After using 11 relievers in the past two games, the last thing the Mets needed was an early exit from starting pitcher David Peterson but that’s exactly what happened. Peterson couldn’t make it thru five innings and the Braves scored off both the third and fourth relief pitcher used by the Mets Wednesday and they emerged with a walkoff 5-4 win over the Mets, avoiding a series sweep in the process.
While the ending was disappointing, this one was a roller coaster ride where the Mets rallied back from a 3-1 deficit thanks to big hits by Jose Peraza and Tomas Nido. Peraza had an RBI double and Nido followed with a pinch-hit two-run single to give the Mets a 4-3 lead in the seventh inning.
Drew Smith worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning and stayed on to pitch a scoreless sixth. Miguel Castro did not allow a run in the seventh. But Aaron Loup allowed three straight hits and a run in the eighth before being relieved by Jacob Barnes with two on and no outs. Barnes got out of the inning, helped greatly by a runner thrown out attempting to steal third base by James McCann.
The Mets had Trevor May warming up to pitch the ninth inning but left Barnes in the game. May had pitched in back-to-back games and didn’t look good in either of them. Barnes promptly gave up a leadoff homer to Ronald Acuna to end the game. It’s the third straight outing Barnes has allowed a run and the fifth time in 11 appearances the other team has scored.
For the sake of the bullpen, Thursday being an off day is a blessing. The Mets could use some depth from their starters. There are rumors of a promotion for Thomas Szapucki. And there’s also the possibility of a weekend return for Jacob deGrom. When they return to action on Friday, they’ll close their nine-game road trip with a three-game series against the Marlins.
A sour grape from tonight. As Brian wrote, we are all happy with two wins out of three with a severely undermanned team in Atlanta, and I’m not even upset with Barnes giving up the homerun to Acuna. Acuna is a great player and so is Freeman and by the. I think inning, we knew the Mets probability used up all their bullets anyway. My biggest problem with tonight was the use of Loup. In the month of May, hitters are hitting .375 off Loup. He hasn’t been good, and his pitches are flat. With the bottom of the order and three righties coming up, why not go to Barnes first, rather than give their lesser hitters an advantage of getting a lefty that struggling? Save Loup for Freeman and maybe use the starter that is having his throw day today to get an inning? It definitely hurt that Peterson doesn’t know how to get out of trouble and in every game that he got into trouble, it turned out to be his last inning of work. He really needs pitching experience in AAA.
The front office went after Brad Hand aggressively and gave him a better deal than Washington, but he wanted to close. Oh well. Truth is they need at least one more lefty and Loup last year benefited from having two other lefties in his bullpen to share the load; now there isn’t any other one.
Nido is hot and McCann needs to sit. Sorry, there’s no reason for McCann to start Friday. DeGrom is pitching in St. Lucie Thursday on a rehab assignment. Rehab for DeGrom after missing one start when you don’t have anybody available? Whoever made that decision is an idiot.
Gus, I concur on basically all your points.
Regarding the deGrom rehab start, I was a bit surprised by that and it tells me that despite the public posture of “not worried”, they are worried more than letting on.
They are going to need to find/pick up a starter somewhere…17 straight game days. Besides the two big free agent signings that are contributing nothing at the plate, it’s time for some starters to step it up and provide innings…you can’t function on opener games without off days.
I was prepared to rant, but Gus covered most of my points. I was so impressed by how the team fought and scratched in this series. A sweep would have been nice, but Rojas has other plans. His handling of the bullpen last night was awful. Barnes has been the least reliable arm in the bullpen and I’m not sure why he is still on the roster at this point, let alone pitching against the meat of the order in the ninth inning of a tie game. I get that a few guys had worked the previous few nights and might not have been available, but you just cannot have your worst option on the mound with a division game on the line.
Khalil Lee looks like he’s in way over his head.
Frustrating that Acuna saw a strike on the first pitch… I mean, c’mon. Little League. Probably would have lost anyway…
A couple of inexplicable things:
– Maybin bats third in his first day on the team… the guy had zero chance against Morton… is not going to barrel up anything from any pitcher… let’s put him 3rd!
– Nether Lee nor Maybin nor Vargas attempts a bunt in a tight game.
– Rojas leaves plodding McCann at first (no pinch runner) requiring two two-out hits to bring him home, or maybe three!
Peraza was pissed.
– McCann’t. Awful circumstance.
– I thought Maybe should have run earlier, during Smith’s at bat… maybe stolen 3rd soon thereafter… you have to do things to win games!
Other comments:
– Peraza might be the best hitter on the team right now.
– Dom looked damned good at first. Wish he could hit again.
– Nido needs to play, period.
– Loup looping very sketchy… we need lefties!
– Barnes looked decent again… except for, of course…
I agree with a lot of what you’ve said, especially Maybin in the 3 hole (still can’t figure that out) but I think you’re wrong on a first pitch strike to Acuna. You want to get ahead with a strike. Obviously you don’t want to give him a great pitch to hit, but it sounds like you are saying you don’t want to throw a strike there. What’s your rationale? Throw one in the dirt and hope he chases to get ahead?
Gut Reaction: This was a gritty loss. They were undermanned, fought back and left everything on the field. It is too bad that they couldn’t win.
If are not going to use Lucchesi (and they shouldn’t) then send him to Syracuse to work on things and give Yamamoto chance.
Nido is hot so he should start 2 of 3 in Miami.
Barnes has a 2.6/9 HR rate and 45% runs/appearance rate which is unacceptable.
Acuna is a dead first ball hitter. Ron jut got finished saying that and Gary said, well certainly the Mets know that… boom.
You throw a slider off the plate and he will swing at it, but can’t hit it. The very last thing you do in the case is leave one over the plate… but whom do we blame? McCann? Barnes? Rojas? Heffner? One of them is at fault… it’s a mistake.
Well, you definitely make it sound easy.
Wobbit makes a good point, but I can’t really kill Rojas over playing McCann one of the three games. Miso came off the bench and drove in a couple, but McCann needed to get Maybin home in the ninth and didn’t.
Barnes did a great job getting the Mets out of Loup’s mess, and that needs to be recognized. My point was that with the bottom of the order coming up and no lefties, I would not have gone Loup, I’d prefer Barnes first. And, Loup has been getting knocked around.
Ok, so JDG pitched a rehab game: 3 innings, 9 batters, struck out 8 of them. And with the dearth of pitching on the active roster, there wasn’t a spot foe him? Did we really learn anything or they were trying to see if he could be a top prospect?
Gus – word is that they wanted to work on his mechanics.