The Marlins pulled away in the seventh inning against Hansel Robles and continued to tack on runs in the ninth inning against Alex Torres to win the game 9-5.
- Jon Niese‘s rough stretch continued, as he went four innings, and let up five runs (four earned). Many of his pitches were out over the plate, and the Marlins took advantage, as Giancarlo Stanton and J.T. Realmuto homered. Hopefully we see Niese get back on track in his next start against the Diamondbacks.
- Tom Koehler did not fair much better, going 3.1 innings, while letting up five runs. The Marlins bullpen kept the Mets off the board, as the pen produced 5.2 innings of scoreless relief.
- The Mets offense kept the team in the game today, but Michael Cuddyer and Wilmer Flores failed to capitalize in the first inning, as the bases were loaded with no outs, and the team already had one run on the board. The big inning did not come, as Cuddyer hit an infield fly, and Flores would ground out into a double play.
- Curtis Granderson and Ruben Tejada had decent offensive performances, as Granderson had two runs and hit a ball that almost cleared the left field fence, but resulted in an RBI single. Tejada is making the most of his starts at third base, as had two hits and drove in three runs. Some help with defensive positioning should give the Mets confidence to play Tejada at third, as Martin Prado hit a chopper toward third that resulted in a double. The Mets must have been expecting bunt, and the ball just barely got over Tejada’s glove.
- Outside of Giancarlo Stanton, who hit two solo homers, the 6-7-8 hitters (consisting of Christian Yelich, Realmuto, and Donovan Solano) went 5 for 13, and drove in six runs.
- Daniel Murphy‘s eight-game hitting streak came to end today.
The Mets look to salvage the series tomorrow, and Bartolo Colon will take the hill, looking to win his eighth game of the season.
It also turns out that the Nats have lost 2 straight. So while we had the worst team in the land come visit where we play great and so now we should ahve picked up those wins and moved into first, we gain zero, and give that scrub Jennings and the Marlins life when they could have been sent to pasture.
Well done.
Time for Niese to head to the DL.
Not yet Chris, give him a couple of more weeks. He usually takes vacation in late June or July, when he does go on the DL. And we wonder why we can’t get a full bag of balls from anyone for Colon, Niese or Gee.
If Niese is in fact hurt, let’s get it fixed already. He has two years pay coming to him anyway. While this team offensively has the talent of the Bad News Bears, they have way too much pitching talent to see this pitching result game in and game out from any starting pitcher.
Robles: Mop up duty again. Sorry.
I was thinking the same thing TexasGusCC. We heard that deGrom finally got right because he is healthy, Lagares is battling an elbow problem, and Niese hasn’t looked right the past four starts. If these players are injured, doesn’t it make sense to give them time off in order to get them right for the remainder of the season? I understand that a broken nail should not warrant a trip to the disabled list, but if deGrom was struggling with injuries, why not just rest him for a week or two and let him get back to full health? I’m not sure if Niese is injured, but things are not looking right.
Robles had some bad luck today, as Prado’s double took a solid hop over Tejada’s glove, and Yelich’s two-RBI hit was perfectly placed and was hit off the end of the bat. I’d like to see Robles make some scoreless appearances, but for now it seems like he will be placed in less stressful situations.
My take, Gus, is that certain shoulder injuries can’t get “fixed” by surgery. So the treatment is rest, shots, manage the pain, change the arm angle, and try to gut through it.
Which is what we’ve watched Niese do for the past 2+ years.
It’s also why he has been untradeable, because everyone else in baseball recognizes these same things.
Pitchers & teams try to hide injuries. But when you take a good, young pitcher — and Niese is a good pitcher, and once was an excellent pitcher — who begins to falter badly on the mound, the first question you should always ask: Is this guy hurt?
A guy on another board commented about how terrible Bobby Parnell is doing. Well, he’s not healthy. He didn’t magically become a bad pitcher.
I hate the 6-man rotation, btw. This organization always tries to think itself to some higher plane of existence.
I have been saying that Cuddyer needs to produce in order for the offense to function and for the Mets to have a chance to win. He left 6 on base today. The season will sink or swim on how Cuddyer produces with TdA and Wright out.
It is difficult to watch the infield play when it is obvious to most that the best defensive alignment is Flores 2B, Tejada SS and Murphy 3B. It is also obvious that Tejada is the more accomplished player over Campbell and Muno, It is also obvious that the last two previous statements are an indictment on Alderson’s roster construction.
What is wrong with Jon Niese? He has been a consistent middle of the rotation starter during his career but he has really struggled lately. Darling mentioned his curve is not sharp.
Very disappointing losing the series to the Marlins but lets hope to salvage a game tomorrow. The positive is that we are still holding a playoff spot.
Absolutely agree with Cuddyer. His at-bat in the first was so frustrating. I believe it was a fresh count, and to see him be aggressive and hit a pop-up in the infield hurt the team.
I think they’re going to leave Flores at short, because they feel he is apart of the long-term solution, although I agree in the short-term, your defensive alignment makes sense.
Niese’s fastball and cutter are too close velocity wise. His cutter seemed to be 87-88 MPH, while his fastball maxed out at 91 MPH. The change in speed isn’t there, so as a hitter, you know you’re either getting a pitch up in the high 80’s, or a 74 MPH curve. His curve seemed to be low, but right over the middle of the plate. Maybe his curve isn’t sharp, but the location was very poor throughout his start.
I think it might be time to ship Niese out either to the bullpen or to another team and bring up Matz.
Do you think the Mets could get anything for Niese? Not sure if Gee or Niese have any value as of now, so I am not sure how the returning package is going to look like. If the Mets want to win this season, it may be time to bring up Matz.
I believe Gee may have value if he is healthy because he was good before he got hurt. However, he is a six inning pitcher.
On Colon, I wonder if the Astros really were interested in April like we heard and if they were, was Alderson “holding on to him” as a negotiating ploy? Was his value going to go up? While I wanted him gone in April because I never trusted him, he can put together three or four good starts in a row and get you an ‘A’ ball prospect.
Niese is the wild card because he doesn’t look healthy. No one is trading for a hurt pitcher, so shut him down or sit him down. Niese at his best is in the mid 90s, this topping out at 91 is a red flag. Is anyone seeing it wave?
Wanted to package Gee and Murphy, but at this point Murphy may be worth more keeping than trading. I would still move him when Herrera gets back so we don’t lose him for nothing and take the opportunity to learn more about some prospects like Reynolds and Rivera. Whoever it is, is batting eighth or ninth anyway.
Being a Mets fan is for people who did not go to therapy…to paraphrase one W. Allen…since 1963 I have been a devoted fan of this revolving door of mostly dysfunctional, in some respect, ballplayers… Like a full-sized lab experiment, peering into the globe, I have seen the full spectrum of actions…lunatics and superstars, overachievers and egomaniacs, its like observing an ant farm where occasionally once every 20 or so years the colony flips the optimal switch and we are blissed to behold the near-perfection, in between its like the ants are all effected with the “bends”…we dove to far too quick to find the elusive pearl and we collectively rose too rapidly, and now we’ve got bubbles in our blood… the only solution is to oxygenate…everyone..after me…”inhale…exhale”
ant-iclimactically, yes…I recognize ants do scuba… was being ant-thropromorphic