Tag: marlins

I Forgot About Jose

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Final Score: Mets 5, Marlins 3

When I thought about all the ways this team could all of a sudden surge and have a huge August/September, I really didn’t think about Jose Reyes being the one to carry the club. I obviously thought about Yoenis Cespedes going on a tear, and he will undoubtedly need to be the engine that drives the club. But I was imagining Michael Conforto rebounding or Neil Walker finally deciding to get involved in the action for the first time since April or Asdrubal Cabrera starting to hit with runners in scoring position or Travis d’Arnaud looking like the hitter we all watched last season or Curtis Granderson smashing long balls. I really wasn’t thinking about Mr. Spark Plug Jose Reyes. Well last night, Jose went 3 for 5 with an RBI, a stolen base, and 2 runs scored. He was the primary reason the Mets won the baseball game.

Mr. Spark Plug: Jose Reyes led off the game with a double and with one out and Cespedes up, he stole third base. Luckily the ball got away from the catcher because he didn’t exactly get the best jump on the steal. But then Cespedes drove him in with a sac fly to make it 1-0 Mets. In the fourth inning, Travis d’Arnaud singled, Juan Lagares singled, and with two outs Jose Reyes hit an RBI single to make it 2-0. It was a huge clutch hit with a runner in scoring position and two outs.

Mr. Rotation Filler: Logan Verrett pitched 5.1 innings and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits. The runs came on a two run shot by Christian Yelich in the 6th inning that tied the game at 2. Terry instantly pulled him from the game even though he had just under 80 pitches. Terry wasn’t screwing around. I was pissed when the Marlins tied the game simply because the Mets had stranded Cespedes at second base with two outs in the third and with this offense you just never know if they’ll have more opportunities to tack on runs.

More Runs: In the 7th inning, the Mets instantly reclaimed the lead. Jose led off the inning with a single off reliever David Phelps. Then Grandy singled and Jose wound up at third base. Then Yoenis Cespedes hit another sac fly to make it 3-2 Mets.

Pen Problem?: Hansel Robles and Addison Reed combined for 2.2 innings of scoreless relief. We hear many calls for the Mets to add a reliever before the deadline. But this crew of Robles, Reed and Familia has been pretty damn good. I suppose we could use another guy simply because their arms will eventually fall off.

Insurance Salesman: In the top of the 9th, Cespedes was hit by a two out Fernado Rodney pitch, and James Loney then mashed a two run homer to make it 5-2 Mets. They said on SNY that Rodney has given up two homers all season. One homer to Alejandro De Aza a few weeks back and one to Loney last night. That’s an absurd stat. I hope Rodney keeps stinking against the Mets.

The Penmaster General: Jeurys Familia closed it out, but he still did his thing where he puts lots of people on base and stresses everyone out. Cespedes made a horrendous misplay in left field that led to a leadoff double for Christian Yelich. Then Familia struck out Giancarlo Stanton, walked Marcell Ozuna, and struck out Derek Dietrich. Martin Prado added an RBI single to make it 5-3 before Jeurys finished the game off. 50 straight regular season saves. Familia is special.

Today: Jacob deGrom vs. Jose Fernandez? Are you kidding me? What a game. Let’s take the series.

Wilmer Loves Losing His Job

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Look how happy Wilmer is to lose his job to Reyes!

Final Score: Mets 4, Marlins 2

The power of Wilmer Flores, the spark of Jose Reyes, and the grit of Jacob deGrom on the mound helped the Mets take today’s rubber game from the Miami Marlins. It’s really hilarious how Wilmer consistently raises his performance level when he thinks he’s going to lose his job. He caught one whiff of Reyes, and all of a sudden he’s going home run for home run with Giancarlo Stanton. Two multi-home run games in one week for our boy Wilmer? That’s insane.

Happy To Get Canned: Wilmer launched a solo home run in the second inning to give the Mets a 1-0 lead, and he added another solo shot in the fourth inning to make the lead 4-1. Both shots came off Marlins lefty starter Justin Nicolino. Wilmer did hit into a double play with the bases loaded in the fifth inning. Ultimately the wasted opportunity didn’t cost the Mets the game. I suppose Wilmer The Great can’t do everything. Flores said postgame that he’s happy Jose Reyes is here because it makes the team better. And I totally believe he’s being honest. How could he not be excited to have a stable of viable starting infielders? It’s amazing. Right after the game Terry is wondering aloud how in the world he’s going to find playing time for Wilmer and Jose. Ummm Terry I think we’ll figure it out. Is he serious? It’s called a rotation. It’s called depth. You give old man Neil Walker and bum knee Asdrubal Cabrera a day off. They are dying. Michael Cuddyer disintegrated after one half of baseball last season because he was played into the ground. This suddenly deep crop of infielders makes me smile even more than Wilmer when he finds out he’s been demoted.

The Playing Time Usurper: Jose Reyes got the start at shortstop today because Asdrubal Cabrera was up all night dealing with some family matter. Hopefully nothing serious. Anyway he had two doubles. In the third inning, Rene Rivera walked and Jacob deGrom failed to bunt him over. But Reyes doubled and set up second and third for Curtis Granderson who singled in two runs. That made it 3-0 Mets.

