The Mets seemed destined to lose this game until Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman entered in the ninth and couldn’t find the strike zone. The flame throwing lefty walked three, hit a batter and allowed an infield single to close the gap from 7-3 to 7-6, but the unlikely rally came up short as Chasen Shreve, the Yankees’ fifth best reliever who’s still better than almost anyone in our bullpen, came into to stop the bleeding.
The Yankee hit parade was too much for the Mets today. Our pitchers, Steven Matz, Tim Peterson and Anthony Swarzak, were all hittable and our defense never seemed to be in the right position to make a play all game.
Matz looked terrific the first three innings but suddenly started getting hit around in the fourth inning when three balls to center field were all just out of Matt den Dekker‘s reach. The lefty surrendered five earned runs on nine hits but at least continued with the Mets’ ability to keep the Yankees homerless. This was more due to a fortuitous wind blowing in from left that turned at least two home runs into long outs. Peterson ended that little streak when he left a fat one over the plate for Aaron Judge to launch over the left field wall. Swarzak continued his horrible pitching (7.56 ERA) by giving up an insurance run in the eighth. Defensively, don’t let the zero errors on the scoreboard fool you, this was a bad day for the Mets in the field. The coaches may be more to blame, but throughout the game, Mets fielders seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. A few bobbled balls and slow feet didn’t help matters.
Offensively, Amed Rosario awoke to get three hits and a stolen base and Michael Conforto hit a home run. And that was pretty much it before the ninth inning. The Mets couldn’t do much against the struggling Sonny Gray and did even less against the Yankees powerful bullpen, until Aroldis Chapman entered in the top of the ninth inning and couldn’t find the strike zone. The Mets closed the gap and made it interesting but came up short in the end.
My gut reaction is that this was a winnable game that only the Mets can find a way to lose. Bad fielding, bad coaching, bad relieving and a lack of clutch hitting all combined to make sure they lost a game they should have won. The series wraps up tomorrow with Jacob deGrom giving us a shot. My prediction is seven scoreless or one-run inning followed by Jerry Blevins or another lousy reliever surrendering a long ball and the subway series to a far superior team.
The Mets had the Yankees on the ropes. The bases were loaded and no outs, with the score 7-5. The expected scoring percentage is 2.37 runs. But hey, these are the Mets, kings of brain lock. Where successful players come to fail.
Devin Mesoraco, whom I have complimented many times for his intellect at the plate and behind it, swung at his first pitch that was letter high and in on his hands. Instead of ball one, it’s 0-1. He then lays off a low outside one, and after a foul off while he’s doing his breathing exercises, he yanks – literally – an outside pitch, hitting it on the ground for a double play, killing the inning. Callaway didn’t even look at him when he came back to the dugout. Way to go Devin, try those breathing exercises when you are driving the ball to right field. It’s allowed, you know.
Earlier, MDD had three fly balls land just passed his reach all during the big inning; plays that Lagares would probably make. MDD is pretty good, but I miss Juan. I’m sure the pitchers miss him tenfold.