Mets Lose On Walk-Off Homer; Cespedes Survives


Final Score: Dodgers 3, Mets 2

The Mets lost last night on a Trayce Thompson pinch hit ninth inning walk-off home run with two outs. Honestly, the outcome of the game itself became less meaningful to me once Yoenis Cespedes rolled his ankle in the 6th inning while returning to first base to beat a pickoff attempt. He rolled the ankle, he fell, he grabbed his leg and all I could think was “well the season’s over”. In the end he stayed in the game and afterwards he said he was completely fine. But the moment of injury uncertainty served as a reminder of how things can go south for the Mets in an instant. No matter what anyone says, don’t be fooled. The entire offense is built on Cespedes being in the middle of the lineup. We already watched four months of this team without Cespedes. The 2015 pre-Cespedes offense was unwatchable and anemic. Sure this season’s team is better. We have Michael Conforto and Asdrubal Cabrera. We have a better team in 2016. But we live and die on offense with Yo. So today, just be grateful that the baseball gods smiled upon us and we live to play another day with La Potencia.

DeGrom Grits and Jam: Jacob deGrom gave the Mets a gritty 7 inning performance and surrendered 2 runs. His fastball velocity was back up around 94 MPH. He surrendered both runs during a rough first inning. Chase Utley led off the game with an opposite field double and Corey Seager doubled to drive him in. Seager advanced to third base on a Justin Turner groundout. And then Adrian Gonzalez got a sac fly to make it 2-0. DeGrom battled out of jams in the second, third and fourth innings.

Alex Wood and Buttley Utley gave the runs right back to the Mets in the second inning. Yoenis Cespedes and Wilmer Flores both singled to start the inning. Then Michael Conforto reached on a terrible throwing error by dirtbag Utley. Cespedes scored on the error as well. Kevin Plawecki followed with a single that scored Flores and just like that the score was tied at two.

We Blew It: The Mets were 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position in this game. They didn’t hit any dingers tonight. This is what people mean when they say live by the long ball, die by the long ball. We are 4-8 in games when we don’t put the ball in the seats. That doesn’t mean home runs are bad. Obviously a home run is superior to any other hit. But we can’t ignore the reality that when we fail to hit home runs we often fail to score runs entirely.

Cespedes Cannon: Speaking of Cespedes’ survival, he made a great catch of a Yasiel Puig ball to the wall in the fourth inning, and he gunned down Adrian Gonzalez in the 5th trying to stretch a single off the centerfield wall into a double. He’s the most talented man on the field day in and day out.

Corner Boy: I understand that Terry gave Curtis Granderson the night off and preferred to play Juan Lagares in right field instead of playing Cespedes or Conforto at an unfamiliar outfield position. But I still really hate when Juan starts in a corner spot and Yo plays centerfield. I stand by the assertion that our gold glove outfielders should play where they earned their gold gloves. That being said, Cespedes made a bunch of great plays in center last night so it’s hard to argue that the alignment hurt us yesterday.

Poopy Lineup: Just a friendly reminder that I hate when Eric Campbell plays because he stinks. He went 0 for 3 with 2 Ks.

Gee Starts Now: On the ex-Mets front, the Royals are officially plugging Dillon Gee into their rotation and moving Chris Young to the bullpen. Dayton Moore is such a hoarder of mediocre back end starting pitchers. I bet his garage is full of piles of 5th starters from the last 20 years that he “might need someday”.

Juicing Accountability?: Raul Mondesi Jr. got a 50 game suspension for a banned substance and was able to negotiate it down from 80 to 50 because he proved it was from cold medicine. He said, “There are no excuses for my carelessness in not being fully informed of what I put in my body.” I just want to note that the statement from Mondesi is all I really want from these players. I’m not going to debate whether the positive test was from cold medicine or not. That’s for the league to decide. But at least the guy admitted he screwed up and took responsibility. I’m so sick of the players shrugging and offering the “only god knows” response to why they tested positive for a banned substance. Thank you Raul.

Harper Is A Naughty Boy: On Monday, Bryce Harper got tossed from the Nationals game against the Tigers and then after the Nats hit a walk-off home run he returned to the field to celebrate and cursed at the umpire. I’m totally fine with the Bryce Harper umpire FU. He got emotional. It happens all the time. There’s nothing special about Bryce’s move. He’ll probably be fined, suspended or both for returning to the field. My only takeaway from Bryce Harper #CurseGate is it reminds me how composed this Mets squad is. You never see these guys lose their cool with umpires. Also Dusty Baker said he loves Harper but added, “Will I have to spank him sometimes? Maybe.” Between Jonathan Papelbon choking Bryce and Dusty spanking him, all we need is Daniel Murphy to show up wearing assless chaps and the Nats can be the official BDSM club of MLB.

