Well, the wins may be few, the team might stink, the management inept and the ownership dysfunctional, but three things the Mats have going for them right now: Jacob deGrom, Brandon Nimmo and walk-off wins. All three were on full display tonight.
deGrom was his usual stellar self, and as usual, came away with nothing to show for it. He piched eight full innings, allowing five hits, striking out seven and walking one. His opposite number, Vince Velasquez was nearly as good, allowing a bare two hits over six innings. Until this game, the Phillies’ bullpen had been on something of a hot streak, posting an ERA a little over 1.00 over the last seven games. The Mets’ bullpen has been, of course…the Mets’ bullpen. Tonight, it was different. Philadelphia blew through Pat Neshek, Victor Arano, Adam Morgan, Seranthony Dominguez and finally, Mark Leiter, Jr. in the tenth. For their part, the Mets got perfect work from Jeurys Familia and Robert Gsellman in support of deGrom.
After Gsellman dispatched of the Phillies in that tenth inning, Devin Mesoraco led off with a bullet, but right at left fielder Rhys Hoskins. Newly called up old friend Matt denDekker grounded out to second. Amed Rosario legged out a double to left center to rev up the energy, but whatever Mets fans were left were crestfallen upon realizing the next batter was Jose Reyes. To everyone’s surprise, Reyes was able to work out a walk. That brought up Nimmo, pinch hitting for Gsellman. He blasted a bomb into the batters’ eye in right center for the ballgame. It was Nimmo’s 13th homer of the year.
Somehow, the Mets split a series from the first place Phils, and have now matched their win total for the entire month of June.
Washington comes in tomorrow. Max Scherzer faces Steven Matz.
So happy that star baseball player/wonderful human Brandon Nimmo got the walk off hit I was really rooting against horrendous ballplayer/not good person Jose Reyes getting the walkoff hit, I was hoping he’d draw a walk. Not enough superlatives to use to describe deGrom’s greatness and lol at barely above replacement level reliever Robert Gsellman having more win than deGrom.
Brian Cashman, what did you think of DeGrom tonight? You have the balls to step up and get him and maybe win three straight World Series, or are you going to win headlines by going after Machado, giving up your best prospects for a rental and not really improving your team? Will you then move Gregorius to 2B and Torres to 3B to satisfy your diva? Believe me, you don’t want a diva, but who do you think is falling for your crap anyway? Step up and show you want to win. Hold on Brian, the Dodgers are on the phone…
🙂
I think the Mets would be crazy to not trade deGrom. The price for deGrom will never be higher.
I hate to say it, but the reality is this club will not contend until after Jake hits free agency when he will be 32. Sure, there is talk of locking him up (I wouldn’t be 100% opposed, but at least 90%) but, if you lock him up, there is no other way for the Mets to get the players they are going to need. deGrom, and **only** deGrom, can bring back those players.
I love deGrom and love to watch the way he pitches and competes, but the right guys back in a trade could set the course of the franchise for the next 5 years or so. Now is the time.
Do you really trust the braintrust in place to get best value for deGrom?
that does trouble me Steevy. But at deGrom’s level, I think you say 4 or 5 guys. Only a few teams really have the quantity and quality. Its gonna cost a guy like Andujar, 2 or 3 near ready, and a A/AA player. All top 20, 3 top 5. At that point, the choices are not to bad is my *guess*.
Im more concerned what they get for Wheeler or Matz. No one else on the team gets more than a bucket of balls, even if they pay the salary.
Bucket of balls? LOL, have you looked at their players while you’re knocking ours?
Have you looked at what we are shilling?
Cabrera, Swarzak, Bruce, Frazier, Familia, Vargas…
Im not sure you get a full bucket of balls for *all* of those guys!!!
In all seriousness, it wont look any different than last year salary dump.
BTW, I almost forgot. Another game and another bad throw (this time from about 40 feet!!) from Flores. And they gave the guy a hit!!!! Now, that’s amazin’.
He’s got to be worth some sort of value from an AL team which needs a right handed bat.
Pete, that was a tough play.
(J/k)
I disagree Gus. A typical charge play for a competent second baseman with a short throw to first. Not tough at all. Pretty routine.
I was just joking Pete.
An excerpt from a Tim Britton article in The Athletic today. Reality, as they say, is a bee-otch.
“At least in this instance, you can argue that the Mets have spent this time building up value for Flores. Flores has been one of their best hitters over the past month, and he’s started 20 of their last 22 games. The .900 OPS and walk-off hits in that span are nice; they also only build Flores’ value to a point. It would be a surprise if an acquiring team viewed Flores as much more than the short side of a platoon at first base, and the return coming back — even if Flores’ value reaches a peak — would not be a prospect ranked as highly as Smith was just last year.”