Lucky 11th

Some Mets games I've been to have more twists and turns than I'm able to adequately describe. Monday Night's game at Citi Field most definitely can be classified as one of those games. On the heels of seeing the Mets get No-hit last week, this game got off to an eerily similar start. Things turned in the Mets favor in the middle innings when they finally got a hit and some runs, only to slip away at the hands of an overused Closer. Things appeared lost in the 11th inning, but the Mets managed to take advantage of some bizarrely specific circumstances to come back from the dead and win the damn thing, 4-3, stopping the Blue Jays' 11 game winning streak and keeping their perfect Home record against Toronto intact.

My 10th game of the season came a mere 6 days after the ignominy of last week, which I'd prefer to never mention again except that sometimes I have to. The Mets were playing the Blue Jays, a team I'd hadn't seen the Mets play since 2001—because they hadn't played the Mets in New York since 2001. The Blue Jays had also never won a game against the Mets in New York. But, 14 years later, who would pay attention to that? This meant the return of several things to New York, among them Jose Reyes, who received a warm welcome, in stark contrast to when he appeared with the Mickey Mouse Marlins 3 years ago, R.A. Dickey, who was lost in a sea of blue sweatshirts in the Toronto dugout, and the Canadian National Anthem, which I feel squashes the Star Spangled Banner like a grape, and has never been performed at Citi Field—because this was the first time a Canadian team had ever played at Citi Field. As such, they had to get a professional to sing O Canada, because nobody here probably knows it; certainly the school group that sang the Star Spangled Banner didn't.

Then, there was a game to be played, and after striking out Reyes and getting Josh Donaldson to fly out, Noah Syndergaard faced Jose Bautista, and Bautista greeted Syndergaard by clobbering a pitch so far up the 2nd deck in Left Field that Michael Cuddyer didn't even give it a courtesy run. This seemed to unnerve Syndergaard, who then gave walked Edwin Encarnacion and allowed a bloop hit to Chris Colabello (and his .345 batting average) before finally getting Dioner Navarro to end the inning, after having thrown about 15 pitches more than he needed to. However, Syndergaard settled down, and more importantly settled in, and looked every bit like the dominant pitcher we were looking for. Against a lineup that's been bombarding pitchers for double-digit runs over the past few weeks, this was a particularly impressive effort. Though he only managed to make it through 6 innings, Syndergaard allowed only the 1 run, 2 hits and 1 walk in the 1st inning and supplemented that with 11 strikeouts.

Syndergaard's counterpart, Mark Buehrle, had no such pitch count issues, as he set down the Mets in order in the 1st, and then did so again in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, as I began to get more and more apoplectic. It wasn't lost on me that I'd just seen this happen, and that personal hitless inning streak was stretching much longer than I was comfortable with. After 12 innings, I'd had enough of that. After 13 innings, I was really starting to get frustrated. In the 5th, Lucas Duda hit a shot that sort of handcuffed Encarnacion (who clearly plays 1st Base like a DH) and went down the line. I had to wait a few seconds just to make sure it was actually scored a hit. Fortunately it was, so I could finally breathe easier.

Still, for the great work Syndergaard had done keeping the Blue Jays in check, the Mets hadn't cracked the scoreboard. But in the 6th, they broke through for a pair of runs, started when Kevin Plawecki used the often-reviled head-first slide into 1st base to beat an errant throw from Reyes, aided when Syndergaard stayed in the game to lay down a bunt, and finished off by back-to-back RBI Doubles from Juan Lagares and Ruben Tejada.

