New Guy Makes Good

I mentioned yesterday that it was good for Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith to be up and playing every day now, because it gives them a chance to get their sea legs in a mostly pressure-free situation. These two were both on display this evening in Philadelphia, where Smith was making his Major League debut, and picking up his first hit on a chopper single in the 4th inning. Meanwhile, Rosario, veteran of 10 ML games, had what could be looked at as one of those "arrival" games, picking up 3 hits, being central to a pair of rallies, and then capping his night by hitting his 1st Major League Home Run in the 9th inning of a tie game and giving the Mets a 7-6 victory.

Granted, I, of course, immediately thought of another instance where a Met wearing #1 hit a 9th inning, tie-breaking Home Run in Philadelphia, but I have a feeling Rosario has more staying power than Jordany Valdespin (unless you enjoy his being memorialized on the SNY pre-and post-game shows). I think we'll get a few more of these "feel-good" moments from Rosario before this season's out.

He'd already interjected himself into the game plenty by the 9th. After Seth Lugo spotted the Phillies a 3-0 lead, the Mets did what they usually do in Philadelphia and hit their way back into things. Michael Conforto led off the 2nd with a Home Run, and then after Rosario singled to lead off the 3rd and Neil Walker walked, Yoenis Cespedes hit a 3-run Home Run and the Mets had the lead off of Nick Pivetta, whom I'm not totally sure about because I don't follow the Phillies, but I suspect he may be a "Trades High/Great Stuff" guy.

But Philly re-tied the game against Lugo and things kind of went back-and-forth from there. Mets took the lead in the 5th—again after Rosario led off the inning with a hit—Phillies battled back and tied the game when Carlos Hernandez hit a Home Run off of Jerry Blevins in the 8th. But then that only set the stage for Rosario in the 9th, and this Mets win. The way this season has played out, I feel like Mets fans need a win like this just to get them off the ledge. At least for a few minutes.

Don't Get Cocky

I didn't see any of Saturday's game, which as is sometimes the case, just as well. The Mets came out a little chippy early against the Dodgers, hitting 3 solo Home Runs against Rich Hill, and Seth Lugo cruised along through the early innings, but then the Dodgers turned back into The Hot Team and reminded everyone why they're regarded as such. They hit 5 Home Runs over the final 4 innings, stormed back and rolled past the Mets, who had no means of recourse or response as they took another loss on the chin, 7-4.

The Dodgers now are starting to remind me of the Nationals in 2013-2014, when they would play the Mets and hit 33 Home Runs in a 4-game series. The Mets right now have played the Dodgers 6 times this year and lost all 6, and each time it seems like they are just getting massacred. Last night, when Taylor hit a leadoff Home Run, I just smacked my head in disbelief because it's just like, come on, man! I know the Dodgers are good, but the Mets aren't even trying to just make them a little uncomfortable. Or maybe they are and it's just not working. Either way, sure, they hit three Home Runs off of Rhich Hill, but did anyone actually think that lead would stand up? Of course not. These are the 2017 Mets and the 2017 Dodgers and placed on an even playing field, the Dodgers should be winning every time. And they have. And now we have to be subjected to it on The Biggest Game In The Galaxy tonight.

Let Me Drown

Sometimes, I miss games even though I'm home and just have other things to do, and it's just as well when that happens.

Sunday, I was, in fact, home for a majority of the Mets game. I'd been out when the game started, but it was still on when I got home, it being a Sunday game on the West Coast, which starts under sun-soaked Pacific skies at 1pm there, but 4pm here and can drag out into the early evening if things go a certain way.

However, while I was out, I did check the score on my phone and of course saw that the score was Mariners 5, Mets 0 in the 2nd inning. At that point I'd determined that the game was not worth watching, and, well, I was right. Seth Lugo got cuffed around early and often, allowing Home Runs to Nelson Cruz in the 1st and Leonys Martin in the 2nd, and the Mets basically stood around and did nothing against James Paxton, the Mariners starter who reinvented himself last season and went from kind of ragtag to one of the top pitchers in the American League. Paxton shut out the Mets through 6, the Mariners tacked on four more runs against Mets relievers after Lugo departed and the final score was an eminently forgettable 9-1. And I'm not sorry I missed it. I'm sure anyone else that did the same agrees with me.

Trojan Win

The Mets won their second straight in San Diego on Tuesday, one of those gritty games where they battle behind and come back to win. I'm always happy with a win, but sometimes it's amusing when they have to peck and scrape and claw against a terrible team. But that's sort of emblematic of the way the season has gone.

Tuesday night, the Mets were in trouble from the start when the Padres Trojan Horse'd them. They were supposed to face Jhoulys Chacin. When they faced Chacin in May, they fed him his lunch good and proper and he didn't make it out of the 1st inning. But whether Chacin actually had back spasms, or he just had "back spasms," he didn't start and instead the Mets would face Kyle Lloyd, a young fellow making his Major League debut, and on short enough notice that they had no advance scouting. Seems legit.

So there's Lloyd, standing out there looking like he's just been kicked out of a space shuttle without a helmet on, facing the Mets. Meanwhile, and I didn't notice it yesterday, but the Padres seem to have changed their uniforms again, from the mustard-yellow monstrosity that they used to sport to something that now seems to be a replica of the 1984 Tigers. I don't necessarily like watching a team whose jerseys make me feel like I'm watching a different team. I felt the need to point that out.

But at any rate, Lloyd gave up a Home Run to Yoenis Cespedes in the 1st. But then he sort of settled down. Seth Lugo, on the other side, had his own troubles. He gave up a Home Run to Hunter Renfroe in the 2nd, again, no great shakes since Renfroe is clearly destined to be one of those Met Killers. He also gave up a 2-run Home Run to Allen Cordoba. This put the Padres up, 3-1.

Usually, when the Mets face a guy making his Major League debut, it has a tendency to not go well. The Padres have a history of proving this in execution. But Lloyd seemed to run out of steam around the 4th, and the Mets managed to fight back and tie the game in the 5th thanks to an RBI double by Asdrubal Cabrera. This knocked Lloyd out of the game altogether, and then when Cespedes followed with another RBI double, the Mets had the lead and Lloyd was actually in line for a loss. However, his teammates, specifically Matt Szczur, got him off the hook and tied the game in the last of the 5th.