My Man: Jacob deGrom is my man. With David Wright seemingly gone forever, deGrom really is my favorite player on the team hands down. He didn’t have his best stuff, and he had to battle today. He got through jams in the first and fifth inning. But he always seems to find his way through 6 or 7 innings and limits any damage. He went 7 innings, gave up 6 hits, 2 runs, walked 2, and struck out 7. Noah Syndergaard is heading to the All-Star Game, Steven Matz is a Rookie of the Year candidate, and Bartolo Colon has been sexier than ever. But my confidence is at its highest when deGrom has the ball.

We Did It Again: Jacob deGrom’s only mistakes were surrendering two solo blasts to Giancarlo Stanton. Remember him? He hit two home runs yesterday. We obviously didn’t learn our lesson about being careful with Stanton. I don’t care that deGrom is an ace. I don’t care that Stanton came up without men on base or that the Mets had a lead. He’s a one man wrecking crew. He scored all the damn runs for the Marlins. Joe Maddon had the right idea earlier this year when he put Bryce Harper on base every time up. Just walk the guy. Pitch around him. Challenging him and consistently getting burned is the definition of insanity. We have an actual choice. Make the right one next time please.

Tomorrow: The Mets start a four game home set against the Nationals tomorrow. Big Sexy is on the mound. I’ll be at the game. We have some nice momentum. Let’s take it to the top team in the NL East. Let’s head into the break scorching.

Mets Let Giancarlo Beat Them For Some Reason

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Final Score: Marlins 5, Mets 2

The Mets let Giancarlo Stanton beat them twice last night for some reason. That’s the story of the game. We let one of the best power hitters on the planet burn us twice. I don’t care that he’s had a bad season. I don’t care that he’s been a non-factor lately. You simply cannot let Stanton launch two dingers against you. And these were bombs with men on base no less. Unacceptable.

Matz and His Mistake: Steven Matz was lights out last night. I said this for Noah Syndergaard on Sunday, but I hope this means the cortisone is working. Whether it’s working or not Terry Collins didn’t give a crap. He saw Matz had good stuff and let him throw a 100 pitches. TC don’t give a damn about dem bone chips. Matz went 7 innings, gave up 6 hits, 2 runs, and struck out 6. The frustrating part was he got lit up by Stanton in the 7th inning. He was so close to the damn finish line. He gave up a leadoff single to Marcell Ozuna and then Stanton took him deep to make it 2-1. He had already given up a damn single to him earlier in the game. I know you don’t want to put the lead run on base, but Chris Johnson stinks. Challenging Stanton more often than not equals home run.

Yo Bomb: Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo home run in the fourth inning. He was the only guy who could hit Wei-Yin Chen. Chen straight up outdueled Matz. He went 7 innings, gave up 3 hits, 1 run and struck out 5. I suppose Chen let Cespedes beat him. But that dinger was in the fourth inning. Remember the bottom of the 7th inning? He walked Yo to leadoff the inning. It wasn’t intentional, but he sure as hell didn’t fall behind and then foolishly challenge him. I wouldn’t want to get rocked by Yo again either. Then he easily retired the next two guys. But the Marlins did luck out because James Loney singled, and Juan Lagares hit a sinking liner to Stanton in right field that he snagged for the third out. On a different day that falls in for a hit and ties the score. It wasn’t the Mets night.

Letting Giancarlo Beat You: The Matz home run to Stanton was less appalling than the bomb surrendered by Erik Goeddel. With two freaking outs, Goeddel hit Christian Yelich with a pitch and gave up a single to Marcell Ozuna. I’m not sure why with two outs the Mets are letting Commissioner Goeddel blow a one run game, but they sure did. Goeddel got behind Stanton and gave up a three run home run on a 3-1 pitch. That made it 5-1. I don’t care what the score is. If you have an open base and the option to walk Stanton and get a fresh count against Chris Johnson, you take it. Call me crazy. Call me stupid. Call me whatever the hell you want. Goeddel getting burned was an absolute lock. I was washing dishes during the at-bat with my iPad set up playing the game next to the sink. Before he even threw the pitch I was already shaking my head. It was so obvious. I can’t believe we gave into the script.

Will The Guys We Paid Perform?: I’ve complained about the performance of Antonio Bastardo and Alejandro De Aza more than a few times this season. They both got into the action last night. Bastardo pitched a scoreless inning and De Aza hit an 8th inning pinch hit solo dinger. De Aza managed to survive yesterday despite the vast majority of people calling for his head when Reyes was promoted. I was not calling for his head. You know what I’d like? How about these two jerks have a big second half? We paid these two guys. They have major league track records. They have historically not sucked. Maybe it’s time they stop sucking. I’m going to hope for that. I’ll never trust them in a big spot because I’ve already seen the ugly stretch. I’ve seen them at their worst. But turn it around. We kind of need them to work out. They were part of Sandy’s plan.

