Did Me A Favor

I barely made it through half of Friday night's game at Citi Field. This wasn't so much because I couldn't take it, but because my other half, who was accompanying me for the second time this season, had taken ill and needed to go home. This was around the top of the 5th inning, when the score was still 2-0. So, we left. She wasn't thrilled about it and neither was I, but given how things played out the rest of the night, clearly she did me a favor by getting me out of there.

While the score said 2-0, which was perfectly in reach, the Mets weren't winning this game. They were too busy falling victim to the will of The Hot Team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have just been annihilating every team in their path for the last three months, including a sweep of the Mets. This should have been obvious minutes after the game started, when Chris Taylor got behind 0-2 against Jacob deGrom, and then started fouling off pitches, and taking balls, and finally, the count was full, and then he hit a line shot to Left that clanged off a railing for a Home Run. And what did I hear? Loud, raucous cheers from a crowd packed with Dodgers fans. So right there, I knew the Mets were fucked. Corey Seager followed with a rocket double and only because deGrom is deGrom and can sometimes will his way through innings did he escape with the score still 1-0. A lesser pitcher would have had a 6-spot hung on him. Or worse.

It didn't improve from there. Yasiel Puig hit a Home Run in the 2nd to make the score 2-0, and meanwhile, the Mets looked mostly hopeless against Yu Darvish, making his ballyhooed Dodgers debut after being acquired from Texas. Darvish hadn't been pitching well with the Rangers, but of course he hits the Dodgers and the switch flipped. The Mets mostly didn't touch him, though deGrom did manage a hit in the 3rd, and then stole a base which was academic. Amed Rosario, making his Citi Field debut, did the same in the 5th, after we'd departed.

But, of course, our early departure meant I'd been spared the indignity of seeing Chase Utley hit a Home Run in the 6th off of Josh Smoker, I didn't get to see more Dodgers Fans dancing in the Aisles, and I didn't have to watch the Mets fade out meekly into the night as clearly they're no match for The Hot Team right now. Given their record and the streak they've been on, I'm not sure anyone is a match for them.

Saw That One Coming

Thursday's game was of course one of those bizarre 3:40pm games, where I can't watch because I'm at work, so I have a hard time following, and because it's such an odd start time, it usually ends while I'm heading home from work so I really have no idea what's going on. But then again, when I left my office, I saw that the game was tied, in the last of the 9th, and Hansel Robles was pitching a 2nd inning and I already knew that this wasn't going to end well.

I've gone over my disdain of Robles more than enough times this season so I think you already know what I'm going to say. However, just to turn the knife a little more is this comment that Robles was complaining of numbness in his hand and yet didn't say anything or ask to come out of the game, which is pretty stupid. Or maybe it's that same stubborn ballplayer mentality that screwed up everyone else on the team this season. Either way, I'd like to imagine that if you can't feel the object you're throwing in your hand, and your job is to get Major League hitters out and try to win a game, maybe it's better to just let someone else take it from there. Particularly when you have a hard enough time getting hitters out in key situations when you CAN feel the ball. But nooooo.

The game was over before I hit 59th Street on the subway, that alert buzz F COL 5 NYM 4 came through, and I wasn't surprised Robles found a way to blow the game. Which was a shame because the Mets had done a nice job of battling back, and Rafael Montero did a nice job of not getting lit up by the Colorados, and even he had an RBI, and Amed Rosario hit his 2nd triple in as many days, but this season, it feels like every positive is counteracted by multiple negatives and, of course losses.

Now the Mets can come home and lose even more to The Hot Team, the Dodgers. That should be a delight.

New Found Energy

I realize there's not much that can be done to actually save the Mets this season, but the more you are able to find some bright spots for the future, you go with that.

Two such new faces played prominent roles in the Mets Coors Field-aided 10-5 comeback win over the Colorados on Wednesday night. The first was Chris Flexen, who may simply be in the rotation right now because he's not Tyler Pill, or Tommy Milone, or Aaron Laffey, or Chan Ho Park, or Brett Hinchcliffe, or any other such gap-filling pitcher with no particular hope. That's not to say he at this point does inspire a great deal of confidence, but if nothing else, he's young, he has a reasonably live arm and some decent chance of upside. That being said, he hasn't exactly looked ready for prime time in his first two Major League outings. I don't know just how much of it is the fact that he's two starts removed from AA ball and how much is that he's pitching in Coors Field against a strong Colorados lineup, but the 3rd inning got away from him real fast and as such, his night ended there dazed and in a 5-0 hole after a series of ringing hits.