The Mets regained the lead in the last of the 7th on a play that seemed to typify the fortunes of these two teams. Granderson singled with 1 out against generically-named Jose Torres, and with two outs, Phil Maton (I will be sorely disappointed if Maton is not from Quebec or at least of French Canadian descent) was summoned to face Cespedes. And he fooled Cespedes, if only to get him to put an ugly check swing on a ball that nonetheless rocketed down the Right Field line. A troika of Padres then picked up the ball and threw it not particularly close to bases or players, and as such a Cespedes triple turned into a Cespedes Little League Home Run, giving the Mets a 6-4 lead.

From there, Paul Sewald had a Good Paul Sewald night and Addison Reed again gave up a run and made things unnecessarily stressful but still managed to close out a 6-5 victory. Another one of those kind of 6-5 victories. I'm not sure if this is something worth celebrating or not.

Sneaky Win

The Mets nearly snuck an entire game past me this afternoon. While I did know that they had an afternoon game, and in fact I also knew that it was a 12:10pm game, which they play on occasion in the Summer, I'd lost track of time altogether until some point much later in the afternoon and by time I'd clicked on MLB.com, the game was already in the 5th inning and humming right along.

By and large, and of course since I didn't see it I can't speak much to it, but it appeared to be a pitchers duel between Seth Lugo and Lance Lynn, or, a pair of nondescript righthanded pitchers taking advantage of an early-afternoon getaway-day game on a 95˚ afternoon. Lucas Duda hit an early Home Run but that was about it. I'd glanced away after checking in in the 5th, and of course when I looked back, it was the 7th inning and the game was tied. A little later, I checked back again and saw that Tommy Pham had hit a Home Run off of Erik Goeddel and the Cardinals had a 2-1 lead in the 8th. My thought process then went as follows:

1) Well, that's the game.
2) Figures it was lousy Goeddel that gave it up.
3) Man, I hate the Cardinals.
4) I'm going to go out and run some errands now.

So I went out and ran my errands. I was probably out for about 45 minutes and that's being generous. It may have been closer to 30. But nonetheless, I came back and checked my screen and...huh. The Mets won, 3-2.

Apparently all I needed to do was go out, because while I was out, Wilmer Flores pinch hit in the last of the 8th and hit a Home Run to re-tie the game, and in the 9th, the Mets got a couple of runners on base, and then with two outs, Jose Reyes hit a chopper behind 1st base that was knocked down by Matt Carpenter. Generally, this is a fairly routine out, except when Jose Reyes busts it down the 1st base line and Trevor Rosenthal forgets to cover the base. Then, extra innings turns into a fortuitous Mets victory and, for once, it's the Cardinals that are left holding their jocks and looking like jackasses. Couldn't happen to a better bunch.

So, after all this, the Mets split this series with the Cardinals and...surprise surprise, are still no better off than they were at this time last week. So at least they're not totally mailing it in, but the more this continues and the more the Mets just play at par, the less time remains and...oh, what's the use? Enjoy beating the Cardinals. Don't think about anything beyond that.

Forgotten Altogether

On the heels of barely seeing much of Wednesday's game, I saw literally none of Thursday's game because of a work commitment, to the point of I've been home for some time now and I haven't even seen a highlight. I'm not sure what the Mets did and who did it, but I do know the most important detail, which is that they beat the Mickey Mouse Marlins 6-3, and as such will leave town having won this series in Loriaville and in fact end up going .500 for this particular road trip, which is nice because I think the media, and probably most Mets fans, would have you believe that they went 1-9.

Again, I don't have much to say about the game because I don't know who did what, other than I would assume Seth Lugo pitched well and the Mets offense stuck it to Jose Urena.

The Mets now come home to play the Phillies for the weekend, but then they go on the road again, followed by the All Star Break, which in essence means this weekend's series marks their only home games for the better part of a month, sort of an odd bit of scheduling. If you didn't forget the game—and I'm certain I will because I just don't know what happened beyond the Mets won—you might forget what they look like since they've been on the road for so long.

Smile Later

The Mets limped into San Francisco on Friday looking every bit like a team that was primed to fall into the abyss. They'd been swept and really kind of embarrassed by the Dodgers on the heels of once again getting their asses handed to them by Washington, 11 games under .500 and going nowhere fast, and that was before Asdrubal Cabrera opened his mouth and said he was demanding a trade.

These sort of spats tend to be antimatter to me, mostly much ado about stuffing, but in this Twitter/Blogger/Idiot Fan era everything turns into a "thing," and then you can't avoid it. So it's just another case of the "stupid metz bein stupit" as the case may be. My general feeling is that you just play the fucking game and do your best. Terry Collins I think said as much before the game in not so many words.

Friday, the Mets had the good fortune of playing a team that appears to be even worse off than they've been in the Giants, who have had injuries, inconsistency, and general hopelessness, just like the Mets, AND they're stuck in a division with three of the best teams in Baseball thus far. So while the Mets kind of feel buried, the Giants probably actually are buried for this season. And when you watched this game on Friday, well, that's how it felt.

The Giants weren't helped by a late game followed by a cross-country flight the night before and the Mets attacked Ty Blach early and often and the Giants, with most of their regulars resting, didn't fight back very much against Seth Lugo. The Mets had one of those "quietly developing" big innings in the 2nd, and I refer to it as such not because it took a while to come together but because I was cooking and not totally paying attention, so I missed Lugo's double, but did check in in time to see Yoenis Cespedes hit a Home Run, which at that point made the score 5-1, and the Mets then continued on to score two more runs in the inning, centering around Michael Conforto, who may well be pulling himself out of his June slump.

Later, the Mets would tack on more runs against the Giants Bullpen, and if you had any more questions about the Giants season, they were answered when they brought in Steven Okert and Josh Osich in succession. Point being, when you bring in interchangeable middling middle relievers with similar sounding names and they both get wrecked, you're probably having a bad season. The Mets, who at times have a hard time knocking out 5 hits in a game, came up with 20 last night and cruised to an 11-4 win. If you were keeping score (at home I don't), everyone in the starting lineup had a hit (except for Jose Reyes), and in fact 5 players had 3 hits—Cespedes, Wilmer Flores, Conforto, Lucas Duda and Cabrera, even after causing a pregame uproar.  So, I mean, maybe more guys should start demanding trades if they're going to go out and get 3 hits and score 11 runs.

