The Subway Series moved to the Bronx but the Mets’ pitching didn’t get the memo and failed to show up, leading to a 9-5 loss.
- The game started off great, with Curtis Granderson hitting a leadoff homer and the Mets adding another run on a bases-loaded single by James Loney.
- But Steven Matz immediately gave up the lead, allowing three runs to score. The Mets tied it in the second inning but then Matz gave up three more runs, all coming on a homer by Mark Teixeira.
- Hansel Robles got rocked, Josh Edgin appeared for one batter and walked him with the bases loaded. Erik Goeddel provided the only pitching highlight with 1.1 scoreless innings. Well, that’s not true. Matz drilled the pompous Teixeira – that was fun to watch.
- Neil Walker added a solo homer in the ninth off old pal Tyler Clippard.
- Jay Bruce, Michael Conforto and Wilmer Flores failed to come up big despite having numerous opportunities. In the first, Conforto struck out with the bases loaded and Flores hit into an inning-ending DP. In the third, Flores hit into another DP, this time with two runners on base. In the seventh, Bruce struck out with the bases loaded and Conforto struck out with two runners in scoring position. Bruce ended the game with a grounder to short. In all, the trio was 0-11.
we can add Ces heading to the DL the list of tonight’s achievements.
Does Walker know Clippard? You called him his ” old pal”.
Mets old pal I believe
Nah, Walker wasn’t on the Mets ladt year.
Clippard…
Mets old pal
we are approaching 1 month since the last time this team won 2 games in a row (July 6 and 7).
And here it comes. Everything is cespedes fault because he played golf. I hate the ny media they just want to sow the seeds of discontent
My MASH lineup for tonights game:
Reyes (2b) ,Wright (3b), Cespedes(lf), Duda (1b), TDA*(c), Cabrera (ss), Lagares(cf),Ruggiano(rf), Harvey(p)
*TDA is the permanent Hawkeye of the unit since he seems to be always there.
Amazingly only two games back.
From an article posted at MMO:
“But now, Matz’s fortunes have taken a serious tumble. He has gone 1-7 with a 4.81 ERA since the start of June. He has made it into the seventh inning just twice in that 11 game span and batters are hitting .303 against him. He has recorded a game score over 50, which is the league average, just four times during this stretch. Conversely, he has an equal amount of starts allowing at least four runs during that time frame.”
So my comment is simple: In late June, Matz got the official diagnosis of a bone spur. We know that means in the preceding weeks, he was pitching with it. At various time thought he past month I have heard all kinds of things about how a bone spur amounts to nothing. I have, and continue, to disagree. It is clear Matz is injured and pitching through th epain is getting him and the team nowhere. It sounds a little like Ces’ quad. We’ll move him to left, sit out a day every so often, as if that will magically heal an injury. And some point you risk real injury. Well, here we are, Ces is out two weeks in early-mid August. This is a great time for your star to be out, right? We did that to Lagares too, if you recall, with his torn thumb ligament. Half-ass him out there on the unicorns+fairy dust hopes it magically fixes itself while still stressing the injury…and now hes done for the year, and almost certainly extended the ligament tear. He was injured 2 months ago. Had he been though surgery right away, he would be back now.
So, my questions to everyone is just how far do you push real injuries to keep a guy on the field? The Mets have more DL time that any other team in baseball, and I cant help but wonder if part of is the piss-poor decision making. As the shadows of late-summer baseball begin to creep into stadiums, and this team is an official ICU trauma center on its own (as Mestense points out), I maintain strong advocacy that we should not jeopardize the secure future of a strong team by potentially significantly hurting the players on it. I understand Ces may be gone next year, and laying out 27M$ to him this year is for going back to the playoffs, but so many things have happened since March 1 (some very predictable, like Wright), that I cannot help but wonder if we are seriously risking the future success of the team.
I have a very good friend who played baseball in an old man’s league with bone chips floating around his elbow. Some days it was nothing, other rare times it hurt like hell. Usually it was an irritant. Syndergaard has them too. The solution is surgery to remove the chips. End of season. If you can play through it, that’s what you do. Pitchers are hurt all the time. As long as Matz keeps his mechanics, he should pitch. I personally think he’s a little soft, and the fact that he wanted to immediately opt for surgery did not impress me. Pitchers tough it out all the time, up and down the MLB. I don’t fault the Mets on this one, nor do I think they are endangering his health. in addition, they really don’t have anyone down on the farm to fill the void. They were hoping to make the playoffs. Still are. Matz needs to pull up his socks and take the bump.
The difference is that there is a huge difference between an old mans league and elite level competition. Not all bone spurs are the same. We have see for weeks how he cannot complete a pitch, leaving so many up and aways to righty hitters only to follow with get-me-over cookie fastballs that get drilled. I think it is not being a wuss as you seem to intimate. We know the problem is serious enough to demand surgery. The facts are he is pitching bad and keeping him out there is not helping the team in any way.
He got 12 out of the last 13 batters out.
Before the chips, he’s been a kid who loses it in the 6th, cruises and then it vanishes. I think at this point he lacks a degree of mental toughness. That’s my perception.
But, yes, he’s not 100%. But he’s better than the alternatives — and he’s capable of pitching better.
I also believe that very few ML pitchers are operating at 100%. They are defined, in part, by how they respond to those challenges.
Hope is free and why not hope? Sure, only two games back. Amazing things happen all the time.
But they are 40-45 since May 1st, and that record definitely fits my eye test for the team I’ve rooted for this season. There’s something missing. Injuries, the manager, the ill-fitting roster. They haven’t done anything to make me a believer.
I have hope, yes, but I don’t have faith.
We all have hope. But hope isnt fact based. If you are a GM, you have to make super hard decisions beyond hope, or faith. I look at a team in utter injury shambles, a record of mounting losses, a team that has not had 2 wins in a row in a month. The decline in post-season likeliness-to-play began just over 2 months ago (May 27th) and has steadily gone downward since. How many players do you risk serious injury to on the daily diminishing “hope” of going to the post season with a team of cripples?
Is there any reason to believe Matz will improve?
Will Verrett suddenly pitch way above his head?
Will Colon be more Jeckyll than Hyde?
Will Ces come back in late August and suddenly go on an 1.100 OPS tear?
Will 5 LH hitting corner outfielders somehow cover CF and hit?