But since it's Coors Field, 5-0 isn't impossible, even for the Mets right now. Facing Tyler Chatwood, who can be intermittently good and horrible, the Mets stormed right back and their other new face, Amed Rosario, was instrumental in pushing this along. The Mets had scored two in the 4th and Rosario came up in the 5th inning with Curtis Granderson on 2nd and lined a shot past Nolan Arenado and into the Left Field corner. Rosario flew around the bases and even though the ball was picked up by an ignorant fan, Rosario was awarded 3rd base anyway. How often do you see that? A ground rule triple. And he was home shortly thereafter as he scored on a Travis d'Arnaud groundout and very quickly, 5-2 became 5-4 almost solely because of Rosario.

The Mets then continued to attack in the 6th, scoring another 6 runs after I'd shut the game off and attempted to go to bed. Yoenis Cespedes doubled home the tying run, Curtis Granderson gave the Mets the lead with a 3-run Home Run, and the Mets continued on from there until they were the ones with the 5 run lead. Now, all they had to do was hope their bullpen could hold it, which is of course always a dicey proposition. But Paul Sewald did his job, and even Fernando Salas threw a scoreless inning, and then A.J. Ramos finished it off and the Mets had themselves a victory, one that feels primarily spurred on by this new fellow because he pushed the envelope and helped make the early deficit seem not so impossible. Or maybe it was just the rarefied air, silly!

Do Well

Presumably, when your team's top prospect ascends to make his Major League debut, you want a few things to happen. You want him to play well, and look relaxed even if he's about to jump through his uniform. You want him to get his first hit so that it's out of the way and doesn't drag out and become a thing. You want him to play well in the field and not make any errors, and not do anything to screw up the game.

We got almost all of that out of Amed Rosario in his Major League debut on Tuesday night. He looked collected and calm for the most part. He got his first hit on an 8th inning Infield Single. However, it was a mistake he made at a crucial moment in the 9th inning that opened the doors for the Colorados to score the winning run and take the series opener, 5-4.

Blame on these sorts of plays get passed out all over the place, and sure, there was probably some miscommunication between Neil Walker and Rosario on the pitch to D.J. LeMahieu. But it wasn't, as some seem to make it out to be, some egregious mistake. These things happen and, well, Jose Reyes or Asdrubal Cabrera are just as capable of doing the same thing and when they do it, they're old and creaky. Or they're old and creaky anyway.  Irregardless, it happened, and Nolan Arenado followed with a looping single to win the game for the Colorados.

All that being said, the game to that point seemed to be playing into the Colorados hands. It was one of those games that a good team will always win and a bad team will always find a way to lose and so it shouldn't be too terribly surprising. The Mets had an early lead, Steven Matz then allowed a 3-run Home Run to Arenado in the 6th. The Mets battle back to tie and then take the lead in the 8th on a Jay Bruce Home Run, and then Paul Sewald and Jerry Blevins allow the Colorados to tie the game back up. And, then, Hansel Robles enters the game and, well, Robles has inspired such confidence that when he enters a game, I often wonder not if he'll screw it up, but how. And if he doesn't walk Charlie McCharliemon to start the 9th, maybe we're not in this mess talking about a Rookie's misplay. Or maybe we're just talking about the Rookie's misplay because who wants to waste their time talking about Hansel Robles?

Next Generation

The Mets of course made news with two moves on Monday, one of which was expected and the other of which had been long anticipated.

The first was the departure of Addison Reed to Boston for a trio of Pitching prospects whom none of us have ever really heard of so we just let them marinate in the Minors for now and hope for the best, because the hope is that they turn out to be more useful than many of the relievers the Mets have blindly been trotting out this season. As for Reed, we wish him well. He did some excellent work here; in spite of being somewhat iffy in his brief cameo in 2015, he put it all together and was outstanding in 2016 and for the most part again this season when he was shoved into the Closer's role.

The other news, of greater import, was the promotion of Amed Rosario to the Major Leagues after months of clamoring and clanging and wondering when it would actually happen. Well, now that time is here and we can see just what, exactly, Rosario is or will be. I expect he'll take a few days to get his sea legs under him; it helps that he'll be debuting in Colorado, but nonetheless that he was ready skill-wise was not in doubt. Let's see how ready he is mentally. The hope with these guys is, as always, that you have someone who will grab the position and stay there for the next 10-15 years. Sort of like the guy he's basically replacing, Jose Reyes. We'll hear that comparison made a few times, I'd think.

So...yeah. Reed out, Rosario in. Excitement abound for the last two months of a basically lost season. Let's go.