The Good Time Guys

So it's officially a streak. For the 5th day in a row, I saw none of the game, followed things partially on the internet, and the Mets won.

This particular game seemed to require a bit more work than the 4 victories preceding it. The Mets were down early to the Reds, a team they swept the season series from last year and really ought to do the same thing to again. But the Reds got to Bartolo Colon in the middle innings and ran out to a 3-0 lead. In other years, when the Reds lineup featured names like Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips and Todd Frazier, this might not be much of a surprise, but those players are either injured or on other teams, and so when you're getting beaten by guys named Tyler Holt and Scott Schebler, and the cleanup hitter is Eugenio Suarez, well, it's as bad as it looks.

It didn't help that the Mets were stymied by Brandon Finnegan, whom the Reds acquired in the Cueto deal last Summer. Finnegan's had a bit of a crucible in spite of his young age and paucity of experience, having been a part of KC's run to the 2014 World Series, so him showing poise isn't a great surprise, but still, the Mets ought to have been able to solve him.

It took until the 7th inning for them to actually do so, when with 1 out, Finnegan walked Juan Lagares and Kevin Plawecki singled. At that point, with over 100 pitches under his belt, Bryan Price was probably well within his right to pull Finnegan there and let him leave with a job well done and some good vibes. But after some cat-and-mouse act and a lengthy mound conference, Finnegan remained in to face Yoenis Cespedes as a Pinch Hitter and, well, that didn't go well for Finnegan. For Cespedes and the Mets, it was great, since Cespedes drilled the first pitch he saw for a 3-run Home Run to tie the game, one of those frozen moment shots that we'll probably see all season long.

Then, of course, Price removed Finnegan from the game.

Two batters later, the Mets had the lead thanks to a Curtis Granderson triple and a David Wright single, and by that point, the Reds were probably both stunned and demoralized and did fairly little for the remainder of the night.

But, lest that be a lesson. The Mets can, in fact, do that to you now. Even if it seems like they've been mostly sleepwalking through a game. I guess this is what happens when you're playing the also-ran instead of being the also-ran.