They say never argue with an idiot, because they’ll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. The Rays should never be considered idiots, as they’re one of the smartest organizations in baseball. But it sure felt like the Rays dragged the Mets down to their level – a low-scoring game – and beat the Mets with experience, as they emerged with a 2-1 win Monday night. The Rays are now 13-5 in one-run games while the Mets are 5-10.

Jacob deGrom traveled back to 2018-19 to be the hard-luck loser. He had outstanding stuff, striking out the side in the first inning on 10 pitches. He ended up with 7 IP and 14 Ks. But he gave up both runs and took the loss.

The Mets’ offense scored for the first time in 15 innings when Jeff McNeil drove in a run on a grounder. But the Rays’ shortstop did a fine job of knocking the ball down and preventing it from going into the outfield, which saved the tying run from scoring.

It was an eventful ninth inning, as the Mets tried to rally for the win. Robinson Cano had an 11-pitch AB before hitting a ball 405 feet to CF. But the wall was 408 feet and it became just a long out. Then with Pete Alonso up, the Rays played with four outfielders. Alonso went up in the count, 3-0, and then struck out on three straight fastballs. Andres Gimenez came on as a pinch-hitter and popped up to end the game.

7 comments on “Gut Reaction: Rays 2, Mets 1 (9/21/20)

  • TexasGusCC

    Well, while I will still watch these few games after missing baseball so much in the spring and early summer, I’ll be keeping an eye on draft position. Right now they are tied with the rebuilding Mariners for 11/12 and it will be tough to fall further.

  • Mike W

    How many times has Jake pitched a great game and taken a loss or no decision. He is only human. He has to roll his eyes in silence. Love the guy. He never complains. Glad Cohen is almost here. Want to see Jake get a ring, while still in his prime.

  • Metsense

    Gut Reaction: The difference was a run. The Rays knocked a ball down to prevent a run from scoring. The Mets dropped the ball on a relay and failed to get an opportune out . The Mets seemed to not execute some fundamentals like base running, situational hitting and heads up defense. The seems that in the last and the present seasons they’re chasing .500 during most of the season instead of chasing a division title.
    deGrom pitched a gem. The Mets need to figure out how to win these games and the community at Mets360 has all winter to discuss it.

  • Edwin e Pena

    Sad end to a sad season. How can the Rays, Twins, A’s and now the dogone Marlins all be better than the Mets ? Better decisions, better front offices, better management, better scouting. All for pennies on the dollar vs Mets !!! I know Steve Cohen is watching and analyzing these jokers. Terrible to be 6 games out of .500 and not in the race for playoffs in a year that 8, count ’em, 8 teams can make it ??? Sad. Sad indeed. Poor Jacob deGrom.
    Nuff said.

  • TJ

    Glad we had some baseball this year, and the MLB community appears to have been kept extremely safe, but very very disappointing performance by the Mets. That is all inclusive, players, manager, GM, etc. It’s tough to base permanent solutions on this extraordinary and short season, but they will need to do that to some degree with new ownership an almost certainly.

    With all the SABR and advanced stats, I would love to see something that tracks a team’s “unforced errors”. I’m not sure how much of the Met fan experience is perception that our team always does the dumb thing, or misses an opportunity do do the smart thing. Accumulating some number for each team, with some examples being missed cutoff men, leadoff walks, only getting 1 out on tailor-made DP balls, baserunning outs by “wide margin” (say, a throw gets there when player is 4 or more feet from base), easily catchable fly balls scored hits, and more would be great. Grossing them up with errors, balks, and some additional tradition stats can create a team by team index…they can name it the fan misery index. An empirical way to see who is suffering the most while watching their team.

    • Brian Joura

      That’s an interesting thought.

      I will say that we’ve seen some poor baseball played by teams besides the Mets this year. Neither the Phillies nor Blue Jays – two teams that may end up in the playoffs – looked crisp at all when we played them.

      And on one broadcast recently, Ron Darling said that with the Sunday games that he does away from the Mets, he’s seen most of the teams this year and (paraphrasing) the Mets were better than a lot of team’s he’s seen.

  • MattyMets

    It takes more than talent to win in baseball. The Mets have a strong lineup, the best pitcher in baseball and the bullpen has been solid. The rotation is of course a problem, but the fundamentals have been an issue for a few years now. Costly errors and baserunning mistakes are killers. The Rays remind me of the 2015 Royals – pesky and smart, if not super talented. I really hope we are seeing the last of Ramos in a Mets uniform. He does not hit enough to justify the weak defense that keeps costing us. I also don’t like JD Davis at third full-time.

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