we deserve a pat on the back for getting the job done. That being said, the Nationals haven’t slowed down one bit. The Nats are 14-4 on the season and 7-3 in their last 10. We are 10-7 and have gone 8-2 in our last 10. So let’s keep it up because there’s still ground to make up.

Tonight: The Mets swept their weekend series, Jacob deGrom returned, and Game of Thrones returns tonight on HBO. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Tomorrow: The Mets head home to play the Reds. Our ongoing war against the worst teams in the NL continues tomorrow night. To borrow from Game of Thrones, let’s mount the head of the Reds mascot on a spike.

Mets Take Series; Braves Stink

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Final Score: Mets 8, Braves 2

The Mets rolled last night again in Atlanta. Steven Matz pitched a very solid 6.1 innings with 8 strikeouts. He gave up an RBI double to Freddie Freeman early and an RBI single to Nick Markakis late. He did give up 9 hits, but he kept getting out of jams and only yielded those two runs.

The Mets got their scoring going right away. Curtis Granderson singled, Michael Conforto singled, and Lucas Duda got the one out sac fly. A little small ball. Hooray! Then Neil Walker walked and the awful Braves made an error on an Asdrubal Cabrera grounder to score Conforto.

In the 4th, Travis d’Arnaud got a leadoff single. Then with two outs the Braves walked Curtis Granderson and promptly gave up a 2 run double to David Wright. That made it 4-1. Asdrubal Cabrera added an RBI single in the 7th.

In the 9th, Asdrubal Cabrera and Neil Walker hit back to back home runs. It was the 4th time in 5 games that this Mets team accomplished back to back bombs. Juan Lagares added an RBI triple. That made it 8-2 and that was all she wrote.

Braves Stink: My only takeaway from this game (if it wasn’t abundantly clear already) is the Braves stink. We know this. My season preview said that. My series preview said it. It’s ok. They are rebuilding. They are actively stinking. The reason I bring it up again is because of what happened in Philly. In Philly we won 2 out of 3. Great. Excellent. Congratulations. When we dropped the finale of that series in extra innings in embarrassing fashion, I chastised the Mets. I said it was a terrible loss that a great team can’t have. A lot of fans said “Come on! Give them credit. At least they won the series.” And I will not do that. The Phillies and Braves are garbage. They are going to have some days where they beat us outright. On those days you tip your cap and move on. But when you have a chance to beat them and you blow it, you are really hurting your overall playoff chances. We must have a better record than Washington against our NL East opponents. Period. Every game matters. And of course we must beat Washington. But if we split our games against the Nats, it’s going to come down to that BS April series finale against Philly. Or perhaps even today’s sweep opportunity against Atlanta.

Today: Jacob deGrom is back. The Braves have a stud rookie on the mound though. Let’s send this kid back to the minors and sweep these mooks.

Mets Beat Braves; Cespedes Re-tweaks Leg

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Final Score: Mets 6, Braves 3

We’re above .500! Hooray! But let’s start with what really matters. Pray for Cespedes. In the 7th, David Wright doubled and then with 2 outs Yoenis Cespedes drove him in with a double that appeared to be a home run off the bat. That gave us our 6th and final run. When Cespedes slid into second base he supposedly re-aggravated the leg injury he got when he dove into the stands at home against the Marlins. Pray that a day or two will save him. Cespedes really comes to play man. I always thought that his limpy style of walking was just his swag strut. But now I’m pretty sure he’s just one of those super tough athletes that always plays with a nagging injury. I’m so happy we have him. Please get well soon Yo. 

Anyway, the game was a long ball show again. Curtis Granderson hit a Grand Slam in the 2nd inning, but the Mets were lucky to be in that spot. The Braves walked Asdrubal Cabrera and Travis d’Arnaud with 1 out. Then Matt Harvey attempted to sacrifice them over and pitcher Bud Norris had an easy opportunity at a double play. He blew the throw to third base and everybody was safe. After that blunder, Grandy laced one out of the park. Grandy also added a second home run with a two out solo shot in the 4th inning. He was a one man wrecking crew tonight.