The Mets turned this lead over to the bullpen. First, Carlos Torres came in and got the lower half of the Toronto lineup in order. This was just fine. Jack Leathersich came in the game in the 8th and got one out, but then walked Justin Smoak, the failed Rangers/Mariners prospect who's mysteriously resurfaced with Toronto. Jose Reyes followed by grounding hard to 3rd, a ball that might have been hit hard enough to double up Reyes, but Tejada double clutched the ball and only got one of the two outs. In Tejada's defense, that was Jose Reyes running to 1st, so it's just as well he assured himself of one out. This, then, brought the meaty part of the Toronto lineup up, beginning with Josh Donaldson. There was no way in hell Leathersich was going to be left in. The only question was who would come in the game. After doing some heavy lifting on Sunday, the Mets bullpen was somewhat limited, to the point where Akeel Morris, a guy you've never heard of unless you watch Spring Training games or collect Bowman Baseball Cards, was summoned from A-ball to fill some holes.

Oddly, Jeurys Familia was summoned for a 4-out Save, one day after he converted a 4-out Save. This wasn't odd in the sense that Terry Collins wanted his best pitcher to go after Toronto's best hitters. But it was sort of irritating because Collins has been working Familia pretty hard all season, and 4-out Saves on Back-to-back days is a tall order, plus the fact that there was no other arm he could trust in that situation isn't really good. George agreed with the move, at least until I mentioned that Familia had picked up a 4-out Save the day before. Then, he thought the move completely asinine. Regardless, Familia came in, struck out Donaldson and got 25% of the way to a victory.

Unfortunately, that's as far as he got. Steve Delabar stopped the Mets in the 8th, so Familia returned still nursing a 1-run lead, which lasted the duration of one pitch in the top of the 9th. That pitch was sent screaming down the Left Field line by Jose Bautista, towards the corner. Were the Left Field foul pole 340' away from Home Plate, the ball might have hooked foul. Unfortunately, the line is only 335' and thus the ball landed a few feet fair for Bautista's second home run of the night, lead gone, 4-out save blown, good vibes gone. Things could potentially have gotten much worse, as Encarnacion followed with a jam shot double. Familia, who was clearly working on fumes at this point, got Colabello to pop out to Duda, but then walked Dioner Navarro. He wasn't putting batters away like he normally does, and Kevin Pillar battled him gamely, but fortunately bounced into a Fielder's Choice, and then Danny Valencia struck out and the Mets emerged from the inning tied.

Roberto Osuna set the Mets down in order in the last of the 9th, and so, after 8 innings of holding the hottest team in Baseball in check, the Mets now found themselves heading to extra innings. Fortunately, the game had been relatively quick to this point, not quite past the three hour mark. This was primarily because Mark Buehrle had spent the first 7 innings working at his usual metronomic pace, averaging :08 between pitches and keeping things moving along. Plus, there wasn't a lot of cocking around with pitching changes, and even a lengthy 3rd inning delay when Home Plate umpire Marty Foster was injured after getting clocked with a foul ball didn't slow things down much.

Hansel Robles, who really hadn't had a chance to calm down after his 9th inning misadventure on Saturday, entered the game and worked a clean inning, even getting through Russell Martin, who I still insist is a low-rent Paul LoDuca. Aaron Loup, a stringy lefthander, came in for Toronto in the last of the 10th, and in spite of facing a pair of righthanded hitters also allowed the Mets nothing.

By the 11th, George was beginning to wind down. I felt I still had a couple of innings left in me, but George, who has to work earlier than I do, said that this would be his last inning. The discussion then turned to the longest games I'd attended, in terms of innings. We'd attended a couple of 13-inning affairs over the years, but 14 innings remains my personal record, something I've been subjected to 5 times. I noted that by time the game gets that long, I start to root for someone to score period, not necessarily the Mets. This, of course, led to the inevitable mention of the fabled Bobby Valentine Moustache game, which took place against the Blue Jays and featured a walk-off hit by none other than Rey Ordonez.

The hope was that this particular game wouldn't follow suit, and when Robles walked Ezequiel Carrera and then gave up a hit & run single to Colabello, the Jays were in business. Robles then got ahead of Navarro 0-2, but Navarro hacked at the 2-strike pitch and hit a fly ball out to Granderson in right, and any fly ball to Granderson in right is likely deep enough to plate a run, and that's exactly what happened as the Jays grabbed a lead, and suddenly found themselves 3 outs from stealing a win and extending their winning streak to 12.

