For Old Time's Sake

I guess the Mets' final trip to Turner Field wouldn't be complete without the Mets suffering an irritating Extra Inning loss in an eminently winnable game. It's the cosmic restoration of order to the absurd Baseball Universe, I suppose.

I was out of the house for a good chunk of the evening, and as such I missed the formative innings of the game. That means I missed the Barves kick the ball around in the 1st inning, the Mets taking a 2-0 lead, the Braves slowly coming back against Bartolo Colon, and then Yoenis Cespedes and Freddie Freeman trading Home Runs to re-tie the game.

By time I tuned in, it was the bottom of the 9th, and Hansel Robles had been summoned into the game, which seemed a dicey proposition. But he only faced one batter, Matt Kemp, who popped out. Jerry Blevins then entered and got the next two batters, and it was off to Extra Innings. In Atlanta. With whatever ill memories that entails.

Chris Withrow set down the Mets quietly in the top of the 10th. Erik Goeddel entered the game in the bottom of the 10th and, well, he dug his own hole. First, Dansby Swanson did his thing, singling and then moving up to 2nd on a Wild Pitch. A.J. Pierzynski followed with a single of his own, and although he seemed to think he'd won the game outright, Swanson, who lacks Pierzynski's saltiness, stopped at 3rd. Regardless, the Mets were, to put it kindly, in a disadvantageous position. Goeddel then struck out Tyler Flowers, and then departed in favor of Josh Smoker, who in his brief stay in the Majors has thrived in these pressure spots. He got Ender Inciarte to pop out and it seemed he might be game enough to get out of the jam, but the next batter, Adonis Garcia, singled, further cementing his place as Irritable Braves Player, scoring Swanson and giving the Braves a 4-3 win.

This, of course, coupled with the Cardinals win over the Brewers, put the Cardinals back in the pole position for the 2nd Wildcard and knocked the Mets back to the outside. It also begged a few questions regarding Terry Collins' managerial moves, such as why not use Jeurys Familia to start the 10th, or why not bring in a Righty to face Garcia if he was going to play matchups, but I think whether or not Collins did or did not make certain moves is sort of immaterial here. The Mets were, and will continue to lose some irritating games over the remainder of this season. It becomes magnified this time of year, obviously. After 6 straight wins, the Mets were due for one of these, and especially given the fact that they were in Turner Field, a stadium where dumb shit seems to continually plague them. So, let them get the dumb shit out of their system for one night, but do your best to come back tomorrow and win the series.