The Mets wasted a strong pitching performance by Zack Wheeler, as the bullpen gave up the tying run in the eighth inning and the winning run in the ninth, losing by a 3-2 score Sunday night. The win gave the Dodgers the series and put the Mets four games out in the race for the second Wild Card.
Wheeler had a strong night, allowing just one run in seven innings. He pitched out of trouble in both the sixth and seventh and the Mets pushed him as far as was reasonable. The sixth was really impressive, as after a leadoff double, he struck out the next three batters, the final one being Cody Bellinger.
Justin Wilson relieved Wheeler in the eighth inning and issue a leadoff walk. He balked the runner to second and the runner advanced to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a single. Seth Lugo was brought on to get the final out of the eighth and gave up a ball that was caught two steps in front of the wall.
The Dodgers continued to get good swings against Lugo in the ninth inning. Pitching in back-to-back days, Lugo didn’t have his curve and the Dodgers took advantage, with Jedd Gyorko, who scored the tying run in the eighth, driving in the game winning run.
The only Mets runs scored in the second inning on a two-run triple by Brandon Nimmo. The top four hitters for the Mets in this game went a combined 0-15.
Hard to score when the top of the lineup is 0-11 I believe. Alonso had such a great start to the week but the next six games were pretty awful. Conforto has had an uneven start to September. You would think the next six games on the road vs the Rockies and Cincy would get the offense going but the bullpen likely won’t hold up well and Matz on the road has not been pretty.
Wheeler was superb today throwing lots of sliders and changeups keeping the Dodgers off balance and when the Dodgers got on base he got huge strikeouts. Zack was at around 100 pitches but I would have let him start the eighth, but I didn’t have a big issue going to Wilson he has been good but you just can’t walk Gyorko.
Lugo continuing to pump in fastballs to Gyorko and not mixing in a curveball was strange and costly.
All in all a disappointing game and a big blow to the playoff hopes This feels like the end of the runs.
Alonso’s past 6 games has been beyond awful. Hitless and now owns the team’s season strikeout record with 162. Conforto has disappeared in the month of September. Batting under .200 (9 for 48) with 2 rbis —courtesy of 2 solo home runs.
Pretty near impossible to beat this Dodger team with 3 lousy hits.
It seems that while the Mets can keep up with anyone for seven innings, those last two have been their Achilles Heel all year long. To begin the offseason, the anti-Midas wanted to trade for Edwin Diaz to fix the bullpen. He then signed Wilson and Familia, along with a minor league contract for Avilan and everyone from coast to coast thought the Mets bullpen thought that once you add Lugo and Gsellman, the bullpen would be solid. However, that has not worked out for this team and it’s a shame because this team really has a solid lineup and good starting pitching.
A quick look to Fangraphs tells me that the bullpen owns 31 loses on the year! King of those has been Diaz with 7. I don’t think these guys are so bad that it should be blown up, but I also don’t think this many players all suck at the same time by accident.
A disappointing loss indeed. It will be interesting to see if the Mets contend in the Wheeler free agent sweepstakes this offseason. If they resign him I look to move Thor for some automatic help at the big level and some prospects. Alonso may own the single season strikeout record but without him we are much closer to the Marlins than in contention. They will certainly work with him in the off season to improve on the Ks but it seems most big home run hitters tend to swing and miss a lot as well. Incredible stat on bullpen losses and agree we all felt great going into the season with our BP additions. Believe we will get Diaz and Familia straightened out over the offseason or one of them will be gone and it’s likely to be Diaz due to his past accomplishments, salary and years of control. We have had a very good season thus far when compared to last. Solid Mets fans knew that the playoffs in 2019 was a goal but maybe not a reality. BVW has some work to do and none of us want to see any more 30 plus players, who across baseball are showing their age through injuries. And as far as Anthony Rendon being signed to play 3B, let’s do it and worry about where to play players later. He is the real deal having a career season this year. Off to the Mile High city to see if we can stay in contention. Either way hold your heads high Met fans!!
A great rotation alone can’t carry a team, especially when the manager keeps pulling starters an inning too early.
Even taking 10 of our last 13 might not be enough. As Mel Brooks once said, “only a miracle could save us now.”
As soon as Rosario struck out with Nimmo on third, I said the Mets will lose this one.
The same thought ran through my mind.
Until we get a manager who can manage we will have these issues. Can’t use Lugo for multiple innings, then bring him in again for multiple innings a day later. You can probably count us winning ten more games this year with a manager who doesn’t continually make bonehead decisions. It would be a travesty to bust up this starting pitching rotation – a new manager (there are some good experienced ones out there who would jump to manage this talent)(I still can’t figure out why he starts Ramos when the statistics for Thor are so good when he has a different catcher of his choice) and some bullpen fixes and I think we are contenders.
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