This put me and every other Mets fan in a rather foul mood as Brett Cecil, who somehow is the Jays closer, came in for the last of the 11th. I've always operated under the assumption that Brett Cecil was a former Yankees "prospect," and as such wasn't any good, but it seems that was never the case. He's always been a Blue Jay. So, he retired Lagares to start the inning, but then walked Tejada.

This, then, is when the circumstance and brilliance of Baseball took over.

Michael Cuddyer, who was certainly capable of popping one into the seats, came to bat. He didn't pop one anywhere, instead he hit a ground ball to 2nd base, horrifyingly destined to be a game-ending Double Play. Ryan Goins fielded the ball, and all he had to do was just slap a tag on Tejada, toss to Colabello and finish off the Mets. Tejada, however, broke to a stop rather than running into a tag. He then wisely backpedaled towards 1st, forcing Goins to chase him down in order to make the tag. Goins might have been wiser to try to get the force at 2nd, except that he'd committed to the play and instead chased, and eventually tagged Tejada, but by that point Cuddyer was well safe at 1st, and Tejada had managed to keep the Mets alive for one more batter. This was Lucas Duda, certainly one capable of blasting a pitch into the seats, even against a Lefty. The Jays went into their overshift, as teams usually do against Duda, pulling the infielders over to the right side, and shifting their outfielders over as well, and deep, to the point where Carrera was playing somewhere in front of the Apple, Pillar was in Arthur Ashe Stadium, and Bautista was playing somewhere in Forest Hills. Essentially, they were daring Duda to try and hit one the other way. Duda worked the count full, which meant Cuddyer would at least have a running start as Cecil delivered the pitch. Duda swung and did exactly what was necessary at that particular moment: he lofted a pop fly into shallow left field. With Carrera so deep and the infielders swung to the right, it was easy to see off the bat that nobody was going to catch the ball, and Cuddyer was steaming around the bases. Carrera picked up the ball and perhaps a good throw had a chance to get Cuddyer, but Donaldson for some reason cut the throw off and then fumbled the ball, allowing Cuddyer to slide home with the tying run uncontested. The Mets had staved off defeat, and now had an opportunity to win. Cecil was removed in favor of Liam Hendriks, who came in to face Wilmer Flores. Hendriks only needed one pitch, which Flores grounded straight up the middle for a hit. Pillar made a desperate throw towards home but it was nowhere near close enough to get Duda and the Mets escaped with the 4-3 win.

So, it took longer than expected, but the Mets stopped the hottest team in Baseball and kept their home record against the Toronto Blue Jays undefeated in one of the more rousing games the Mets have played at Citi Field in general, never mind rousing for this season. Duda and Flores will get the bulk of the credit, and they should, because Duda's hit was perfectly placed and Flores earned himself getting bum rushed by the entire team and getting the Juan Lagares Sunflower Seed shower, but this whole inning was made possible because of Ruben Tejada not running into the tag on Cuddyer's ground ball. His keeping the game alive made everything after that possible, but of course, that particular play is basically lost in the box score. The sort of little things that make a game like this memorable. Now, hopefully SNY will show replays of this game in their Mets Classics rotation instead of continually showing that game against the Cubs from 2007.

Gee, A Comeback!

The Mets charged out on Sunday afternoon and for at least 4 innings looked every bit like I was right and they were completely dead in the water after Saturday's game. However, in reality, it wasn't a blown game hangover so much as a Dillon Gee hangover. After Gee was raked over the coals for 8 runs in 3.2 forgettable innings, the Mets were both dazed and down 8-3. However, from that point forward, they woke up and hit back. 4 Mets relievers combined to allow the Braves no further runs, while the offense, which has a lot more teeth now that Travis d'Arnaud and Dilson Herrera are back, blew up for 4 Home Runs (two, not surprisingly, off the bats of the two guys I just mentioned), and kicked the Barves in the teeth for Saturday's result by winning the game, 10-8.

