The Mets home opener didn’t quite go as planned, as the offense never got untracked and the Nationals added some runs late to break open a close game and earn a 4-0 win Thursday afternoon.
Much was made about the Mets having to play their home opener as a day game following a road night game. That made for less than ideal travel conditions but the real problem was having to face Stephen Strasburg, who had his good stuff and who continued his mastery at Citi Field. After hurling 6.2 innings of shutout ball, Strasburg now has a 2.14 lifetime ERA in 11 games in the Mets’ home park.
Noah Syndergaard nearly matched Strasburg, but he allowed a run in the second inning without surrendering a hit, thanks to two walks, a wild pitch and a sac bunt. Then in his last frame in the sixth inning, he allowed his first hit of the game, a solo homer to Victor Robles, who also homered against him in D.C.
While the Mets’ offense didn’t show up, their questionable bullpen, along with curious bullpen deployment, did. After Justin Wilson and Jeurys Familia combined for five strikeouts in two innings of work, Seth Lugo was brought on to pitch the ninth. His velocity was down and his three batters faced resulted in a double, a single and a sac fly. Tim Peterson came on in relief and allowed back to back hits for the fourth and final run.
Tomorrow is an off day and when the Mets return to action, they’ll shake up their rotation, with Steven Matz leapfrogging Zack Wheeler to get the start. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so the schedule works out well for once.
I didn’t think the Mets could have hired a manager as dumb as Terry Collins but Mickey is somehow on his level. Mickey pinch hitting for Lagares in a big spot made plenty of sense but with a lefty in going to JD Davis, who has been hideous over Broxton who is swinging the bat well and kills lefties made no sense and the result was predictable. Mickey hasn’t used Guillorme at all and uses him to pinch hit in the 8th with six outs left, oy. Don’t get me started on his usage of Lugo.
Some of the manager’s moves were questionable but I think batting Guillorme in that spot was reasonable, 2 runs behind. Guillorme has traditionally had good OBP including in ST and that was a spot where you really want a base runner.
Broxton draws walks too and didn’t last get an at bat ten days ago
Well, avoiding Callaway’s decisions is hard. But, two players concern me: Nimmo and Lugo. I think Lugo is done. Diminished velocity and wildness is a pretty big giveaway. Also, as I said yesterday, Nimmo just got hit on the hand. Where’s the rest? And with Rosario pretty hot, why not get the guy to the top somehow?
As for the in game strategy, I didn’t see the game so I must bow out of the opinions. I would like to see a change in the rotation and definitely a change in the lineup to get the hotter hitters (Rosario, McNeil, Ramos) a bit higher in the order.
LGut Reaction: Miami should have to change the start time for the get away game, MLB should not have allowed the drug test and Smith needs to overcome his bashfulness. As a paying customer (MLB TV subscription) , i was deliberately presented an inferior product because of the scheduling.