Pfffffft

It was Sunday at Citi Field yesterday, so naturally the Mets did not win.

This Sunday Thing the Mets have had is kind of epidemic, and completely baffling and as a result the Mets are, I believe, the only team that has not swept a home series in the Major Leagues this season. Or at least they deserve to be. Once again, the Mets won the first two games of a weekend series, and then came out on Sunday and sleepwalked through the afternoon. Unlike other such weekends where the starting pitcher came out and allowed 6 runs in the 1st inning, the Mets kind of just hung around all afternoon, following a brief rain delay. Rafael Montero had yet another one of his "little victory" outings, in the sense that, yes, he did pitch 7 innings this time. But he still gave up 3 Home Runs, to Khris Davis, Marcus Semien and Matt Chapman, and while they were all solo Home Runs, they were Home Runs nonetheless and as such were enough to beat the Mets on this day.

The Mets, on the other side, did nothing beyond a Michael Conforto Home Run against Daniel Gossett. Somehow, they managed to tie the game in the 6th inning, and for a brief second there, with Montero still humming along, it seemed like maybe the Mets had broken that Sunday Thing. But they went to the well with Montero one too many times, Chapman lofted a fly ball into the seats with 2 outs, and the air went out of the Mets from there. So, instead of perhaps talking about another comeback win, or another walkoff, or, dare I say, a series sweep, we're instead stuck discussing how Rafael Montero's outing was a "little victory."

I talked yesterday about how the Mets biggest problem this season has been their total inconsistency. If that's number 1, I think number 2 has to be the acceptance of the "little victory" as the norm. The 2017 Mets weren't supposed to be gunning for the little victories.

The Best and The Worst

One of the irritating things about the Mets in 2017 is that they show no particular consistency on a day-to-day basis, and often even on an intra-game basis. Tonight's game was a pretty good example of this. Zack Wheeler had nothing on this night and somehow managed to grit his way through 5 innings, but nonetheless left with the Mets trailing 5-0. The offense seemed to be pretty lifeless through those first 5 innings, as they managed nothing of consequence against Sean Manaea. It appeared to be one of those nights that would be eminently forgettable. 

Then, of course, the Mets struck for 4 in the 6th, tied the game in the 8th, and won it 6-5 on a walk-off Home Run by Wilmer Flores in the bottom of the 9th.

That's been the Mets. Alternately horrendous, lifeless and full of heart and guts. And that's what's made this season so particularly irritating, because they show all these signs of being so much better than they've been to this point.

Wheeler, of course, did nobody any favors with his poor outing, and I'm beginning to think that Wheeler may simply be hitting the proverbial wall. I mean, you can't expect too much more out of a pitcher who's missed two full seasons. At times this year, he's looked really good and as such you'd like to think he could regroup, get stronger in the offseason and come back next year ready to strike. But for tonight he didn't have much. He gave up a Home Run to the leadoff hitter Matt Joyce, he was walking guys and giving up long hits, and it sort of seemed like the Mets were buried before anyone even picked up a bat.

And for the most part this was the case, at least until the 6th inning, when they finally reached Manaea, one of these up-and-comers, and got back in the game. It figured that Jay Bruce (Home Run) and Michael Conforto (RBI double) were heavily involved in this inning. They didn't get all the way back, but at least they got it close. Then, Blake Treinen came in and, of course, stopped the rally and just to make everyone even more indignant, pitched a scoreless 7th inning as well.

Liam Hendriks entered the game in the 8th and it seemed like the Mets were going to just squander their opportunity as Jose Reyes followed a T.J. Rivera single by...hitting into a Double Play. Not Helpful. Travis d'Arnaud followed by doubling off the wall in Center, and Lucas Duda followed as a pinch-hitter. Oakland then went to Daniel Coulombe, their lone Lefthander, or at least I think he's their lone lefthander, but Duda, unperturbed, singled to Center to score d'Arnaud with the tying run.

So, after all that...the game was tied. Hansel Robles came in for the 9th and, for once, did not make me want to cover my eyes or shut off the TV, and for once did not allow the first batter to tee off and hit the ball into the second deck. In fact, had he not walked Khris Davis, perfectly acceptable given his stature, he would have had a clean inning outright. But again, not consistent for him.

