Full disclosure: your intrepid columnist did not watch or follow all of last night’s (4/29) Mets game. He took an hour off to watch Revolution. That was probably the best move of the night, seeing as the game was near-unwatchable — fifteen innings worth of unwatchable. The Mets took a 2-1 lead into the ninth on the strength of a John Buck 4th inning home run. Bobby Parnell pitched pretty well to try and protect it, but got no help from his defense – Collin Cowgill, in particular – and the inning ended with the game tied. It was then that ennui set in.
Baseball teams in general look pretty bad when they’re not hitting. Couple that with shaky starting pitching four days out of five and an admittedly inept bullpen and you have…well…the Mets. Since Jordany Valdespin’s walk-off slam vs. the Dodgers last Wednesday, the Mets have tallied five, three, eight and three hits respectively over the next four games. Unsurprisingly, they lost all four and the space between each hit was a veritable Gobi Dessert and produced a total of seven runs. This is offensive futility worthy of the Polo Grounds squad of 1963. They were able to rap out sixteen safeties last night, but that was over a span of nearly two games. Fat lot of good it did them as only two of those hits were able to plate any runs. Basically, the Mets were shut out – plus an inning for good measure – by the Marlins’ bullpen. In the eyes of your intrepid columnist, last night the Mets struck out approximately 3,700 times, each one with runners on. It’s not fun knowing in your bones that a two-on, none-out rally is more likely to die right there than produce any runs. It’s not pleasant seeing some of the most reliable hitters in the lineup produce more gusts than El Nino: Buck, Mike Baxter and Ike Davis struck out three times each and David Wright – granted, nursing a sore neck – whiffed in a pinch-hitting appearance in the 13th. The fact that this was one of Matt Harvey’s starts makes it all the more frustrating. Harvey’s games are the ones the Mets are supposed to win and if they can’t manage that…against one of the two worst MLB teams on the planet…well, Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins may as well just pack it in right now. In fact, Collins may have given that a thought, seeing as he ordered Jeurys Familia to issue an intentional walk to Donovan Solano in the 12th…when Familia had already worked Solano into a 1-2 count. No one in the Twitter-verse or any of the scribes paying attention could ever remember seeing such a move. The Mets were able to wiggle out of it, but that was clearly a triumph of results over process.
The wheels seem to be falling off the wagon, and there’s no Cavalry on the horizon. Travis d’Arnaud is out for another six weeks with a broken foot. Zack Wheeler is having too many command and control problems in Sin City to warrant a trip east. Rafael Montero – while producing eye-popping numbers in AA – is too green to come down from Binghamton and up to the Majors. The other even semi-exciting players are busy gaining experience in A-ball, low & high.
This team is what it is: Lord help us all…
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I give up….and waitng for the NY Giants pre season to get underway….
Glass half full side: the relievers (Marcum is not a reliever) was excellent last night
I’ll take it, even if they opposed the Marlins. Parnell not much to brag about though!
The half-full bit was some very solid MLB-level middle infield play that really looked sharp.
Parnell would have gotten the save if Lagares or Valderspin were in CF, rather than Collin Cowfl…nah, I won’t…too easy…
I dont know Charlie, that double was tagged. It had run written all over it.
I’m talking about the bloop base hit that got the runner to 3rd. Cowgill makes that catch, Reggiano stays put and Green’s fly to right is the 3rd out. Ballgame.
Wait, sorry. Got my sequence wrong. Coghlan’s grounder would have been the 3rd out. But still, that catch MUST be made…
I get it. Im just saying a rewind might not get the same pitch sequence etc. Parnell entered facing a beleaguered team with momentum, and in a split second it all changed. We needed a lock down 9th. That catch needed to be made for sure. It was a weird one though: full hard swing, ball coming right at Cowgill…its a difficult perception until the ball has moved a bit. Stepping back to prevent the over the head would be natural. Nevertheless, it was a very makeable catch.
Its all very very agonizing.
Excruciating game to watch. Why is Lagares up if you aren’t going to play him? Why was Cowgill deemed the CF after ST only to be given half a chance? He desrved a little longer look then what he got. Playing Cowgill and Lagares as a third of a platoon is counter productive. The whole construction of this team is without direction. It appers that TC and his staff ran out of answers last July. If this team doesn’t turn it around by the all star game there should be a purge so that the new manager and staff can evaluate players in order to make changes this winter. This is not a very talented group but if the starting pitching should emerge by 2014 then it is time to supplement it with good defense and some speed. 0-16 RISP and KKKKKKK is no way to run an offense.
I’ve been saying the starting OF should be Duda/Valdespin/Lagares for a week, now…
I wish there was an easy way to check it but we don’t seem to be scoring against *any* bullpen. Most teams the strategy is to get the SP out and feast on the weak bullpen. We do sorta okay about getting the SP out and then forget to hit the RP…
Any way we could suggest this stat to baseball reference or fangraphs? Would be very handy to know how teams are faring against starters vs bullpens?
And yhe beat(ing) goes on. 1 run is never enough.
If the Mets can’t score against the lowly Marlin starters and bull pen what expectations do you foresee? No offense,defensive replacements who make critical mistakes, a team put together with scotch tape and band-aids. A manager who makes too many questionable decisions. What do you expect? If they can’t beat the Marlins then go for the gusto and finish in last place please. That way we have only one way to go.