Now this was how they drew it up back in February, but this game still had a touch of the reality of the summer.
The Mets rode the power arm of Jacob deGrom and the power bats of Wilmer Flores, Neil Walker, Michael Conforto and Curtis Grasnderson to pound out a convincing win over the Phillies, but that ol’ Met magic struck when deGrom had to leave the game in the seventh. With two outs and a runner on second, Nick Williams hit a line drive that nailed deGrom on the back of his pitching arm. As we’ve become used to doing, we will await the evaluation of the Mets’ vaunted medical personnel before reaching for the arsenic.
The Mets got rolling pretty much right away. In the top of the first with two outs and nobody on, Yoenis Cespedes poked a double off the end of his bat down the right field line off Phillies’ starter Vince Velasquez. Conforto drew a five-pitch walk and Flores deposited a 1-1 pitch into the hedge in centerfield for a quick 3-0 Mets lead. That would be all of Velasquez’s work for the night, as he exited with numbness in his pitching hand. Mark Leiter, Jr. relieved him in the second. Walker led off the third with a tracer into the lower right field seats. deGrom and Leiter both cruised through the sixth. The Mets greeted Leiter’s relief — Jensen Therrien — with another three-spot. deGrom struck out leading off. Granderson beat the shift with a roller through the vacated third base position for a single. Walker then pulled a single to right and Cespedes struck out. Hitting cleanup for the first time this year, Conforto, bonked the third pitch of this at bat off the left field foul pole and the lead jumped to 7-0.
Erik Goeddel came on to relieve after deGrom was struck and got Tommy Joseph swinging, walked the leadoff man in the eighth, but got the double play to escape any hint of trouble. Brandon Nimmo pinch hit for Goeddel leading off the ninth and drew a walk. Granderson then whacked an 0-1 pitch into the right field stands. Walker got a base hit, so did Cespedes and Conforto walked. Flores, looking for a triple for the cycle, struck out. Reyes then hit a chopper to second, but beat out the throw as Walker scored the Mets’ tenth run. Paul Sewald pitched an uneventful bottom of the ninth, striking out two.
It’ll be Seth Lugo vs. Nick Pivetta tomorrow night from Philly, for the major league debut of Dominic Smith.
Nice to see the old Neil Walker back.
Salas just got released.
Need to update that score pal 😛
Goeddel has 1 BB and 17 Ks in his last 12.1 IP
The deGrominator was wonderful ! He trains properly (Syndergaard), doesn’t make excuses when he pitches poorly (Harvey), has control of the strike zone (Wheeler), adjusts his between game preparation routine (Matz) and it makes him consistently one of the best pitchers in baseball. What is there not to like?
Dom Smith should get the majority of starts at first base. Flores has a 829 OPS but is a poor fielding third baseman. In 2018 he could possibly be the starting second baseman. Flores should get the majority of the playing time at second base and platooning at first for the remainder of the season.
Granderson has been a good soldier and is still very productive but it time to let Niimmo and Lagares get at bats.
Granderson, Walker and Cabrera have had average offensive years.They are not the reason for the Mets record. The reason the Mets have this record are the four pitchers mentioned earlier who are not Jacob deGrom.
Yes, and I tend to agree with 90% of what you say.
But not the free passes for Granderson, Walker, and Cabrera — who represent roughly $40 million in payroll this season.
Curtis is wonderful in many ways, worthy of our respect. But once again he was horrific for a long stretch at the beginning of this season. It was effectively over by the time he got his act together.
Walker was hurt again for a long time — his second season in a row — and while here he been his steady, uninspired self. The numbers are okay, but no spark, no energy, no great defense. At $17.2 million. The Mets would be insane to bring him back.
Cabrera’s defense at SS was a weakness for the Mets this season, and defense matters. The old truth that teams need to be strong up the middle was ignored by management. Walker is probably average at 2B, but otherwise the Mets were below that at C, SS, and CF.
It’s nice to see that Conforto can play CF at an adequate level; and an argument can be made (not by me) that the bat negates the defense.
Yes, yes, yes: The starting pitchers failed utterly, due to injuries (not character flaws). But too many other aspects of this team were unacceptable to begin with. The pen was a travesty that was criminally neglected by the GM. The defense was terrible. The speed non-existent. The offense “good,” near the middle for an NL team, not really a strength. The roster was not championship caliber.
The hope was that the great starting pitching could carry a mediocre team to the playoffs. It fell far short of that. But still, the season began with a mediocre team with too many glaring weaknesses. Too many eggs in that wicker basket.
Metsense makes some great points about the starting pitchers.
Jimmy P, your streak is over. I disagree with you. Entering this season we did not have what appeared to be a mediocre roster. In addition to an insurmountable number of injuries, we got drastic underperformance from several players. Despite the Familia injury, the bullpen would not have been nearly as bad had Salas and Robles had typical seasons. Ditto for the lineup if Grandy and Reyes didn’t get off to putrid starts and Cespedes and Walker didn’t underperform when healthy. Those far-off years were as impossible to predict as the injuries.
Yes, I agree that the roster was lacking speed and the defense could have been stronger, but the rotation, bullpen and lineup all looked playoff worthy back on April 1.
This season has turned into 2009.
I predicted the Mets at 91 wins based entirely on a starting pitching rotation that was too good to ignore. Otherwise I felt I was looking at a .500 team.
Under-estimated the return from injury issues. I did worry about Harvey and that damn surgery. I knew that Matz was always hurt. Knew that Wheeler was coming off two years absence and had a pitching limit. But felt that Noah and Jake would be fabulous. Like Gsellman and thought he’d be solid in the back end, maybe even better than that. Figured Lugo for a good option.
Never liked the defense, never liked the construction of the offense, never loved the pen. Looking at his numbers against RHP, I felt that Reyes was about to fall off a cliff.
But for as bad as the team looked in those respects, I felt they had a real shot at the WC and a rotation that would make them contenders for the WS. But it was never, ever a team in pursuit of excellence, looking to “dominate” the competition.
Wasn’t that Davey’s comment in the Spring of ’86. The Mets were going to dominate. They were built to dominate. This team was built to contend for the WC and maybe, if the Nats struggle, the NL East. That’s not hindsight.
The Mets could have had the 1927 Yankees offense and it wouldn’t have mattered with their pitching issues.
This is true.
7-0, huh? I guess ol’ Charley fell asleep for the final inning …
Let’s see – the headline says 10-0 and the only time it says 7-0 is when he says the lead jumps to that. He doesn’t say it’s the final score and he says in the next graph that Walker scores the tenth run.
I guess ol’ Fletcher decides to chime in and be wrong a day late. What a positive contribution.