Gary Cohen got to the park and realized he forgot his scorecard. The Mets got to Citi Field and apparently forgot their bats, as they managed just five hits and fell to the lowly Nationals, 5-0, Tuesday night at Citi Field.
The Mets generally looked inept and struck out a season-high 13 times. The ABs could only be described as pitiful. They had just one legitimate scoring shot, which came in the fifth inning. Brandon Nimmo drew a two-out walk to load the bases. But Starling Marte struck out to end the threat.
As bad as that was, it was even uglier in the top of the sixth inning. Luis Guillorme broke the wrong way on a sure double-play ball and instead of being in the dugout, the Nats were batting with runners on the corners. They ended up scoring three runs in the inning, taking a close 2-0 game to an insurmountable five-run lead.
There were two non-baseball things that kept the game from being a complete downer. One, Steve Gelbs announced that he would be covering the NFL Draft on Thursday, meaning we won’t have to cut away from the game to hear his updates. And the other was that the team debuted the redesigned New York Presbyterian patches on the jersey sleeve. Instead of the giant mass of white, the patch has shrunk considerably and now is a field of blue. Smaller – though still weird looking with a rectangular shape – and more Mets colors.
It was the only win of the night.
Gut Reaction: if Butto aspire to be a starting pitcher in the major leagues he has to improve his control. Six walks in 4.2 innings, 9.3 BB/9, 1.98 WHIP is unacceptable.
Billboard advertising on a baseball uniform is gaudy and greedy. A baseball player is not a racing car.
Six walks by Butto was not helpful but I still had hope when he got out of that one inning with lots of Nats on base. Josiah Gray is no Cy Young award winner but he pitched like one. Despite winning just his first game of the season he boasts an era under 3 and we know he generally does not get much run support from the hapless Nats. Part of the problem is trotting out your 8th best starter to pitch in a MLB game, the other part is that we left our bats in San Francisco. Guillerme has been as disappointing this season in the field as he is at bat. If Mauricio can make a quick transition to play 2nd base, Luis might find a ticket to Syracuse in his locker. Nice to see Baty get a knock and always thrilled when Alvarez gets a hit. Still not happy with Vogelbach and would rather have Baty play DH instead. At least if he hits what looks like a double, he will make it to second and not just chug down to first and be out of breath. We are seeing why they only pay him about twice the MLB minimum salary and if he does not pick up his game, I think he will be released by the end of May. Looking to get back on track with Senga tonight. So are the Mets doing something nice by giving a shout out to the hospital or do they get paid to do so? I think those patches are tacky as well.
Playing Guillorme — an offensive black hole — over Escobar is a mistake, IMO. When Escobar came to Mets, he had positional flexibility. Now we’ve put him in a box where he can’t help the team.
This homestand had me worried to begin with, and last night didn’t ease my concerns.
The pitching is in a shambles. Really hurting right now. A dominant game from Senga would be a big help.
Marte not productive at all. I wonder about his health.
Their bats fell totally asleep. Hopefully much better hitting tonight.
Sidenote: Looking at team stats, Dodgers are 1st in NL in Runs and second to last in BA.
(I still like BA, but, yeah.)