Oakland then went to Simon Castro for the 9th, and at this point I was thinking which of the three batters the Mets had coming up could hit the walkoff Home Run. Asdrubal Cabrera led off. He'd hit a memorable Walkoff Home Run last year, that I witnessed. He has a penchant for this sort of stuff. So he lined out to right. Yoenis Cespedes. Saw him hit a walkoff Home Run last year too. He's got a penchant as well. Struck out. Wilmer Flores. Haven't seen him hit a walkoff Home Run, but I have seen him come up with multiple walkoff hits...And he won the Free Steak by hitting a 1-0 pitch into the Left Field seats, to finish the game and earn the ever-elusive Double "Outta Here" from Gary Cohen, capping off a game that saw the Mets dig their own grave and then dig themselves right back out of it. Go figure.

You wonder if the Mets could have gotten up off the mat like this a few more times earlier in the season, maybe they wouldn't be in this mess.

You Jerks

The Oakland A's are in town this weekend, for one of those obscure interleague matchups that only occurs once every three years and seems much odder than, say, the Orioles coming to town. We'll get another one of these really weird matchups next weekend too, but I'll worry about that when I have to.

Currently, the A's are on my shitlist. Not because I hold some residual bitterness from 1973, because that was 6 years before I was born, but because of something they did earlier this week, totally under the radar. I know the A's aren't going anywhere this season and they're generally one of the more active teams around the trade deadline, but they went and dealt their two best relief pitchers, Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson, to the Fucking Nationals, thereby strengthening their weak spot. I mean, what the fuck? Why help those clowns out? Now, I know that Billy Beane is a pretty shrewd judge of talent, to the point where I'd be leery of dealing him prospects he wants, simply because if he wants someone that badly, he may know something you don't. I'm not certain that was in play here, because I don't know who Oakland got in return (and in fact I didn't even know about the trade until 2 days after it happened), and, I'm not sure I care. The A's are by and large never the Mets problem. We have to see the Fucking Nationals 44 times a year and dammit, I don't want them getting any better. In fact, I'd like to see the other 29 teams purposely collude to NOT trade them pitching help and let them inevitably screw things up on their own. To wit: The Mets themselves have a few relief pitchers on the trading block, and Sandy Alderson has essentially said outright that he wouldn't trade them to the Fucking Nationals.

So, yeah. The A's pissed me off. So hopefully, the Mets teach them a lesson this weekend. They got off to a good start this evening, running out to a lead thanks to a pair of Home Runs from Michael Conforto and 5 solid, if unspectacular, innings from Steven Matz, and then surviving a hairy late charge by the A's to win the series opener, 7-5.

I'd like to talk about Matz and Conforto a little more, but of course since it was Friday and I wasn't at the game, I went home and fell asleep, and by time I woke up and put the game on, it was the 8th inning and Erik Goeddel was busy making a mess of things. He'd gotten lit up by Josh Phegley and Jed Lowrie, and then was removed in favor of Addison Reed, probably earlier than one would prefer, and, well, he wasn't good. He walked Rajai Davis and gave up another run-scoring hit by Marcus Semien, and then he was removed for Jerry Blevins. Because when you think 5-out Save, you think Jerry Blevins.

So, of course, Blevins got the 5-out Save. He got around Yonder Alonso and Khris Davis, the punch in Oakland's lineup, to finish the 8th and got through the 9th rather quietly to seal the victory.

Now, of course, the Mets did plate some of their runs against Blake Treinen, one of the pitchers Oakland acquired in their trade with Washington, if you can take some consolation from that. I wouldn't. In fact, I'd rather have the Mets take out Treinen with him still in a Washington uniform. I mean, Conforto hit his two Home Runs off of Paul Blackburn and Frankie Montas, the latter being another Beane Deadline Special, acquired from the Dodgers last season. Where I'm going with this now, I'm not sure. I guess the bottom line is that generally when Beane is making deals, usually nothing good comes from it.

Breakout Performers

If you blinked, you missed the Mets series in Oakland, one of those two-game series where both games come and are gone within the span of 24 hours. This series in Oakland was a particular extreme, given that Tuesday's game started late and ended Wednesday morning, and Wednesday afternoon's game took place while I was at work and so I only ended up watching a portion of the proceedings on replay later in the evening. Fortunately, the Mets shook off their troubles and hit more than they have in several days, banging out 10 hits and scoring 8 runs, 7 of which came off of ballyhooed (and hairy) A's starter Jeff Samardzija to win a somewhat sloppy affair, 8-5.