All-Stars: The All Star rosters were officially announced last night. Yoenis Cespedes will start in the outfield and Noah Syndergaard/Jeurys Familia will be on the pitching staff. They are the obvious Mets All Stars. They are the best players on the team. I hope Terry pitches the other NL arms into the ground for a change.

Reyes Return: Jose Reyes returned last night and went 0 for 4 at the plate. He didn’t get a single opportunity at third base. I really only have two points on Reyes. I’m kind of surprised we brought him back so quickly. I figured we’d give him some time to actually learn his new position and get his bat up to speed. Nope. Looks like he’s just going to do that here right when the offense finally got a little momentum. Oh well. I guess ticket sales trumped commen sense. The second point is I’m really surprised people make signs and give him a heroes welcome. It’s one thing to reluctantly accept something you have no control over. It’s another thing to essentially celebrate the return of Reyes like some sort of victory for the team and some sort of personal victory. I understand the nostalgia. I understand people getting excited because they used to root for him. But I’ve actually seen and heard people celebrating the return of Reyes like they won something. As if his return proves some point they personally were trying to make. I’m not sure what that point is and frankly I don’t want to know.

Today: It’s nice to have Jacob deGrom on the mound in a rubber game against a division foe at home. Let’s win today at 1:10.

Just Give Cespedes His Money Now

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On July 4th 2016, Yoenis Cespedes did what he’s been doing for the Mets for over 130 games at this point. He sparked the offense, had clutch hits, and won the team a baseball game. The Mets had arguably their most impressive victory of the season yesterday. Before the end of the third inning, they were down 6-0 to the Marlins. Matt Harvey gave up 11 hits, 6 runs (5ER) over 3.2 innings. He continued what has been an unimpressive campaign in his second season removed from Tommy John surgery.

But despite being down 6-0, the Mets were able to crawl back and eventually win this ball game. Travis d’Arnaud and Curtis Granderson hit solo homers in the fourth and fifth inning respectively. That made it 6-2 Marlins. In the sixth inning, the Mets got to the Marlins bullpen. Travis d’Arnaud hit an RBI single and Kelly Johnson hit into a run scoring double play to make it 6-4. It was at this point that Yoenis Cespedes took the team on his back and contributed the big hits that were needed. In the 7th inning, Neil Walker walked and Yo hit a huge double to make it second and third with nobody out. That set up a James Loney RBI groundout and a Wilmer Flores sac fly to make it 6-6. Then in the 8th inning, d’Arnaud drew a leadoff walk. Juan Lagares then sacrificed him over to second base in what was a close play at first that was originally called safe, challenged, and ultimately ruled a sac bunt. Then with two outs Neil Walker was walked (again), and Yoenis Cespedes crushed a double to score d’Arnaud and Lagares to make it 8-6. The double was Yo’s third hit of the game. 8-6 was the final score.

Almost every member of the bullpen stepped up and combined to toss 5.1 scoreless innings of relief. The bullpen was huge in the effort to bail out Harvey. But there’s just no way the Mets score enough runs to win that game without Cespedes. We could probably say that sentence for a majority of the team’s wins in 2016. I have always been firmly in the “pay Cespedes whatever he wants” camp. But I think considering the MVP level 2016 campaign he is putting together, we’ve reached that point in the season where it’s time to be more vocal about the need to lock him up.

Cespedes is the only true undisputed impact bat (franchise bat? elite bat? choose whichever cliché you want) in this Mets lineup. Without him this team doesn’t make the playoffs last year and is barely a Wild Card contender at this point in the season. I still have no idea why he didn’t receive any market value offers this past offseason. I have no idea why the Nationals didn’t up their offer so it had a higher Net Present Value than the Mets 3 year deal. Part of me thinks Cespedes dealt with a little bit of the Daniel Murphy effect. I’m not trying to compare the actual career production of these two players at all. But I am saying that teams may have been hesitant to pay Murph and Cespedes because of enormous spikes in production relative to their career numbers over the last year or so.

Murph’s 14 regular season home runs last year combined with his 7 postseason home runs certainly represented a spike in power production when you consider his previous season high was 13 (in 2013). When you look at that and then you consider his 14 home runs in 2016 along with his .347/.387/.579 batting line through 81 games, the production starts to become a little more than a product of small sample size. Yoenis Cespedes has had a similar spike in 2015-16. He’s been hitting between .290-.300 for a season and a half at this point and posting an OPS close to .900. He’s on pace for 40 home runs. This is a guy who hit .240 in 2013 and .260 in 2014 and never hit more than 26 long balls before his 35 home run campaign last year. Daniel Murphy is 31 years old and Cespedes is 30. I can understand that teams might be skeptical that these two players will sustain these late career production spikes in the short term and over the course of a long term deal.