More Of The Same

I feel like Saturday's game was more or less a carbon copy of Friday's game. The Nationals attacked the Mets early, hit a bunch of Home Runs and basically kept putting the game just enough out of the Mets' reach for them to mount anything more than a paltry attempt at a comeback.

Once again, the Mets were behind 4-0 before they actually woke up and did something against Stephen Strasburg, and by then there wasn't much worth doing. While they did manage to get Strasburg out of the game in the 6th inning, their offense is so cocked up that they managed to make the Nationals horrendous bullpen look reasonably decent, or as decent as a team can look wearing these ridiculous Father's day jerseys that look like something out of the 1996 Marlins, which is an insult to my palate in addition to being a shameless marketing ploy.

This seems to be the general formula for every Mets game, or at least every game that they lose. The starting pitcher, in this case Seth Lugo, gives up a leadoff Home Run, the opponent tacks on a few more, the Mets fight back late but ultimately the bullpen just gives up more runs and they can't make any more headway. The names change on a day-to-day basis but it seems as though the result remains the same. And so it goes. This season just gets more and more depressing by the day.

A Different Look

Sunday, like most of the two games on Saturday, was a day where I didn't get to see much of the Mets game, unless you count the few innings I saw from a distance while eating lunch someplace. The Mets were ahead 2-1 in the 4th-5th inning while I was around a TV and as such I'd missed all the game's meaningful action. What I did see was the Mets win behind a pitcher making his season debut for the second game in a row.

I can't say I had or continue to have the highest of hopes for Seth Lugo, but if nothing else, he acquitted himself well enough down the stretch last season and pitched with enough confidence to inspire some sort of positive feelings this season. And, well, not having him as he worked back from an elbow injury that might have been severe enough to necessitate the Big Boy Surgery was problematic, not so much because Lugo is a world-beater, but because he's substantially a better option than whatever else was available. What will happen from here I'm not certain but Lugo and his exceptionally spinny curveball shined for 7 innings and 90 pitches in Atlanta, on a day when one would have expected a fly-ball pitcher to have some trouble. But Lugo allowed 6 hits and 1 run along with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts and that was enough to get him a win because the Mets scraped out 2 runs against Jaime Garcia.

I'll echo what I said yesterday about these reinforcements being very helpful, particularly considering the fact that the Mets won 3 of 4 over the weekend when it sure as shit looked like they were ripe to get swept. So they're starting to tilt things in their favor, but of course the acid test will come this week when they come home to play America's Sweethearts, the Chicago Cubs in what should be a nauseatingly good time at Citi Field. I'll be around, so I hope to have the opportunity to see those cocky pricks knocked down a peg (and yes, that's more commentary of the obnoxious Cubs fans sure to show up than the team themselves).

Impossible Is Possible

It's the general stance of the Mets fan to kind of keep their asshole extra tight during the final few days of a Pennant Chase. There's not much anyone can do to help this; it's just the side effect of too many seasons where they've been in close contention only to have something get screwed up and everything fall apart at the end. But the way this 2016 race has played out, with the Mets storming back from the fringes the way they have has been something else. I'm not sure that I've seen the Mets do what they've done this year before—the only thing remotely close I'd guess would have to be 1973—6 years before I was born—but dammit, the Mets keep cobbling together these victories. Their 5-2 win over the Marlins finished off their 6th series win in September, their 16th win of the month, and combined with the Cardinals losing, and the Giants losing, put them 1 1/2 games ahead of San Francisco and 2 1/2 games ahead of St. Louis...with only 3 games remaining.

I really hate to say this, but for the first time, I'm starting to think that the Mets might actually pull this off.

How they've managed to do this, I'm not sure. But it seems to be exemplified by guys like Seth Lugo, who aren't given much in the way of attention and who might have a real rude regression to the mean at some point, but they continue to play over their heads and surprise the hell out of everyone. Lugo gave up an early Home Run to Martin Prado, which for the Mets is about on par with giving up a Home Run to, say, Greg Dobbs, but nothing after that as he navigated his way through 5.1 innings and received plenty of backup, first on a second inning 2-run Home Run from James Loney, who seems to be Mr. Marlins Park, that tied the game, and later another 2-run Home Run from Jay Bruce, who all of a sudden has come back to life, and probably at just the right time.

The remainder of the game was bullpen and more bullpen, as Hansel Robles, Fernando Salas and Addison Reed bridged things up to Jeurys Familia, who closed out the 9th inning for his 50th Save of the season.

So, the Mets are now finished with the Marlins for the season, and after a really difficult and emotional 3 games in Miami the Mets could use the day off they've got on Thursday. St. Louis and San Francisco are both playing, but no matter what happens on either front, the Mets will go into the weekend still leading the chase, and if things break right, they could conceivably have this thing wrapped up by Friday night and actually get to relax for a couple of days over the weekend. But—again. I'm getting ahead of myself. But after all the crap that's gone on this season and everything the Mets have had to overcome, it's quite a story the way things have played out, isn't it?

Combination Of All Things

The adage goes, I believe, that each time you go to a Major League Baseball game, you have a chance to see something you've never seen before. Last night at Citi Field was my 20th game of the 2016 season and my 399th in total. I've seen lots of things happen at a Baseball game.

• The Mets get a 9th inning Home Run to tie the game and an Extra Inning Home Run to win? I've seen that before.
• The Mets win a game on a Home Run that takes them from trailing to winning? Seen that before too.
• The Mets use 27 players in a game...Well, that I haven't seen. That was a club record and I've got the scorecard to prove it. 
• The Mets come from behind 3 times in a game to win? Yeah, that I've seen too.

But I don't think I've ever been to a game that packed all of these things into one crazy night, with the backdrop being the Mets in the thick of a Pennant Race and coming off a 3-game losing streak. In spite of all sorts of things going wrong, the Mets managed to get up off the mat and tie the game in the 9th inning on a lightning-like Home Run from Jose Reyes. In the 11th inning, the Mets fell behind again, and with the clock pushing midnight, Asdrubal Cabrera tolled the bell for a 3-run Home Run to give the Mets a 9-8 victory that has to rank up there with some of the most rousing games I've ever been to.

