The mysterious downfall of Jacob deGrom continued in the Texas heat and the Mets gave us a painful Texas tease.
The game started promisingly as Michael Conforto led the game off with a loud double to right field against our old friend Dillon Gee. After two outs, Neil Walker drew a walk and Lucas Duda pulled a base hit into right for a 1-0 Mets lead. That wouldn’t be enough. That became clear when deGrom gave it right back in the bottom half, surrendering a leadoff single to Shin-Soo Choo, a one-out single to Nomar Mazara and an infield grounder to Adrian Beltre. The Mets grabbed the lead back in the second when Juan Lagares homered to right. That wouldn’t be enough, either. Texas countered with a leadoff single by Jonathan Lucroy, banged off Walker’s mitt. Rougned Odor followed with a double to right. A Jared Hoying ground out and a sacrifice fly by Delino DeShields, Jr. gave the Rangers their first lead of the night. That wouldn’t last either.
In the third, the Mets had a great chance to bust the game open for themselves and couldn’t do it. Asdrubal Cabrera led off with a moon shot of a home run to tie it. Jay Bruce followed with a blast of his own, but Hoying timed his leap at the wall perfectly and brought that one back. This became important, because Walker then hit a blast that no one would bring back and the Mets led it 4-3. Singles by Duda and Wilmer Flores and a walk to Curtis Granderson gave the Mets their golden opportunity, but Travis d’Arnaud and Lagares both popped up to the infield to end it. The seasoned Met fan just knew that would come back to bite this team and the Rangers sharpened their fangs right away. After deGrom struck out Mazara to start the third, a single by Beltre and a long, long home run by Joey Gallo gave Texas a lead they would not relinquish again. Gee vanished in the fourth after giving up a one out walk to Cabrera and a line single to Bruce. Somebody named Austin Bibens-Dirkx slammed the door, inducing two popouts to Beltre at third base. deGrom wishes he’d vanished by the time the Texas fourth was done.
He gave up singles to Hoying and DeShields to start the inning and walked Choo, throwing a wild pitch in the process for the Rangers’ sixth run. He induced Elvis Andrus to chop into a run-scoring double play and Mazara followed that up with a booming home run to the third deck and it was an 8-4 game. deGrom’s final line: four innings, ten hits, one walk, two strikeouts, eight earned runs. Josh Smoker pitched one very clean inning and one disgustingly dirty one, giving up two runs on a double by Hoying, a bunt single by DeShields a groundout by Choo and a single by Mazara. The Mets were stymied for the better part of three innings by a relief pitcher named Alex Claudio, whose exaggerated mound mannerisms suggested a marionette with a loose string. They managed to get a run back in the eighth off him, on two singles, a walk and a soft groundout with the bases loaded.
After Neil Ramirez and Josh Edgin got through the seventh and eighth without any further damage, the Mets came up in the top of the ninth to face Matt Bush, mostly bereft of hope. Mostly. Flores led off with a soft liner to right for a single. Granderson smoked one over the centerfield wall and suddenly, it was 10-7. d’Arnaud followed that up with long shot of his own and it was 10-8. Lagares singled and stole second. Conforto walked. Asdrubal Cabrera struck out, and Texas native Bruce stepped in. On the first pitch he took a couple of practice swings and… hit a bouncer to Gallo at first for a 3-6-3 game ending double play.
I think we’re still looking down at rock bottom.
Zack Wheeler vs. Yu Darvish in the series finale tomorrow.
Charlie, two things to add:
1. SNY really played up Terry Collins going and sitting next to JDG and putting his arm around him to console him. JDG looked very upset, but he was obviously respectful and patient with his boss.
2. In the fourth inning, after the Hoying drop single to the opposite field, DeShields hit a sharp grounder one step to the left of Cabrera. He took one step and reached down, but the ball went under his glove for a “single”. That was a taylor made DP. You bring up the Walker play, add this one, add that half the Rangers runs scored on outs, and the chances the Mets blew, and we see that the story of the game was lack of execution; make that the story of the year.
Yes JDG’s pitches looked straight at times, and I have mentioned that no Mets pitcher pitches up and down to change the eye level but rather down only, but the unraveling was complete when he spiked a curveball well in front of the plate to allow another run.
Time to switch Duda and Bruce in ththe lineup. Would love to see Lagares get another start, but Collins…
deGrom looked a little bit like he was going full-on Flores tearjerker for a minute, there.
I noticed the water works too
You thought the story of the game was the lack of execution?
Gus, lack of execution? Sure, by deGrom. None of those things compare to the hole he dug himself. Not by a mile. Sure the range and fielding are not much to like, but ignoring the pitching is like the Titanic ignoring the iceberg.
Yes, it was a factor and how large is up to each one to decide. While you can both rightfully talk about JDG crapping the bed (1) we all saw his defense fail him and (2) the other team hit grounders with men on third and less than two outs and we hit popups. Hitting a grounder isn’t very hard, but you have to give yourself up for the team and probably a coach will remind you on your way to the plate.
This is a t e a m. Their record is kept that way. I pointed out JDG’s overthrowing, but there were opportunities to score more or defend better and the Mets – as a group – whiffed on both.
I’m not a fan of the extended arm around the shoulder thing in the dugout. I didn’t like it when John Buck did it for Harvey and I didn’t like it last night, either. It rubs me as being calculated for exposure over effectiveness.
Everyone besides me seemingly loved the Buck move. I fully expect the same reaction today.
I thought it was a human moment.
Brian, I only noticed it because it was spotlighted by the MLB package. I saw them scoring in the ninth as I was driving home, so I turned on Gameday (we are blacked out of SNY down here and I deemed Fox Sports Southwest bad luck) and there it was next to the box score. Seeing the picture, my very first thought was why he didn’t go put his arm around Cabrera and tell him to catch the next one?
I was more confused by the motive than bothered by the gesture. It’s why I pointed out that JDG was listening respectfully but his lack of participation in the conversation made me feel he was more upset then he wanted to let out.
Jake doesn’t look right and hasn’t looked right. It’s been evident for a while.
In his last strong outing he threw 118 pitches. I don’t know if that connects to these horrific performances or not.
Also, the strange “it might rain” game takes on new significance. It seemed weird at the time, a signal that something wasn’t right.
Hey, I’m simple about these things. When great pitchers throw badly, the first thing I do is wonder if they are hurt.
In the Spring, I thought he’d be a Cy Young candidate this year. But stupid Collins . . .
The Mets scored eight runs and lost!
Their starting pitching has been terrible. Wheeler is the best of the bunch with a 3.75 ERA. deGrom (4.75), Harvey (5.43) and Gsellman (5.53) are pitching worse than a fifth starter. Matz and Lugo will step in but the season is tethered to Harvey and deGrom fixing what is wrong with them. It has the makings of a very long season.
I turned the game off somewhere around a 5 run deficit. You can’t ignore the many skill and talent problems offensively, defensively, team speed— those would make me a little crazy if they were Pitching as they should, and if they were several games over .500…as they would be if they were Pitching as they should.
If I told in February you that the Mets would score 5 runs a game, and that they’d be in a “bunch” of teams between 3rd and 8th in runs scored…If I told you that they’d score more runs than the Cubs……….
It’s very, very hard to watch!!!!
Neil Ramirez, the human white flag.