I also think regardless of whether you feel it should, the poor 2016 performance by Matt Harvey may impact the Mets decision to sign Cespedes. It seemed unlikely before the season that Matt Harvey was going to sign a contract extension with the Mets because he’s a Scott Boras client, and also because he was under team control for another 3 years. Well based on his performance so far this year, it seems almost impossible that he will sign any type of extension in the near future. He’s certainly not going to lock up a deal with his value at an all time low, and I don’t think the Mets are going to be inclined to pay him right now either.

Assuming the Mets financial resources are somewhat limited (which seems to consistently be the case) the team might be more inclined than ever to use their additional revenue to extend Cespedes rather than plan to save funds for a future Harvey deal. Again, the two deals should not be linked because the Mets should spend whatever is necessary to field a winning product. I think in the long run, a winning product should include Cespedes and Harvey. But we must be realistic and acknowledge that any long term contracts they give out will undoubtedly diminish the chances that they give out more of them. If the Mets are actually debating whether to devote future resources to Cespedes or Harvey, 2016 may fully tip the scales in Yo’s direction.

The bottom line is Yo is going to opt out of his contract at season’s end, and I think it’s safe to assume a lot of teams are going to bet on his 2015-16 level of production continuing. I think the majority of teams are going to want to add his franchise bat to their lineup. He’s only enhanced his value this season by showing that he can at least hold his own as a center fielder. The Wilpons need to grab their checkbook, call Roc Nation, and add whatever number of years and dollars he wants to his current deal so they remove the opt out and ensure the Mets keep him in the lineup for the next 6 years or so. I don’t care about the bad back end of the deal. I don’t care that he may throw his back out at the driving range. We need to make this happen ASAP and avoid an offseason bidding war. The guy is a warrior and a star. He’s the heart of the offense, and I want to be able to see him launching upper deck moon shots at Citi Field for years to come.

Jose Fernandez Strikes Out The World

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Final Score: Marlins 1, Mets 0

There’s not much to recap in this game. Jose Fernandez absolutely dismantled the Mets over 7 innings. He gave up 4 hits and struck out 14. The Mets really didn’t have a chance to do anything offensively in this game. Curtis Granderson hit a two out double in the first but Jose retired Neil Walker to end the inning. In the 7th inning, Michael Conforto and James Loney hit back to back two out singles. Fernandez struck out Wilmer Flores to end that threat. The bottom line is the Mets took 2 out of 3 in Miami, and that’s fantastic in my book. They also did to the Marlins what they failed to do against the Dodgers at home. They won the two games that didn’t involve untouchable aces. The Mets lost to Clayton Kershaw, and they lost to Jose Fernandez. So does every other team in the league. We must tip our cap and move on to the next series.

HarveyDay Back: Matt Harvey pitched great, didn’t get any run support, and got the L. That’s classic HarveyDay. He didn’t really have his strike out stuff working today as he only put away three Marlins. But he was almost as effective as Fernandez this afternoon. He went 7 innings, gave up 4 hits and gave up one run. He made a mistake in the fifth inning. He gave up a one out double to Derek Dietrich and then an RBI single to J.T. Realmuto. That was all it took for Fernandez to get the win.

Asdrubal’s Knee: In the 8th inning Ichiro Suzuki got picked off by Antonio Bastardo and he slid into Asdrubal Cabrera at second base. His head smashed into Cabrera’s knee. Cabrera hobbled off the field but stayed in the game. The Mets roster is littered with blue eyed corpses.

Lagares Dunzo: Juan Lagares is heading to New York to get an MRI on the thumb he injured during yesterday’s game. Might as well zip up that body bag and send him to the DL aka the morgue. Poor Juanny. I cursed him in my series preview by talking about how great of a season he’s been having in this reserve role.

D’Arnaud Stands Up: Rumor has it that Travis d’Arnaud finally stood up in Port St. Lucie and took a few baby steps without having his legs shatter beneath him. Mr. Glass is even going to DH in some Florida State League games. They say he’ll be back in three weeks. Yeah right.

Not Chapman: The Metssiah called this over a month ago, but the Nationals are supposedly eagerly awaiting a Yankees trade deadline sell off so they can trade for Aroldis Chapman. If that comes to fruition, it’s going to be absolutely terrible for the Mets. Hopefully Chapman does steroids or something and gets suspended so he can’t be traded.

Tomorrow: The Mets head to Pittsburgh now to face the Pirates and our old friend Jon Niese. This is a big road series against a top NL team. The Mets need to keep the road momentum going.

Mets Win But Dropping Like Flies

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Final Score: Mets 6, Marlins 4

What a big road series win for the New York Mets. After a dog crap homestand, this was exactly what the Mets needed to get back on track.

Sexy Could Have Been Hotter: This wasn’t the best start we’ve seen from Bartolo Colon in 2016. He went 5 innings, gave up 5 hits and 2 runs (1 ER). He surrendered a solo blast to Martin Prado in the first inning to make it 1-0 Marlins. In the second inning, Tolo gave up a single to Justin Boar, a double to J.T. Realmuto, and walked Miguel Rojas to load the bases. Then the pitcher Justin Nicolino hit a ball to Wilmer Flores at third base. He threw home, and Bour should have been out on the force. Plawecki kind of forgot what was going on, took his foot off home plate, and tried to tag the runner. It was called a missed catch error on Kevin Plawecki. That made it 2-0 Marlins. Plawecki is really struggling. He needs some seasoning big time.

