Despite a comeback effort in the eighth inning, the New York Mets still fell to the Chicago Cubs, 7-4.
The Mets suffered yet again from a bullpen that just was not good enough to get the job done. Zack Wheeler started for the Mets, and he pitched well in his six innings of work. He allowed two earned runs, two walks, and struck out four. The two walks showed that his command wasn’t always there, along with his 103 pitches. Wheeler has had up and down struggles with his command all season, and it is unclear whether or not he will ever get over the struggles.
After Wheeler, Paul Sewald stepped in to pitch. This move ended up burning the Mets, as Sewald was torn up by the Cubs lineup. The biggest blow came in the form of a three run home run to slugger Kyle Schwarber. This gives me the Gut Reaction that no one in this bullpen can be trusted, and it is absolutely crucial that they get the most out of all of their starting pitchers.
Again out of the starting lineup there was one constant for the Mets. Brandon Nimmo had another fantastic night, drawing his regular walk and smacking two hits, including a two run bomb. The Wyoming product has been an absolute blessing to this team, and he now has driven his batting average up to .294. Besides Nimmo, the other Mets to record hits tonight were Asdrubal Cabrera, Devin Mesoraco, Jose Bautista, and Adrian Gonzalez.
A concerning turn of events took place tonight, as Jay Bruce fell victim to injury. After the fourth inning, Bruce left the game with lower back discomfort, which sounds troubling just by the name. If Bruce were to hit the disabled list, it would strand the Mets with only Michael Conforto, Nimmo, and Bautista in the outfield.
Following the loss, the Mets fall to 27-28. Tomorrow night, Jacob deGrom will take on Mike Montgomery at 7:15 at Citi Field, as the Mets try to work towards a series split with the Cubs.
I don’t know who is more pathetic fans that still cheer Jose Reyes or Reyes himself, or the Mets bullpen or Callaway’s in game managing or all of the above. Not sure what Callaway was thinking sending Sewald out for the eighth after he had a wretched seventh inning just empty headed and it helped cost them the game. Wheeler was brilliant and got unlucky in the seventh as La Stella hit a double play ball but because of his he hit and run Rosario understandably went to cover second and it was a hit and Sewald mucked everything up from there.
The bullpen is reaching 207-2008 levels of horrid and its drowning the team.
The Mets had five or six leadoff walks and got all of one run in from that, brutal.
The defense was wretched too with Reyes being Reyes and Conforto’s errant throw.You know if things keep going this way they’ll be ten plus under .500 at the end of the month and that will be tough to watch but a sell off at the deadline is for the best.
Oh they wasted another brilliant game from Nimmo.
To follow up David, I wound up hearing only a couple of at bats when I jumped in my car to run an errand for work: A grounder that went under José Reyes’ glove to his left that was very catchable – according to Josh Lewin- with two outs for a hit, and Kyle Schwarber’s oppo three run homerun. Before I shut it off, Lewin seemed irritated that Reyes didn’t show the reflexes to get that grounder and it went under his glove. He also brought up the grounder in Atlanta that went under his glove to the right side, for a double.
I know it’s me bringing up Reyes, but my point is that we learned last year how a good defense can make a pitching staff look better, and a bad defense can make them look worse. When the other team is getting extra outs, for whatever reason, first it’s demoralizing to the pitcher and second, it gives added lives and in turn base runners to the other team. Since there were two outs, Lewin put the fault of that homerun squarely on Reyes by saying, “If Reyes catches that grounder, the inning is over”.
I saw Nimmo’s homerun on MLBN highlights. Who is this guy? How dumb does Alderson look signing Bruce and not giving his own prospect a chance?
It’s apparent that something has been wrong with Bruce all season,
I am beginning to think that also. Whether it’s his back, foot or whatever, he needs to sit until it is corrected. His drop in BA doesn’t alarm me as much as his lack of power.
Big Takeaway: I was impressed with Wheeler. He pitched agressively, and I’ve not seen that from him. He used the upper part of the strike zone, and it seem like he had an extra yard or two on the fastball. If we believe Wheeler, we believe the season still has a heartbeat.
“The DANI”— my stat for Stupid Baseball, named after Daniel Murphy— “Dumb And Not Intelligent”–the DANI. The guys in the booth talked about Conforto’s throw last night…it’s not recorded as an Error, but it was as costly as most errors..DANI
Jose: I’m 59 years old, and he’s one of my favorite all time Mets. The only Met Jersey I’ve ever had is Jose Reyes Jersey. I pronounced him “finished” last year, and he proceeded to have an awesome 2nd half. The 2 ground balls last night, most especially the 2nd one, demonstrate that he is finished…sad. Very Sad!!!
As you said Jose caught fire in the second half last year, so I am not so willing to give up on him now. With all the injuries we’ve had its only a matter of time before Rosario is on the DL.