The game had all the trappings of a Barnburner from the outset. Atlanta reached Dillon Gee for a run in the first, courtesy of a Freddie Freeman (who else) RBI single. The Mets scraped across a run of their own in the bottom of the 1st off of Mike Foltynewicz (whom I referred to as "Fidrych-like," when he appeared in last season's finale whilst pitching for the Astros, but seeing him up close I see I was mistaken, he's just a hairy guy), but then the roof caved in on Gee. Braves were reaching base, Braves were creating havoc, Gee gave up a 3-run Home Run to Jace Peterson with 2 out in the 2nd, and another 2-out RBI hit in the 3rd, and by the 4th everyone was teeing off on him, even Old Nick Markakis and Fat Juan Uribe, and he was mercifully pulled before the 4th was finished. I know that Gee is a competitor and he's been a solid, important part of the rotation for several seasons, but he needs a change of scenery now. It's not completely his fault, the Mets have kind of jerked him around this season between the Bullpen and the Rotation and not allowing him to settle into a role, but he also hasn't responded well to the adversity. He had a spot in the rotation early in the season and had he pitched better he might have hung on to it, but he got hurt and since he's returned he's been patently awful. The same thing happened to him last season, when he was usurped by deGrom. This year, he was pushed back by Syndergaard, and he responded to this by getting hit hard in San Diego and getting blasted today, and in his one relief outing last Tuesday, he basically set one up on a tee for Joe Panik to hit it into Sammy's Tire Shack across 126th Street. You don't need to be a body language expert to see he's not happy, and at this point the best thing for him would have to be a trade. I don't think there's any way about it.

So, with Gee done, it was now up to the Mets to try to battle back against Foltynewicz, who wasn't exactly mowing the Mets down either. In the 3rd, he'd allowed the Mets to extend a little rally long enough for Wilmer Flores to drive in two runs with a single, and in the 4th, he served up a pair of Home Runs, first to Darrell Ceciliani, who earned a pair of starts this weekend and really ran with the opportunity, coming up with multiple key hits, his 1st Major League Home Run, and some fine defensive plays, and second to Dilson Herrera, who showed his sneaky power by really blasting a no-doubt shot into the seats in Left.

This brought the Mets to within 8-5, as the Mets turned the game over to the bullpen. Sean Gilmartin, who's been mostly under the radar this season, was the first to appear. Gilmartin, of course, is the Rule 5 guy, so he's going to be here all season, and as such has been mostly spotted in low-pressure situations or mop-up duty. But here, he needed to eat a couple of innings and keep the Braves in check, and by golly that's what he did. His two innings of work were probably the two most crucial innings he'd been handed to this point this season, and he responded by allowing the Braves all of 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. Meanwhile, the Mets clawed back even further, knocking Foltynewicz out of the box after a Duda single in the 5th and finally making their way into the hideous part of the Barves bullpen. First, Brandon Cunniff entered the game and was rudely greeted by Travis d'Arnaud, who smoked a line drive Home Run down the Left Field line. d'Arnaud has done nothing but hit since coming off the DL on Wednesday night, so the power wasn't too much of a surprise here. This comes with time, but mostly it's good to see that d'Arnaud has come back with the same furor as he had before he got hurt.

One inning later, the Mets found themselves in the lead. Cunniff had departed in favor of Luis Avilan, but the Mets remained undeterred. Michael Cuddyer, given a routine day off, pinch hit for Gilmartin and singled. Granderson followed with a single of his own, setting the stage for Juan Lagares to hit a screamer down the line, towards the corner and over the wall for a 3-run Home Run, the Mets 4th in 3 innings, to drag the Mets all the way back and put them ahead for the first time. Amazingly, this team that's had trouble scoring 10 runs in a week had now managed to put up 10 runs in one game, and not only did they do that, they did it with the benefit of 4 Home Runs. Sometimes, they have these games, but it's good that they picked Sunday as a day to do it.