Sub-Hero: James Loney and Wilmer Flores came through again in game 2 of this series. They each had three hits. In the fourth inning, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a leadoff single. Then with one out, Wilmer Flores singled to set up a first and third situation for James Loney. Loney singled to drive in Asdrubal and make it 2-1. In the 6th inning Neil Walker singled, Wilmer Flores singled, and then James Loney singled to load the bases. Michael Conforto then hit a sac fly to make it 2-2.

Robles Is El Stinko: In the 6th inning, Hansel Robles struck out the first two batters. Then he walked the next two batters and gave up an RBI double to Miguel Rojas. That made it 3-2 Marlins.

Sub-Hero continued: In the 8th inning, James Loney led off with a double and Michael Conforto singled to drive him in and make it 3-3. Then Kevin Plawecki struck out and Alejandro De Aza grounded out. The Marlins followed that with an intentional walk to Curtis Granderson and Matt Reynolds made them pay with a pinch hit single to make it 4-3. In the 9th inning, Neil Walker walked and Flores singled. With Walker and Flores at second and third with two outs, Kevin Plawecki walked. Alejandro De Aza then doubled in Walker and Flores to make it 6-3.

Dropping Like Flies Part 1: Yoenis Cespedes was scratched from the game with a sore hip. He says it’s fine, and he’s dealt with this before. Greeaaaat. Rub some tiger balm on that bad boy. Without him we are finished.

Dropping Like Flies Part 2: In the 6th inning, Juan Lagares made a run saving diving catch on an Ichiro pinch hit appearance. He hurt his thumb diving and later got pulled. No word yet on the severity of his injury.

Dropping Like Flies Part 3: Asdrubal Cabrera said his forearm tightened up during the game. He’s supposedly fine too. Jesus Christ. The injuries just won’t stop.

NL Least: The Nationals lost again to the Reds and dropped 2 out of 3. The Mets just took 2 out of 3 from Miami at home. NL Least baby!

Today: HarveyDay. I’m excited. Matt Harvey started to turn the ol’ season around last time out against the White Sox. Let’s hope his success continues today. As I said in the series preview, Jose Fernandez is dominating every team in the league right now on the mound. Good thing we already won the series!

Mets Backups Step Up In Win

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Final Score: Mets 6, Marlins 2

Backups Step Up: Well well well. Yesterday I wrote about how the Mets are only going to overcome their injury woes if the people they’ve penciled in as “depth” actually do their job. In particular I said a lot of this season is riding on whether Wilmer can step the hell up and return to form. Well last night against Tom Koehler, the subs showed up to play. Other than Asdrubal Cabrera who got the Mets scoring started in the 4th with a solo bomb, it was the Wilmer Flores, James Loney and Rene Rivera show. After the Cabrera bomb, Yoenis Cespedes singled and Neil Walker got hit on the foot by a pitch. The struggling Michael Conforto hit into a double play. With Cespedes on third and two outs, Wilmer Flores picked up a huge two out RBI single to right field. That gave the Mets a 2-0 lead. In the 7th, Wilmer Flores walked and James Loney crushed a two run bomb to make it 4-2. In the 9th, Wilmer Flores crushed a leadoff double and with one out, Rene Rivera cranked a two run insurance jack to make it 6-2. Those were all the runs the Mets needed. Wilmer went 2 for 3 with a walk and Loney was 2 for 4.

Like Loney, Like Murph: James Loney is a contact hitter who can take a walk. The Mets gave him number 28. Before Murphtober, that’s pretty much how we would have described Daniel Murphy. Here’s Murphy’s career batting line .294/.336/.435. Here’s Loney’s career batting line .285/.338/.411. Umm pretty pretty similar. Hell they even have a similar batting stance:


Maybe Kevin Long can sprinkle some of his leftover magic Murph home run dust on Loney. Whatever he’s done so far it worked for Loney last night.

Aces Gonna Ace: Noah Syndergaard is the ace of this staff, and he just did his thing last night. He went 7 innings, gave up 2 runs on 6 hits, and he struck out 9. He made a mistake pitch to Marcell Ozuna in the second and Ozuna hit a solo bomb. He also made an error in that inning when he covered first and dropped the throw allowing Adeiny Hechavarria to reach base safely. It didn’t matter because he struck out the next two guys. He also gave up a sac fly to Ozuna in the 6th. That tied the game 2-2. Ultimately he gave the Mets everything they needed last night.

Rene: As I said in the series preview, I think Rivera is going to draw way more starts that Plawecki now. These pitchers like throwing to him. Even Rivera couldn’t stop guys from stealing on Thor last night though. Ichiro stole second and third base and J.T. Realmuto stole a base.

Cespedes Reminder: Yoenis Cespedes was briefly struggling at the plate before this series. He went 2 for 4 last night. He was involved in all the action on offense. The Mets scored six runs and won. Obviously when Yo is hitting the entire lineup hits. It is known. He really loves hitting in Miami.

