Sometimes the gods throw you a bone.
On the night that my daughter had her Senior Awards Ceremony, the Mets for some inexplicable reason gave Adrian Houser another start. Houser proceeded to give up 6 ER in 5 IP and I didn’t have to watch. Yay me! Sorry for those of you who saw the Mets lose to the Guardians, 7-6, Tuesday in Cleveland.
This loss wasn’t on the hitters, as they combined for 11 hits and six runs. It wasn’t on the pen, which had a solid 1 ER in 3 IP. It was on whoever made the decision to start Houser and keep him in as long as they did. Maybe Houser was forced on Carlos Mendoza from above. Even if that’s the case, it’s likely Mendoza who sent him out for the fifth and then the sixth inning.
Houser now has a 7.88 ERA overall and an 8.55 ERA as a starter.
On the plus side, Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil and Mark Vientos each had two-hit games, with the latter two, along with Starling Marte, delivering home runs. Vientos is now slashing .360/.407/.720 in 27 PA. He should be the starting 3B, regardless of which hand the opposing pitcher uses to throw.
Yet it seems like we’re destined to see more Houser and more Brett Baty, despite all evidence to the contrary of that being a good plan.
Congrats on the senior awards and for not seeing the game. The Mets hit the ball up and down the lineup and the pen was pretty good give or take a pitch or two. Did Mendoza see something that would indicate that pitching Houser was remotely a good idea? It was fun seeing the long ball and the feel that they could quickly get back into a game. Speaking of the other Mendoza, Lindor is threatening to go above it.
Before the series, I looked at the Guardians’ batting averages and OPS, and wondered how they can be 30-17. I figured it had to be the schedule, maybe their pitchers don’t walk the ballpark, and maybe they actual hit with men in scoring position. Well, while Cleveland may be better than their parts, the Mets are easily worse than their parts. I understand that Mendoza messed up some stuff: pitching to Ozuna with first base open often gets brought up, and taking forever to change a lineup that obviously needed it was another.
Now, it’s pitching a pitcher that lost his stuff. I get the logic: for seven years this guy was a 4.00 ERA pitcher for Milwaukee, and putting him up against the offensively challenged Guardians should help his cause. Nope. If Stearns was hoping to flip him for a cheeseburger, he can forget that now. Sometimes, you need to stop throwing good money after bad. Ditto with Baty. Stearns said 45 games is the minimum he waits to make any changes. It’s been 48. Give Vientos a shot. Send Baty down to figure out how to hit fly balls consistently. Even his double the other day was a ground ball down the line and his single before that was a ground ball up the middle.
McNeil hit a HR? Wow. Marte too? Wow! And, they lost? Wow.
I mostly watched the Syracuse game against a good Yankees AAA team – Butto 6 scoreless, homers by Bannon and Luke Ritter. Syracuse wins easy 12-1. Bring Butto and the Syracuse hitting coach to Flushing.
That should be it for Houser. Butto needs to return. So far, the Mets are showing all the fall and of a bad team…when the offense is good, the pitching is slightly worse. When the pitching is good, the offense is slightly worse.
I agree on the Hoysers and Batys, but at what point do we start to worry about Lindor?
My opinion is that you make the easy fixes first and worry about the big fixes later.
The Athletic had a chart the other day about how the first two months of the year have always been the worst for Lindor since he joined the Mets. At least he’s had two-hit games in two of the last three. It’s not much but you’ve got to start somewhere.