Good Riddance

IT'S OVER! IT'S FINALLY OVER!!!

The Mets officially never have to set foot in Turner Field ever again. That seems to be the more operative story of the day. The gravy on top of this momentous occasion is, of course, that they left the building victorious, as they stomped over Williams Perez and a bevy of other Pitchers en route to a 10-3 victory. Yoenis Cespedes broke the game open with a 3rd inning Grand Slam, James Loney hit a Home Run, Seth Lugo pitched 7 strong innings to win his 4th straight start, and for one rare occasion, the Mets had everything go their way in a key game at Turner Field.

The Mets rarely seemed to have true laughers at Turner Field in the 20 years they played there. You could probably count them on one hand. Maybe two if you're feeling charitable. Considering that for a majority of those years the Braves were perennially a scourge to the Mets, I suppose it made sense that a blowout win didn't come to pass very often. Even over the past few seasons, with the Braves burning down their own house literally and figuratively, the Mets have had a hard time there (and whatever should come to pass over the seasons final 19 games, if things conclude on a sour note, you would have to think the Mets will have to rue their inability to put away the Braves more often earlier in the season).

Sunday, they did not, as Perez, who was recently returning from a lengthy DL stint, was hit early and often and pretty hard. The Mets scored in the 1st inning when Asdrubal Cabrera tripled through that blindingly bright Atlanta sun, and then scored on a Cespedes ground out. I already told you that Cespedes later hit a Grand Slam, but I'll just remind you again because I can. James Loney hit a solo Home Run in the 4th off of Joel De La Cruz, and in the 5th, the Mets had the Gas House Gorillas conga line going as they piled on more runs against hapless Jed Bradley. Kelly Johnson drove in a run, Loney drove one in, and even Seth Lugo joined the fun with a Sacrifice Fly. By this point it was 10-1, and I guess the Mets called off the dogs, as the Mets then emptied their bench, and even Gavin Cecchini got to see some action for the first time.

I know when a stadium closes you want to try to say something deep and meaningful about it, but think about how many dumb, shitty things happened to the Mets in that stupid ballpark over the last 20 years. Why would any Mets fan have anything nice to say about that place? I've heard from some friends that it's a perfectly nice place to watch a game, but who gives a shit? Some of the worst moments in Mets history have happened there and more often than not, they were basically a foil for the Braves, and they would just come in there and have their lunch fed to them by a series of unmentionables. Sure, they won some games there, but when Mets fans had to treat those wins like James W. Marshall at Coloma, 1848, that should tell you something. There are stadiums where the Mets generally have not done well. I don't think any place was quite as demoralizing as Turner Field. So, with that being said, Good Riddance, Turner Field. I'm glad to never have to see you again.

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.

History For History

This weekend, of course, marks the final series the Mets will ever play in Turner Field, and I know there's some blithe sentimentality, and I'm being kind by calling it that, about these last three games. Most Mets fans have few to no good memories of the Mets playing in Turner Field; the meager games they did win there over the past 20 years seem paltry compared to the irritating, frustrating and sometimes heartbreaking or soul-crushing losses the Mets have suffered there. So, then, may I say that I'm happy to see Turner Field go and glad that the Mets will never have to play there again after this weekend.

All that being said, though the past can't be undone, the Mets could if nothing else do their part to shovel some dirt on the grave of this unrepentant Hell Hole by taking out the Barves a few more times and further entrench themselves in the middle of this Wildcard chase. Coming into Friday's game, the Mets had 22 games remaining and for the first time since who can remember they actually began the day in a pole position for the Playoffs if the season ended right now. But I just said there were 22 games left so whether or not they qualify on September 9th doesn't amount to a hill of beans. It's not quite Idiot Time just yet but if the Mets regressed into Idiot mode here against a team they've had a particularly annoying hard time with all season, well, wouldn't that be a fitting end to Turner Field.