I was really looking for a quality start from Matt Harvey to give us some confidence as we approach the end of April. Unfortunately, he was just mediocre again. He battled to get through five innings. In the second, Kelly Johnson had an RBI single and Mallex Smith had an RBI double. Cespedes saved Harvey from getting chased from the game in the bottom of the 5th. Harvey walked the leadoff man, but then retired the next two batters. Then he gave up two straight singles to Adonis Garcia and A.J. Pierzynski. On Pierzynski’s single, Nick Markakis tried to score and Cespedes nailed him at home with a laser throw.

Antonio Bastardo, Jim Henderson, Jerry Blevins, and Jeurys Familia were able to finish the game despite a little trouble in the 7th.

Benchcicle Prophecy: I wrote in the series preview that this might be a good weekend to get Juan Lagares a start considering he’s becoming a benchcicle, and we are playing a crummy team. Well with the Cespedes injury, to quote Dr. Ian Malcolm, “Life uh, finds a way”. Travis d’Arnaud had another 0-fer last night bringing his average down to .158. I’m sure Kevin Plawecki will get the day game on Sunday, but Travis is really struggling. Also, Asdrubal Cabrera looked like he hurt his wrist or finger sliding into second base in the top of the 8th inning. He stayed in the game, and I haven’t heard anything about it. Then in the bottom of the 8th, Cabrera made his first error. Maybe Wilmer Flores will score a start this weekend too. Although we’d be better off defensively with a one-handed Cabrera.

Terry Cab Accident: Terry got in a cab accident before the game. Thank the gods he’s ok. It makes you think of when that cab took Duaner Sanchez from us back in 2006. During the game, Terry threw reliever Antonio Bastardo out there for a second inning of relief after a dominant 6th inning. In that 7th inning, things fell apart quickly for the Bastard of Citi. Maybe Terry can actively try and not kill these relievers on the field? Is that possible?

Rain Delay PTSD: Before the 8th inning started last night there was a rain delay. It was probably only an hour, but it brought back memories of that pre-trade deadline July game against San Diego last year. I still tremble thinking about Familia blowing that post rain delay 9th inning.

Today: Steven Matz goes for the Mets. Let’s win the series today. There’s nothing I want more this Sunday then to watch the Mets sweep the Braves and then watch the premiere of Game of Thrones.

Series Preview: Last Season At Turner Before They Burn Her

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The Braves are 4-11. They started the season by losing 9 in a row to the Nationals and Cardinals. Since then, they swept the Marlins in Miami and then lost 2 out of 3 at home to the Dodgers. From the Mets perspective, this should be the same story as Philadelphia. The Braves are rebuilding and have already conceded this season. The Mets must beat up on them no matter where the games are held.

Last Season At Turner: In 2015, the Mets went 11-8 against the Braves and 5-5 at Turner Field. If we are looking to improve upon our 90 win 2015 season, a good place to start would be against Atlanta at this cursed field. Speaking of Turner Field, it’s the last year the Braves play here before they move to their new stadium. Supposedly the organization has stopped taking care of the damn place and the infield grass is an uneven mess. Our infield defense has been solid so far this season, but I’m sure Turner Field will find a way to screw that up for us. Maybe when the Braves leave behind Turner, they can also dump the tomahawk chop? Maybe they can try something a little less obnoxious and offensive? If the U.S. is going to take Andrew “Trail of Tears” Jackson off the front of the 20 dollar bill, maybe Manfred will encourage Atlanta to come up with some clap-based cheer that has nothing to do with Native American war cries. But that’s doubtful considering the Washington Redskins are still hanging around the NFL.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Matt Harvey vs. Bud Norris

Panic City is at an Amber Threat Level regarding the status of Matt Harvey. The conversation last year was “Shutdown Harvey?!? No way!” Now the Panic City Council is saying “How did we not shutdown Harvey?!?” Dan Warthen said Harvey had a great bullpen session this week, and he fixed his “mechanical issue”. The bottom line is we need to see something positive from Harvey. It doesn’t even need to be a strikeout filled complete game. Let’s see him get through 6 innings without tiring and collapsing late. That would be a refreshing change.