But now, with a lead, they had to get through the remainder of the game. Bobby Parnell entered for the 7th, and it's unfortunate to say, but Parnell looks like a shell of his former self right now. This seemed to be the case even before he had the Big Boy Surgery, but his mechanics are all out of whack. He looks much too loose with his delivery and the velocity he once had, when he regularly would throw around 100mph, is gone. Parnell with a repertoire of 91-92mph heat isn't quite so fearsome and I wouldn't expect him to close again. But unless he goes to Bartolo Colon school, he might not be long for the club in general. Still, he got through the 7th unscathed, thanks primarily to a Christian Bethancourt Double Play. Hansel Robles entered in the 8th and appeared to have recovered from his Saturday debacle, but still gave up a 2-out hit to Cameron Maybin.

At this point, nobody was in any mood to fuck around, and with Jeurys Familia back with the team, he was summoned for the 4-out Save, and he owes Dilson Herrera a dinner for getting that 1st out on Freeman, who hit a ground ball that was ticketed to Center Field until Herrera dove, gloved the ball, and then flipped the ball with said glove to Flores at 2nd base in time for the out. Familia worked through a less eventful 9th inning to pick up the Save and give the Mets probably their most rousing victory of the season, on the heels of one of their most deflating losses. What a difference a day makes.

Next in town are the Toronto Blue Jays, for two here and two in Toronto, which means the return of old friends R.A. Dickey (who won't pitch here) and Jose Reyes. It also means the return of the Canadian National Anthem, which will be performed at Citi Field for the first time this week (remember, the Blue Jays haven't played the Mets here since 2001). It also means the Mets will have the tall task of facing a team that's won 11 in a row and has been absolutely bludgeoning everyone in sight. Everyone on this team hits Home Runs with abandon, so a) It's good that the Mets offense woke up and b) Let's see if the Mets pitching can keep these guys in check.

No Relief

Saturday's game had all the makings of one of those "Bad Hangover" games. The sort of game where the Mets lose and it's so deflating that it takes the steam out of the ship for the next few days and then all of a sudden you've lost 10 of 15 and nobody knows what the hell happened. It can go down that quickly, and that's what troubles me the most about a really troublesome loss.

The Mets basically dragged themselves kicking and screaming into a position to win this game in the first place. It took overcoming getting generally handcuffed by Shelby Miller, getting Andrelton Simmons-ed to death, having Jacob deGrom give up a Free Steak-level Home Run to Freddie Freeman and having Danny Muno nearly submarine everyone with an unconscionable three errors...And yet somehow they were able to get past that and grab a lead in the 7th inning. It took Jacob deGrom basically outpitching the stink of his team, and the Mets finally took advantage of an opportunity in the 7th inning.  It took a Juan Lagares pinch hit, a Curtis Granderson double, a 2-run single from Travis d'Arnaud and an RBI single from Lucas Duda, and all of a sudden a 1-0 day in the doledrums turned into a sunny 3-1 lead.

Things got even better in the 8th inning. Jack Leathersich entered the game and gave up double to Cameron Maybin, who subsequently stole 3rd and was primed to score when Freeman flew out to left. But Darrell Ceciliani, who's had himself a nice little week bopping around here and there, was able to throw a perfect strike to d'Arnaud and nail Maybin at the plate. Though Leathersich departed following the 3rd round of Muno's Follies, he was relieved by Bobby Parnell, a welcome sight for someone whom, when we last saw each other, was moping his way off the mound after blowing a Save last Opening Day with a torn elbow ligament that required the Big Boy Surgery. Parnell gave up a hit, but also got the 3rd out of the inning, thus bridging the game to the 9th inning.

Here's where the turd in the punchbowl reared its ugly head, because Jeurys Familia had picked a rather inopportune time to father a child. The Friday night/Saturday morning birth of Jeurys, Jr. precluded his ability to close out Saturday afternoon's game, leaving the Mets to counter with...Hansel Robles?!

