It was the opposite of pretty but the Mets won two games in extra innings on Saturday, sweeping a doubleheader from the Cubs in Chicago, a place where they haven’t fared particularly well the past half dozen years or so.
Pete Alonso came up big in extra innings in both games. He hit a sacrifice fly in the first game and he had a bases-loaded hit by pitch in the nightcap. Yeah, not the way you envision Alonso driving in runs. But with 3 RBIs between the two games, Alonso now holds the Mets’ all-time record for runs driven in by the All-Star break with 77.
The starting pitching for the Mets was great. Taijuan Walker allowed just one run in six innings in the opening game and Max Scherzer went 6.1 IP with 2 ER and 11 Ks. And the relief pitching was even better. In 8.2 innings, the bullpen allowed just one unearned run, the zombie runner who started the 10th inning of game two. And that was Yoan Lopez, pitching in his second inning.
The defense was pretty good in both games, too. J.D. Davis came on after Dominic Smith rolled his ankle in extra innings of the first game. And he made a fantastic stretch and catch of a ball to end the game. Alonso made a couple of nice plays in the nightcap, catching a ball that seemed destined to drop for a hit in shallow right field and also making a nice play on a low throw to end the second game on a terrific double play started by Eduardo Escobar.
The Mets used all of their top relievers to nail down the first game, which left them relying on Lopez, called up as the 27th man, to finish the second game. It made you wonder why neither Tommy Hunter nor Joely Rodriguez was called upon. By the time you’re reading this, Buck Showalter may have explained why. If they’re injured, the Mets need to put them on the IL and get someone who’s available to pitch Sunday.
Finally, the home plate umpires were lousy. Cubs manager David Ross was ejected in the first game and nearly got ejected in the second one, too. And several calls went against the Mets, too. Even Gary Cohen, who rarely criticizes the umps, was talking about how there were more missed calls than normal.
Gary Cohen also told us that report cards for each umpire are made public the next day by MLB, I found that to be quite interesting.
At first I also questioned Showalter’s bullpen usage, then I remembered that Peterson is starting tomorrow and none of the pitchers that pitched today will be stressed by coming back tomorrow, so he needed to save some bullets and wear out the kid going back to the minors. It worked out and even Cohen and Darling concluded the telecast by saying the Mets stole the second game. Pretty interesting conclusion when they went into the bottom of the tenth inning up two runs. However, the first run was a HBP by Alonso who missed two meatballs with the bases juiced and got bailed out by that HBP, and the second run compliments of a crappy pick off throw with two outs.
Did anyone detect an Escobar pulse? Just as the bear is awakening… the all-star break.
Peterson will go six innings tomorrow if it takes him 120 pitches and 100 earned runs to get there.
I’d be shocked if MLB released anything about how they graded umpires.
My guess is that Cohen is referring to @umpscorecards – a report on Twitter generated by a college student for each home plate ump the following game. Chris Dial wrote an article about this in May of 2021 which you can see at the following link:
Here’s the report for G1
https://twitter.com/UmpScorecards/status/1548676802582822912/photo/1
Buck did say in his remarks that he needed to save any other pitchers for Sunday’s start by Peterson so Lopez was it, win or lose. Interesting bigger picture approach to a long season. Seems though we have evolved into pitchers that are too fragile. Check out Goose Gossage use and the times he multiple innings or 5-6 batter saves regularly. Best comment was that good teams win these types of games. Last year we likely would have lost both. It would have been a fun season if the Braves had had a normal June and not a record pace to jump back into the race. After all these years we deserved another 1986 massive lead. Welcome to 2022 where we are having a great season and will have to her fight it out. Sac fly, HBP, miscues by the other team, great D my us – I’ll take it all. Can’t wait for Jake to join the rotation. Hoping Escobar is coming out of his funk. Hard to keep Luis off the field as he and Lindor make such an awesome DP combo. Would love the bats to explode today and put an exclamation point on a sweep. LGM
Gut reaction: Sweep of a double header! Another Series win! Increasing their first place lead! Increasing their winning streak to four! Life is good!
Alonso is a RBI machine.
Walker is thier #2 pitcher, just like last year’s first half.
Scherzer was in Max Mode.
Holderman in is getting more impressive and impressive in each appearance.
The Mets defense is very good.
Showalter is unflappable. Always in control.
Good teams win these types of games and they don’t take for granted a poor team. Just remember last year in Pittsburgh. Chicago is a poor team.
The Mets are a very good team. Let’s sweep the series! LGM