Opening Day happened four days later than it should have. The Mets should have scored more runs early in the game. They should have had Jacob deGrom pitch deeper in the game. James McCann should have caught the less-than-great throw from Luis Guillorme. All of those should haves added up to a 5-3 loss to the Phillies Monday night.
The bad news started early when the lineup was announced and Brandon Nimmo was batting eighth so that Kevin Pillar and his lifetime .320 OBP against lefties could hit leadoff. Pay no attention to the fact that Nimmo has a .358 OBP against lefties.
After a slow start, the Mets put up a rally in the fourth inning. Two walks and three singles led to two runs scored and the Mets had the bases loaded with their leadoff hitter due up. The Phillies made a pitching change, bringing on a righty to face Pillar. Luis Rojas could have looked for a knockout blow, pinch hitting with Dominic Smith but opted against being aggressive that early. Pillar grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Meanwhile, Jacob deGrom was his usual terrific self. He caught a break in the first inning, when a ball that certainly looked like a homer off the bat stayed in the park, hitting off the top of the wall, and resulted in an out at third base. After a high-pitch first, deGrom settled in and had his pitch count at a great shape.
He struck out Bryce Harper to end the sixth inning and his pitch count stood at 77. And Rojas pulled him, choosing to be conservative.
Miguel Castro came on in the seventh and gave up some hard-hit balls but put a scoreless inning on the board. Trevor May came on for the eighth and had all sorts of trouble. After starting the inning with a strikeout, May loaded the bases with two hits and a walk, bringing Harper to the plate. Rojas chose to play matchups, bringing in lefty Aaron Loup to face Harper, even though there was just one out and two righties were due up behind Harper. May’s calling card is the strikeout and that’s certainly what was needed in this situation.
And Loup proceeded to hit Harper, forcing in a run. An RBI single tied the game, marking the 31st time in deGrom’s career that the bullpen failed to hold a lead. Loup then got an infield grounder and Guillorme, just inserted into the game for defense, threw home to get the lead runner. But his throw was off target, wide but not incredibly so. However, James McCann was unable to catch the ball and two runs scored. The Phillies tacked on another run and things looked bleak.
The first two batters for the Mets in the ninth struck out. But Pillar and Francisco Lindor hit consecutive singles and Michael Conforto blooped a ball that Harper was unable to catch on a diving attempt to cut the deficit to two runs. Pete Alonso crushed a ball to right field that was caught a step from the wall to end the game.
We’ve started to feel entitled to Opening Day victories and deGrom certainly deserved a win tonight. You can’t win them all but this one certainly felt like the guy making the decisions deserves a good chunk of the blame for the outcome. We were told that making better decisions in the dugout was the easiest thing to fix. No doubt people will talk about how the bullpen didn’t get it done tonight. That’s true but it’s only part of the story.
Let’s just hope that this was anomaly to the 2021 season and not the norm. A bunch of questionable decisions by Rojas is not a good sign.
161 to go. Let’s forget about this one.
Why should we hope that this is an anomaly? If a player is struggling he has resources to help him improve. He can go to his coaches and get their opinion, he can review video footage, he can even ask his teammates for advice.
What can Rojas turn to in the short term when he keeps making blunder after blunder? His bench coach with zero managing experience? His former minor league managers when he was a player from nearly 10+ years ago? His GM who is also trying to run a business and wear 10 different hats? I doubt he has the time or the understanding to read analytics during the season.
Thinking that Rojas will automatically get better when he’s got no resources is as foolish as expecting an alcoholic to sober up purely on their own.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Gut reaction: disappointing with an eighth inning from hell.
May set the table and Loup cleared it with the help of Guillorme and McCann.
Taking deGrom out early was a questionable move that I don’t agree with. It was a passive move, very conservative move and totally uncalled for move. It is over managing move that didn’t effect the game but set a poor message for the season if it continues.
Nimmo is a better leadoff batter than Pillar. For that matter, Alonso should have batted third, Confort fourth and Davis fifth if Rojas’ reason for Pillar batting leadoff was to rotate righty / lefty batters throughout the lineup.
Why on earth was the weakest hitter in the lineup batting leadoff? He killed
two rallies for us. You could make anargument that be belonged in the game, but not that he batted leadoff and not that he wasnt pulled for a pinch hitter with bases loaded against a righty.
deGrom could easily have thrown one more inning, but it wouldnt have made a difference because we still would have gone to May and Loup in the 8th.
Side note: Matz and Wheeler both had excellent starts and even Harvey wasnt bad.
The Mets “should” all over themselves tonight.
I’m reminded of Ryan Zimmerman’s walkoff HR off Billy Wagner in game 2 of the 2006 season. It was right after the whole “Who owns ‘Enter Sandman?’” kerfuffle. That year turned out pretty good, IIRC.
1 out of 162. Shake it off & go get ‘em tomorrow.
Now, the game was lost by the players, and an ugly loss it was. But, the season started off with a bad feeling hours before the game. Dom on the pines and Villar leading off? Against Matt Moore? Not the statement to make game 1 to anyone…players, fans, opponents. I thought we left that garbage in 2020?
Almost every game presents questions that managers have to account for. It’s too bad that there were so many in the very first game.
Pillar in the leadoff… not the worst decision of the day.
Guillorme for Davis at third… of course. Davis handled three popups like they were hand grenades…
DeGrom pulled with the game still unsecured… a bit gutless…. and by that, I mean Luis Rojas not using his gut to stick with him, not consulting with Jake, covering his ass with a company decision.
Nimmo leading off the ninth. OBP be damned… he had little chance against that nasty LH closer.
Loup? He was completely unprepared to throw those first two pitches against Harper… ill-conceived from the start.
Sure we were all disappointed, and it’s easy to get frustrated on opening day. What concerns me the most is Luis Rojas not really managing in real time… just executing pre-determined game plans… a robot can do that. Feel bad for Jake… he will need two full seasons just to get to 100 career wins.