There isn’t much to be said about this no-contest contest. The Mets dropped their final 2016 regular season game with the Cubs, 6-2 on a desultory afternoon.
Kyle Hendricks started for Chicago and as Bob Murphy used to say, he was wearing the hitters on his watch chain. He scattered seven hits and no runs over his six-and-a-third innings, walking one and striking out seven. For the Mets, Bartolo Colon just didn’t have it today. Anthoiny Rizzo ate up his pitches like M & M’s, accounting for nearly 900 feet worth of home runs with two long blasts, good for five of the six tallies. What little opportunities the Mets had to score, they squandered with double plays and two-out pop flies. Bright spots were Wilmer Flores, who hit his tenth — albeit superfluous — home run in the eighth inning with Jose Reyes aboard, Travis d’Arnaud who went two-for-three with a walk and Kelly Johnson, who went four-for-four.
Tomorrow is a most welcome off-day before the team begins a fairly large series in Miami.
Hoped to see something out of Lagares today vs. RHP. He didn’t look good. It’s a tough position to be in, but he’s got to make the most of these limited opportunities.
The team would be better if he could stay on the field.
Agreed. I thought of that today, too.
Today’s loss didn’t really bother me. It wasn’t because I was just grateful to have survived Tuesday night, but because I was aware of the Cubs mindset.
You see after Tuesday’s game, I was feeling pretty good. I turned on my MLB.tv highlights and when I saw there was a clip of Jon Maddon’s press conference, I wanted to see it. I wanted to enjoy his tone of voice of just having lost that game and enjoy it a little more. But, something shocking waited for me: I thought they won the game!
Can’t say I blame them, but most managers would have used words like, “we had a chance”, bummer”, “shocking”, or “we’ll have to bounce back…”. Instead, Maddon was calling out all the good things they did right from the start of the conference in a smug, happy tone. He was crediting both teams with their accomplishments and it just took the wind out of my sails. Now, Hendrick’s performance had quite a bit to do with the silencing of the lambs, and the horizontal break on his changeup is ridiculous.
Also, can’t understand how the Mets didn’t challenge the play at the plate in which the center field camera of ESPN showed Loney’s foot was in under the tag that came in at the ankle. It was a quick replay, but I was pretty sure…
Winning two of three vs the Phillies was expected.
Losing two of three in Wrigley Field is also expected.
On the road, good teams should win the series vs the weak teams and avoid a sweep against the playoff teams. The next series will be a telling series. The Marlins are ahead of the Mets in the standing so it is important not to lose any more ground. JdG vs Fernandez should be a great game. Two of three is a winning road trip. It will tie them with the Marlins. The Marlins are a playoff caliber team if they can improve their starting pitching.
Right now, IMOH, the Mets are better. Lets Go Mets !