Waste Not, Frost Not

Ugh. I've got this horrible, creaky, aching feeling right now, which means one of two things: either I'm getting old, or I just spent another ill-advised April night at Citi Field and I'm only now starting to get feeling back in my extremities.

Or perhaps it's both.

Tuesday night was one of the more unbearably cold games I've attended at Citi Field, which for whatever reason seems to circulate cold air in such a way that it's simply piercing. I'm not sure if it's the way the stadium is oriented, because Center Field faces more towards Flushing Bay whereas Shea Stadium was angled so Center Field faced the picturesque Flushing skyline, or because Shea Stadium was open on one side and Citi Field is mostly enclosed, whatever it is, April games at Citi Field are about 134% colder than they were at Shea.

And for some asinine reason I keep showing up.

When they win, it's tolerable. When they lose, it's pretty miserable, and when they lose to the Marlins, by a run, when they squander multiple opportunities to send the opposing pitcher to the showers and waste a virtuoso effort from Noah Syndergaard, and the game takes 3 hours and 17 minutes...well, you get the picture.

Syndergaard, of course, seems impervious to the elements, which I guess can be chalked up to his Norwegian Danish heritage (it sounds Norwegian, I suppose, but it figures he's of Danish descent. Most things from Denmark are pretty awesome). All he did over his 7 innings of work was perform the Baseball version of the Vulcan neck pinch on the Marlins, striking out 12 and allowing only 1 run on 5 hits, all of them of the blooper/bleeder/Marlinish variety. You could say all sorts of superlatives about his first two starts this season, but really, I'm not terribly surprised. You could see this coming. Syndergaard was on fire from the first pitch he threw, and after fanning Giancarlo Stanton and Nickleback to start the 2nd, fans were giving him a standing ovation like it was the 9th inning before he Kd Derek Dietrich to finish the inning.

But, alas, it was mostly for naught, as the Mets bats were once again as cold as the April air. They had Jose Fernandez on the ropes early; Lucas Duda made a pretty lousy baserunning play to short-circuit one rally, and in the 2nd they had the bases loaded and Fernandez grousing at the umpire and snapping at the baseball before David Wright swung at a sucker pitch and flew out. From there, Fernandez settled in and even though he only went through 5 innings the Mets offense acted like a bunch of Marlins.

The Marlins acted like Marlins too, because that's what they do, and after 7 innings of striking out against Syndergaard, Jim Henderson entered the game and basically gassed himself trying to get out Dee Gordon. In typical Marlin fashion, Gordon fouled off a dozen pitches before hitting a stink bomb into left for a single, and right then and there I knew the Mets were fucked. Not only was he guaranteed to steal second but Henderson was done, and eventually walked Yelich and Stanton before departing for a Marlin-like combination of pitchers and pinch-hitters and then Jerry Blevins allowed the game-winning Sacrifice Fly. The Mets, of course, acted like Syndergaard had materialized on the mound for Miami and struck out a bunch of times.

This game sucked, and this is one of those games where I start to wonder what the hell I'm doing. It was probably about 40˚š at Citi Field last night and I'm probably being generous because it felt no warmer than 20˚. I watch Syndergaard pitch his ass off for 7 innings, allow one run because of an overturned call (you knew Celebrity Manager pulling some prick move would figure in somehow) and about 130' worth of singles, and then the Mets lose because the Marlins. Really? You can't somehow figure out a way to win a game like this? This was a 2-1 game that lasted 3 hours and 17 minutes, and there weren't a ton of in-game moves or crotch grabbing. Syndergaard works at a brisk pace. So you know, then, that it was the Marlins' fault. They're such a chicken-shit franchise that they can't even win a game properly. Not that the Mets are great shakes right now, either. I know there was some grousing about the way Terry Collins managed the bullpen but what difference would it have made? So Collins brings in Familia in the 8th inning and instead of the Mets losing 2-1 in 9 innings, they lose 2-1 in 15 innings? I'll say this, if the game had gone 15 innings, I sure as shit wouldn't have stuck around for the end of it.

I'm not that much of a masochist. Or maybe I am. I don't know.

Days Like This

There are few things that are more galling to me as a Mets fan than losing to the fake-ass, Mickey Mouse Marlins. I feel like this hatred I have of their very existence has reached epidemic proportions because now it's pissing me off when it happens in the 6th game of the season. Maybe it's magnified because of how everyone is creaming over the Marlins because they have the Celebrity Manager and the Celebrity Batting Coach, or because everyone loves their mouth-breather 1st Baseman and their slugger who's guaranteed to miss 60 games a season. I don't know. What I do know is that last night, the Marlins battered Steven Matz in his season debut in a wholly embarrassing performance and then took their sweet time playing out the rest of the game, handing the Mets a 10-3 defeat in a miserable 3 hour and 50 minute game that felt every bit as long as it was.

