In what was an awesome game, then an awful game, and then an awesome game again in the span of ten minutes, the Mets defeated the Dodgers 6-5 in walk-off fashion in the opening game of the series and of this home stand.
- The big story heading into the game was the debut of uber pitching prospect (and teenager) Julio Urias. The Mets were quite rude in his introduction to the big leagues, teeing off on him in the first inning for three runs and making him throw 37 pitches. They continued to give him fits throughout his short debut, and chased him after just 2.2 innings and 81 pitches.
- Jacob deGrom started for the Mets and was weirdly effective yet inconsistent. He managed to pitch seven innings, giving up just one earned run and striking out seven. He walked the tightrope several times tonight, however. His velocity was at 95 mph in the first, then dropped down to around 93 in the fourth, then creeped back up to 94 in the seventh. Basically, it seems as though he’s working his way through his troubles, whatever they may be, while making sure to keep his team in it. He’s fantastic, really, but you knew that.
- This spot was reserved for bashing Terry Collins for sitting Michael Conforto again against a left-hander in favor of starting Curtis Granderson. It was all well and good, since Granderson was 0-3 with 3 Ks heading into the 9th. But then, he went ahead and hit the walk-off homer in the 9th, negating the snark I had locked and loaded. So everything is awesome…for now.
- The corpse of David Wright hit a solo shot in this one, his third straight game with a homer. This may be the Wright we need to get used to now (low contact with pop and lots of Ks). I guess that’s not all bad, though if he can’t get more consistent it might not be so smart to keep him in the 2 hole.
- Juan Lagares had a big night in one of his rare starts. He was 3-4 with 3 RBI and his first homer of the season.
- Hey, here’s where we can lament Collins. He went all Terry Collins on us and inserted 3 relief pitchers into the game even though deGrom pitched seven complete innings. Heaven forbid Jerry Blevins face a right-hander or Jeurys Familia get a day off. Collins inserted Familia into a non-save situation and it was a disaster. Familia gave up four runs to the Dodgers in the ninth, one walked in, allowing them to tie the game.
- Necromancer and Mets Achilles heel Chase Utley was summarily booed throughout the entire game by a stadium full of Mets fans, very audibly, which was fantastic. Unfortunately, he almost had the last laugh when he went all Chase Utley and doubled in three runs to tie the game in the top of the 9th against Familia. It ended up being moot after the Granderson homer, but it was still annoying.
Chase Utley makes it very easy to hate his guts. One other note on this game: can we please get a rule change so that the official scorer can issue the win? I mean, deGrom pitches 7 good innings and leaves with a 4 run lead. Familia pitches one garbage inning and gets the W.
Matt, a hundred years ago the manager gave the win out. That’s how Cy Young has 511 of them. Leave it like it is.
Apologies to Cy Young. I guess I never checked his numbers in depth:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/youngcy01.shtml
He started over 50 games a year five times his first six years in MLB.
He completed 91% of his games in his career.
He pitched 21 years.
He has a 3.4 K/9 and a 1.5 BB/9 lifetime ratio, but only a 2.63 lifetime ERA.
Made the HOF on 153/201 voting (Barely made it, that’s just over the 75% minimum. Ty Cobb got 222/226 votes.)
The Win statistic was certainly more meaningful back in the days when pitchers completed most of their games.
Rob, be sure to unload that snark before you put it away, else you might end up shooting your own foot like that Troy Avenue guy.
Famalia is a garbage pitcher. Three blown saves in world series is the real familia. Stats lie. In a system of bogus overpaid closers he is the poster boy. Why was he even in the game tonight with a four run lead? Did he insist on it Terry?
The last line from Adam Rubin’s article tonight:
“Familia was unavailable for comment postgame, a team spokesman said.”
Pretty simple, right?
After deGrom went 7 innings, Verrett should have pitched the final two. He hadn’t pitched since 5/23 and with Syndergaard going Saturday, odds are against needing a long man.
Then, if Colon has an early exit Sunday, you have Robles available to go multiple innings, having not pitched since 5/24.
I love the write up Rob….very interesting points…and some comments from me,
Teflon Terry is the true Necrmancer ( a wizard or magician) because everything he touches still works out.
Chase Utley is a necrophiliac but I can understand how you could confuse the two words.
Curtis Granderson is a “gamer” but he is playing too much IMHO but that is the TC way (see Necromancer above)
No it is not the same David Wright as before but there is a chemistry or spell keeping him in an important part of the lineup (see Necromancer above)
Juan Lagares is a great 4th outfielder. TC has to make sure he keeps getting him into games to keep him involved. TC the Necromancer should sit Flores next to him and maybe Wilmer will become a great utility infielder.
