Early fireworks off the bats of the Mets were rained out by the performance of the bullpen, as the Mets fell in disparaging fashion 8-6 to the Toronto Blue Jays.
For the first six innings of this game, the Mets had the game in their control. This of course was due to a great start by the offense of the team. With former Blue Jay Jose Bautista on base, Asdrubal Cabrera drove a home run to make the early lead 2-0. In the next frame, Devin Mesoraco smashed a home run of his own to further increase the lead to 4-0.
After a Wilmer Flores home run, the score was 5-0 in favor of the Mets. This would be sufficient enough for starter Zack Wheeler, who despite allowing three walks, pitched phenomenally. Wheeler was calm on the mound, and never melted when he would get into a tough situation. His final stat line finished as 6.1 innings pitched, three hits, five strikeouts and two earned runs. Wheeler tossed 107 pitches on the night, but yet again was thwarted by a bullpen that was not sufficient enough to finish the game for the team. My Gut Reaction is that we will soon see Wheeler vocalize his frustrations with the bullpen like Jacob deGrom did, because Wheeler keeps missing out on wins because of them.
The bullpen allowed the game to go from a 6-1 Mets lead to an 8-6 Blue Jays advantage within the span of two innings. The worst offender of tonight’s meltdown was Rob Gsellman, who allowed a three run home run to Yangervis Solarte to tie the game at six. The combination of Gsellman, Anthony Swarzak, and Tim Peterson allowed six earned runs, which is just completely unacceptable.
Nights like this show glimpses of what this team could have been this season. When on, the offense is dynamic and can smack the opposing pitchers around. Add in the performance of a strong starting pitcher like Wheeler, and you have a recipe for success. However, the bullpen on this team ruins the work of both the offense and starting pitcher, and is the reason that the team is now 16 games under .500.
Tomorrow, Corey Oswalt will take the mound against Marcus Stroman at 7:07 pm as the Mets will attempt to rebound from the loss against the Blue Jays tonight.
And going to the bullpen is like Russian roulette Swarzak? Unmitigated disaster. Gsellman? Replacement level home and walk prone pitcher. Peterson? Strike thrower but below average stuff and homer prone. Blevins? Seen much better days. Smith? Hasn’t gotten a chance and neither has Bashlor. Lugo? Very good but unavailable?
This bullpen reminds me of the 07-08 vintage except those teams were contending teams. Where have you gone Luis Ayala? Seriously though the way the bullpen and offense has not supported Wheeler and deGrom you’d think that maybe GKR would get an idea that pitchers records won’t tell you a ton on pitchers performances.
Wheeler was great his first three innings a bit shaky in the fourth and fifth before settling down in the six and then he was let down by Bautista and Plawecki and Swarzak started the blow up by walking a shit hitter like Travis and the rest is ugly history with Gsellman contuing to stink it up and Peterson continued to be a gopher ball machine.
The offense was good tonight but the bullpen and defense as always let it get away from them. Is it October yet so this ass of a season can end?
I have for decades and can stand a losing record, but this is becoming a joke.
Watch, we won’t make many changes by the end of the year and in the off season, they will give Oliver Perez 2 years 14 million and Mark Reynolds 3 years 36. That will be their answer.
If they bring Tebow up, I will barf.
I want to see changes and part of it is a new experienced aggressive GM and a new manager.
Please end this misery. I realistically thought that this team would be around .500, but this is a disaster.
I checked the scoreboard and it was 6-1. I said to myself, wow, this will be a two game winning streak.
Arrrrrggghh
To me, Gsellman is the backup goat. The starter and all-star goat has to be Anthony Swarzak. He not only gives up a long double to Granderson, he walks two guys and throws a wild pitch. As David refers to, one of the walks was to Devon Travis and the other one was to Hernandez whom Swarzak threw nothing but sliders to, and most of them were over the middle of the plate but Hernandez just kept fighting them off.
I have been wondering lately if Gsellman doesn’t need a second wind and some time off, as he has been used often lately and in a role he never had before. Tim Peterson has pitched well, but high leverage situations shouldn’t be on his work chart.
When Solarte was batting, I just kept thinking how Chris F. kept calling for the Mets to get him, but he’s too young to be an acquisition target for this team.
The looks of Cabrera, Flores, Smith, and Frazier as they filed out after the game from the dugout was telling. Cabrera kept looking at the scoreboard in disbelief and yanking his shirt to take it off in frustration. This team will start expecting to lose soon, and that is a dangerous state for a young player to be in.
Solarte! Would have preferred to trade for him than getting Frazier. 16 HR, young, good.
Best outcome we could have hoped for. Strengthening our draft position *and* building trade value for guys that need to leave to bring back prospects, Cabrera wheeler Flores Bautista etc
“Will start expecting to lose soon” —- are you kidding? Haven’t won a series in more than a month. Every game they must realize they will lose