Stupid Rerun

I tuned out a brief portion of the latter half of the Mets game tonight, and when I resumed watching, it seemed to me that the game had ended and SNY had decided they would randomly air a rerun of the 9th inning of the Mets/Nationals game from August 13th, in which the Mets, trailing by a run, rallied to get the tying and winning runs in scoring position with less than 2 outs, and rather than plating one or two runs, instead got a runner thrown out at Home, followed by a meek, game-ending out.

Then, I saw Craig Kimbrel on the mound, and I realized that it wasn't a rerun, it was just the Mets being the Mets. My stance on Kimbrel is no secret; he's a closet choke artist, and the Mets have come perilously close to proving it on several occasions, and in fact have completed the job of hanging a few blown saves on his head. Considering how well they tend to hit him, you would think it might have happened more often than it actually has. Nonetheless, the Mets haven't been game enough to finish the job on most nights, whether it was due to a great, game-saving catch or a general inability to get the key hit, and last night that reared its ugly head once again as Ruben Tejada hit into a Fielder's Choice to get Eric Campbell thrown out at home, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis followed with the game-ending pop out to seal a 3-2 Mets loss.

Prior to that, the Mets did little to support another fine outing from Zack Wheeler, who got himself through 7 innings in spite of the fact that he appeared to be struggling more than he actually was. He allowed a leadoff Home Run to Jason Heyward, and another two runs in an excruciating 3rd inning that Wheeler had gotten himself out of, except that Tejada yakked on a ground ball from Meathead Evan Gattis with 2 outs and instead of ending the inning, resulted in an Error and a 3rd run home for the Barves, and on this night that was enough to provide a margin of victory.

Offensively, the Mets mustered a Wilmer Flores Home Run off of Julio Teheran and that's about it. They rallied in the 8th when dainty Jordan Walden came in, pranced across the mound and allowed an RBI single to Juan Lagares, but Lucas Duda turned back into a pumpkin and hit into a Double Play, and Travis d'Arnaud had the poor fortune of grounding a ball in the hole between Shortstop and 3rd that was not quite far enough to get by Overrated Andrelton Simmons, and so Simmons was able to make the play, throw out d'Arnaud at 1st and make everyone cream themselves over how he's God's Gift to Shortstops.

Then, of course, came the 9th, and the Mets getting Chokemaster Kimbrel on the ropes but, try as they might, they couldn't seal the deal and instead ended up turning the game into another reason for people to hop on the Barves Brown-nosing Bandwagon. And, hey, why not? At 5 games over .500 and 6 games out of 1st place, how could you not get behind them?! Excuse me while I go vomit.