Sunday, September 14, 2014

Boring and Snoring

Having picked up their annual Home Win over the Nationals on Friday night, the Mets went back into their proverbial shells over the weekend in a pair of forgettable games that I barely watched and in a long-recycled comment, I clearly didn't miss very much. The Nationals inched themselves ever closer to their 2nd National League East Championship in 3 seasons with a 10-3 win on Saturday and a 3-0 win on Sunday.

These games proved the Nationals to be quite a versatile team, and even if they're not a versatile team, the Mets do a great job of making them look like one. Zack Wheeler was the victim of Saturday's bludgeoning, surrendering a Home Run to Bryce Harper in the 2nd inning and didn't improve from there, departing after 4 innings with a 6-0 deficit. A multitude of pitchers finished the game only allowing 4 runs, which I suppose can be considered a moral victory but not really.

Sunday, Jon Niese took the loss in a game where he was simply outpitched by Jordan Zimmermann. Niese matched Zimmermann zero for zero into the 7th inning, before Wilson Ramos did what he usually does against the Mets and hit a 2-run Home Run, breaking the ice and for all intents and purposes winning the game for Washington. That was all Niese allowed in his 7 innings of work, but the Mets had no means of response against Zimmermann, or subsequent pitchers Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard or Lil' Billy and thus the game ended with the Mets being shut out.

The Mets, believe it or not, still have 3 more games left with Washington on their schedule, which doesn't seem fair because it seems like the Mets have played Washington pretty much every other series since the beginning of August. The Mets sit at 3-13 against them for the season, which would be a poor enough record to earn them a top Draft Pick were they an NFL team. Unfortunately, they aren't, and 3-13 against Washington is poor enough to note that the Mets are actually over .500 against the rest of Baseball. That's worth thinking about, but not too hard, because the Mets are going to have to play 18-19 games a season against Washington no matter how good or how bad they are against other teams, so they'd be wise to improve their level of play against these guys.

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