After five days of good offense, the hitters took the day off Sunday and the result was a 2-1 loss to the Pirates in the rubber game of the series in Pittsburgh.
Carlos Carrasco got the start and while he wasn’t exceptionally sharp, he was getting the job done. In the fifth inning Buck Showalter came to a fork in the road. Carrasco had a low pitch count but there were two runners on base and a lefty batter coming up who had gone 2-or-2 against Carrasco in the game, with a homer. Showalter went to the pen and brought on lefty Josh Walker who ended the threat.
It may look like another disappointing game for a Mets starter but this was a case where the manager made a very justifiable decision to go to his pen earlier than he absolutely had to. Again, this was not a great outing by Carrasco. But it wasn’t one where the starter buried his team early, either.
The pen gave 3.1 scoreless innings.
Meanwhile, the offense managed just three hits, one of them being a Jeff McNeil solo homer in the fourth inning for the team’s only run. Their third hit came in the ninth inning, when Tommy Pham hit a long double immediately following a tough 3-2 strike call against Francisco Lindor.
But Brett Baty and Mark Canha both flew out to strand Pham at second.
The baby Mets went a combined 0-9 with a walk.
Another lack of offense game leaves us heading in the wrong direction. The Baby Mets took an o-fer. The 9th inning pitch was too close for Lindor to take. Bring on the Yankees.
I think you have to be careful with the rookies. Its a tough deal to break into the Bigs, especially after opposing teams build a cheat sheet on each, and at a time when veterans are lagging way behind. Its a lot of unnecessary pressure for the kids.
This team is really at a cross roads between promoting and *playing* the kids full time and doubling down on “going for it” at the trade deadline. As things stand, its really hard to envision this team as legit going for it with a -23 run differential. Essentially their record and the expected record are in lockstep. There is no peripheral proof the team is playing better than their record (oh praise be Sandy Alderson). Aside from the NL being mostly a dumpster fire, there is little reason for genuine optimism for this year. It was an experiment in old people. It didnt work. I think its worth noting that when the Dodgers are dumping huge bucks its been on stars in their prime, unlike the Mets (aside from Lindor).
Baseball is a game of failure and my opinion is that we need to make no distinction between a veteran’s failure and a rookie’s failure.
Starling Marte has a .624 OPS thru the first two months of the season and few, if any, begrudge him getting more playing time. With that as the backdrop, I’m not going to lose my mind because Brett Baty has a .663 OPS in his first 164 PA in the majors.
The Mets’ disappointing play this season is overwhelmingly due to the under-performance of veterans. So why do we have to be careful with rookies?
I just mean be careful with expectations. I generally would not expect “baby Mets” to just overturn fortunes for the team. Hey if they do great, but we should accept what we get: mostly learning. But all things considered none of the promotions will fix the pen or rotation.
I’d say we are near the point to where you promote Mauricio ASAP given his ankle, then just play all the rookies full time and let fate run its course for 2023 — good bad or indifferent.
I’m in favor of playing the rookies who are an improvement over the veterans.
Clearly that means Alvarez. Maybe it’s Baty but I’m not going to complain if Escobar plays instead of him versus LHP. I want to see Vientos get a majority of the ABs while Alonso is sidelined.
Both Canha and Marte are showing some life right now. I’m not in a rush to promote a possibly injured Mauricio to take playing time away from them. That could easily change in a week.
FWIW – I agree completely with what you said earlier about Guillorme PH for Vientos.
Gut Reaction: you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Showalter must feel that way. If he leaves in Carrasco and Carrasco gives up a two-run single then it is 4-1. After all, it was only the fifth inning and 82 pitches. The Mets weakness is the length of the starting pitchers and the unreliability of the middle relievers. But this game the relief pitching was superb but the hitting was lacking. The Mets want to play the Baby Mets, even though Baty and Vientos are struggling whereas Escobar and Marte are hitting. If the veterans were in a game then maybe the game would have been a different result. I’m not criticizing. I’m just thinking about it. I realize when things are tough, sometimes you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Pinch hitting Guillorme for Vientos only to have Luis get called out on a pitch clock violation. Unacceptable to the max. If you don’t want vientos hitting in that situation, fine (although not really). But you had Escobar available who has been hot as a pinch hitter this season.
The only reason to use Groundout Guillorme as a pinch hitter would be if the dugout was on fire and everyone else but him ran into the clubhouse.