This long night of Baseball began innocently enough, with Seth Lugo on the mound for the Mets and Adam Morgan for the Phillies. The imminent drama that would unfold over the course of the evening barely seemed plausible given a matchup like this. The Mets jumped ahead in the 2nd on a Curtis Granderson 2-run Home Run, and with Lugo mostly humming along, everything seemed fine. The Phillies scored a run in the 4th after Cesar Hernandez hit what was kind of a fluky triple to lead off the inning, and Roman Quinn followed with an RBI groundout.

Then, of course, the Phillies ambushed Lugo in the 5th. They'd been hitting fly balls off of Lugo most of the night, and of course the perfect storm for bad tends to be the combination of a fly ball pitcher on the Mets and Ryan Howard. And of course, Howard led off the 5th and blasted a Home Run out into the night of the Center Field seats. This, of course, is mere rite of passage for Lugo, since Howard has hit what, 79 career Home Runs against the Mets? However, when Cameron Rupp followed with a Home Run of his own to put the Phillies ahead, that wasn't a rite of passage, that was a sign that Lugo was probably done for the night and thus the parade of relievers would begin.

The Mets managed to rally back in the last of the 5th. Ty Kelly hit for Lugo and walked, moved up on what was charitably scored an infield hit by Cabrera and a Morgan Wild Pitch, and then scored when Yoenis Cespedes stuck his bat out and flicked a single to right. In the 7th, Cespedes put the Mets on his back again, finishing off a two-out rally against Michael Mariot by nailing a double to score Reyes.

The Mets have been using their bullpen liberally and often lately, which has been a side effect of a decimated starting rotation combined with taking advantage of every possible expanded roster spot. As such, it took Sean Gilmartin and Erik Goeddel to complete the 6th and Fernando Salas to pitch the 7th, and once Addison Reed hit the mound in the 8th, it seemed like things would be stable. Of course, how wrong I was. Reed allowed about 20 feet worth of singles sandwiched around a sac bunt and the Phillies had runners on 1st and 3rd and 1 out and Maikel Franco at the plate. I mused that what Reed needed was a Mike Pelfrey Special—the bowling ball that's chopped right at the Shortstop for an easy DP. What Reed got instead was something completely different—the ball flying over the fence and into the Phillies bullpen for a 3-run Home Run that put the Phillies ahead 6-4 and sent a multitude of fans streaming for the exits.

A rather fair-weather fellow with a man-bun sitting directly in front of me stood up, slapped his cap down and started screaming, "HERE IT IS, THE GREAT COLLAPSE OF 2016!" This, of course, was not helpful at all and turned into one of those moments where, were I more of a hothead, I might have kicked him in his bun or smacked the shit out of him. I know that there's this general trepidation because the Mets are in a pennant race with 10 games to go, and I know that there's a whole quadrant of Mets fans that think Terry Collins just fell out of the stupid tree. But how is it a collapse when the Mets just came back from 5.5 games out altogether, ran past 4 teams and somehow sit tied for the 1st Wildcard just 27 games later? And never mind that, how about the fact that the Mets have done this while 3/5 of their starting rotation is hurt (and if you want to throw Wheeler in the equation, that's 4/6), 2 guys that were in the Opening Day lineup still standing, and the team is basically stuck throwing out lineups that include Alejandro De Aza, Rene Rivera and on this night Eric Campbell, and they're relying on unknowns like Brandon Nimmo and T.J. Rivera for meaningful contributions? The fact that the Mets are in this position at all is a minor miracle. This is a team that's refused to throw in the towel all season. But this jackass is screaming collapse. Really, I think he should have just admitted he actually was a fan of the other New York team rather than continuing his charade, but as the 8th moved to the 9th and he continued his nonsensical rants, I realized I was doing myself no favors sticking around where I was, and I did something rather out of character for me—I left my seat and walked down to the Field Level, where I ended up just standing around the concourse, figuring that if this was going to end, at least I'd get out of there quick and get away from Yelly McDoofus.

Hansel Robles cleaned up Reed's mess in the 8th and he and Josh Edgin got the Phillies in the 9th, while the Mets managed nothing off of Joely Rodriguez in the last of the 8th, and while he apparently was ready to come out for the last of the 9th, Pete Mackanin decided to get cute and once Travis d'Arnaud was announced to hit for De Aza, he pulled Rodriguez in favor of his closer, Jeanmar Gomez, which you had to figure was coming because why the hell would Joely Rodriguez be closing games? And at this point, Terry Collins decided to just throw his entire roster at the wall. He called back d'Arnaud and sent up Brandon Nimmo, who got a hit in a similar spot on Wednesday, and of course Nimmo did what he does best and hit a line drive single. Jay Bruce followed and was met with bewildered looks, calls of "Where's Duda?!" and, oddly, cheers, because hey, if Bruce could get a hold of one and tie the game, maybe all would be forgiven. But that didn't happen. Although Bruce hung in for a while he still struck out, which was only helpful in the sense that he didn't hit into a Double Play, which was quite fortunate because Reyes followed by drilling a 2-1 pitch into the Mets bullpen to tie the game and spark a frenzy of crazy people jumping all over the concourse.

So much for quietly slinking off into the night. Rather than a silent finish, the real action was just getting started. Mackanin, now having burned his closer, removed Gomez from the game in favor of Hector Neris, who walked Cespedes but allowed nothing more of consequence. So, it was off to Extra Innings, and after not catching an Extra Inning game for the first 5 months of the season, I was now in for my second in less than a month, and this one was coming on the heels of an already long game, as the clock was pushing 10:40 and although it was Thursday, it was still a school night. At this point, I decided I was good for one more inning, and then I had to get out of there, loath as I was to do so.

Jeurys Familia came in for the 10th and worked a quick, uneventful inning, and Severino Gonzalez did the same, in spite of the fact that Lucas Duda came up as a pinch hitter for Rivera and came within about 6 inches of hitting a Game Winning Home Run. In fact, as it was more or less directly in front of me, I couldn't quite see just where the ball landed and for a second I, and the people standing near me, thought it was gone. But Duda pulled up around 1st and wheeled back to the plate...where he then struck out.

