With MLB-quality defense, the Mets would have had the chance to win the game, 1-0. Instead, two balls fell to the ground that should have been caught and the Phillies won, 5-1, in the opening game of three in Philadelphia Friday night.
The leadoff batter hit a pop to shallow center field. Brandon Nimmo plays a deep center field and had a long way to go to get to the ball. Infielders Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil were holding one another – honestly – to keep them from colliding with Nimmo. But Nimmo had the ball pop out of his glove, the runner reached base and eventually two unearned runs scored.
Nimmo later hit a solo homer to make it a 2-1 game.
Senga needed 28 pitches to get out of the first inning. But he threw just 59 over the next four innings. But he was pulled in the sixth inning with two runners on base. Reliever Josh Walker got a popup to shallow left that looked like a fairly routine play for Lindor. But he bailed at the last second and Tommy Pham was in no position to make the play.
It was ruled a hit, which made the runs scored that inning earned. But if that ball is caught, which it absolutely should have been, no runs would have scored.
The Mets managed just three hits in the game, with a double by Pete Alonso and a single by Lindor in addition to Nimmo’s blast. As you might imagine, there weren’t many scoring chances for the Mets. But McNeil came up twice with runners in scoring position and hit weak ground balls both times. Overall, the Mets were 0-6 with RISP.
During the game it was announced that the Mets traded Eduardo Escobar to the Angels for two pitchers in Double-A.
Gut Reaction : Shoddy defense in this game sabotaged Senga in the first inning which drove up his pitch count and he was pulled at 102 pitches. It is a sorry state when an important division game is played and you have to rely on a rookie, Walker, to bail you out. Walker may be good, or not, but that was a tough situation for a raw rookie.
Oddly enough, last night on cable they were showing the original Bad News Bears. That’s how the Mets have been looking in the field lately. I get having an off year at the plate but last year the defense was solid and this year it’s a surprise from game to game. And we have a way to make marginal pitchers like Walker look like Cy Young candidates because we are also not hitting. We didn’t even really threaten to win this game and then the wheels fell off after Senga left and we don’t have the ability to come back from a deficit. Last year it seemed that we could win any game we played. Somethings gotta give. Hard to believe we are only 6 games under .500. Social media is comparing this year to 1962. There is still time to turn the season around but it would be nice to have a sign. And my favorite punching bag, Vogelbach, took another o-fer, but so did the 4 batters after him in the order. We have a team BA of .241 and an on base % of .321. That’s no way to win games. Max to the rescue at 4:05 today on Fox.
This team has left the building. The veterans except for a couple are basically wildly underperforming at the plate, and almost as bad look like they’ve never caught or thrown a baseball in their lives. Specifically, it’s just hard to imagine that the rotation somehow gets some magic beans and Verlander and Scherzer are who we imagined they would be from their past. And you can see the strain in each outing. The fact is they cannot find the edge of the strike zone and when they have to throw strikes people hit them miles. Any batter would just be served letting them throw balls, get into hitters counts, then rake — and of course thats exactly what weve witnessed. Senga is a on-off starter that is suited for throw or fourth in the rotation; after that there is nothing. Putting money on Lucchesi is like flying into Vegas and thinking you’re gonna break a casino. The team cannot turn around with this pitching staff. And blame the pen all you want, but they’ve been overworked, as Ive said for months, and so it’s hardly a surprise not to mention Diaz. As for Diaz, I’d eliminate the WBC or put in every contract that choosing to play in the WBC will give the team exclusive rights to void in full any part of an in place contract. It’s a stupid worthless exercise no one gives a crap about. The second its over no one remembers its happened. MLB pretending its something like the World Cup in football is pure insanity.
Everyone is to blame for this mess. But I place most of the blame on players not earning their contracts and Eppler for assembling this ramshackle, over-the-hill, hanging on a dream group of unloveable losers. They are an embarrassment and pure agony to watch whatever game it is they think they are playing out there.
“This team has left the building”…and they were singing “Heartbreak Hotel”. Maybe they will change their tune when Eppler start singing “All Shook Up”!