Edwin Diaz gave up a grand slam homer for another demoralizing loss, as the Mets fell to the Diamondback, 8-5, Wednesday night in Phoenix. It’s the second straight appearance for Diaz where his gopher ball turned a win into a loss.
With Dedniel Nunez seemingly unavailable, the Mets turned to Phil Maton to start the eighth inning. He promptly walked the leadoff hitter but retired the next two batters. And with Luis Guillorme due up, Carlos Mendoza brought Diaz in for a four-out save.
Entering tonight, Diaz had a .422 OPS versus RHB and an .859 OPS versus LHB. And the first four hitters due up for Arizona were lefties. Diaz walked the first two to load the bases and then served up the gopher ball to the third lefty.
And it looked like this was going to be an inspiring win for the Mets. After four innings, they were down by four runs and had gone 12 batters without anyone reaching base. But Brandon Nimmo walked and scored on J.D. Martinez’ double. Francisco Alvarez had an RBI single to drive home Martinez and Harrison Bader tied the game with a homer to left.
The next inning, Starling Marte had a bunt single, stole second base, advanced to third on a grounder to the right side and scored on a sac fly. He should have been out at the plate but the catcher made no effort to tag him, instead just placing his glove in front of the plate. Marte made a nice slide to avoid the glove and score the go-ahead run.
Luis Severino started and put the Mets in an early hole, as he continued to be unimpressive in games against teams other than the Marlins and Nationals. His final line was 4.2 IP and 4 ER and 100 pitches. Severino had 9 Ks but also 2 HR allowed – not a tradeoff worth making.
But the Mets’ pen did a nice job, as the first four relievers did not allow a hit in a combined 3 IP until Diaz served up his seventh homer in 37.2 IP.
Inexcusable.
While Mendoza does a good job of managing the hitters, he is completely out of touch on dealing with pitchers. I have defended him and believed in him, but tonight was inexcusable. Why is Maton coming out after getting two guys out? Why in the world does he need to bend over backwards to “fix” Diaz? He is making $21MM and does not need coddling. I’ll get to that baby in a minute. Mendoza would do himself a favor this off season and study Bochy, Snitker, Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and other very successful managers. These guys do not baby their players and hold them accountable. They believe is what they are seeing and not what they think they should be seeing.
As for Diaz: the softest closer in the history of the game. The guy throws 100 and is afraid to throw it and trusts his helicopter slider that comes in at 89 more. Carroll didn’t even care about the first pitch fastball. He was waiting for the idiot to hang his slider and Diaz was more than willing to comply. He comes in and either loses his release point or I don’t know what, but after walking two guys and Hefner goes to the mound, what did they say? He goes up 0-1 and doesn’t follow up with another fastball on the lower edge, but rather has completely fallen in love with a slider that isn’t biting right now.
As for Nunez, supposedly he had forearm stiffness. As for Mendoza, grow up Carlos. Enough of this kindergarten mentality and babying these grown men. If someone is doing the job, why do you remove them for political purposes? Diaz wasn’t needed, Mendoza wanted to make him feel needed. Children.
I have been an admirer of Diaz and the resolve he showed in overcoming his disastrous first season in NY to dominate and endear himself to the fan base. That stated, his 2024 season has been a train wreck, and he is among the top reasons that the Mets are on the cusp of playing exhibition games in September.
On the tails of what could be a season ending loss, it’s easy to be pessimistic. But, the 2924 pen has been terrible, their star has been terrible, and basically every promising young arm that could possibly help in 2025 and possibly be part of the 2025 pen has been terrible. Regardless of whether the Mets fizzle or rally from here on out in 2024, this is where things objectively stand.
So my wife asks “ why can’t relief pitchers pitch more innings – one inning seems so inadequate.” Really had no answer for that and even a Google search was not helpful in offering a good explanation. A little over a month ago they sat atop the WC standings and now they are sinking quickly. It does not help that the Braves, despite their injuries, have rattled off 9 wins in 11 games to open a four game lead for the last spot. We might just trace this inability to move forward on not being more aggressive at the deadline. Vientos, Nimmo, Alonso, Iglesias all take an O-for. That’s no way to compete and this point in the season. Don’t know what to make of Diaz and agree that Mendoza’s use of his pitching staff is sometimes bizarre. They are a better team than last year, and the seasons not over yet, but it’s also a lot later than it seems and they still struggle against teams they should beat. Time to move onto year 5 of Cohen’s 3-5 year plan. Can’t wait to see how they do in the free agent market.
Gut Reaction: Diaz didn’t get the job done. Plain and simple. Issued walks have been a problem this year. Mendoza set up the team to win this game. Bader started in tied it with a homerun. Marte speed in the three position paid off with the go ahead run and a slumping Alvarez started delivered a RBI single. Even his bullpen decision were spot on. Diaz didn’t get the job done.
Well, there was the bullpen decision to bring on Diaz for a four-out save when the next four batters were lefties. Can’t say that one was spot on.
You are right. Diaz in the eighth was a bad decision because of your stated reasons. Even using in ninth under these circumstances with the lefties batting would be foolish. If not Diaz then who? Mendoza and Hefner needs to figure that out. I would use Nunez (but he wasn’t available?)
What I could never understand is why managers take out relievers who are getting the job done and bring in someone “cold”; who may or may not get the job done. Sure, there may be cases where you would go for “favorable” match ups; but as we saw last night, managers can’t seem to comprehend what are the favorable match ups.
All I’m (saying) is that if you bring a reliever in the 6th inning, and he does the job….perhaps allowing a BB or a hit, then why not have him throw another inning/20 pitches? He won’t be available anyways for the next game. I’d like to see a lefty 1 inning closer, and a righty 1 inning closer for my bullpen. The other five or six bodies should be able to pitch more then one inning at a time at least twice a week. Right now, the Mets don’t have a closer, and that is why the 2024 season has been wasted.
When you spend $100 million for a closer, you’re not willingly going to have him share the job with someone else. The Mets made their bed with Diaz and now they have to lie in it.