They made it interesting as always, but the Mets came out of tonight’s game against the Indians the 6-5 victors. Coming into the game, they seemed to be bidding for the “lowest scoring team award” this season. Their 20 total runs scored was higher than only the 0-9 Minnesota Twins. Has the Mets’ offense awakened? Sort of. Maybe.
- Bartolo Colon started the game, and while he was shaky early on, he managed to get through 5 1/3 innings. He earned his 219th career win, tying him with Pedro Martinez for second-most all-time for Dominican-born pitchers.
- Michael Conforto hit out of the 3rd spot in the order for the first time this season and justified the move with a solo home run in the top of the first. He ended the night 2-5 with 2 runs scored.
- Yoenis Cespedes looked much better tonight, outside of his first inning at bat. He finished the night 3-5 with a two-run homer.
- How about that Alejandro De Aza? Starting in center field, he finished the night 3-4 with a solo homer and a great catch as the left fielder in the bottom of the ninth, likely keeping the tying run off of the board.
- Neil Walker continues to impress, and finished the night 2-5 with a 2-run homer. It was his second home run of the season (take that, Murph!).
- You may have noticed all of the talk about homers. The team hit four tonight, two more than they had total over the first eight games in which they were dead last in the league. Was this their offensive breakout? Maybe, but they were also 0-10 with RISP and left 10 men on base.
Despite the win I think it is continuing to be clear that Tim Teufel has poor judgment as a 3B coach. To have two runners thrown out at home making the first out in an inning is a disgrace.
It’s tempting to ignore this in light of the fact that the game was won but essentially the team gave two probable runs away and many times the stray giveaway run is the difference between winning and losing.
The Mets are not good enough to afford giving away runs unnecessarily on the basepaths. The club could help itself by finding someone with better judgment to direct traffic at third.
Totally agree, Larry. The announcers went soft on that, and i was surprised by their silence.
If it’s a rule to never make the first out at 3B — because the runner is already in scoring position, the risk/reward equation doesn’t make sense — then it’s incomprehensible to make the first out at home. To do it twice is insane.
I’m not overall down on Teufel, but those two decisions were truly horrible. Bad baseball.
Keith talked about not liking the second one with the 2-3-4 hitters coming up.
I saw wavin’ Wendell Kim as a 3B coach and there’s no way I’d put Teufel in that category. I understand that two in one game is not good. I’m not arguing that. But generally speaking, not addressing either of the two comments above this, you can’t complain about playing station-to-station ball and waiting for a home run and then complain about the 3B coach being aggressive.
I didn’t see the first one so I can’t comment on that one. But the second one came with a four-run lead in the 8th inning, which is an acceptable time to be aggressive. And only an excellent play by the relay guy (Kipnis?) made it happen. He made a nice play fielding the throw from the OFer and then made a throw to the plate that if, say, Juan Lagares had made from a similar spot on the grass that many people here would be fellating him for. My opinion is that the second one was more of a case of a good defensive play than a bad send decision.
And really, just how familiar do you think Teufel is with the Indians’ outfield arms. It’s not like the Mets see them every other week…
Colon not being able to go six innings put the team in a bad spot.
What gets me is again using Robles for a partial inning. He only pitched to two batters over the previous three days before last night so he was not tired. And he was a starting pitcher as recently as 2014. If you’re going to pick a guy to pitch more than an inning, I’d pick Robles over Reed.
I hope managing for the save doesn’t leave both Reed and Familia unavailable today. But I’m glad that Henderson wasn’t used.
I’d prefer Montero be in Triple-A being used as a starter. But if you’re not going to use him in the sixth or seventh inning with a four-run lead, and the bullpen still not completely rested, why is he even around? If they had called up Gilmartin or Goeddel, instead, don’t you think they would have been used last night?
I agree. The Walker attempt was super close…in fact turned over on replay. Was surprised De Aza was green lighted, but under the game status at that point it was not a crazy call. Besides, we have been soooooo bad at leaving runners in scoring position, that giving it a try with an active play might have made a big deal. How Grandy ended up on 1B from that still a mystery however.
I am especially concerned that Cespedes missed an opportunity to go to 2nd base on his Bloop Hit….and Grandy didn’t go to second on his Gapper when the throw went through to the plate.
I was watching on MLB extra Innings–I had the Cleeveland Feed. They didn’t reshow the play…maybe there was a reason for Grandy staying at 1st?…. Cespedes obviously Jaked it out of the Box.
Less than 10 games in…. following an off day… these guys aren’t good enough to “Play Bored”. Apart from the HR’s, the team has struggled for runs…giving away bases on offense is a very bad sign.
It is very encouraging to see Walker 5-9 with a homer vs LHP. It is similar to the 2015 turn around of Duda.
The Mets play six games in a row without an off day. They had a comfortable 6-2 lead after six innings last night. Bastardo, Robles, Blevins or Montero should be pitching under these circumstances. Henderson, Reed or Famila should not be in the game until it becomes a save/hold situation.
The best “save” of the week belonged to the four who purchased the Piazza jersey.
The suckers who laid out $365,000 to protect the Mets brand? The Wilpons are laughing their butts off, as is the auctioneer.