On a day where the New York Mets had their first opportunity to win a series since what seems like forever, they fell to the Washington Nationals 6-1.
Corey Oswalt took to the mound for the Mets today, and for a second straight start, showed that he has been improving over the course of the season. The only blemish to his outing was in the second inning, when Anthony Rendon scored on a fielder’s choice. There was however a blemish put on him by his manager Mickey Calloway. In the bottom of the fifth inning, there was a runner on third with Oswalt due up next. Callaway decided to put Dom Smith in to bat, despite the efficient Oswalt up to that point. Smith would get hit by the pitch, but Brandon Nimmo would make an out in the next at bat.
Oswalt’s final line on the day shows up as five innings pitched, one earned run, two hits and a strike out on 59 pitches. My Gut Reaction is that this move by Calloway showed that he will continue to pull his pitchers early without regard for how well he thinks they are pitching, if he deems it makes sense in the situation. I acknowledge that it was a run scoring opportunity, but at this point in the season I wouldn’t put Smith in at that situation over having Oswalt continue his strong start.
On offense, it was a rather slow day at the plate for the Mets. The most successful Met at the plate today was Jose Reyes, who went 2-4 with a double. While it is nice to see him produce in a game, it most likely only validates the decision of the Mets to hold onto him for a longer period of time.
The bullpen was the factor that impacted the loss today. Besides Seth Lugo, the rest of the bullpen came up well short in terms of performance today. Anthony Swarzak didn’t record an out when he came into the game, although he ended up giving the eventual winning runs. Tim Peterson, Jerry Blevins, Jacob Rhame, and Tyler Bashlor then teamed up to eat up the rest of the innings, with Peterson and Blevins both giving up runs.
Following the loss, the Mets enter the All-Star Break with a 39-55 record. They will resume action again on Friday, when Noah Syndergaard will take on Domingo German at Yankee Stadium at 7:05 pm.
Remember when Alderson signed Bastardo to that 2 year deal and then flipped him back to the Pirates half a season later for Niese? Perhaps that’s also possible for Anthony Swarzak with the White Sox, who probably has fond memories of him.
I was thinking Swarzak for James Shields. Swarzak is owed about 2 mil for the rest of the year and making 8 mil next year for a total of 10 mil.The White Sox are on the hook for about 4 mil with Shields plus a 2 mil buyout for a total of 6 mil.
So that equates to the White Sox paying 4 mil for Swarzak next year, which i think they should find reasonable, but maybe the Mets need to kick in a mil or two to fully convince them.
If you want to marry this loss on Callaway, the way to do it is to ask why Lugo was pulled after only one inning. After all, Hellickson pitched only six innings and gave up two hits, but he was pulled, too.
The free agents signed by Alderson, as usual, mostly suck. Now that he’s gone, we will see if it in fact was the Coupons – as Dave Hudgens blurted as he went to win the World Series in Houston – or if it was really Alderson, whom I suspect. All the relievers were snapped up except for Swarzak, for a reason. Bruce wasn’t getting offers, for a reason. While people talk about Frazier, at least he brings something to the table: defense. Of his fault the Mets want to bat him cleanup, he’s not that player. If he was both offense and defense, he’d cost $20MM per year, not $8MM.
Losing isn’t as upsetting as when you see teams throw a game away. Swarzak sucks. Then Peterson came in to give up a hit to load the bases and up comes Daniel Murphy pinch hitting. If you felt good in that spot, I need some of whatever you’re having and I want to market it. After Murphy only drives in two, Matt Wieters, who has one sacrifice a year for two years drops down a beauty to move the runners up. Now, how the heck do their guys execute and ours can’t?
But here’s what bothered me the most: Blevins comes in and gets a weak pop up to shallow center, runners hold. He gets two quick strikes on Difo on fastballs that he can’t get around on, and then curve, curve, slider and he hits his back foot. Then, Eaton gets hit with on a 1-2 count to drive in a run. Following, Turner also goes down 0-2 on fastballs, then Blevins throws another lollipop curve that Turner just served into left field for a two run single. The guy is beating all these guys on fastballs, then with two strikes is Afraid to throw fastballs anymore! Come on! A high fastball on the inner half to any of these three guys is a strikeout, maybe all three.
I don’t understand, when you are out of the pennant race and looking at developing and evaluating young talent, you pull Oswalt, who for the second start in a row did really well. Yes there is the go ahead run on third. To add to the insult you bring in Lugo and then pull him before a pinch hit opportunity develops. 5 pitchers to close a losing game in four innings. I was never a big Terry Collins fan but he would be better than Callaway. Also how do you justify having Tye Kelly and DenDekker in the lineup. Both were terrible their last times in NY and we bring them back why? . And we had the Nationals on the ropes – winning 3 of 4 would have further ruined their season (we could lose 100 games this season and as long as we beat up on the Nationals the season has some shine.)
Because Calloway has no idea what he is doing. Now we can be pretty sure that he is now paranoid about getting the ax.
Alonso hit a bomb in the futures game. What the hell are we waiting for. Alonso and McNeil. Let’s see what they got.
Time to clean the dumpster out.
Oh what a fitting conclusion to the first half 2018. A relief inning where you walk the first two (that score ) and hit another two, yikes. While that is lousy baseball, what really got me is the little league swipe of 2b where Cabrera almost broke his hand. I mean, Swarzak is completely lost.
I just don’t get how Callaway pulls Oswalt after 5 innings and 59 pitches. He just said before the game that Vargas will not be given that 5th slot, it makes no sense pulling him for a pinch hitter in the fifth.
This game exemplifies my frustration with Callaway. By this point in the season he still hasn’t adapted to the roster and is managing like he’s still in Cleveland. Pulling starting pitchers after 5 innings when they’re going well may work when you have a stacked bullpen (Allen, Miller, Shaw, Smith, etc) but it’s a recipe for a loss when you have a crap bullpen. Callaway needs to play to the team’s strength, which is the rotation. Pulling Oswalt after 59 pitches made no sense, nor did pulling Lugo after one inning.
Also, how many times do we have to watch Blevins give up big hits to Harper and Freeman before Callaway will accept that he’s not a LOOGY?!