Familia came back for the 11th and I held my ground...The 10th was quick. One more inning, I tell myself. Next thing I know, it'll be 1am and the 15th inning if I'm not careful. Freddy Galvis led off by lining a double in the alley in Left, which wasn't helpful at all. Familia then rebounded by striking out Aaron Altherr and getting Tommy Joseph to ground out. With two outs, he then walked Hernandez intentionally, which was the right move with A.J. Ellis and his .190 batting average on deck. If Ellis beats you, he beats you. Unfortunately, that's what Ellis did, floating a little dying quail of a single in front of Nimmo to score Galvis and put the Phillies back ahead. Collins then did nobody any favors by continuing to run more guys in from the bullpen in an attempt to get the 3rd out. Jerry Blevins came in and hit Odubel Herrera. Collins then removed Blevins for Jim Henderson. Henderson walked Maikel Franco after an excruciating 10-pitch At Bat that was like watching paint dry. Now the score was 8-6 and at this point I was ready to leave right then and there. The Mets had pulled a July move and resurrected themselves from the dead only to shit the game right back out again. Only then did Henderson manage to get the last out of the inning as more people vacated and I stood around stewing.

The Phillies brought in a fellow named Edubray Ramos for the last of the 11th in order to pick up the Save for them. This was the Phillies' 9th pitcher of the night, which is a lot, until you remember that through 11 innings the Mets had managed to run through 10 pitchers, which is the sort of thing you can only accomplish in a game like this, at this time of year when you carry 20 pitchers on your roster, and this combined with the 16 position players they'd used tied a club record. I didn't realize this at the time. I was too busy thinking about a) who was left on the bench to hit in the Pitcher's spot which was due up second and b) If the Mets tie this game again, who's left to pitch? After Nimmo grounded out, I got one of my answers when Michael Conforto emerged from the dugout, remained patient and walked on 4 pitches. Reyes followed, and I started thinking that Reyes might turn back into the Homer Happy ninny he used to be after his 9th inning heroics, but instead he did what his M.O. normally is and singled the other way. And this brought up Cabrera, and at this point all I was hoping was that he didn't hit into a DP just so Cespedes would have a chance. And, of course, Cabrera rendered this hope and my second question irrelevant by nailing the second pitch he saw over the fence for the Game Winning 3-run Home Run. He knew it right away, I think everyone else did too. It was just one of those hits that had that arc, sort of like Reyes' did. These fly balls look a lot different when you're sitting downstairs and I'm used to the view from the Promenade.

Whew. This was exhilarating, but also exhausting. As I said, I know I've seen a lot of crazy, wild things happen at Baseball games, but never one that seemed to cram so much action, absurdity and intrigue into one 4 hour, 23 minute melange of madness. Hell, I watched the last 3 innings standing, that's how messed up things got. But this game was truly emblematic of the fact that the Mets refuse to simply lie down, no matter how much they have to absorb as far as injuries and inconsistency. As weird as it seems, the Mets are now essentially run by these three gentlemen at the top of the lineup, Reyes, Cabrera and Cespedes, and they're winning these games just because they're getting things done. Go back and look at that scorecard again. The Mets had 9 runs and 11 hits for the game, and these three guys accounted for 4 runs, 8 hits and 7 RBI. Think about it: That's 3 out of the 27 players the Mets used in this game accounting for that much offense. But these guys are paving the way. They refuse to throw in the towel and dragged the whole team back into this game and didn't stop until it was won. I don't know how far it will take them over the next 10 days, or if they play beyond that, but they've kept the Mets alive and at this point I don't think there's more we can ask of them.

Perseverance

The Mets of course began the day with the news that Jacob deGrom was lost for the season, one day after it was announced that he would be starting on Sunday. This isn't good, but as I've said, I'd rather have the Mets go to the whip with healthy arms that might lack pizzazz as opposed to trying to force someone who's hurt to come back and risk him pitching ineffectively or, worse, injuring himself further. So if nothing else, and if you can believe it I'm taking the silver lining route here, we have a real, legitimate answer to what's been ailing deGrom, and also no false set of expectations that he'll at some point be back. It's a drag, but then again, just about everything that's happened this season injury-wise has been a drag.

And yet the Mets as a team continue to process this information and go out and win games anyway, and they do so in all sorts of strange ways. They already won a game this week when a guy hit his first Major League Home Run in extra innings. Last night, the Mets won because Curtis Granderson came up in the 11th inning with the Mets down a run and hit a Home Run to tie the game, and followed that up by coming up in the 12th inning and hitting another Home Run to win the game, so, you know, why not? Why not get a pair of Home Runs from the same guy in back-to-back extra innings?

Seth Lugo, whose general M.O. has basically been to eat innings while keeping the Mets in the game, did that again. He wasn't at his best; he seemed a bit wild early, but outside of a 3rd inning Home Run from Eddie Rosario he allowed the Twins nothing of consequence over his 5 innings of work. This was fortunate, because the Mets were doing nothing against Ervin Santana. Santana continues to toil away for a woefully overmatched Twins team and, well, the Mets saw a bit of him back when he pitched for Atlanta that time and it seems he hasn't changed much. Santana had the Mets stopped cold through 7 innings and only in the 7th did they pose a credible threat, and even then Santana struck out Michael Conforto to end the inning and finish out his night.

And, of course, as soon as Santana left the game, the Mets tied the score. Ryan Pressly, who I suppose is posing as Minnesota's setup man (if you asked me who their closer was I probably wouldn't be able to tell you), gave up a first pitch hit to Jose Reyes, wild pitched him to 2nd and then Reyes moved to 3rd on a Cabrera ground out. And that brought up Cespedes, and for whatever reason teams continue to pitch to Cespedes in opportunities where he can beat them. Miami did it and it wrecked their precious little season. Minnesota did it and ended up getting beat as well, as Cespedes just flicked a 3-2 pitch over the 2nd baseman's head for the tying hit.

