The Nationals used the home run offense to beat the Mets,7-4, Saturday afternoon. It was the third straight loss in the four-game series.
- Washington hit three homers today, each coming off a breaking ball. Seth Lugo allowed the first two and Paul Sewald gave up the back breaker, an upper deck shot by Adam Lind in the eighth. The Nationals have hit eight homers in three games and the Cubs hit a bunch, too, in the previous series.
- The Mets entered the series hoping to win games outright and also hoping to take advantage of a weak Nationals bullpen. They got starter Stephen Strasburg out after 5.1 IP and scored two against Washington relievers. But for that strategy to work, your relievers have to hold the other team down and that hasn’t happened. The Mets have scored four times in 6.1 IP against the Nats’ pen (5.68 ERA) but are 0-3
- The Mets hit into four double plays and have hit into seven over the past two games.
- In both the seventh and eighth innings, the Mets had a chance to PH for Rene Rivera with a runner in scoring position and opted to let him bat. Rivera ended up 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. He has just 10 hits in his last 54 ABs, a .185 AVG. And just to make it even worse, Terry Collins replaced Rivera after he whiffed in the eighth.
- Cespedes had four hits and scored three runs but ended the game with a DP on a 2-0 pitch.
Its worth noting that this was a winnable game were it not for the defensive miscues of Flores, who should never be allowed to play the left side ever again. He has shown time and again, he does not have the arm to make the throw. Three or 4 runs came from his egregious defensive play.
I do recognize the dropped ball from Murphy occurred while he was playing 2B. Perhpas what I mean to say, he shoud never be allowed to play defense, anywhere, ever.
Chris, I get that you have a hatred for the guy, and while I didn’t see the play at third – and am afraid to – the popup was him running out to basically right field – because Bruce never bothered to go after it until it was obvious that it wasn’t going in the stands – and he had a bad angle on it.
We all want this team to do better than it’s doing but the comebacks of 2015 and 2016 will make this FO sit tight and possibly lose a chance to improve our system. In previous years we were waiting for injured players to come back, now they are back and look at these results.
Hes a pro. The ball hit his glove. If he cant make the catch, he needs to be out of the way. Second basemen make that play every day.
Oh the grounder to 3B was priceless. Having zero instinct didnt help either. He had a runner literally feet from him running to 3B that he could have tagged, but instead chose to go to 1B. After doing the “Flores shuffle” to get enough momentum to make the throw, it was predictably short, and off line so that Duda couldnt make the grab, sending home the runner who safely made it to 3B. It was a hot mess, ya know, like yesterday and the day before.
I dont hate Flores. I hate how he is used, under the belief he is more than a bench guy, under the belief he is a third baseman. Thats on the team. His play makes me angry. I realize if someone asked me to perform a surgery I would fail, much the same way he fails. Sending the wrong person for the job, without the proper training and experience nearly always leads to disaster.
Gus ^ The injured are not back. This team is playing without Syndergaard, Harvey, Familia, Walker, Cabrerra, Lagares and Wright. Prior to this it has been Matz, Lugo, Duda, TDA and Cespedes. It is time the Mets begin to start evaluating the durability of these players and decide how to plan for the future. The constant injuries make it difficult to put a cohesive unit on the field and some of the injuries have made these players a shell of their past.
Chris ^ years ago in the Chatter we used to say that we liked Murphy but his defense is was so poor that on a contender it would come back and bite us. Flores is similar. Right now, he isn’t playing on a contender so lets grin a bear it and hope his offense sustains so that he can have trade value in the future. He is not a third baseman and quite frankly I have doubts about second base where his UZR/150 have radically fluctuated year to year.
Thanks guys, I enjoy your company in the Chatter.
Wow—it’s probaby Over-Time….at the very least, it’s Miracle-Time. The Mets need a 10 game winning streak…and they need it starting in the next few days.