There’s the Power of Love and Blues Power and even Power to the People. On Sunday, the Dodgers unleashed power in the form of seven home runs en route to an 8-7 victory over the Mets and a sweep of the three-game series.

In a good news/bad news situation, the Mets were not subjected to another Jason Vargas start. But it led to a bullpen day and when your pen is as bad as the Mets’ that’s not really something you either need or want to see.

Jerry Blevins, the guy that they bend over backwards to have face just lefty batters, drew the starting assignment, his first ever in the majors after 500-something relief appearances. So, what did he do? Why he allowed homers to the first two batters he faced. Blevins settled down and settled in and actually pitched two full innings without allowing any more runs.

The Mets ended up using seven relievers in the game and five of those surrendered homers. Anthony Swarzak allowed two in 1.1 IP. He gave up six hits and three runs and was easily the least effective pitcher of the game.

The Mets made a game of it because of their own power production, as they belted out five extra-base hits. Groundball machine Kevin Plawecki had a double and a homer and Asdrubal Cabrera tied the game with a three-run blast in the eighth inning.

But the bullpen did exactly what you would expect it to do when forced to pitch 11 innings.

So another loss but at least this one was expected before the series even started. A bigger loss would be if Brandon Nimmo, who left the game after getting hit by a pitch, has to miss extended time. Initial X-Rays on his hand came back negative but as we’ve found out previously, that doesn’t always mean we’re home free.

18 comments on “Gut Reaction: Dodgers 8, Mets 7 (11 INN) – 6/24/18

  • David Klein

    Rememeber when the Mets beat the Dodgers in the playoffs and seemed far ahead of them in the contention window? What a difference a few years can make. Hopefully Nimmo has an mri and it matches the X-rays and we don’t have the same situation as what happened to Plawecki and Vargas. This season has been garbage don’t take away one of the very few bright spots please. Great game for Plawecki, who seems to be getting things into gear a bit and nice job by Smith to get out of a jam. If Turner hitting a go ahead homer and Utley making a good defensive play within minutes of each other doesn’t encapsulate the last few years I don’t know what does.

  • Chris F

    Plawecki hit the 3 run HR. His first in the major leagues.

  • Steve S.

    Of course, Reyes failed to get a runner in from 3rd base with one out, weakly tapping the ball back to the pitcher earlier in the game.

    Liked how Smith pitched though.

  • Mike Walczak

    Take away 10-1 and the Mets are 21-43. The relievers today had a Vargas moment.

    Too bad we could get rid of Ces and Bruce. Smith seems to be holding his own in left plus Conforto and Nimmo. Alonso at first and McNeil at second.

    I could live with that.

  • TexasGusCC

    It was not bad enough that they mocked the Mets by playing their first baseman in CF and their regular center fielder in LF, they hit our best player three times and nobody did anything about it???

    The last two years, Joe Maddon and Dave Roberts have basically laughed at the Mets with their lineups and positions. But they hit our best player three times and no one flinches? What do you think would happen if the Mets hit Turner or Bellinger three times?

    • Michael

      Actually I was hoping somebody wood drill Utley yesterday. He had 4 at bats yesterday and one today. I realize that it wasn’t on Callaway’s watch but it would have been satisfying to see him pay for that slide. Long overdue.

    • Name

      Not the fault of the pitcher – Nimmo doesn’t move out of the way and tries to get hit by pitches. If you do that long enough, eventually, one of those will nick you in a place where it hurts, and now he’s paying for it.

      • TexasGusCC

        Well Name, the Dodgers openly said that the first HBP was because he didn’t move out of the way. The second, just slipped out of his hand then? A guy that didn’t walk anyone?

        • Name

          Rewatch the 2nd HBP. Makes zero attempt to get out of the way. Doesn’t even move his hands or feet.

          I personally feel that they should crack down on players not making more of an effort to get out of the way. Derek Dietrich and Rizzo are another players off the top of my head who usually stand on the plate and allow themselves to get hbp way too often.

    • Pete In Iowa

      You are exactly right Gus. I said to my wife after Nimmo got hit the third time. “Can’t wait to see who we drill in the ribs.”
      To have no one on the Dodgers get plunked shows 1) How lifeless this club is; 2) A complete lack of leadership, not only by Callaway, but anyone on the pitching staff; and 3) More evidence that guys simply no longer play the game the way we know it should be.
      Very sad. May nave been the most demoralizing and telling aspect of yesterday’s horror show.

  • Chris F

    essential reading. this team is shockingly discombobulated

    https://nypost.com/2018/06/24/sandy-alderson-is-destroying-the-mets-and-must-be-stopped/

    • Mike Walczak

      Boy, that is a real drill by the NY Post. But, it is really accurate. Alderson is a joke.

      I checked ESPN and saw in the middle of the game that Blevins started. I had the same reaction. Where was the emergency starter?

      Look at the Nats. Go ahead, let Harper take his .217 average and leave. They will still be a good team, with Juan Soto and Victor Robles and Max Scherzer who is the current best MLB pitcher.

      This is a broken team. They have no steam. Hit three times. Heck, after one beaning, Clemens would have drilled someone.

      I wish too that Utley would get drilled. The Mets need a good old fashioned bench clearing brawl. Even if they keep losing, they need to fight.

      They need to wake up, because since the second week of April, they are sleep walking.

    • Michael

      Can’t say I disagree.
      This winter Sandy spent:
      Bruce 3 yrs for 39.0
      Frazier 2 yrs 17.0
      Swarzak 2 yrs 14.0
      Vargas 1 yr and buyout 10.0
      Ramos 1 yr 9.2
      It seems 90 million should buy you a lot more.

    • TexasGusCC

      Chris, I was coming to put it on for you, LOL! You must have inhaled every word.

      The clincher:

      “How can the Wilpons possibly think it is a good thing to entrust Alderson to make these critical decisions? What about his track record in building eight Mets teams tells you that would be a good idea?”

      I thought that was you talking.

      • Chris F

        Vulcan mid meld thats for sure.

        I think Alderson will go down as the worst GM in Met history…and there are some doozy’s in there.

        Alderson is a dinosaur, with due respect to dinosaurs, lacking any skills at all to be GM other than being an arrogant, misleading, lying sack o crap. He was instilled to hold the team for the Wilpon’s, which he did, and along the way set this team back 5-10 years on top of the near decade of failure we have suffered through. Vacc’s article is just the tip of the Alderson malfeasance ice berg. Any justice in baseball would have the entire FO, scouting, and analytic departments fired before day break. The whole stadium needs to be fumigated.

    • MattyMets

      Chris F, I read that piece too. I think it’s a bit sensational but not totally off. Every article ever written about Sandy seems to be of one extreme (he’s a genius who’s turned the organization around) or the other (he’s a dinosaur who doesn’t understand today’s game). I believe he did a good job for the most part early on, but it’s time to move on. Clearly his 2017-18 offseason is looking terrible now.

      • Chris F

        The only good thing he’s done – from ownership perspective – is keep the team in the clutches of the wilpons. Look at his record. It is a record of failure in the present and failure to prepare the future.

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