And, so, it then became a bullpen fest. The Mets had already burned through Josh Smoker, Fernando Salas, Jerry Blevins, Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia by time the game moved to the 10th, and so the game was turned over to Hansel Robles. The Twins countered with several pitchers you've never heard of, unless you're somehow related to J.T. Chargois or Alex Wimmers. Robles moved to the 10th, but in the 11th he was burned, and I mean legitimately burned, by Byron Buxton, who may be starting to get his sea legs under him. Buxton hit a Home Run up into a part of Citi Field where it seems only people named "Miguel Cabrera" or "Cespedes" can reach and the Twins not only had a lead, but a chance to use their closer and for me, a chance to see who their closer actually is.

Brandon Kintzler, said Twins Closer, came in to try to close things out in the last of the 11th and of course gave up a Home Run to Curtis Granderson on his 2nd pitch to re-tie the game at 2-2. Kintzler then appeared ready to just end things right there, giving up subsequent hits to T.J. Rivera and Brandon Nimmo, which brought up Kevin Plawecki—remember him?—for his first At Bat since June or thereabouts. Plawecki had a hard time up here earlier in the year and this time just hit into bad luck as his line shot glanced off Kintzler's glove and right to Brian Dozier, who threw him out. Kintzler then hit Matt Reynolds with a pitch, and then struck out Jose Reyes, which meant that after all that crotch-grabbing, we were just going to play more baseball.

Josh Edgin pitched the 12th inning for the Mets without incident. Michael Tonkin entered for Minnesota and retired the first two batters, then was subsequently removed by Paul Molitor in favor of Ryan O'Rourke—you know, the great Ryan O'Rourke. I'm not sure why at this point Molitor felt he needed to play matchups, but Granderson had one of those At Bats that Cespedes usually has, where he starts fouling off pitch after pitch and eventually gets something he can handle, and he did, and he hit it down into the little slip of seats in the Right Field corner for the game-winning Home Run and the Mets had won this absurd mess of a game 3-2.

And, of course, shortly after the Mets won, the Cardinals won, coming back on the Giants to win and knock the Giants back into a tie with the Mets for the first Wildcard. Can you believe this? The Mets played the Giants about a month ago at perhaps their worst point in the season, and now they're not only tied but because they hold the tiebreaker, the Mets are, in fact, in position to host the Wildcard game. But, they're not there yet. They have to keep winning these games against teams that are clearly overmatched.

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.

The Lesser Guys

The last time the Mets were on The Biggest Game In The Galaxy, I felt like they won purely to spite ESPN. I don't feel quite the same way about what went on last night, I suppose because the Nationals are currently sitting in victory formation with an 8-game lead, and without a clear story or player on their side to leech on to. Perhaps, I suppose, they could have rammed their heads up Daniel Murphy's ass just to annoy us (and on some level I'm surprised they didn't). Without a real "interest" story, this stood to be even more of a boring, content-free game than usual. Joey McTalkinghead and Eric Byrnes Aaron Boone were useless and the token woman had even less to say than she usually does. I watched the game from start to finish, amazingly, and I'm not sure she spoke more than once every three innings.

Pennant Race Baseball at its finest.

So if you could follow the game beyond ESPN's camerawork, which seemed to go out of its way to make sure you couldn't see the game (to wit: somewhere in the 1st inning, I believe on Reynaldo Lopez's Wild Pitch, we were treated to a shot of the 1st base umpire, who was nowhere near the play, as opposed to any shot of the action on the field), you saw the Mets once again ride one of these lesser guys to a much-needed victory, as Seth Lugo spun 7 sterling innings, allowing 1 run, 6 hits and no walks to guide the Mets to a 5-1 victory and a series win over the Nationals.

For this we can partially thank Dusty Baker, yes, as he moved Scherzer off this game, but really, the credit needs to go to Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo. After the Mets lost the game Noah Syndergaard pitched, and the Mets were back on their heels and falling into the same pattern of ineptitude that's befallen the Pirates and Marlins, they needed some big time starts and these guys delivered. It's kind of uncanny that these lesser prospects have come up and performed as well as they have, but considering that the top tier prospects, Harvey, Syndergaard, Wheeler and Matz all burst onto the scene with such hype and furor, well, it's easy to forget about these mid-level guys that find themselves once they hit the Majors. There's no better example than Jacob deGrom, who really had no hype coming to the Majors and then got here and hasn't looked back. Now, we have Gsellman and Lugo coming up with no hype whatsoever and performing well. Maybe it's just that they're all pushed by the success the big guys have had, relatively speaking, or maybe they're all just slept on. Whatever it is, they're keeping the Mets afloat.

Meanwhile, the Mets still had to hit to get the job done, and they did enough of that against Lopez and the Washington Bullpen Parade, as Curtis Granderson continued his recent resurgence with a Sacrifice Fly and a 2-run Home Run to put the Mets ahead, and later Jay Bruce contributed a 2-run Home Run of his own and so maybe things are starting to fall for him as well. That would be nice.

Then, of course, I remembered why ESPN probably wasn't picking on the Mets tonight. They screwed the Mets just simply by televising this game period. They moved this game to Sunday Night, the night before the Mets have to pack up, go on the road and play this afternoon at 1pm in Cincinnati. So, you know, they can be nice and rested for that. They're probably in midair right now, I would imagine and one can only guess who will be starting today, but I have a feeling it won't be pretty...

More To Be Said

So, after playing a bit of a waiting game before beating the Mickey Mouse Marlins on Monday night, the Mets again spotted them a lead on Tuesday, as Seth Lugo allowed a Home Run to Hamburgers Yelich in the top of the 1st inning, only to come back quickly, and often, as they caught, passed and eventually overwhelmed the Marlins to win for the second straight night. With this rousing 7-4 victory, the Mets passed the Marlins outright in the Wildcard race, and with that restored proper order to the world.

Tom Koehler, who's one of those Kyle Kendrick-types, in that he's been pitching for the same NL East team for several years, and as such has pitched against the Mets about 107 times and for as many times as the Mets and said pitcher face each other, there's no particular pattern to anything. So sometimes, Koehler throws a shutout, and other times, Koehler gets bombed. This time, Koehler got bombed, good and proper, just like a true Marlin should be. Spotted a lead, he handed it back immediately as Jose Reyes singled and Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a 2-run Home Run to tie the game, and after Jay Bruce reached on a rare double, Wilmer Flores drove him in to put the Mets ahead. Later, Curtis Granderson pinch-hit for Lugo in the 6th and hit another Home Run off Koehler. And for good measure, Granderson was kind enough to hit a second Home Run in the 7th, this time off Dustin McGowan to extend the Mets lead.

