One night after a flat offensive performance, the Mets scored runs in the sixth and seventh innings to break a tie and emerge with a 5-3 win over the Rockies Saturday night at Citi Field.
Perhaps the best thing that happened in this game was being more aggressive with the good pitchers. Much like with Jacob deGrom the night before, Steven Matz was sent out to the mound in the sixth inning despite already having thrown 100 pitches. Matz got through the sixth unscathed and earned the Win for his troubles. He finished the game with 10 Ks and 120 pitches.
Seth Lugo had an easy time in the seventh inning and was sent back for the eighth. He retired all six batters he faced, with three strikeouts. Edwin Diaz allowed a baserunner in the ninth but kept the Rockies off the board for his 14th Save of the season.
Carlos Gomez had a two-run homer and Pete Alonso added a solo shot. Todd Frazier had a walk and two hits, including an RBI single. He also added a nice barehand play in the field, which helped make up for his earlier throwing error.
It was not the best game for the home plate umpire, who seemingly missed more calls than normal, including a terrible strike three call to Amed Rosario. Mickey Callaway was ejected for arguing balls and strikes and it’s possible that some of the ugly swings the Mets had in this game were due to the rotten umpiring. Bring on the automated strike zone.
Got to love Alonso’s ability to hit relievers. Let’s pick up another series tomorrow.
The game of baseball confuses me. In the other three major sports, a dominant team like the Dodgers or Astros would win close to 80% of their games and a truly dominant and fortunate team may win almost 90%. In baseball winning 60% is a great year, 65% is dominance, and no one wins 70%. In fact, that a pathetic team can win 1/3 of the games would be shocking in other sports. Meaning, the median is much closer in baseball.
My point is that the season is so long and playing day after day doesn’t often allow a team to keep the same high level night after night, too often, throw in disruptions and incompetence, and a mediocre team has no shot. There are too many ways to lose games and winning when you aren’t consistent is unheard of.
That is why a team like the Mets, who we all know don’t have the consistency and leadership to be special, can look so crappy one night and much better the next night against similar pitchers. Too, we all think on field leadership is overrated in baseball, but we keep witnessing the importance of good leadership. [In fact, I found myself wondering this morning if Callaway is better then Collins. But I think he is.] As I wrote two days ago, the Cano factor and the whole organizational circus will probably keep an upper tier manager from wanting this gig.
The Mets will continue winning a few and look good, and losing a few and leave us shaking our heads. So, the question is coming: Do you buy or do you sell? How much would you sell and do you mortgage the farm to buy? My gut reaction is this team is not going to do much and the disruption that we see over the attempts to void Cespedes’ contract and the like, make a union and clubhouse start to ask themselves how much does this team really want to be professional, therefore diluting the focus on consistency and winning. Hence, just sell. Identify the winning players you want to be your core and sell the rest. I’d keep Rosario, McNeil, Alonso and Davis, and sell Lowrie (when he finally gets on the field), Frazier, and Cano (good luck there). Expecting Cano to not go anywhere, tell him that if he wants to bat sixth and play third base, he can stay in the lineup about 130 games a year – which was the goal last December! What happened?. I would only keep one of Nimmo and Conforto, as I see both too prone to the strikeout. Put Smith in LF for now and find a real center fielder. That’s what I’d do.
Btw…. it seem like Girardi was semi campaigning for the Met Job last night
Just Me?
I didn’t get that impression at all.
A large part of that is the sheer number of games. If you only play 16 games like the NFL does, it’s a whole lot easier to put up a sub-.200 winning percentage than it is in 162 games.
The 2017 Dodgers had a stretch where they went 67-17, which easily surpasses what any NBA team did this year. And it was better than what Tampa Bay did in the NHL. Last year the A’s had a stretch where they went 60-25. The Red Sox had a period where they went 61-27.
The longer the season, the more compact you’ll see the teams’ records
You’re absolutely right Brian. It’s such a long season, with traveling, and playing everyday, and facing different or unique pitchers, changing the pitcher every inning, that it’s so hard to maintain a mental high and a consistency end-to-end. But, we see glimpses of greatness. I remember the Kirk Gibson Tigers starting out 35-5, an 88% winning pct. But, they only won 104 games and had a .642 winning pct.