Zack Wheeler and Lucas Duda, two Mets who have certainly enjoyed mid-Summer breakouts, were the stars of the show this afternoon, in performances that seem to have delightfully become the norm as this season has progressed. For Wheeler, it was continuing a string of strong outings, not quite perfect but good enough to get his team ahead and get himself his 9th win of the season. Wheeler didn't make it out of the 6th inning, in another instance where he threw too many pitches too early in the game, but while he was in, he pitched well, allowing 4 runs in his 5.2 innings. Only two of said runs were earned, thanks to a pair Daniel Murphy errors, the first of which wasn't a spastic fit so much as an ill-advised throw home that sailed nowhere particularly close to its intended target. The second was more the garden-variety Daniel Murphy error where it looks like someone blew up a firecracker right behind him as he was attempting to make a play.

No matter. By time Murphy happened, the Mets had already blown up for 5 runs in the 3rd inning and 2 more in the 4th. Their 4th inning rally was kicked off by Eric Campbell, whose 3rd Home Run of the season led off the inning, and capped off by Lucas Duda, who all of a sudden has become a legitimate power threat in the middle of the Mets lineup. Duda, who everyone here knows I had anointed a clueless disaster last season, has made a complete 180˚ over the past two months and has not only made me eat my words but turned into a trusted source of offensive production. He's begun to get aggressive and the results are now career highs in Home Runs and RBI and a whole lot of good vibes, including the ones he generated with his 3-run Home Run Wednesday afternoon, Last season, Lucas Duda managed to hit 15 Home Runs, and 14 of them came with the bases empty. Now, you actually look forward to Duda coming up with men on base because he's in a good enough groove that you actually feel confident that he's going to come through. Maybe not always, but certainly more than he was. It's become quite clear that the Mets chose wisely in keeping him over Ike Davis, and I'll happily eat my words and admit that I'm glad he got his act together. I won't say I was wrong, because for all of last season and the beginning of this season, I was right, but he's now proven himself much better than I gave him credit for.

So, the Mets are now done in Oakland, where it seems they were finished before they started. Now, they're off to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers, who aren't quite The Hot Team in the way they were last season, but they're still one of MLB's "Darling" teams, and Chavez Ravine hasn't exactly been a pleasant place for the Mets to play in recent years. But, we'll see how this works out for them.

Another One Of Those

Oakland has always been a bastion of all things a little offbeat when it comes to Baseball. Their 70s-era teams were generally a bunch of brash, bushy ruffians, guys like Jim Hunter, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers and, of course, Reggie Jackson. They did things differently and won 3 consecutive World Series championships in the process. Since then, they've had the Bash Brothers, and now continue to be entrenched in the Moneyball era, thanks to their intrepid GM Billy Beane and his continued penchant for finding cheap ballplayers that somehow win when all banded together. The A's have won over the past decade or so with more regularity than you'd think, all the while adhering to the principle that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Particularly when those parts involve things like overgrown beards, using WHAM! as your at-bat music, and playing in a ballpark with excessive amounts of foul territory, thanks to it being the last multi-sport stadium currently in use, and an inscrutable name that nobody can figure out (and that sometimes has plumbing revolts that can cover the clubhouses in sewage). Somehow, this has led to the A's having the best record in Baseball for a majority of the season, and though they've slumped recently, they're still right in the thick of the AL West race, coming into Tuesday night's affair with a 73-51 record.

This whole long preamble is sort of meant to mask having to talk about said game on Tuesday night, a 6-2 Oakland win that I didn't bother to stick around for the end of. I already went through my sleeping pattern adjustment and the fact that 10pm West Coast starts don't really work for me anymore. I managed to get through the first 4 innings of the game, and although I didn't go to sleep directly after that, I'd seen all I needed to see. By that point, Dillon Gee had suffered through his 4th inning meltdown, surrendering a 3-run triple to Coco Crisp that for all intents and purposes put the game out of reach, and Scott Kazmir, whom the Mets roughed up but good back in June (but in typical Mets fashion they could do nothing with last night), took things from there.

The Mets once again did not hit much at all, save for a Travis d'Arnaud Home Run off of Kazmir, and this seems to be nothing new of late. However, in checking the box score this morning I do see that the Mets had 7 hits in last night's game, a significant step up from the 4-a-game run they were on in the Cubs series. Still, averaging between 4-7 hits per game isn't going to do anybody any good, and if it keeps up when the Mets aren't on the West Coast, maybe I'll start going to bed even earlier.

Not What You Were Looking For

Too many things happened too early in this game that are worth mentioning, simply as thoughts and coincidences. As has happened on many an occasion, I was late in getting home and when I finally did arrive and put the game on, I was greeted with a line that read OAK 6, NYM 0 in the bottom of the 2nd inning, Zack Wheeler already removed from the game.

My first thought: Well, I'm glad I went last night instead of tonight.

