Shortly before scheduled game time, news came out that the Mets and Rangers were finalizing a trade for Max Scherzer. The game with the last-place Nationals seemed to be a distant second in importance. And an 80-minute rain delay didn’t help any. And to top it all off, Carlos Carrasco once again didn’t make it out of the third inning. When all was said and done, Scherzer was gone and the Mets lost, 11-6, Saturday night at Citi Field.
It wasn’t the gopher ball that did in Carrasco this time. Instead, it was shoddy defense and soft hits. Still, 8 R, 6 ER in 2.1 IP is no way to keep your job. It seems like David Peterson will replace Scherzer in the rotation. Maybe they can have Joey Lucchesi replace Carrasco. Just don’t let it be Tylor Megill. This season has already been painful enough.
Of course, this was the game that the Mets’ offense showed up. They produced four HR in the game one each by Tommy Pham, Francisco Lindor, Francisco Alvarez and Mark Vientos. Pham had two hits on the night, which will hopefully be the deciding factor on some team pulling the trigger for him. Vientos also had a double, which hopefully will earn him more time at DH.
The Mets’ relievers did a nice job until the ninth inning, when Grant Hartwig gave up three runs. It will be curious to see how Buck Showalter runs his pen now, with only two reliable relievers and perhaps less urgency to get every win possible. Will we see Drew Smith close games? On one hand, that’s a crazy thought. On the other hand, there’s no better time to try weird stuff than the remainder of the season. Shoot, let’s see if Brett Baty can play 2B while we’re at it, too.
Cookie certainly crumbled. The pen did well until the last inning. The baby Mets went back to back and we are paying Texas $35.5 to take Scherzer off our hands. What a country. Makes no sense not to deal off the rest of the expiring contracts and accumulate prospects. No, they won’t, for the most part, make it to your majors, but they also acquire talent trading prospects and if you don’t have any, you don’t make trades.