After playing a bunch of blowout-type games recently, the Mets played a nail-biter on Tuesday, falling to the Braves, 3-2, to even the series at a game apiece.
Tylor Megill started and allowed 3 ER in 4.2 IP, which is a 5.79 ERA. And he was incredibly fortunate to give up just the three runs. The Braves hit 19 balls fair and 10 of them had an exit velocity of 95 or greater, which is what they consider a hard-hit ball. He was throwing batting practice up there. Some will try to spin this as a good outing. It wasn’t. The most positive thing you can say is that he got lucky.
Meanwhile, the Mets got pitches to hit but couldn’t do much with their chances. They finally broke thru in the sixth inning, when Francisco Lindor led off with a double and scored on a Daniel Vogelbach home run, which made it a 3-2 game.
The Mets had another chance in the ninth inning, when Vogelbach led off with a walk and DJ Stewart followed with a single. But Francisco Alvarez hit a ball hard that Austin Riley turned into a double play and Jonathan Arauz grounded out to end the game.
Jeff McNeil had a two-hit game and perhaps should have gotten another hit, as he was called out on a very close play at first base, one the Mets did not challenge. And it was before the Vogelbach homer, too. Vogelbach had two walks and a homer, upping his season-long OPS to .731, a jump of 92 points since he returned from his 10-day break back in mid-June.
Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso were a combined 0-7.
The bullpen did a very nice job, with 3.1 scoreless innings, with lefty sidearmer Adam Kolarek providing two shutout frames. The series concludes Wednesday night, with a 7:20 p.m start.
Gary and Keith made sure to tell us half a dozen times what a great game this was… whatever. After Alonso got drilled, why didn’t one of theirs get drilled? I now realize why such a genius as Buck Showalter was fired so many time and why he is the wrong person for the job. He will never have the intestinal fortitude to promote fire into his team.
Seems the guys in the radio were saying how hard Megill was throwing tonight. Seems the results spoke otherwise, but, I still believe in the guy. Something is going on because this kid was much better than he is now. I wonder if he is completely healthy.
Yes, I thought mentioning about how “great” the game was multiple times was odd, too. Another thing that stands out to me is how Keith talks daily about where they are in the playoff chase. I don’t know any Mets fan who thinks in terms of playoffs right now. Besides, it all comes down to what Buck has been saying for months now – play better.
It was a game that could have been won with some timely hits against their relievers. Where has Vogelbach been most of the season? A chance for a series win with the Q man on the bump. Still 9 games under .500 and they’ve lost almost as many as they did last year with 35 games to go.
The standard lines for Megill, Peterson, and Carrasco are eerily similar – under 5 innings pitched, approaching 100 pitches, and approaching a WHIP of 2.00. Both Megill and Peterson have pitched poorly when sent to Syracuse to get things right. Cookie will be gone. The 2024 payroll is already over the tax threshold.
Gut Reaction: it was an exciting game to watch. Both teams had opportunities. The bullpen was exceptional again.
McNeil and Lindor continued their hitting streaks. McNeill continues to rejuvenate his lost season. Is it good enough?
The game within the game pitted Vogelbach and Stewart. Vogelbach is the reigning left-handed starting DH and Stewart wants to take his job for 2024. Both have risen to the challenge.
It would be nice to win the series today. Quintana gives them a chance. LGM
Alvarez has been surprisingly good defensively, but he needs to improve his blocking of errant pitches. When Megill had his stretch of wild pitches, you’d think Alvarez could have kept at least one in front of him, could have meant a saved run.
I have to disagree here. Alvarez had his body in front of all of those errant Megill pitches. It’s just that the pitches were so bad that once they hit Alvarez’ body, they bounced away. Now, if the ball was going thru his legs or if he wasn’t moving to try to block the balls, I would criticize him. But that simply wasn’t the case with Megill’s 4 Wild Pitches. What kind of non-knuckleball pitcher throws 4 Wild Pitcher in 4.2 IP?!? If someone should be criticized here, well, it’s not the catcher.
Edit: And all three runs scored on homers so even if Alvarez had been better than the greatest defensive catcher ever, it wouldn’t have made a difference.
I agree Brian. I think as a whole, Alvarez’ blocking has been laudable. I dare say among the best we’ve see in a long time. There’s just so much a catcher can be expected to manage. All 4 were scored as WP (interestingly, on radio, Howie mentioned this was the first time ever for a Met pitcher to throw 4 WP in a game), no passed balls.
I still cringe with Alvarez’ innate desire to throw to 1B behind runners. Id like to see him focus more on throwing better to 2B.
Overall, Alvarez’ defense is “plus” to me.