Last year, Harvey took a big fat loss at Turner Field. He went 6.2 innings and only gave up a run. Guess what month it was? June. It goes without saying that the entire 2015 season must be viewed through the B.C. (Before Cespedes) and A.C. (After Cespedes) lens. Since this was a B.C. loss it means nothing to me.

Bud Norris is off to a 1-2 start with a shining 6.23 ERA. He was a scrap heap pickup by the rebuilding Braves to round out their rotation. He gives up some long balls. He’s given up 20+ home runs 3 times in his career, and he’s already given up 3 on the season. Last time out against Miami he gave up two of those home runs and didn’t get out of the 6th inning. The Mets faced him at home in May of last season when he was on Baltimore. He went 7 innings and gave up 3 runs.

Neil Walker is 9 for 23 against him with a home run. That’s a .391 clip. Yoenis Cespedes is 3 for 10 with a home run. Uh oh.

Game 2: Steven Matz vs. Jhoulys Chacin

Chacin is only 28 and his career got off to a promising start despite playing in hitter friendly Colorado. But he has battled shoulder issues and other injuries which ultimately led to his release in Colorado. And if Colorado is letting a pitcher go, you know there’s real issues. Atlanta brought him in to fill out their rotation as they wait for young pitchers to emerge from their system. He shutout Washington in his first start over 6 innings and struck out 8. He wasn’t quite as impressive last time out against Miami where he went 5.1 innings and gave up 3 runs. He’s a groundball pitcher so that may limit our ability to punish him with long balls. That being said, Neil Walker is 3 for 9 against him, David Wright is 2 for 9 and Juan Lagares is 2 for 6.

Steven Matz got rocked in his first start and dominated last time out. Let’s hope this start goes well and he can get in a consistent groove.

Game 3: Jacob deGrom vs. ? (Aaron Blair? Mike Foltynewicz?)

The Braves haven’t announced their Sunday starter yet. It could be young pitcher Mike Foltynewicz who went 4-6 with a 5.71 ERA in 18 appearances (15 starts) for the Braves last season. The alternative would be highly touted prospect Aaron Blair making his major league debut. The Braves snagged the former 2013 first round pick Blair as part of the haul they received from Arizona for Shelby Miller in the offseason. Blair is 3-0 with a 1.42 ERA and 0.79 WHIP at Triple-A so far this season. He also has 22 strikeouts in 19 innings. He throws a 91-95 MPH fastball that induces ground balls. He also throws a curve and change-up.

The Mets will finally get Jacob deGrom back. His baby boy Jaxon is healthy and supposedly Jacob’s lat has healed as well. It’s good to have him back although we certainly didn’t lose anything with Logan Verrett on the mound. Jacob deGrom went 0-1 in 2 starts against Atlanta last season. The loss came at Turner Field. Of course he went 7+ innings in both starts, struck out 12 overall, gave up 9 total hits and 3 total runs. In his defeat at Turner Field he only gave up 2 runs. As you would expect, both starts were in June (B.C.).

Things To Look For:

Braves Pitching: Braves have a team ERA of 4.67 and are in the bottom third of the league. They are considering bringing up top pitching prospect Aaron Blair in large part because of how incompetent their starters have been so far. Let’s hit them early and often.

Big Ball Only: We really need to get some key situational hits this weekend. At a minimum, we need to convert more often with runners in scoring position. I know chicks dig the long ball. Frankly, so do the overweight men who watch on their couch. But at some point they will lose their luster if we keep dropping games because we can’t get a clutch single or a sac fly.

Kevin Playwecki?: Travis d’Arnaud hit a few balls hard in the series finale against Philly, but he’s still batting below .200. Kevin Plawecki should get a start this weekend during the day game on Sunday. I’m hoping for a healthy All-Star season from d’Arnaud. But I won’t be upset if Terry gives Kevin an extra game here and there to keep Travis fresh.