Lugo was the beneficiary of this, as he once again did a fine job over his 6 innings of work. After allowing the Yelich Home Run, Lugo clamped down and allowed the Marlins no further. Hansel Robles added two scoreless innings in his best outing in about a month, and Jeurys Familia picked up his 43rd Save, and should rather shortly assume his rightful place as the Mets single-season save leader once he picks up #44 and finally removes Armando Benitez from the Mets record books.

I'd like to tell you more interesting things about this game, but I didn't see it so I can only rehash fact. But if you want interesting things, I can tell you some tidbits as they relate to Monday's game.

• Monday night's game was my first Extra Inning game of the season. I mentioned that yesterday in juxtaposition with 2013. But I only attended two extra inning games in 2013. I've actually never been to more than 3 extra inning games in a season, with 2006, 2008 and 2014 holding the record. 
• Monday's victory was my 10th Walkoff Mets win since Citi Field opened back in 2009, as well as my first of the 2016 season. Of those 10, this was the first to end on a Home Run.
• Yoenis Cespedes' Walkoff Home Run was the first Walkoff Home Run I'd witnessed since Carlos Beltran hit one on June 11, 2008, back at Shea Stadium. 

The Guy Who Hung Around

The Mets had already run out to a 3-0 lead on Thursday night by time the 5th inning rolled around and things really started tilting in their favor.

With 1 out, Yoenis Cespedes drew a walk. James Loney followed by dunking a hit in a particular spot where no Outfielder could possibly have caught it, which might be the story of his season to this point. Cespedes, seeing this, turned on his jets and headed for 3rd. The throw, whose originator escapes me, to Adam Wainwright at 3rd appeared to be in plenty of time to get Cespedes. Except that all of a sudden Wainwright lost his glove under Cespedes' cleat, and following a review, Cespedes was called safe. I've seen Pitchers have to chuck their entire glove to 1st Base on a comebacker, but this one's a new one on me.

Point is, when you get a break such as this, good things tend to happen.

One out later, Greg Garcia yakked on a Wilmer Flores ground ball that probably would have ended the inning outright, and Cespedes scored. One batter later, Alejandro De Aza, who one inning earlier drove in 2 runs with a single, slammed a Wainwright offering into the Cardinals bullpen for a 3-run Home Run that essentially put the game out of reach at 7-0, put Wainwright in the showers, and put a well-deserved puss on the faces of Cardinals fans.

For De Aza, it was his 2nd 3-run Home Run in a week, after a season in which I'd claimed he would be the first player to be DFA'd this season and he spent the first 3 months not playing well or not playing at all. But he's stuck with it and for all the pieces falling around him, he's been here all year and has come up with more key hits than one might realize. To say nothing of the 5 RBI he had tonight.

As far as falling pieces, well, the Mets had another fallen piece in the 6th, as Seth Lugo, who'd been pitching rather brilliantly over the first 5 innings, came down with a cramp and had to leave the game. This was, of course, the second time in two days this happened to the Mets in St. Louis, so you don't have to be a genius to figure out who's at fault here. I'm not sure why Ol' Cortisone Shot Ramirez can't figure this one out, because all you need to do is fucking hydrate before a game on a miserable humid day in St. Louis and maybe you can avoid cramping up, but this sort of logic seems to be beyond that gentleman's realm. But he still has a job, so what the hell do I know?

Regardless of the turd in that particular punchbowl, it didn't sink the Mets, who in spite of some spotty relief work from Jim Henderson, Josh Smoker and the mysteriously returned Sean Gilmartin did not allow the Cardinals a realistic chance of getting back in the game. Instead, the Mets offense tacked on a few more runs of their own (!) and won 10-6. So not only did they win this series in St. Louis altogether, but they managed to get themselves back to .500 on this road trip, and they're still hanging around in this Wildcard chase.

Toe Tag

I didn't see any of Friday night's game, and this sort of thing seems to be happening more and more as the Mets spiral into irrelevance. The game was totally forgettable, to the point where all I know about the game was that Steven Matz couldn't start, Seth Lugo started instead, and although he pitched well, nobody else on the Mets did and the end result was a listless 8-1 loss that put the Mets deeper into the hole.

I received an e-mail during the afternoon from the fellow that is kind of the ringleader of the e-mail string I belong to, wondering why nobody had anything to say about the Mets since May. The truth is, there just hasn't been much to talk about. I've had a hard time figuring out things to write about the Mets for several weeks, to the point where I'm now consistently a day or two behind when it comes to writing about games (is that cheating? Does anyone really care?).

There are seasons not like this where the Mets have had no expectations and you have to watch a lot of really bad baseball over the course of the year. Pick a year from 2009 to 2014 and you'll get what I mean. But if there's a plan in place at work and there's signs of life, as there were in 2013 and 2014, there's at least something interesting to write about.

The problem with the Mets in 2016 is that the expectations were high at the start of the season, but the way the year has played out has just been so demoralizing and frustrating that there's not much to say. I mean, I know a lot of fans of other teams like to point and laugh and say that last year was a fluke, but the Mets are better than that. The fact that they've had the volume of injuries that they've had to deal with and still manage to hover around .500 does say something about the future of the team. The pitching, by and large, hasn't been the issue. The talent is still there. But it's hard for the pitchers to win games when they get no run support, and it's tough to score runs when your offense is either injured or regressed. Curtis Granderson is a shell of what he was last year, to the point where I wonder what he has left. Michael Conforto just fell into so many bad habits, and was probably mishandled, that what he needs more than anything else is for this year to end and to come back next year with a clean mind.

What the Mets need more than anything else for next season isn't a series of reactionary trades to rebuild a slumping offense. That would be tantamount to undoing everything that was done to get to this year. I think what they need more than anything else is a Sports Psychiatrist. I'm sure that would help Conforto and it would definitely help guys like Matt Harvey and Steven Matz, and probably other guys who get into bad habits and start pressing too much. The Mets never had a stretch where they could just relax and get on a roll like they did last year. But to call last year an outlier isn't giving this team enough credit for the talent they have. Then again, nobody wants to give the Mets any kind of credit anyway, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the #LOLMets-ers and the BACKMAN BABY morons are crawling back out of the woodwork now that times have gotten tough.

