The Mets shut out the Reds in Cincinnati this afternoon 5-0. It was the Mets’ twelfth straight victory against them, stretching back to last season.
- Bartolo Colon took the ball and was, as usual, inexplicably great. He went 6.0 innings while giving up no runs on six hits, one walk, and two strikeouts. He worked out of trouble in the third and the sixth using whatever black magic he’s been conjuring the last few seasons. It was just what the Mets needed after the schedule makers and ESPN screwed them on a day game following a very late Sunday night game.
- Because of the late night and early arrival, the Mets started a lineup kindly described as “irregular” by Gary Cohen. Despite being struck out 12 times, they scored five runs on ten hits. Matt Reynolds and Kelly Johnson hit solo homers while Asdrubal Cabrera and Alejandro De Aza also knocked one in apiece.
- Speaking of Reynolds, he had himself a great game at the plate despite a reported tough trek from Vegas to Cincinnati. Working on one hour of sleep, he went 3 for 4 with that solo homer and an RBI single.
- What the heck was Wilmer Flores doing? He also went 3 for 4 but was only on base once. He hit a single in the first that he tried to stretch into a double and was thrown out at second. In the fourth, he hit a double that he tried to stretch into a triple and was thrown out at third. Delusions of speed. Blame it on the lack of sleep. Still, he had a good day at the plate.
- Get some rest, boys. There’s a wild card to take.
12-4 in their last 16 games. This is more like it!
Now that the Mets have only 1 series against the Nats left, which is their only series against a .500+ team, i’ve changed my mindset that this is the Mets to lose, even though they’re still technically behind the Cards.
It’s hard to imagine 16-8, which will get them to 88 wins, wouldn’t get the job done.
The four game series between the Giants and Cards will be interesting. If they split thenthe Mets can make up the two games in the loss column. If it is a 3-1 or sweep then the Mets can catch the loser. Mets just need to win each series against sub .500 clubs and not falter. Their fate is in their hands.
With the Giants falling apart, my hope is the first WC and home-field advantage for Game 163.
Lot of games left to play.
How could Flores get thrown out twice? What is Teufel thinking? C’mon, man…every baserunner as well as every run counts!
Jim, it sounds like you didn’t see the game. First hit, he hit a ball one hop off the left field wall in the corner and still got thrown out at second. Not ok, but, he hustled.
The second one, he hit it pretty good down the line and cruised to first base only to “turn it on” when he saw the ball was still in play. The ball bounced off the left field wall, the left fielder chased after it and just got him. Not ok, at all. He turned a sure triple into a double.
I have said that Flores lacks focus at times as third baseman, but it seems that his bad baserunning is getting attention too.
Tuefel has had a bad year and I want him gone too, but yesterday and today we’re not on him.
Texas Gus…ok on the first throw out…disagree on the second. I saw the game.
Ok, Jim. Sounds good. I only saw it once. Too painful to see again, LOL.
In both cases, the play was in front of the baserunner and therefore I give the responsibility to the runner.
Not a big fan of Teufel, but neither were his fault.
I was livid when I saw Granderson and Cabreras bat out of the lineup but it seems as though TC pushed the right buttons.
Random thought but at the beginning of the season wasn’t Cabrera pegged as an offensive improvement but a defensive liability? Curious to hear how the metrics rank him.
I’m beginning to worry about Conforto. Mets turned a great hitter with a good eye at the plate to someone who looks lost at times.
The “ReplaceMets” as ESPN loves to call them are keeping this season alive. Today it was Reynolds on short rest.
Strange to be “livid” about Granderson and Cabrera when you consider their age, injuries, the travel involved, day game after night game, etc.
Angry and wrong is not a great combination.
Even when he sits Cabrera still gets an RBI.Now that is hot!
I can’t come to understand how Reynolds gets the start let alone being the hitting heroe. Flores out at third base is the first time that the challenge replay didn’t have to use slow motion, it was already slow. 🙂 Flores keeps hitting RHP again. Tyler Pill has been voted as the most likely Met pitcher to be traded for Kelly Johnson in 2017. One more win tomorrow secures the series. Do Your Thing.
Great Tyler Pill line!
Maybe we should just resign him this time:
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/kelly-johnson-takes-page-out-of-daniel-murphy-s-book-sees-results-at-plate-1.12269985
Bartolo continues to amaze us all. They should make sure to bring him and Kelly Johnson back for 2017 regardless of how this year ends. The schedule is our favor but they still have to hit. They need Bruce to get hot and Grandy to return to how he played last year. Lastly Salas looked good yesterday. Might be the last bullpen piece we needed and a game changer.
Which is Worse?…a slow and bad base runner or a Fast and Bad base runner. Today, I dislike Slow and Dumb.
Wilmer boosted his stats…..You have to actually watch him play to realize what a limited baseball player he is. He is raising trade value…he has a place in MLB…he is not an everyday player, but he’d make a nice DH, Floater.
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I have long considered Wilmer Flores to be an asset, and this season he’s proven to be a tremendous asset. I don’t think there’s any reason to give that away in a phantom trade.
It’s so easy to fixate on what a player can’t do, that we tend to under-value what he can do. Kills LHP. If Mets didn’t have someone who did that, they’d need to go out and try to find that guy. Offers positional flexibility, with the ability to spell a LH-hitting 1B another nice tool in his belt. Wilmer appears to have a great attitude. Just a solid, young, confident guy. And cheap! And the fans love him.
Oh, and he’s 24 years old. At 23, hit 16 HRs in 483 ABs. At 24, he’s at 15 in only 294 ABs. He’s also nearly doubled his walk rate, so while +.06 in BA this season, he’s at +.028 OBP with a sharp rise in SLG, too. Do we really know where he’ll end up as a hitter?
I don’t imagine that he’d bring back in a trade more than what he already gives, which is a lot.
Very good good points Jimmy. If Flores can be another Dan Uggla, a slow, awkward second baseman but a bit less power (say 25 hrs a year) and a .275 average, would the Mets fans be happy?
I don’t know that I fully believe in him in a larger role.
Maybe, maybe not.
But I do think he’s very valuable in the role he currently occupies.
Wilmer’s game is the most extreme example of the Roster Redundancy.. All Hit Tool, and very little else…. Speed, Glove Range, Baserunning, Throwing are repetitively questionable and negative throughout the roster. Wilmer’s “limitations” are the most extreme on this team…. He is RH, and he’s not an OF’er—that’s a positive….. I would have hope for him at 1b.
I respect what he can do…and I believe there are baseball teams that would find him very, very attractive for what he can do. Add the fact that he’s cheap for a while—he’d return good value. Among the duplications and faults that will need to be purged to make this a better baseball team, he is actually desireble in a trade.