The Mets will win some games because everyone does. They will lose some games, because everyone does. However, unless they actually get their house in order and actually be a meritocracy from Manager, to Superstar, to The Bench Player, they’re just the Pirates or Mariners, or another team that can never figure it out.
I have not seen a worse “Balls and Strikes” game by an Umpire in over 50 years of watching the game. For Hitters and Pitchers, it was a next to impossible situation
Umpires are Athletes…. and they are highly accomplished at “their game”. They don’t just land at Home Plate with a Chest Protector—- they compete for years with proven performance to gain their MLB place. Last night’s performance demonstrates that the Home Plate Umpire no longer belongs at the MLB level….it’s that simple
Gut reaction: I loved that Matt’s went out to pitch the sixth inning. His task was to complete a scoreless inning and not use a relief pitcher. He was responsible for the game and his own destiny. The cherry on top was his 10th strikeout of Blackmon. Matz took ownership of the task and accomplished it. It was his responsibility, no one else’s. That last strikeout shifted the momentum of the game and the next to veteran batters, Ramos and Frazier, got hits and even though there was a DP the go ahead run crossed over the plate. I was ecstatic that Lugo was permitted to pitch multiple innings and of course Diaz Mios thank God we have Edwin.
I never liked the philosophy of the previous pitching coach who preached to his starters “your job is to get the team in a position to win.”I prefer the new philosophy – it is your game to win or lose.
Alfonso and Conforto are a good 1 and 2 punch and should not be separated in the batting order.
When Nimmo is ready who is going to be packing, Lagares or Gomez?
Let’s win this rubber game this afternoon.
“Pete Alonso is going to run everything out as hard as he possibly can. He plays the game the right way. At this stage in his career, go all out like he is doing. There will be a time in his career where he can tone it down a tad to stay healthy and things like that…’’
Mickey Callaway
Besides the guilt from defending both Cano abs his ingratiating defense, I’d like to m or what “things like that” include.
I heard that too Peter. He started out so complimentary of Alonso, and then realized what he was saying and changed gears. I never saw Wright tone it down. Utley at 40 broke Tejada’s leg on a hard and dirty slide. Truly good players, play hard until the end. Like Beltran did, Abreu did, and so many others. Callaway is a clown for his last line and Alonso should always remember that and be motivated by it.
I don’t want a manager that tells his players to tone it down.
From MLBTR this morning:
The Mets have placed Robinson Cano back on the 10-day injured list due to a strained left quad, as reported by several media outlets (including Newsday’s Tim Healey). Right-hander Tim Peterson’s contract has been selected from Triple-A to take Cano’s spot on the active roster, thus giving the Mets 39 players on their 40-man roster.
After returning from a 12-game IL absence due to a previous quad strain on June 5, Cano almost immediately re-aggravated the injury while running out a grounder. Cano didn’t play any rehab games during his previous IL stint, though Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that one will be required this time around, as the Mets want to ensure that Cano is fully ready to go once he is eligible to come off the injured list.
While the quick return to the IL is undoubtedly frustrating to Cano, it’s possible the 36-year-old could see it as an unofficial restart to what has been a subpar 2019 season. Cano has hit .238/.284/.366 (career lows in all three slash categories) with three home runs over 183 plate appearances. His hard-hit ball metrics on Statcast indicate some level of bad luck, with a .324 xwOBA that is well above his real-world .284 wOBA, though obviously a .324 number isn’t exactly cause for celebration.
It’s also possible that Cano has simply needed some adjustment time to NL pitching after spending his previous 14 seasons in the American League, though the specter of a mid-30’s decline certainly can’t be ruled out — a scary scenario for the Mets, given that Cano is still owed well over $100MM through the 2023 season (though the Mariners will cover $15MM of that remaining salary).
With Cano out, Jeff McNeil is likely to continue seeing the bulk of action at second base, opening up some more time in left field for the hot-hitting Dominic Smith. Adeiny Hechavarria is available on the bench as further middle infield depth.