The Mets won their first ever game at Sun Trust Park and it was a team effort. The team finally made Julio Teheran look human, jumping out to an early lead on a Michael Conforto solo home run, before lighting him up in the 4th inning. Ten Mets batters got up in the fourth contributing a barrage of hits and walks to plate 5 runs. Robert Gsellman, who did a great job of keeping the ball on the ground the first 3 innings, lost his way in the fourth, coughing up 2 runs to make it a 5-3 ball game.
Gsellman settled down in the 5th, but after surrendering back-to-back doubles to Freddie Freeman and Matt Kemp, Terry Collins went to the bullpen and the suddenly reliable Josh Edgin. With runners on second and third, Edgin induced a ground out but a run scored. Hansel Robles took over and got the second out of the inning on a sacrifice fly that plated the 5th Atlanta run. He proceeded to give up a walk and a single, but just as Terry Collins started pacing in the dugout, Curtis Granderson made a great catch off pinch hitter Lane Adams to end the inning.
Clinging to a 6-5 lead, the Mets got 3 scoreless innings from Jerry Blevins, Addison Reed, and Jeurys Familia. Jose Reyes gave us a nice insurance run on a solo home run in the 8th, which Reed again caught in the bullpen. He smiled slyly back at Matt Kemp who had scaled the wall trying to catch it. Maybe not the smartest play as Kemp hit a screaming line drive back toward Reed’s head as he led off the bottom of the inning. No injury on this play, amazingly.
Harvey and deGrom pitch the next two games in the series against our old friends R.A. Dickey and Bartolo Colon. Here’s a great chance for the team to rally and pick up some ground. Let’s go Mets!
Four scoreless innings from the pen. The starters have got to start pulling their weight. We need Harvey and deGrom to go deep because it doesn’t look like anyone else will.
Last five games the offense has scored 29 runs despite facing Scherzer, Strasburg and Teheran.
The win sends the Braves into last place.
Let’s go Mets, still optimistic. Showed resilience last year and need that to come back. Hopefully execs and Terry push some right buttons soon.
Good point about the aces we’ve faced. The next six games are against the Braves (past Teheran) and Marlins so no aces in the mix. On the other hand, with 3 of our 7 starters on the DL, we’ll be looking at starts every 5th day by Montero, Gilmartin, or someone like Doug Fister.
To illustrate your point, the bar is already set pretty low with this stat yet…
Gsellman – 1 QS in 4 tries
Wheeler – 0 QS in 5 tries.
Would you look at that. The offense discovered that putting the ball in play can lead to base runners, which can lead to runs, all without hitting a home run. I really hope they remember this lesson because I’m thinking the offense is gonna have to carry this team most of May until Matz and/or Lugo return.
Alderson said this past winter that everyone was asking for Gsellman. What were all these people thinking? Let’s see.
When comparing last year to this year, we see some bad luck combined with some bad pitching, and possibly tipping them. First the bad luck:
Fly Ball %: 2016: 23.3% | 2017: 17.1%
HR/FB 2016: 3.6% | 2017: 16.7% (Gsellman throws a hard sinker, supposedly hard to lift. Remember all those deep outs to centerfield last year?)
Flyball Location:
Pull% 2016: 33.1% | 2017: 46.5%
Center% 2016: 40.2% | 2017: 29.6%
LOB% 2016: 81% (Gsellman’s most likely stat to fall) | 2017: 50%
To compare, here are some elite and non-elite pitchers’ lifetime rates:
Kershaw: 78.4%
Scherzer: 75.6%
Teheran: 76.5%
Colon: 73.1 %
Volquez: 71.1%
Jaime Garcia: 71.9%
BABIP 2016: .325 | 2017: .377
AVG. 2016: .249 | 2017: .301
O-Contact 2016: 63.4% | 2017: 79.2% (seems like they’re swinging at balls and still hurting Gsellman)
Now, the bad pitching:
FB% 2016: 63.6% (93.6mph) | 2017: 66.5% (92.7mph)
SL% 2016: 19.7% (88mph) | 2017: 14.1% (88mph)
Good news:
K rate went up from 8.46 – 9.14, while BB rate stayed the same and Ground Ball % is up slightly 54.2% – 57.1%.
Is he overthrowing looking for K’s, and possibly flying open leading to tipping the pitches? Let’s not panic on the kid yet.
Thanks for the numbers crunch, Gus. I like Gsellman a lot. I see him as a future fixture in our rotation after Harvey inevitably leaves. I really believe he’all get going. I saw a lot of positives from him in this game. He just left the ball up a few times and needs to come inside a little more.
I like him too.
Bonus gut reaction:
In the top of the ninth inning with Vegas clinging to a 6-5 lead after failing numerous times to add-on runs, Vegas playing a “no doubles defense” allows a flyball to drop for a single. After a wild pitch, a grounder to Rosario is bobbled for his eighth error in only 25 games, but runner held at second. After a DP started by Cechinni, Bradford gives up a two out hit to tie it.
Bottom of the ninth and Rosario leads off with a walk. One out later he gets doubled up on a line drive to send the game into extras. I shut it off then. The .400 batting average looks good, but the kid is not ready.
Gus, thank you for that.
You should have kept the game on because in the bottom of the 11th, Cheech singles to start and Rosario walks off with a double to score Cheech. 2-4 2 2B, 2R, RBI and a walk. Is he ready? I dunno, but you picked such a small example and overlooked his game winning hit. His last 10 games have been phenomenal and despite the errors, he is still an elite defender at SS
Joe, it was already passed 12. My point wasn’t the sample size, but rather 8 errors in just 25 games and mental mistakes means the game hasn’t slowed down for him yet. The bat is nice for a youngster, even in Vegas, but major league pitching won’t be so easy and the other parts will stand out.
Yes, he made an error and that is 8 in 25 games, but to be fair: he turned a DP on the next batter, erasing the hitter who got on via his error; LV infield is notorious for being among the worst (uneven and hard as a rock) and he was the defensive player of the year in two leagues last year. A little more seasoning could help and I would prefer to keep for Super 2, but I honestly believe he could play in the majors right now and after a short period of adjustment, he would be superior on offense and defense compared to what the Mets have now. His skill sets are exactly what is missing from this team
Joe, since you are obviously more in tune with the dealings of Vegas, I’ll take your word for it. Sounds good to me.
Joe, what do you think has happened to Cecchini this year? Do you think it’s mostly mental, or is there something going on? I see the Mets moving Flores and giving Cheech his role, but is he ready? Too, I see the same thing for Granny and Nimmo.
Turner Field .387 Winning Percentage; Sun Trust Park 1.000 Winning Percentage. Priceless
The bullpen won this game and it was especially nice to see Blevins pitch a full inning.
Reyes and Conforto continue to hit and they should be adjusted in the batting order to take advantage of that.