The first game of a home stand and you use your closer in a non save situation with multiple consecutive games remaining.This time IMHO I would discard the Necromancer moniker and substitute Knucklehead.
TC the Necromancer has the Mets in first place, and really, that is all that matters. Lets Go Mets
Thanks, Metsense. I do believe, especially after last night’s game, that Utley indeed does conjure the dark arts to do terrible things to our beloved Mets. I do like your explanation of TC’s weirdly effective magic, though. 🙂 The team has seemed to win despite his best efforts.
Kinda harsh to call D.Wright “corpse”. He is getting some timely hits and his attitude and work ethic is needed on this team. Who would you propose replacing him on a daily basis ? Flores ? Really ? We need David. If he pops 15-20 homers and hits .260 , 50-60 RBI, decent defense, that ain’t bad. I realize long term that the Mets have to address 3B (maybe first pick this year), but they need him now.
As for Harvey, the Mets should sit his diva butt down for not one, but two starts. They can give one start to Verrett, the other to Gilmartin or Montero. Harvey has a dead arm by the 5th inning. Needs a couple of weeks off to rest it and strengthen it. He pitched like 215 innings last year and after TJ surgery, just may have pushed it too much. Strasberg is almost lights out right now, Harvey could come back and be that and more for the playoffs if the Mets rest him up some. He won’t like it, but too bad. He is not the boss and time the Mets tell him what to do vs the other way around.
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The word “corpse” should probably have been in quotes or something. It was meant in jest after all of the talk about him being completely done. He’s obviously nowhere near the player he was, at least early on, though.
Unfortunately, this new talk of a neck problem doesn’t bode well either.
I don’t get the TC bashing after last night’s game. Yes, he could have sat Curtis instead of Conforto. Hopefully Curtis sits in one of the upcoming games vs. LHP, and hopefully MC gets a start.
He went with Blevins in the 8th to face two LH bats. And Reed stepped in and got a big DP. It was still a game at that point.
Going with Familia in a non-save was questionable, but I’m hardly up in arms about it. I don’t think it was an egregious mistake. The way TC manages — a method that I like and strongly agree with — is to win the game that’s in front of you. Plus very possibly Verrett will be needed on Monday, alas, alas.
All that said, I thought Jake looked great last night. And all night, I thought Gary was wrong about him and wildly overstated “the trouble” he had to escape. Three hits, total, two were jam shot bloopers that just made it out of the infield. His ball had movement and late life. He threw some excellent sliders, some high heat, and hit that outside corner. The seven strikeouts were significant. He put those hitters away. For the first time this season, I thought he looked like himself. Yes, three walks, not perfect, but overall I came away thinking it was his best start of the season. I was glad to hear Ronnie says so, too. Getting the dominant Jake deGrom back is huge.
Oh, I should also say, Chase Utley. What a great player, and what a great pickup by the Dodgers.
When everyone hated Chipper Jones, I always just admired the guy. That’s mostly how I feel about Utley, except for his terrible moment in the NLDS when his hard-nosed competitiveness got the better of him and he slid into second base late and dirty.
The mental toughness required to go into NYC, face those fans, and raise his game is very impressive. Guy is a ballplayer, and if he was a Met we’d love him.
Yeah, and Richard Kimball was a fine pediatrician until he offed his wife.
I frankly did not like the way Chipper Jones looked, and I hated the name Chipper. Hell of a ballplayer, though; with him I took the viewpoint of the Plains Indians: measure your own greatness by the strength of your enemies.
Game for all moods that is for sure. Some things that stuck with me after the drama.
1. I don’t care what kind of prospect status a minor leaguer has, or what kind of numbers he has, taking that to the Show is hardly any guarantee of performance. A lot of heart out of Urias, but he’s not ready.
2. A minimal improvement out of deGrom who spent the night racking up the pitch count in innings 1-5. Long counts, control issues and the persistent lack of being able to get the ball down. We’re it not for some timely DPs the outcome would have been very different. He’s making progress, but the exasperation he showed was very reminiscent of Harvey. He’s still playing with fire.
3. A healthy mix of HR and scoring by moving the line was awesome
4. Familia is big time playing with fire. So many runners. Like with Jake, the Houdini act is on the edge of collapse.
Y’all are lucky you either saw the game in person, or on the local feed. Living 800 miles or so from Citi field I saw it on MLB network with Bob Costas and John Smoltz. They raving about how great Urias was/will be while he was getting knocked around by Big league pitching. i swear they talked more about Urias, Valenzuela and the scout who signed both of them than they did the Mets.
I often find that these national broadcasters come into the games with a pre-determined narrative — a story they want to tell — and they seem unable to respond to the game itself. They impose a pre-set story onto the game, can’t seem to think on their feet.