Robles has pitched OK, but just OK in his time in the Majors. I like his stuff, but he needs experience before I'd trust him to close out a game. He needs to be slowly worked in to instances like this. A few weeks ago, Collins ran him out there with a 3-0 lead against Philly and after two batters, the game was tied. The Mets ended up winning that game so everyone forgot about this. But in this game, with a 3-1 lead, now being trusted to finish the Barves out, Robles was nervous, struggled, gave up a walk, and then a hit, then got two outs, then gave up an RBI hit to Maybin, and with Freeman then coming up, Robles was removed in favor of Alex Torres. Torres, then, was the one who had the high pleasure of giving up the tying hit to Freeman and getting hung with the blown Save.

Blowing the lead was particularly deflating, and the fact that the Mets were retired in order in the 9th and then the 10th spoke to a team that really had the wind let out of their sails. This game probably could have continued long into the evening, but fortunately Maybin singled home 2 runs in the 11th off of Carlos Torres, making himself the hero of a game he was probably going to be the goat in at least an hour or so earlier. The Mets finally re-awoke and got hits from Ceciliani and Dilson Herrera against Williams Perez (the Barves' secret weapon, Williams Perez), before Mayberry lined into a rather irritating Double Play and Lagares grounded into a Fielder's Choice, and the Mets ended up losing a game they really had in their pockets.

Now, the key here is can the Mets come out today (you know, in a few minutes), shake off the cobwebs from this debacle of a game and win the series against a team that doesn't look like they're trying very hard at least 65% of the time. Dillon Gee is making a spot start...that's not so encouraging. I'd say hang on to your hats and hope for the best. If they lose today, I'm not going to feel so good.

Ground And Pound

In many instances over the past several years, the Mets have had games, and sometimes stretches of games, where the best they are able to muster are several singles and boatloads of Double Plays that short-circuit rallies and lead to annoying losses. I've seen games like this more times than I care to remember. So, when the Mets can turn the tide on their opponent and make them ground into multiple Double Plays in key moments, particularly late in games, it can feel quite gratifying. Tonight was one of those games. While clinging to a two-run lead in the late innings, the Mets allowed Braves to reach and in each of the last three innings were then able to get them to ground into DPs. This is not only a pitcher's best friend, it's a Manager's best friend and also the fans' best friend, and the result tonight, a 5-3 win over the Braves, speaks to the importance of the DP.

The beneficiary of these DPs were basically everyone that is on, or roots for the Mets. But that kind of goes without saying. The particular benefits went to Bartolo Colon, who although he induced none of the DPs, still earned his 9th win after his 6-inning effort, Alex Torres, who got Nick Markakis to ground into the first DP in the 7th before departing in favor of Carlos Torres, who got Kelly Johnson in the 8th, and, finally, Jeurys Familia, who shook off the expectant father jitters to get Markakis a second time to end the game in the 9th.

The Mets, who did manage to ground into 2 DPs of their own, did so without damaging their offensive output too much. This is because by time they hit into DPs, in the 5th, they already had a lead, and in the 8th, they had already extended said lead. They came at the hands of Michael Cuddyer and Eric Cambpell, and each of them, with one on and one out, ended an inning that probably wasn't going anywhere anyway. The innings in which they did score, they did so primarily by hitting balls where DPs would have been an impossible result, since Wilmer Flores and John Mayberry Jr. each hit Home Runs. It's hard to hit into a DP when the ball ends up in the seats. Mayberry figured heavily in the Mets 4th run, as he was on 2nd when Alex Wood made an ill-advised pickoff throw that way that sailed into the Outfield, sending Mayberry to 3rd where he eventually scored. The Mets final run came home by virtue of a Michael Cuddyer RBI single that drove home Darrell Ceciliani.

But the offense didn't tell the story this night. They only did what they were supposed to do. It was the pitchers, Colon, Torres, Torres and Familia, making the pitches they needed to make to get themselves out of jams and make the Braves, who have been kind of chippy lately, look more like the Barves they're supposed to be. These such efforts are why the Mets have managed to keep themselves in 1st place in June, however slight their lead may be.