Miguan Lagarto: Michael Conforto is really struggling offensively at the moment. He’s going to fight through it. I’m sure the Juan Lagares end of Terry’s favorite platoon will draw more starts if Conforto’s struggles continue.

Reed Locked In: Addison Reed is like the best reliever in the league. I’m not even kidding. He’s got a 1.82 ERA. He’s averaging over 12 Ks per 9 innings. He’s been untouchable. I kind of don’t get it. He throws 93 MPH down the middle. I guess he locates his pitches and hides the ball well. I hope this turns out to be the Mets bullpen trade Sandy is remembered for and not a two month fluke.

Today: Bartolo Colon goes tonight. We face a lefty. We should probably start hitting lefties tonight. Also the Nats lost to the Reds yesterday. Baaahahaha.

Series Preview: NL Least Rumble In Miami

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The Mets went 14-15 in the month of May and the Marlins went 15-14. What does that mean? It means the NL Least is back. Frankly, it never left. East is the name and mediocrity is the game. The NL East rodeo of mediocrity also means that a rough series or stretch can flip flop the standing in a finger snap. So this road series is important. The Marlins are 6-4 in their last 10 games. Last weekend they lost 2 out of 3 in Atlanta, but this week they came home and took 3 out of 4 against the Pirates. In other words, the Marlins are somewhat hot and the Mets are not.  The Mets lost 4 out of 6 on the homestand. Everyone is hurt. But if the mafia has taught us anything, it’s that a good old fashioned trip to Miami can be a great way to unwind and escape the heat of the New York microscope.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Noah Syndergaard vs. Tom Koehler

Tom Koehler hasn’t faced the Mets yet this year. He’s 3-5 with a 4.50 ERA. He gave up 8 runs in 2.1 innings against the Brewers on May 1st. That really inflated his ERA. He’s gone 5+ innings and surrendered 3 or fewer runs in all 5 starts since that outing. The Mets faced him 5 times in 2015. He tossed two quality starts in those games, and in the other three he got rocked and failed to make it to the fifth inning. Notable Matchups: Yoenis Cespedes is 3 for 8, Michael Conforto is 2 for 7, Wilmer Flores is 3 for 11, Curtis Granderson is 5 for 22, and Juan Lagares is 6 for 23.

There’s not much to preview when it comes to Noah Syndergaard. He’s pitching like a Cy Young candidate. In April he faced the Marlins at Citi Field. He went 7 innings, gave up 1 run, and struck out 12. He got a no decision in that game, and we ended up losing 2-1. It was one of the most demoralizing losses of the season, and that’s saying a lot considering how bad the two losses were against the White Sox this week. In that April game, the Mets couldn’t score with their “fully loaded” lineup. With the way our offense is sputtering, Thor will probably pitch nine scoreless innings and get the L. That is unless Thor decides to throw at people again and gets tossed from the game.

Game 2: Bartolo Colon vs. Justin Nicolino

Bartolo Colon has not faced Miami in 2016, but he faced them six times in 2015. He went 4-2 with a 2.49 ERA. I’m confident Big Sexy will fire a quality start. Justin Nicolino is a left hander who faced the Mets once in September of 2015. He went 6 innings, gave up 3 runs, and Yoenis Cespedes hit a home run off of him. He’s only made 3 starts on the season and he’s 2-0 with a 2.79 ERA. He replaced Jarred Cosart in the Marlins rotation. The Mets haven’t hit lefties all season and aren’t hitting any pitchers lately. So this could be trouble.

Game 3: Matt Harvey vs. Jose Fernandez

Jose Fernandez is 8-2 with a 2.53 ERA in the season. He’s been on the same level as Thor, Clayton Kershaw, and Jake Arrieta in 2016. In fact he matched Thor inning for inning in that April start I mentioned above. In his start on Tuesday he went 7 scoreless innings, gave up 3 hits and struck out 6 without a walk. Fernandez has won seven straight starts, and in his last five starts he is 5-0 with a 0.79 ERA. Matt Harvey finally had a breakout start against the White Sox on Memorial Day. He went 7 scoreless innings, gave up 2 hits, and struck out 6. I’d be confident in Harvey if he hadn’t struggled so much before his most recent start. That combined with the fact that Jose Fernandez has been unbeatable at home makes this a tough matchup.

Things To Look For:

Hot Marlins: Marcell Ozuna has been crushing it all season long. He’s hitting .328 with 10 home runs and 27 RBIs. Martin Prado is hitting .323 on the season. Christian Yelich is hitting .313 with 5 home runs on the season. J.T. Realmuto is hitting .299 on the season.

Giancarlo: Giancarlo Stanton will be back in the lineup this weekend. He missed 7 games recently due to injury. He’s hit 12 homers and 26 RBIs on the season, but he’s hitting .210. He’s struggling. He’s battled injuries which is pretty much par for the course. I’m sure he’ll be back to launching dingers against the Mets this weekend.

