It’s tough to hit three homers in a game and lose. It’s especially tough to do it in back-to-back games. But that’s the type of luck the Mets have these days, as they lost to the Guardians, 6-3. The loss means the Mets got swept and leaves the team licking its wounds after a 2-6 road trip.
The game started off great. Pete Alonso homered in the first inning to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Jeff McNeil doubled the lead with his homer in the second. And Harrison Bader made it 3-0 with his solo shot in the fourth. But that was it for the offense, which went 0-8 with RISP in the game.
Jose Quintana got the start and he faced the minimum of 15 batters thru five innings, thanks to two double play balls. But he allowed a 3-run homer in the sixth and was not allowed to pitch the seventh, despite a pitch count that sat at 70.
And the reliable relievers got roughed up, as Reed Garrett allowed a run in the seventh inning and Adam Ottavino surrendered two more in the eighth.
Francisco Lindor had his third two-hit game in the past four contests, and both of his hits were doubles. Mark Vientos went 1-3 with a double and a walk. Omar Narvaez took the collar and now has a dismal .373 OPS. While we contemplate various moves to improve the roster, releasing Narvaez should be one of those.
June came early this year. What else is there to say.
Luckily I had to work and missed yet another disappointment. The offense was more or less missing for two of the three games, and the pitching didn’t cut it for all three. Not good.
Boom boom nailed it. They are a bad week from discussions as sellers. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
To end on a positive note, Mr. Vientos is doing his best to make it hard punch his ticket back to Syracuse.
Gut Reaction: Alonso has woke up. McNeil maybe getting woken up. Lindor is waking up. Bader had done up he was signed for, that is, above average defense with a slight below average offense. Vientos has been an average offense player and has earned the starting position job. All are positives but yet they lose. Now it is the pitching. The bullpen hasn’t been as effective. A .500 season is slipping away.
Another disappointing loss. Now it’s Giants, Dodgers and DBacks. This has a chance to be horribly ugly. Which Christian Scott do we get tomorrow? Keep the faith. ♂️
It’s very interesting that you omitted the name of the player that Quintana gave up the three run homerun to, lefty swinging Andres Gimenez. I know there must be 20/20 hindsight going on tonight, but it’s reality and we should not avoid it. Knowing what I know now, in 2022 I would make that trade again.
You seem to place a lot of significance on player names for the opponents being omitted in the Gut Reactions. This is a conscious decision on my part not to include those. If you go back and read the 40-something GRs I’ve written this year, you’ll find the overwhelming majority of them do not have an opponent’s name in them. For example, the last 5 GRs do not have an opponent’s name. There have been a few mentioned and my guess is that there might be some mentioned in the future. But for your edification, there’s no significance to be gleaned by an opponent’s name not being included.