Usually, when a team runs out to a big lead early in a game, both teams start hacking away just to get out of there quick. Usually. But the Marlins, because they are who they are, just had to drag this out. It was bad enough that they hen-pecked Steven Matz to death on a bunch of infield hits and bloops before he got fed up and basically set one on a tee for Giancarlo Stanton to hit it out. Then, Jarred Cosart decided to stop throwing strikes and give everyone some false hope by allowing the Mets to string together a little rally. But for as much as Cosart tried to let the Mets back in this game, the stagnant Mets bats weren't taking the bait. All they really did was just delay the inevitable and get Cosart out of the game before the end of the 5th inning.

Enough has been said about the offense not hitting and after 6 games of this the talk is probably only going to get worse. I've even heard some "What's Wrong with Matz?" talk which is completely asinine. He hadn't pitched in 10 days, which can often throw a pitcher completely out of whack, and for all the talk about his ability, really, it's a side effect of his being lumped in with the rest of the starting pitchers. Of the "Big 4," Matz is really the unknown commodity and it's easy to forget that even figuring in the 3 starts he made in the Postseason last year, he boasts all of 10 games of Major League experience. He's going to have nights like this. He doesn't have Harvey's fire, Syndergaard's poise or deGrom's cool, or at least he doesn't yet. These things take time and the reason Matz can be a #4 is because those other three are there. The game he pitched tonight was a little more Jon Niese than anything else because you could sort of sense him losing his bearings a little bit as the 2nd inning started to get away from him. The key in this instance would be to try to minimize the damage, but Matz didn't do that and the end result was what happened with Stanton, and that spelled the end of his night. Really good pitchers have games like this, but what separates them from the Jon Nieses of the world is that they learn from these outings and get better. Niese never did that. Matz still has a chance.

This probably had to happen to Matz. I just wish it didn't happen against the effing Marlins. Those guys are such a joke they can't even win right.

A Real Eye-Roller

It's incredibly easy for everyone to get all in a panic about the Mets getting off to a 2-3 start, and even easier to panic because Matt Harvey is 0-2 and Curtis Granderson is off to a 1-for-19 start at the plate. I guess as Mets fans, panicking is kind of bred into everyone so acting this way is basically some weird learned behavior.

But can you logically be that panicked? I mean, sure. The Mets once again lost to a really bad Phillies team, but barely a week ago I said there was something about this Phillies team that bothered me, and it's their starting pitching, more than anything else. They got to Eickhoff on Friday but for a few innings he was locking it down. Saturday, they did nothing against Velasquez and on Sunday, their de facto ace, Jeremy Hellickson, stopped them cold once again. At least until Yoenis Cespedes reached him for a 2-run Home Run in the 6th inning, but outside of Cespedes and David Wright, nobody I believe got a hit against Hellickson, or Hector Neris, or James Russell or Jeanmar Gomez, so while it's partially some good pitching, the offense is just in no rhythm whatsoever.

The flipside of all this is of course that Matt Harvey is 0-2 and everyone's wondering "What's Up with Harvey?" and I'm not sure anything really is up with Harvey. This has basically been the story of Harvey's career--a general lack of run support at some inopportune times, and so when he's not perfect it gets magnified because the Mets can't make up the 3 runs he allows. I can't say Harvey pitched poorly in either start; all he's done is go 6 innings and allow 3 runs, and against the Royals it looks bad because the Royals make everyone look bad, and against the Phillies it looks bad because you figure he'd eat the Phillies for lunch. But if he gave up 3 runs in 6 innings to the Phillies and the Mets blasted Hellickson out of the building and won, say, 8-3, nobody would have much to say. Again, perception based on outcome.

So, what can you do right now other than roll your eyes at it all? Granderson isn't going to go 1-for the season, Cespedes will get hot, Duda will get hot, they'll all get hot and everything will be OK eventually. 2-3 isn't the end of the world. They were 2-3 last year too. They were 2-3 in 1986 and 1988 and probably a whole bunch of other seasons I can't remember that turned out OK in the end. I know it stinks losing 2 of 3 to the awful Phillies but sometimes things like this happen.

These Annoying Guys

It is inevitable, over the course of a long, 162-game season that the Mets will have nights like this, where they just get handcuffed by some random Pitcher you probably never heard of. Last night, it was Vince Velasquez that did it to them, as he stifled the Mets over 6 innings. Most Mets fans probably weren't aware of Velasquez at all, but here he was sticking it to the Mets in his Phillies debut. Velasquez was probably one of the lesser known players that Philly acquired from Houston in the Ken Giles trade during the offseason but I wouldn't sleep on him. I've already said this about most of Philly's pitchers and already it's biting the Mets in the ass.

The Mets' inability to generate any meaningful offense on what was probably a miserably cold night at Citi Field was Bartolo Colon, who essentially got hung with a loss based on one bad pitch—a ball that kind of hung to Ryan Howard in the 5th inning—that Howard hit out and accounted for the only run of the game. Colon, outside of that pitch, was his usual wonderful self. He pitched 6 innings, didn't walk anyone, struck out 7, had his two riotous At Bats, nearly legged out an infield hit that would have made Citi Field come apart, and made an over-the-shoulder catch of an Odubel Herrera bunt attempt.