Today: Wilmer Flores’ face embodies how I feel every morning after watching these West Coast games. They’re killing me. Tonight Noah Syndergaard faces off against Kenta Maeda. This should be a pitching matchup worth staying up for.

 

Gods and Kings: Thor Executes The Royals

 Final Score: Mets 2, Royals 0

Well it was World Series ring presentation day for the Royals. They had a ridiculous full orchestra on the field for the ceremony and handed out the jewelry in front of the entire Royal court. But it didn’t faze Noah Syndergaard in the least. Come game time he was an absolute machine. He was throwing 99 MPH consistently. Nasty slider, nasty hook, nasty sinker. He’s just #TeamNasty all day. Striking out any member of the Royals isn’t an easy task. But Thor’s heat is just a gamechanger. And he overcame some real challenges. He went on to strike out the side after a leadoff triple to start the game. In the 6th, the Mets missed two double play opportunities to get out of a jam, and ultimately the Royals loaded the bases with two outs. But Thor still got the strikeout of Kendrys Morales to end the inning. Jim Henderson and Addison Reed looked great as the bridge to Jeurys Familia. And then Familia came in and got some World Series redemption with an easy 1-2-3 9th inning for the save.

Neil Walker aka New Murphy aka Neil Walkyear had an awesome two run bomb in the 4th inning to give Thor the lead. That was all the Mets needed offensively. Walker also almost pulled a Murphy in the 9th with a little bobble on a routine ground ball. Luckily he’s not Murphy, and he regained his composure to make the play.

Yoenis Cespedes had a great spring, but in the first two games he’s still swinging at some crappy pitches. He hit a long foul ball late in the game that was almost a dinger. The home runs will come.

David Wright stole two bases in the game. Obviously David has been hearing all the talk about how he’s dunzo and decided to show us he’s still got something left in the tank. Or maybe he owns himself in his fantasy league, and he’s light on steals this week. I don’t know why he’s running, but I suggest he avoids any unnecessary movement going forward. We wouldn’t want to lose him prematurely.

Anyway, we got the split in KC. Awesome. Finally we are done with the Royals (Until June. Yes we play them again. Greaaaaaat). Now we move on to our cushy soft April schedule. Back home to play the piss poor Phillies. On to the rest of the NL Least. Thank God for our division.

Harvey and deGrom Modeling; Thor Should Do Full Frontal

So yesterday, Forbes featured articles on Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey. DeGrom talked about the upcoming season and why he won’t cut his hair. Harvey talked about Men’s Fashion. It was basically just another excuse for these two aces to act like models. Harvey’s been working on his modeling career for years now. The guy has been featured in a ridiculous number of magazine spreads. And now deGrom is getting in the mix? We read all about how the Mets young pitchers feed off of competition. And not just competition with other teams but with each other. Well it’s time for Noah Syndergaard to take modeling to the next level. He’s gotta hang dong. A nude photo shoot is the only way to one up the rest of the rotation. Thor is bigger than the other pitchers, and he throws harder. He needs to model bigger and harder. And he’s named after a Norse god who has a hammer. A hammer! And gods are always featured in the nude when they are included in paintings. If he won’t do a nude photo shoot or model for a nude painting, he should at least commission a life-sized nude statue.

And I know what you’re thinking. Harvey already did the nude photo shoot. Harvey was featured in the ESPN The Magazine 2013 Body issue. Umm that’s a tasteful nude photo shoot. That’s like when George Costanza did his semi-nude photo shoot in Kramer’s apartment. It’s more of a “timeless art of seduction” type of shoot.

How many times did the ESPN photographers say to Harvey, “Whatever you’re comfortable with Matty.” Being naked in a studio, surrounded by professional photographers and the hosts of Baseball Tonight, while wearing a bathrobe and occasionally covering your nether regions with a baseball glove is not the kind of nude I’m talking about. Thor needs to go all in. Full frontal. The time is right. Plus if he doesn’t do it now, those bastards from Anonymous will just get him in the next Apple iCloud hack. If they broke into the Cloud and got Justin Verlander (with Kate Upton), they can get to Thor (and whoever he’s dating).

Thor is also the member of the rotation who would do something like this. Based on the Always Sunny “Ghostbusters Dynamic”, deGrom would be the “brains” of our rotation and Harvey would be the “looks”. I guess Bartolo would be the “muscle”? The big fat muscle. And Thor is the “wildcard”. Thor is the one throwing 100 MPH fastballs at your head in the World Series and telling you to meet him 60 feet 6 inches. Thor is the one riding into Spring Training on horseback. And Thor is the one who would do a real nude photo shoot. All I know is Harvey is modeling. Now deGrom is modeling. It’s Thor’s turn.

And yes I did Google “Nude Matt Harvey photo shoot.” As an investigative journalist I had to do my due diligence.