Grandy Yay: Curtis Granderson has been hitting lately. He’s hitting .286 in his last 7 games and making some good hard contact.

No Bark From Big Dogs: On the flip side, Michael Conforto is 1 for his last 15 and Yoenis Cespedes is 1 for his last 19. Half of our regulars are out with back problems, but it seems like Yo and Conforto have finally started to fizzle after carrying the team on their backs all season.

Rene Gonna Play: I wonder if Terry will start Rene Rivera twice in this series. Rivera has been nailing base stealers non-stop and calling great games lately. Rivera and Lagares are seemingly our only above average defenders.

David’s Gone: David Wright will officially go on the DL before this series. They said he’s out 4-6 weeks. Hopefully that’s not 4-6 weeks in “d’Arnaud years”. The team literally said “extended absence”. That actually means out forever. Matt Reynolds will take his place on the roster. I’m surprised they promoted Reynolds again because the Mets originally planned to promote relatively unknown minor league infielder Rick Canball. The Mets like his “exceptional contact rate” and “versatility”.

Excelled In His Role: In a post full of negativity, I’d like to take a moment and praise Juan Lagares. Juan has been exceptional so far this season hitting .280/.322/.415 in 88 PA. But this is a reminder. Don’t be fooled when they say things on TV like, “Juan Lagares is having a great season. It’s a shame that he needs to battle for playing time on this team. He’s wasting away on the bench.” Nope. That’s BS. He’s excelling this season because he’s on the bench. He’s finally in the right role. Good for him.

Pen Out Of Ink: Hansel Robles, Jeurys Familia, and the rest of the pen have struggled the last couple weeks after a burning hot start to the season. Let’s hope the Miami sun helps them regain some fire.

Bahamas: The papers ran a headline today talking about how Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and a few other Mets took a day trip to the Bahamas before this series against the Marlins. The paper was trying to stir the pot once again asking what these guys were doing in the Bahamas and particularly what Thor was doing there the day before a start. Umm they’re probably swimming. Maybe drinking. Maybe they went to buy chachkies at the airport. Who the hell cares? I’m hoping they all went to recruit some famous Bahamian slugger. We need that most of all. We should be searching far and wide for a solution on offense.

Mets Salvage Finale; Learning To Score Again?

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You’re doing it Mets!!!

Final Score: Mets 2, Marlins 1

First off, the game ball goes to Logan Verrett for his exceptional pinch start in place of Jacob deGrom. He was dominant, and all his pitches looked great. His slider was nasty. I love our pitching depth. We are so #blessed in the pitching department.

The offense was pathetic again. It’s painful to watch us hit. But…we finally got a clutch hit! We only got one, but one clutch hit was all we needed today. The hit came in the 7th inning. Wilmer Flores singled and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Asdrubal Cabrera singled to get him to third base. Juan Lagares grounded out softly to the pitcher who got the out at first base. But then Kevin Plawecki came through with a clutch hit to score Flores and Cabrera. Jesus Christ it felt good. Plawecki then copied Lucas Duda from yesterday and got thrown out trying to make it a double. But the runs scored.

The offense really stinks man. We blew chances again. In the 4th, we had two singles to start the inning from Curtis Granderson and David Wright. And Neil Walker singled to load the bases with one out. But Wilmer Flores and Asdrubal Cabrera couldn’t do anything. In the 9th, we got two men on with one out, but Alejandro De Aza lined into a double play. We have been so scoring impaired.

In the 8th inning, Yoenis Cespedes jumped into the stands in an attempt to catch a foul ball and speared a bunch of fans. For a guy who allegedly “doesn’t hustle”, he was hustling like it’s October. If you spent five minutes in Panic City with me you would understand why he’s going so hard. Everybody was ok. Thank the old gods and the new. Then Terry brought in Jeurys Familia for a 5 out save. Again, everyone just pretending it’s October. The Marlins scratched out a run when Familia gave up a hit to Justin Boar which scored one of the runners he inherited. But that was it. We salvaged a game in this abysmal three game set at home. Hooray.

The Jerry Manuel Managing Excellence Award: In the 7th, Terry pulled Verrett with a reasonable pitch count and brought in Jim Henderson. The same Henderson who is coming back from shoulder surgery and had a career high pitch count yesterday. I have to believe Carlos Torres and Pedro Feliciano both felt a disturbance in the force when TC brought in Henderson. As you would expect, Henderson had nothing in the tank and gave up a single and two walks before being pulled for Hansel Robles. Hansel Robles and Jerry Blevins somehow managed to maneuver us out of the inning and save the team from Terry’s mind blowing blunder. I thought it was simply going to be the offense that blew this game, but Terry decided to toss his hat in the ring.

Wilmer At First Base: Wilmer Flores made a gorgeous play at first base in the 5th inning. He looked good out there which is reassuring considering this was his first career major league start there, and he barely spent any time at the position this spring. Also, on a related note, the Pirates designated first basemen and outfielder Michael Morse for assignment. If he becomes available at the league minimum, the Mets should take a flyer on him instead of bringing back Soup.