Get ’em While They’re Cold: Freddie Freeman and Kelly Johnson have both started the season hitting around .150. It will be nice to see Kelly Johnson again. It would be nice if he was in a Mets uniform instead of Eric Campbell.

Benchcicles: The guys on our bench never play. I completely understand why. It’s simply because the starters are much better. Duh. They are real MLB starters. All these years we sat here debating if Ruben Tejada should start or Omar Quintanilla. We dissected whether to sign Chris Young, John Mayberry Jr., and many other players. And the one unifying theme was that they were all garbage. The starters that we have now are the opposite of garbage. They are established, consistent veterans or young budding stars. My point is that Wilmer Flores and Juan Lagares have taken a backseat because we have superior options. That being said, we should look to get these two guys some playing time against a crummy team like the Braves if the series goes well. It’ll help keep them from becoming ice cold on the bench, and it’ll help preserve our starters over the long season.

Mets Squander Sweep Opportunity; Schmuck Philly Fan Interferes

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Final Score: Phillies 5, Mets 4

Let’s get this out of the way right now. Screw Philly and screw Jeffrey Maier. In the top of the 2nd inning, a now scorching hot Lucas Duda doubled, Neil Walker singled, and then Asdrubal Cabrera hit a home run. The ball bounced off the top of the stupid wall at stupid Citizens Bank Park, and it looked gone to me. But of course a moron Philly fan stuck his glove out and interfered making it a ground rule double. We ended up scoring two runs instead of the three that the home run would have given us. And that was a huge difference in the final score. We would have had the lead late and a chance to close the game out. I hate people who stick their damn gloves out on foul lines, at the wall, and anywhere for that matter. If you go to the game and you sit along the foul lines or at the wall, sit in your freaking seat and wait for the ball boy to flip you a damn ball. And for old times sake, screw Jeffrey Maier for saving Derek Jeter in ’96.

That being said, the Mets offensive weaknesses were glaring in this game. I think they left 12 men on base. They were 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position. They had tons of opportunities and failed to capitalize. Our homer or strikeout offense was in full effect. We had 17 Ks. Due to his refusal to die, tonight’s plan to scatter David Wright‘s ashes at Citizens Bank Park was cancelled. But he did put up a nice golden sombrero.

Bartolo Colon pitched like his regular sexy robotic quality start self. He gave up a Freddy Galvis two run homer in the bottom of the 2nd. He also gave up a David Lough sac fly in the 4th.

The Phillies tied the game at 4 in the bottom of the 7th.  Jerry Blevins started the inning and gave up a one out double to David Lough. Addison Reed was called on with one out and managed to get a big strikeout of Darin Ruf. But then he surrendered the game tying single to Peter Bourjos.

The Mets kept leaving men on base in extra innings. In the 10th, d’Arnaud doubled with 2 outs and was left on base. And in the 11th, Curtis Granderson got a leadoff walk but was left on.

In the bottom of the 11th, the Phillies beat Hansel Robles. Freddy Galvis doubled with one out. The Mets intentionally walked Lough. Then Robles threw a wild pitch. Then the Mets threw 2 straight intentional balls to Emmanuel Burriss before d’Arnaud realized the signs were wrong, and it wasn’t meant to be an intentional walk. That was a brutal mixup, and I’ve never seen it happen before. Peter Bourjos ended up hitting a ball with 2 outs to third base and the winning run scored when Wright couldn’t make what was a tough infield play.

Blame Ball: The blame ball goes to our entire lineup for leaving the world on base. We need to start situational hitting and hitting with runners in scoring position because right now, Dr. Dre would say our Offense Ain’t Shit But Bombs and Ks.

Neil Walkyear: Neil Walker had 4 hits. Daniel Murphy may be motivated by a desire for vengeance, but nothing beats the contract year incentive.

Mr. Glass Starting To Hit: Travis d’Arnaud had 2 hits and three hard hit balls tonight. Keep it up.

Tomorrow: Day off tomorrow before we head to Atlanta. We won this series which is nice, but you never want to squander opportunities to win. Shake it off and let’s demolish Atlanta before they demolish Turner Field.