Fortunately, the Mets didn't succumb to Turner Field, although for a while things didn't look especially good. We, as fans, have simply become conditioned to bad things happening in Atlanta (I demand actual proof that the Mets have won 65 games there—€”as far as I know, the Mets' record is 20-150, and one of those games was the McKay Christensen game so it really shouldn't count) and for most of this game it played that way. The Mets didn't hit Julio Teheran, who remains a Brave despite any common logic dictating that he should have been traded months ago. Robert Gsellman had his first legitimately "Blah" outing, giving up 4 runs and slogging through a miserable 3-run 5th inning where he was essentially Dansby Swanson-ed to death. Basically, this was another night in Atlanta. The Mets were dazed and on the wrong end of a 4-0 score, facing a pitcher they generally don't hit.

Then, in the 6th they hit him. Or, at least, Yoenis Cespedes hit him in the literal sense, with a shot off his shoulder, and then Curtis Granderson hit him in the Baseball sense by hitting a 2-run Home Run to bring the Mets to within 4-2. In the last of the 6th, Jim Henderson appeared primed to hand those runs back, as he got Swanson'ed as well and departed in a 1st and 3rd, no out mess and was later seen screaming and slamming his glove around. Josh Smoker, who's been kind of the stealth bomber out of the Mets bullpen in recent weeks, then came in, and rather quickly undid the damage, getting A.J. Pierzynski to strike out and then Ender Inciarte to hit into a Double Play, and punctuated the inning with one of his pirouette fist pumps. However he chose to celebrate is immaterial to me, so long as he gets the job done, and lately he's been doing that regularly.

Of greater import of course was that Smoker kept the score 4-2 and in the 8th, the Mets finally had one of their rallies. Mauricio Cabrera, who reeks of "September Callup," came in, and immediately Keith and Gary started talking about how he regularly throws 100+, which is impressive, but in this day and age, just throwing 100+ does not a successful relief pitcher make. Because although Cabrera threw 100+ plenty of times to the Mets, he wasn't fooling anyone. First, he walked Alejandro De Aza. He got Jose Reyes to hit a ground ball, but instead of the Mets getting Swanson'ed, Dansby Swanson'ed himself, booting the ball for an error. Asdrubal Cabrera walked. So, basically, Cabrera had 100+'ed himself into a giant hole, bases loaded, no out and Cespedes coming up. And, well, at this point you were thinking that Cespedes was either going to hit one to the new Barves stadium in Cobb County, or hit into a Double Play. He came closer to the former, but his fly ball was caught. Irregardless, it was a productive enough fly to score De Aza and move Reyes to 3rd. Granderson followed by corkscrewing a blooper into shallow Left that Matt Kemp did not catch, allowing Reyes to score and Asdrubal to move to 3rd. And then Kelly Johnson delivered the coup de grace, the RBI double to give the Mets a 5-4 lead, because that's what Kelly Johnson has been doing ever since he came back to the Mets. By this point, Cabrera had now covered himself in 100+ of mud and he capped his night by hitting Michael Conforto with the bases loaded to force home another run.

The Mets then had to get themselves through the rest of the night without incident, which is easier said than done in Atlanta. Addison Reed got Swanson'ed in the 8th, but was bailed out by a fine pair of fielding plays by, of all people, Eric Campbell at 1st, and, of course, when that starts happening, you're living a charmed life. Jeurys Familia also had kind of a hairy 9th, giving up a double to Adonis Garcia in front of Freddie Freeman, who of course handed Familia the Grey Poupon last season, but this time, Familia struck out Freeman, got around Nick Markakis and struck out Tyler Flowers to finish off this 6-4 victory, the Mets 6th win in a row.

6 wins!? There was a point in time, not long ago, where I thought the Mets might be hard-pressed to win 6 games for the remainder of the season. But, now, here they are, still tied for the 2nd Wildcard (or are they ahead of the Cardinals? I forget), half a game out of the 1st Wildcard, and now they've got all of us keyed up and in Pennant Race mode. Sure, it feels more fun this time around, perhaps because it didn't seem like there would be a Pennant Race this year. But I think I like the easy coast to the finish more. Just saying.