Shit Show Week

Imagine, if you will, that the Subway Series is not simply a set of games between the two New York teams. Instead, picture the Subway Series as some horrible, demented green, or perhaps eggplant-colored blob, something like a cross between Shrek and Mr. Bighead. It isn't present except during these games this week, and usually it causes things that rarely, if ever, happen in a Baseball game to occur. Or it makes a player do something totally out-of-character. Or it makes a baseball bounce in such a way that defies general logic. Once again, the Mets and Yankees proved why the Subway Series is a horrible, wretched thing and needs to be stopped.

In spite of the fact that for a hot second, the Mets had a lead and things looked to be in a steady place, the Subway Series reared its ugly head and a series of dumb shit began happening to the Mets, culminating in the Yankees tying and eventually winning the game 6-5 in a miserable, predictable 10-inning crapfest.

The game had that dumb Subway Series thing going right from the start. Fire Hydrant Head hit Logan Verrett's second pitch of the game over the head of Justin Ruggiano and off the wall, and ultimately the ball caromed back towards the infield. Gardner appeared to have an easy triple, but he had an attack of Subway Series and decided to score, and fortuitously, Curtis Granderson and Neil Walker made perfect relay throws home to Travis d'Arnaud, who blocked the plate and tagged Gardner out.

But the tone had been set. The game was one of those back-and-forth affairs. Wilmer Flores homered of C.C. Sabathia in the 2nd. The Yankees struck back tied it in the 4th on a Verrett Wild Pitch. In the 5th, the Yankees grabbed the lead when they started hitting a string of 2-out doubles. At 3-1, conventional wisdom would have it that the Mets were going to fold their tents, but they can have an Attack of Subway Series too, and after a Michael Conforto RBI double cut the deficit to 3-2, Matt Reynolds had his Kaz Matsui moment by hitting a 3-run Home Run in the 6th to turn the game in the Mets favor, and everything, for the moment, was great.

But, lest we forget, this is still the Subway Series, which meant that even if the Mets were ahead 8-3, they weren't immune from the Subway Series. By this point, Erik Goeddel and Hansel Robles had worked clean innings, and Jerry Blevins came in to start the 8th, and of course he walked Fire Hydrant Head to start the inning, because Subway Series. With 1 out, Addison Reed came in and appeared to restore order by striking out Mark Teixeira's Carcass. Mr. Morality singled, and then was run for by Ronald Torreyes, who nobody's ever heard of, and appears to be no taller than 5'3" and of course is the embodiment of Subway Series so you knew he was going to do something to screw things up. It appears his mere presence gave Addison a Subway Series, because he then labored through an 8-pitch At Bat by Didi Gregorious, in the midst of which Torreyes predictably stole 2nd, before Gregorious hit a dying quail of a single to left to score both runs and tie the game.

The Mets, at this point, had packed up their bats for the night, since 5 I guess was more than enough for them. The game, however, was not over. Jeurys Familia came in for the 9th and somehow managed to fight off the Subway Series, but in the 10th, Seth Lugo, oddly the last man in the Bullpen for the Mets on this night, entered the game and the Subway Series literally ate him alive.

First, Lugo dug his own grave by walking Ellsbury on 4 pitches, which is just about unconscionable in that spot. Then he got 2 strikes on Teixeira's carcass, before he singled to left. Then some dude with a mullet was batting, which instantly meant that a Subway Series was about to attack, and of course it did because Mullet laid down a bunt back to Lugo, and instead of at least trying to get the sure out, Lugo threw to 3rd, and of course Ellsbury was safe because THAT PLAY NEVER WORKS AND IT ESPECIALLY NEVER WORKS IN THE SUBWAY SERIES!

You know what happened from there. Yankees take the lead, Yankee fans start smacking Mets fans with rubber chickens, the Mets get James Loney to 3rd with 1 out in the last of the 10th and strand him there when Curtis Granderson has a Subway Series and takes a pitch that Dellin Betances basically set on a tee for him to hit out of the ballpark.

So, I mentioned that Lugo was the last man in the bullpen for the Mets and that's of course because the roster was totally cocked up by this afternoon's trade deadline, which saw the Mets make a pair of deals, which were both totally necessary and completely puzzling at the same time.

First, there's the Jay Bruce trade, which seemed to unfold in typical Metsian fashion: complete, then almost dead, then done in totally backwards fashion. Initially, the deal included Brandon Nimmo, who I like but could understand moving here. Somewhere, the Reds balked at some medical records and so the Mets had to go back and figure out something else, eventually closing the deal at around 3:45 by sending Dilson Herrera and youngster Max Wotell to Cincinnati. I like moving Herrera even less, just based on the fact that he's so young and has, I think, a ton of upside. But then again, he also strikes me as one of those guys that the Mets just don't like, because they never gave him a real chance to earn his keep in the Majors and then kept blocking his path. Then again, the perfect scenario would have involved Neil Walker leaving and Herrera taking over next season. We won't see that now, which is a shame, but again, the Mets need something resembling a legitimate bat in the lineup right now, someone who will hit behind Cespedes and provide some protection. Is it a perfect fit? Hardly. But I also trust Sandy Alderson to make trades that have a purpose, so I'm going with it. And as far as the Herrera situation, well, Gavin Cecchini appears poised to ascend soon, too, and could slide over to 2nd Base. So, too, could Jose Reyes if he sticks around.

Then, of course, there's the trade the Mets made with Pittsburgh that somehow ended up with Jon Niese coming BACK to the Mets. Once you're done laughing your ass off over this one, you can shrug, and then laugh some more. I don't know if I can even call this trade addition by subtraction. Yes, the Mets got rid of Antonio Bastardo, which is probably the most operative thing here, but I guess the moral to this story is that sometimes, you have to take something lousy back in order to get rid of something lousy. So...yeah. After leaving and running his mouth a little bit, Niese is back and I believe the first thing he's going to do is sit down with Terry Collins, and Collins is going to give him a towel so that he can wipe all the egg off his face.

And then Bruce and Niese can turn around and dive right into the shit show.