Let’s Just Wait: I want to try and draw conclusions about our offense. But it’s just too early to do that. I think we are just starting in a collective unlucky funk, and it’s as simple as that. It certainly doesn’t mean our offensive scheme will eventually operate flawlessly. But we need a larger sample size to draw a real conclusion.

Tomorrow: We are off tomorrow. Then on to Cleveland to face their elite pitching. That could be trouble.

Shameful Mets Do Nothing To Support Dominant Thor

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Shame, Shame, Shame…

Final Score: Marlins 2, Mets 1

This was by far the Metsiest game of the season. It was really the first game where we had a bunch of opportunities to score and straight up squandered every one. Noah Syndergaard had one of the best starts of his career. He went 7 innings with 12 strikeouts and only 1 walk. He got every big K he needed all game long. But we failed to give him any support. It was an utterly disgraceful performance by our offense.

And as I said, we had many opportunities. In the first inning we got a leadoff double from Curtis Granderson. David Wright walked. Then Yoenis Cespedes struck out, but Lucas Duda picked him up by slashing an RBI single. Unfortunately bonehead Duda got thrown out trying to advance to second base. It was a terrible baserunning blunder. Neil Walker grounded out to end the inning, and we ended up with one pathetic run to show for getting the first two batters on base.

In the second inning, Michael Conforto got a leadoff walk. Travis d’Arnaud got a 1 out single. Thor sac bunted them both into scoring position. Then Grandy walked to load the bases. And after doing so much last night, Captain Wright couldn’t get it done. He flew out, and we wasted another early opportunity. We blew our chances against the Marlins ace Jose Fernandez when he was visibly struggling with his command on the mound. Absolutely unforgivable.

In the third inning, the wind stole a leadoff home run from Cespedes. He tossed his bat and started admiring it, and it died right at the wall. Mother Nature is so cruel. She stops the rain so we can watch Thor dominate, but her wind kills our best chance at a second run.

The Marlins tied the game in the 4th inning. It all started on a ground ball by Marcell Ozuna to second basemen Neil Walker in the hole between 1st and 2nd that led to a close play at first. Unfortunately Duda’s foot came off the bag during the stretch and the challenge led to the first base runner. Then the Marlins grounded into a couple of force outs. But with two outs they got two straight singles by Justin Bour and Derek Dietrich that led to their run. Thor managed to strike out Adeiny Hechavarria to end the threat.

In the bottom of the 6th, we had another opportunity when Mattingly yanked Jose Fernandez from the game. Cespedes got a leadoff hit. Duda struck out like a jerk, but then Walker singled. And of course Michael Conforto followed that up with a big fat double play. Some people wondered why Juan Lagares didn’t get a pinch hit opportunity against the lefty Craig Breslow, but you keep Conforto in the game there. I don’t want to hear about hitting splits and crap.

In the 8th inning, the Marlins finally took the lead. Dee Gordon led off with a 16 pitch AB that included fouling off 11 straight pitches before flaring a little BS hit off of Jim Henderson. Then after getting one out, Henderson walked a couple to load the bases and Jerry Blevins gave up a sac fly to give the Marlins the lead for good.

And that was it. The Mets didn’t do anything on offense the rest of the way. We went out with a pathetic whimper.

World Series Throwback: In the 7th inning, Asdrubal Cabrera made an amazing play on a ball Ichiro hit in the hole at short and threw to first but Ichiro beat the throw. But Derek Dietrich, who had been on second base, sprinted home and Duda in a World Series déjà vu moment made the throw home. But this time it was on time and on target to the plate. Better late than never (inserts gun in mouth).

We Are Struggggling: Lose two series against NL Least teams at home? Check. On the verge of getting swept by the Marlins at home? Yup. This is a brutal start. You know who’s not off to a brutal start? Daniel Murphy and the Nationals. We better shape up because the race for the division is 162 games. They all count. Hopefully this is a blip on the radar. But getting a dominant performance from our ace and then not scoring any runs to support said ace was the groundhog’s day story of pre-Cespedes 2015. We definitely cannot allow that to be the 2016 narrative for any extended stretch of time. If that happens then we stink.

Everyone’s A Damn Psychic: I saw literally a billion of the same tweet. “Umm friendly reminder, I told you Thor was going to win the Cy Young this year.” Thanks for your bold prediction everyone. You all really went out on a limb predicting that a guy who dominated in the 2015 playoffs and throws 100 MPH is going to win the Cy Young award.

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Hit Some Dingers: Umm I don’t mean to get all scientific here, but we have two home runs this season. That’s our team number. That is not enough. We are really struggling to get anything going on offense. We have so many accomplished hitters, I can’t imagine this drought goes on all season long. I certainly hope it’s not some sort of fundamental flaw in our offensive dynamic. Best not to think about it. After all, do you want to know the terrifying truth about the Mets, or do you want to see them sock a few dingers?

Tomorrow: We have a day game to close out the series with Logan Verrett on the mound. Jesus Christ can we salvage one game? Please?