The Mets jumped out to a 5-2 lead but the bullpen allowed seven runs in three innings and they wound up 9-6 losers to the Reds Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati.
Each year it seems like there’s one pitcher that the offense shows up for and in the early going here in 2024, it appears that Luis Severino is that pitcher for the Mets. The team has scored 12 runs in Severino’s two starts. However, they lost both games. The first one was Severino’s fault, as he put the team in a big hole. This time out. Severino pitched much better, even if it took him 99 pitches to complete five innings.
Severino might have gone longer if he had received better defense. Tyrone Taylor fell down on a ball that he should have caught, that was ruled a double. And with the infield in, Jeff McNeil couldn’t make the play on a hard-hit ball, and this one was ruled an error. The Reds scored two runs in the inning and if Taylor doesn’t fall down, they don’t get any and Severino throws 19 fewer pitches in the second inning.
But despite the early 2-0 deficit, the Mets rallied back with a four-run fourth inning, with a two-run single by Omar Narvaez, followed by a two-run double by Brandon Nimmo. They added on another run in the fifth thanks to an RBI double by Taylor.
The Reds scored two runs in the sixth inning off Jake Diekman, with the second one being particularly exasperating. The Reds had runners on the corners and pulled off a double steal, with Narvaez throwing thru to second base on a play where he should have back picked the runner on third or just not thrown the ball to any base.
Yohan Ramirez restored order with a 1-2-3 seventh inning but got knocked around in the eighth, with the big blow being a 3-run homer.
Brett Baty drove in a run in the ninth inning with a single for the game’s final run.
One night after winning with just four hits, the Mets had 11 hits in this game but lost. Narvaez had a three-hit game, while Brett Baty, Starling Marte and Nimmo each had two hits. Hopefully the offense will repeat this performance on Sunday. And perhaps the bullpen and defense won’t be as bad next time out.
When the Mets cut Tully after three poor performances, it occurred to me that they might have been sending a message to the rest of the team, namely, that poor performances will not be tolerated. Too often in the past management was accused of the exact opposite. If my speculation is true, I wonder how long Diekman will be with the team, especially if his next outing is just as dismal. Lavender anyone?
Apologies, I meant Michael Tonkin as the pitcher who was put on waivers.
As every Mets fan, I wish Carlos Mendoza well. I wish he becomes a great manager. But, there will be growing pains and today was the first one. Steve Cohen says that he doesn’t want people learning on his dime, but he had no choice. He also wanted to try to buy a championship, but that didn’t work either. Thank you for trying Steve, but be patient.
Mendoza is not ready for prime time. First and third and two outs. Isn’t something tugging at your ear? Is your team prepared? How many times do we see the catcher standing in front of the plate giving signals in that situation? That was upsetting.
Then, Yohan Ramirez is a middle reliever, meaning the sixth and seventh, not a high leverage reliever, meaning the eighth and ninth. That was horrible. He pulled a Buck Showalter yesterday, pitching all his higher leverage guys for one inning each, and today he had fumes. I found that unforgivable. Totally unforgivable. I hope it never happens again, ever!
As for the Mets mental or physical errors, something is going on. The focus is just not there. The execution is defective. We covered yesterday’s mistakes yesterday, but after Joey Wendell made the same mistake last week, how does McNeil repeat it? Isn’t job 1 to secure the ball? As for Taylor losing the ball, well, that happens, unfortunately. Too bad the clutch hitting with the two out RBI hits by Narvaez and Nimmo went down the drain. It is said that two out RBI hits are more disheartening to the opposition than anything and the Mets scored their first five runs with two out hits. They had no business losing this game.
This game had all the makings of three in a row until it didn’t. Severino improved and kept us in the game. Narvaez’ blunder on throwing to second was unconscionable. Assume Ramirez will be gone soon. Going for the series win tomorrow – gotta keep the faith.
In the postgame report in the NYPost, there is a video of Mwnodoza saying that they knew the Reds like to double steal and that is their game. They knew that!!!!! Also, there’s a quote from Narvaez saying that as he was throwing, he thought that maybe he shouldn’t, but it was too late as he had already committed.
*Mendoza…
Never should have fired Buck. He would have sent a signal to Narvaez to watch the runner. He was a good in game manager with a ton of experience and a track record of preparing teams to win once he left. He just left too soon. If you blame him for 2023 than he should be greatly praised for 2022. Maybe Lindor and McNeil need a day on the bench to think about their lack of hitting. Maybe the hitting coach needs a one way train ticket out of town. It’s only 8 games but he’s not helping with corrections. I wonder if Astro fans are panicking with their 2-7 start.
The Mets wasted a week worth of offense in this game.