These games are irritating enough when you lose to a bottom-feeder team that's throwing an unknown commodity at you, but the Mets did themselves no favors by failing to make much of a peep against four Philly relievers that they ate for lunch on Friday afternoon. Everyone seems to point to the 8th inning and the fact that David Hernandez was behind in the count on every batter he faced, but somehow each time induced a swing on a sucker pitch and the end result was he departed with a clean line. Then, of course, they did more nothing against Jeanmar Gomez and his 1 career Save in the 9th inning to finish off this 1-0 loss, the Phillies' first victory of the season.

Nobody seems to be in much of a rhythm offensively. I'm not terribly concerned about this right now, particularly when you consider that thanks to the nonsensical schedule they've had to play so far, this was the first time they had games on back-to-back days a week into the season. These things will right themselves over time. You just don't like to give games away to lesser opponents. That's what really makes everyone crazy.

Come On Over!

I was thinking it had been a while since I'd done a photo-heavy at-game post, and why not use the opportunity of Opening Day on Friday to bust one of these out. I've generally taken the day-after-opening-day to take everything I didn't like to task, but I think I've mostly covered those issues. Maybe. I can always find more things wrong.

This is new, of course, and one of the first things you see when you get to the part of the Field level where you can actually see the field.

Looping around the Field Level, where not much has changed. The Grilled Cheese stand is still there, although the panache I guess has worn off, and most everything else is the same. This thing is still here, too. I'm not talking about the skyline, I'm talking about the absurd line at Shake Shack. Bear in mind, the gates opened about 15 minutes before I took this.

New York's #1 Power Couple was also out. Here, they're in the part of Citi Field that I always forget exists, and people are lined up for photos.

Here's Fuku, the David Chang outlet. I've always had an issue with David Chang ever since he started charging $115 for a bowl of ramen noodles, but this is supposed to be pretty good. However, this stand won the line battle of the day, as I'd mentioned, and no chicken sandwich is good enough for a 45 minute wait. I'll come back another day. Maybe. I would have loved to show you the line except that this guy's head got in the way.

Here's the new dugout roof.

I bet you didn't know that all On Deck Circles are stored in the On Deck Circle warehouse in New Jersey and they have to be carted in every game.

But what I can't understand is if they're going to drive them in on a cart, why then, do these poor schlubs have to carry the damn thing across the perimeter of the field to put it down in front of the Mets dugout?

Bunting! It's not Opening Day without Bunting. There appeared to be a short supply of bunting this year, though. George noticed it too. It's only been hung off of the front of the Excelsior Level and the Suites. And a small portion of the Promenade. At Shea Stadium, they hung bunting off of every available surface. Time to step up the bunting game, Mets.

Here's the blowing of the Shofar, the presentation of the Bill Shea wreath to Terry Collins. Bill Shea is of course long departed but his son and two grandsons are here to do the honors. At least two of these guys look like they just stepped out of a 1920s Speakeasy, and I'd have to guess they sound like it too.

And now, some players. Wonder what these guys are talking about? Noah Syndergaard is probably trying to discuss where he gets his favorite Raw Juice from. Matt Harvey might be eyeing up some ladies. Either way, they've excluded Matz from the discussion.

All right, all right. Now I'm just showing off how good the zoom lens on my camera is.

Now they've stopped talking. Anthem time. If this were at another ballpark in this city, Syndergaard, Verrett, Blevins, Campbell and Familia would have 55,000 people screaming at them to "TAKE YOUR HAT OFF!!"

More of these guys.

Again, they got guys from Hamilton to sing the anthem. If you don't follow Theater (and I have to since I work in the business), well, then you probably don't care, but basically there's a 6-month waiting list for the privilege to pay upwards of $500 a ticket to see Hamilton, so, yeah. It's a big deal.

Here's the NYPD helicopter flyover. I guess the days of the B-52s are over, which is OK with me. I think those are probably best reserved for things like the Super Bowl. The helicopters were adhering to Bill deBlasio's schedule, so they were about 90 seconds too late.

David can still get that leg up, but I'm not sure how early in the morning he had to get there in order to be able to do that now.

More Coca Cola Corner. I've always preferred Coke to Pepsi so this change in vendors is just fine with me. But it was too cold for soda on Friday.

More fun with Zoom lens.

It's like Jacob deGrom is going to pitch right into your lap!

Jim Henderson, too.

And, of course, with new companies come new mascots. I forgot that the Coke mascot was a bear, and so when I first saw Mr. Met hanging around with a bear, I wondered what the hell was going on.

But then, of course, they go out for the 7th inning Stretch, and Mr. and Mrs. Met are there singing and dancing and whatever it is they do together, while they sent the bear down on the side by himself. This is supposed to be a partnership, why is the bear all the way off on the side?

And, that's all I've got for today, photo-wise. When they raised the banner, the wind immediately died down and the banner just hung there, but the wind eventually picked up so I could get this picture.

Maybe we'll have some more of these posts in the future. Right now let's just get through April without freezing to death.