Survival Of The Fits

The Mets actually won tonight, salvaging the final game of this series with the Giants by coming from behind twice before finally winning in the bottom of the 9th, thanks to Michael Cuddyer's 2-out RBI single.

This probably would have been another game where the Mets could have easily folded their tents. After Tuesday's lost affair, the Mets came back Wednesday and remembered to hit, but still forgot to drive in runs, while Harvey had a rather ignominious meltdown. Tonight, with Jon Niese on the mound, things appeared doomed before they even got started. The Giants opened up this game the same way they opened up the last two nights, by banging out a string of ringing hits that left Niese dazed, the Giants ahead 2-0 and the crowd apoplectic, although you probably wouldn't have noticed that third part for the swarms of Giants fans that continued to invade Citi Field.

Tim Lincecum, or a pale facsimile of such, had a Heston-esque start to his night, as the Mets hit column read "0" into the 4th inning. Lincecum, who himself has thrown No Hitters each of the last two seasons (and oddly none in his most dominant years) finally was reached by Travis d'Arnaud in the 4th inning, so at least the Mets fans could exhale. Being No hit once is bad enough. The spectre of two in three nights was probably bad enough for you to want to throw the entire season down the toilet. In fact, after the last two nights, you probably couldn't be blamed for feeling that way anyway. The mounting injuries to key players, the lack of said players returning (although d'Arnaud's return is more than welcome, as was Dilson Herrera's who came back tonight) and the piddling offense kind of gave every win more of a feeling of survival rather than triumph.

Tonight's game might ultimately feel the same way, but the Mets had to get to that point first. Niese, to his credit, did manage to settle down after the early fireworks, and in fact he helped his own cause with a 5th inning double that led to a pair of runs. Amazingly, this gave the Mets a 3-2 lead. Niese didn't hold this lead, although he didn't shed all the blame from this particular windmill because he grooved a 2-out pitch to Brandon Crawford, who sailed it into the Mets bullpen, but he wasn't helped by Eric Campbell, who put him in that position by making a 2-out error allowing Justin Maxwell to reach and extend the inning for Crawford in the first place.

So, everything was terrible until the Giants put Hunter Strickland in the game. You of course remember Strickland because he's the guy who spent most of October, 2014 with Joe Buck's head buried firmly up his ass because of his 100 mph heat. He's also the guy who spent most of October giving up Home Runs in key spots because he's an Oliver Perez and not a Bartolo Colon, to the point where he petulantly tried to pick a fight with the Royals in the World Series. Strickland entered the game in the 7th, was immediately peppered for 3 hits and a run, allowing the Mets to tie the game, and unfortunately was then removed.

Now re-tied, the Mets had to get themselves as far as they could until either they scored a run or someone screwed up and cost them another frustrating game. In the end, they got the run first, thanks primarily to Erik Goeddel and Jeurys Familia, the former of who's been kind of under-the-radar-good lately, and the latter, of course, has been great all year. So, in the 9th, the Mets would have to try to score against deposed Giants Closer Sergio Romo, whom they've hit in the past. Romo did a fine job of handing things over to the Mets, first by hitting Granderson with one out. Andrew Susac's passed ball put Granderson on 2nd, however Lagares failed to drive him in, and Lucas Duda was subsequently walked intentionally. This brought up Cuddyer. I'd mentioned in some previous season about how Romo will generally throw nothing but sliders off the plate to righthanded hitters until he gets into a position to Pearl Harbor the batter with a fastball. He beat Miguel Cabrera once that way. Josh Satin beat him that way by being patient. Cuddyer showed no need for patience by jumping on the first slider he saw and banging it up the middle for the winning hit.

And, after all that, the Mets weren't swept and embarrassed by the Giants. They were only embarrassed, seeing as how they still have to live with Tuesday's result. But at least they've managed to start getting healthy and start fighting back. Next here is Atlanta, always a fun group to have in town. Part of the reason the Mets have remained either at or near the top of the Division is because they've handled their division well. This should, I hope, bode well for the weekend.