See You Tomorrow

Fortunately, I got tickets for tomorrow night's game as opposed to tonight's game. I therefore only had to suffer through this 4+ hour farce of a game on TV. Had I been there in person, I surely would have lost my mind or dissolved into some Josh Beckett-esque screaming tantrum that would have gotten me thrown out of the stadium...If there was actually anyone left in the stadium to throw me out.

The game started out reasonably well, behind Rafael Montero making his second Major League start and his second start against a difficult opponent. We've all been subjected to the Dodgers and their galaxy of stars, and their roster hasn't really turned over too much since their deep playoff run of a year ago. The Mets had all sorts of trouble putting them away last season and this year proves to be a similar struggle, as the Dodgers got to Montero in the 5th inning and put the game away in an excruciating 9th inning that dragged on into the witching hour, resulting in a 9-4 victory that for some bizarre reason was well within reach for the Mets for a few hot minutes.

After the Dodgers, behind Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, Juan Uribe and other lesser men belted around Montero and opened up a 6-1 lead, the Mets could have packed it in for the night, and maybe they should have, but no team wants to just quit on a game, so the Mets instead decided to come back. Curtis Granderson homered and Lucas Duda homered, and Josh Beckett went apeshit, and there were men on base and the Mets were reasonably one hit away from tying the game. But that one hit never came. A succession of Dodgers relievers, those unknown like Chris Withrow, fading, like Brian Wilson, or stars, like Kenley Jansen, carried the Dodgers home through the latter innings, squashing multiple Met threats, while the Dodgers eventually scored those 3 9th inning tack-on runs that removed the drama from the affairs.

As I said, I'm particularly glad I wasn't there on this evening. That they lost the game was bad enough, but the length of this game was completely absurd. How any 9-inning, National League game lasts 4 hours and 7 minutes baffles me, but somehow these teams managed to do it. I don't remember an abundance of pitching changes or crotch grabbing, but it seemed like there were a number of deep counts, and a lot of men left on base which may have served to extend things. I may have been lulled to sleep for a few minutes at some point. All I know is that if the Mets had to get a true stink bomb like this out of their system, better it be tonight when I'm not there as opposed to tomorrow night when I will be. Here's hoping Jacob deGrom has an 8-inning outing in him en route to a 2 hour, 20 minute Mets win.