Tylor Megill put the Mets in an early hole by serving up a grand slam home run and the bats were unable to overcome the early hurdle, leading to a 6-3 loss to the Marlins Monday night in Miami.
It was the fourth loss in the last five games for the Mets.
At the strt of the season, I posted an article about the Marlins as one of the NL East gatekeepers to success. You can find that article here: https://mets360.com/?p=42352
Last night’s painful loss, coupled with the injuries to two of our key active roster (deGrom, Lindor) and 9 games left against the Marlins, not to mention the rest of an NL E heavy remaining schedule, made me think about what I write then. One thing stuck out to me about what I write: The plain fact is that in order for the Mets to have a serious chance at the pennant, they need to beat the Marlins at a higher rate than average, coupled with more wins versus Atlanta.
The Braves are doing much worse than normal at 6-8 thus far against the marlins, which ties in with them not running away with anything. Its keeping the Mets afloat. I just hope the Mets can muster the power to really take it to the Marlins at 16 games under 500.
Megill was due for some bumps, and he actually showed me something in recovering from the first four batters scoring to give the team some desperately needed starter innings.
This one was (once gain) on the offense that is 29th in runs scored. I can’t get upset at Rojas going with a red hot Drury with bases loaded late as opposed to an ice cold Conforto to get the lefty/righty match up. I’m not sure the last time a team with a bottom two offense won the division, let alone make the playoffs. It may be the 1973 Mets, but right now the 2021 Mets don’t have the rotation of the 1973 Mets.
I’m glad you brought that up, TJ. The right move was to bring up Conforto, regardless of how hot Drury has been. The move would show Conforto he is still a major piece of the team, and would assure the team that it takes all of them to win games at crucial times.
I’m sorry to say, his sticking with Drury was what a weak manager does… going with a hot hand, mostly to avoid criticism from his detractors… but that is fantasy, Mr. ML Manager… there is no avoiding criticism. We would have screamed just as loudly if Conforto bounced weakly to second or struck out on a back-foot slider.
Given the close choice it really was, I would have gone with Conforto… but not the worst move that Rojas can make. But it might have given Conforto the spark that he desperately needs.
Mets in deep trouble. Who is their leader on the field? No one… Javy Baez… not even a week in uniform?
A weak manager goes with the hot hand? I’m not sure how to reconcile that comment with your next paragraph where you say it was a close choice. I would have done the same as Rojas and stuck with the guy who has been on fire. There are some, like you who would have preferred the platoon match up and that’s fine, but to say that a weak manager goes with the hot hand is something I just don’t get and seems like you are just looking to once again bash Rojas in hindsight.
Wobbit,
Like many baseball moves, Conforto/Drury in that spot is debatable. However, like BobP I can’t agree that it is a sign of a weak manager. Had Rojas batted Conforto, and he failed, there would be a chorus of folks (maybe not you) saying the manager is a robot and does nothing, the stat nerds decide everything, the manager has no feel for the pulse of the game, blah, blah, blah.
A few more “game pulse” specifics – Conforto is ice cold, mentally lost per his manager, and not in the game. Drury is white hot, in the game, and already had an extra base hit with an exit velo of 100+ (albeit off the starter). In that at bat, Drury got behind but had some good swings. He barreled up the ball in play, which had an exit velo of 104 and an expected batting average of .580. He just happened to drill it to the short stop. That’s baseball.
Conforto is clearly the better player, and I certainly get that a hit in that spot could well spark him out of his funk, but I liked Drury as the better option there. Nonetheless, with 3 runs a 1-10 RISP, that AB was not the only chance they had to score some runs.