My second thought: Well, so much for Zack Wheeler going out and using his brilliant shutout performance in Miami as a springboard to bigger and better things, because he just regressed right back to his usual inconsistent dreck.

I didn't actually see any of what Wheeler did, but it seems he basically had nothing from the get-go. Brandon Moss, the former castoff-turned-#3-hitter reached him for a Home Run in the 1st, and the 2nd inning consisted of some bloops and blasts and Oakland players circling the bases. So, basically, by time I got home and put the game on, there really wasn't much of a game worth watching.

Games like this are terrible, not just because the Mets are hopelessly out of the game before the entire audience has reached their seats, but because after a day of work, I often look forward to coming home and putting the game on, and when I get home and put on a game where the Mets are behind 6-0 in the 2nd inning, it's like why even bother? I don't want to see Dana Eveland come in and work mop-up, I don't want to see the Mets just swing through Brad Mills' array of slop, I just want to shut the game off and go find something else to do with myself. This, of course, is complicated since there's a limited amount of things I can bear to watch on TV, and none of them are on on Wednesday nights. Thus, I ceded things to my other half, who happily put on a reality show of insidious nature, which didn't make me feel any better.

I missed, by giving up on the proceedings, something of a cosmetic comeback by the Mets. Down 8-0, Lucas Duda hit a Lucas Duda—a 3-run Home Run that had absolutely no consequence except to prevent the Mets from being shut out altogether—and Chris Young also hit a Home Run in the 8th, so instead, when you look back at this game and see the Mets lost 8-5, you might thing, "Hey, Barnburner!" instead of knowing the truth about this shit show. In the present, it might have actually kidded a few hearty souls into thinking comeback, although given the Mets propensity for 8-run comebacks is more or less non-existent, thoughts like that are born out of wishful thinking more than actual intuition. But, then again, when you have a game like this, wishful thinking is more or less all you've got. At least I went the night before. I know I said that already but it needs to be reiterated.

Sit Back And Enjoy

In around the 6th inning, as the Mets had already put the finishing touches on a runaway 10-1 victory over the Oakland A's, George turned to me and said "You know, I don't think I can remember the last time we were at a game that was an actual laugher."

I had to pause and think for a while, and I couldn't remember the last laugher I'd been to either. It's a nice feeling, seeing the Mets stick it to their opponent early and often and just cruise the rest of the way home, unimpeded by any sort of drama or delays that might happen in a close game. The Mets lit up Scott Kazmir to the tune of 7 runs on 8 hits in 3 innings, on the strength of a trio of Home Runs, and more or less coasted from there behind another masterful performance from Bartolo Colon.

It was a somewhat festive atmosphere at Citi Field for my 11th game of the season. The Mets and Oakland A's meet rarely; those more senior than I might have some ill feelings from the 1973 World Series, but in reality, the Mets and A's don't have much in the way of a heated rivalry. That being said, the A's right now are more or less everything the Mets aspire to be; a team comprised mostly of youngsters and castaways who have somehow meshed into a cohesive unit that hits and pitches with fierce consistency, to the point where they hold a fairly solid lead in the AL West.

Scott Kazmir, who we all know as the great prospect that wasn't, is one of those players who's rediscovered some prior magic in Oakland, coming into the game with a league-leading ERA of 2.08. But the Mets treated him with little regard. After spotting the A's a 1-0 lead in the first inning, the Mets exploded for 3 runs in the 2nd inning, courtesy of back-to-back Home Runs by Curtis Granderson and Chris Young. This from an offense where 2 Home Runs in a game is noteworthy. Happily, the Mets were just getting warmed up. In the 3rd, the Mets rallied again, stringing together some hits and an RBI Groundout from Granderson to set the stage for the recently recalled Travis d'Arnaud. d'Arnaud, who didn't hit at all in the Majors, and then got sent down to AAA and immediately started hitting .400, stepped to the plate with a golden opportunity to prove himself, and I couldn't help but think "if he could just park one right here, that would be great." And sure enough, he did, smoking a pitch well out into the seats in Left Field for a 3-run Home run that opened up a 7-1 Met lead and spelled the end of the night for Kazmir.

The remainder of the game moved along at a brisk pace and featured a number of odd highlights that make laughers enjoyable. For one, Oakland's manager, Bob Melvin, began employing double switches in the 4th inning, swapping out Kazmir and Jed Lowrie for Jim Johnson and Nick Punto (prompting George to muse "Wait a second...Nick Punto is an A!?"). He did it again in the 6th, and then in the 7th inning, he outdid himself, putting Eric Sogard in the game at 2nd base and removing Coco Crisp, and in the process shifting Alberto Callaspo from 2nd base to 1st base, Brandon Moss from 1st to Left Field and Yoenis Cespedes from Left to Center in a gordian knot of confusion that only happens in Spring Training games, or games where your team is down by 9 runs.

