Tag: mets

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.

Mets Call In “The Bomb Squad” Again; Take Series In Philly

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Final Score: Mets 11, Phillies 1

Ding, ding, ding. The New York Mets Bomb Squad makes another appearance tonight. All eleven of our runs came from home runs. In the first inning, David Wright doubled and Michael Conforto muscled a two run homer out of Citizens Bank Park.

In the top of the 3rd, Logan Verrett reached base on an error. Then with two outs, Conforto singled and Yoenis Cespedes hit a three run blast to make it 5-0.

In the top of the 6th, Neil Walker hit a right-handed home run to make it 6-0.

In the 7th, Cespedes walked and Lucas Duda hit his second bomb of the season after hitting his first yesterday. He’s finally going streaking! Neil Walker followed Duda’s bomb with his second home run of the game to make it 9-0. This was the second day in a row the Mets had back to back home runs. I’m sure somebody will look up the last time that happened, but it’s definitely been a while. To cap off the inning, somebody woke Eric Campbell up from his evening nap on the bench, and he got a pinch hit single. Then Curtis Granderson hit a two run homer to make it 11-0 and give us a 5 run inning.

Verrett The Intern: Logan Verrett was absolutely fantastic tonight with six scoreless innings. And he’s been great in both of his fill-in starts for Jacob deGrom. It’s pretty obvious this guy knows how to pitch (at least against bad teams like the Phillies). Honestly, as soon as we booted Dillon Gee out of town, it was pretty clear that Verrett was just the young upstart intern that could do the exact same job as old man Gee for half the price. Dillon was like “This is crap. I don’t want to work out of the bullpen! I earned this job. I’ve been here for years!” And the Mets just kicked him to the curb in favor of the cheap labor. They showed absolutely no loyalty for all the years old man Gee gave us because they knew what Verrett could do. You gotta love capitalism.

Live By The Dinger, Die By The Dinger: So far this season, the Mets offensive output has been via the home run. We are bottom five in team average with runners in scoring position. We have not been some contact oriented team. We have not been a station to station team. We have been high risk, high reward. It’s been dingers or strikeouts. Now, that may not be the way things are all season long. Again this is a small sample size. That being said, we are a team full of guys who historically have hit 15-25 home runs, strikeout a bunch, and bat .260. And I am including Yoenis Cespedes in that group because that’s the kind of player he has been since he came over from Cuba. I am totally cool being a live by the dinger die by the dinger team with the pitching we have at our disposal. We just better hope the home runs are coming when we play the big games down the stretch this season. I’ve seen plenty of recent Yankee teams fizzle out because of the home run dependent strategy.

Kevin Long Did It: Speaking of home runs, Kevin Long did it. Neil Walker has hit three home runs from the right side of the plate because Kevin Long apparently fixed some timing mechanical thing with his swing. Curtis Granderson and Lucas Duda look like they’re coming around after their home runs today. I tried to reach Long for comment, but he was in the middle of his evening confidence massage where Cespedes rubs his shoulders and tells him he’s the hitting coach spark we’ve been waiting for all these years.

Relax It’s Philly: We are playing the Phillies. Let’s not forget that we are supposed to beat them up. The home opening series was an embarrassing setback. Now we are back on track. And by the way, we can’t just attribute all these home runs to Citizens Bank Park. For the most part they’ve been no doubters. Conforto’s first inning home run and Walker’s second homer of the game may have been park aided. But the rest were absolutely crushed.

Montero Mop Up: Rafael Montero came in for mop up duty and looked awful. I’m assuming he’s an overhyped bust of a prospect until I see some results. But his crummy pitching performance did give us the chance to see Juan Lagares take away a three run homer from Maikel Franco. Frankly I forgot Juan was on the team. As the season rolls on, Terry is going to have to find a way to get him some action to keep him fresh.

Tomorrow: His Sexiness Bartolo Colon is on the mound. Let’s sweep them. NL Least!!

Mets Beat Philly; Wright Is CEO Of Citizens Bank

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Final Score: Mets 5, Phillies 2

I talked about how David Wright loves hitting in Philly in the series preview. Well the CEO of Citizens Bank Park hit a first inning solo home run to give us the 1-0 lead, and he added a second solo dinger in the top of the 9th for our fifth run. He now has 22 career long balls at Citizens Bank.

I talked in the series preview about how Lucas Duda has been his typical streaky self so far this season. So far he’s been streaking in the bad direction. That was until he broke out tonight. He had an opposite field double in the 6th inning to drive in Yoenis Cespedes making it 2-1. Then in the 8th inning, he launched his first home run. The exit velocity was 112 MPH. It was an absolute laser bomb. And Neil Walker went back to back with an opposite field solo shot to make it 4-1. Walker leads the team with 4 home runs. We already knew that Neil Walker had a hell of an MLB resume. But he’s come out of the gate strong in New York and had real positive results. That’s huge and not every player who comes here can say that.

The offense was great to see tonight considering we didn’t support Noah Syndergaard in his last dominant performance. Tonight he went 7 innings, gave up a run, and struck out 8. Thor is really on another level in 2016. He was dominating all spring, and he’s kept that going into the season. He’s striking out everyone. Right now, we are lucky to be witnessing his dominance. I hope this is the start to a special season for him, and ultimately a special career.

Philly Can Pitch: Jerad Eickhoff was not too shabby tonight in his matchup against Syndergaard. He almost matched him frame for frame going 7 innings, giving up 2 runs and striking out 9. His hammer rivaled that of Thor. Between his three quality starts against us in 2015 and his two solid outings this season, he’s showing the Mets that the Phillies starting rotation needs to be taken seriously.

Cappy Keeps Raking, Grandy Keeps Mopping: Asdrubal Cabrera had 3 hits tonight. He’s batting .349. Curtis Granderson went 0-4 with 2 Ks. He’s hitting .143. The law of averages is such a real thing. The Grandy/Cappy roller coaster ride to .260 should be fun. 

Natural Born Reliever: Antonio Bastardo aka Anthony Sand struck out the side in the 8th inning. His velocity looked good as he was hitting 93 MPH. His three pitch strikeout of Maikel Franco was straight up nasty.

Tomorrow: Vincent Velasquez will be tough tomorrow. With Eickhoff and Velasquez, the Phillies have starters that strike people out, and we have some hitters that are susceptible to the K. Hopefully Logan Verrett keeps us in this game like he did in his last spot start and our offense continues to display the power.