Chris Young, of whom rumors of an impending release were swirling, chimed in with a second Home Run in the 5th inning, and almost hit another one later on in the evening, driving a pitch out to the warning track in left center. For someone as maligned as Young has been of late, a 2-Home Run game is great, but 3 would have been pretty far out. Especially 3 at Citi Field, where the Mets pretty much never hit Home Runs.

And, of course, there's Bartolo Colon, who once again coolly worked his way through 8 more or less effortless innings, tying the A's up in knots after allowing a 1st inning run and finishing his night with 8 strikeouts to go with 1 walk and 4 hits. He also proved himself a showstopper with a bat in his hand, as he drew cheers following a 2nd inning Sac Bunt and a standing ovation after flaring a single to left to start the 4th inning. Colon batted again in the 6th after Ruben Tejada was hit by a pitch and eschewed the bunt, instead swinging away (and why not with a 7-run lead) and ripping a good foul ball before hitting a slow roller out to 3rd base, and despite the urging of everyone in attendance, he proved not swift enough to beat it out.

All in all, this was a rare night at Citi Field where there was nothing to complain about. The weather was splendid, the game was over in a brisk 2 hours, 24 minutes, the Mets scored early and often and the outcome wasn't in doubt. George and I even got to bear witness to a true meeting of the minds late in the game, as both Cow Bell Man and Pin Man convened in front of us for a conversation of true hard-liners. Pin Man had met up with some friends and received gifts of more pins, while Cow Bell Man was simply making his rounds as he is wont to do. But there they were at game's end, high-fiving George and myself and everyone else around and reveling in one of those rare relaxing Citi Field evenings.

Back in the New York Groove

It's been nice to see the Mets show a little of the ol' "Fire in the belly," as Dallas Green might have put it, over the last couple of nights, coming away with a couple of victories over the A's, who have proven to be a tricky bunch over the last several seasons, stemming from the General Managerial Mastery shown by ex-Met farmhand Billy Beane, but notwithstanding still a young group; one that could be had at the right moment.

True, one of the members of that Famed "Moneyball" draft in 2002 (which mysteriously includes a little-known 40th round draft pick by the name of Jonathan Papelbon), Joe Blanton, proved to be a tough customer on Saturday, holding the Mets scoreless over 8 innings on Saturday night in a rare game that I was actually able to see bits and pieces of throughout the evening. The Mets were able to counter the A's pitching with zeroes of their own, despite a little bit of shaky fielding, behind a good, solid rebound effort from Orlando "ElDuque," Feliciano, Heilman and Wagner (and only the Mets could somehow manage to use 4 pitchers in a 1-0 game). Friday's game certainly didn't have quite the same drama as Glavine himself was able to rebound from a couple of miserable outings of his own and post a solid 9-1 victory on Friday.

More importantly, the Mets were able to win a series for the first time since San Francisco was in town at the end of May, and were able to win back-to-back home games for the first time in just about forever. Hopefully, this finally means the corner has been turned on this recent miserable stretch and some good, solid play is to come.

One could not let the appearance of Mike Piazza at Shea pass without mention, and although I only saw him on the bench on TV as he rehabs from an unfortunate shoulder injury (and is apparently returning to his familiar Catching post once his stint on the DL ends) and bringing out the lineup card to an inevitable standing ovation from the Shea fans. Of course, Mike forever holds a place in the hearts of all Mets fans, and once he does hang up his spikes for good, a spot on the Left Field wall—:and in Cooperstown—is waiting for him.

And then there was LoDuca's tantrum in the 6th. "Good Italian temper in me, was the quote from Paulie, whose head bobbing, eye-bulging, equipment-tossing tirade became far more entertaining following the game than it was, locked in a scoreless duel earlier in the evening. And, of course, LoDuca's ejection from the game led to the other exciting moment of the evening, which was Ramon Castro chugging home from 2nd as David Wright's line drive landed just in front of John Buck, and then bounced pass him, rolling to the wall, and bringing home the game—and more importantly, series—winning run for the Mets, making this weekend a much needed winning one in Queens.

Scott Schoeneweis nowhwere to be found on Friday or Saturday. Coincidence? I think not. And Thank God for that.