Mets

[Amazin69]

10 games without Edlose start off well, even though Shawn Reed-Garrett or whoever finished did his best to scare the frip out of us.

And even though the Aged Starling Marte needs a rest cure. Gives us a chance to see Ben "The Camel" Gamel in Mets colors. Yay?

Still, the Queens Qrushers showed that Bronx team how it's done. 4 bombs (Mr. Pointy, The Bronxville Kid and Vientos [dos]) give the Mets 17 taters in 7 games. Keep that up and maybe they'll get back to .500 soon. Like…tomorrow?

Huh, and here I though Ronnie was full of it when the Mets were 22-33 after the Dodger disaster and he was like "well, you just have to be 11 games over .500 in the next 55 games and then". Aside from my recoiling from the idea that utter mediocrity "merits" a playoff spot of any sort, I didn't think the team had it in them. Shows what I know. 16-6 since then, haven't lost a series.

("Vientos" apparently means "Winds" in Spanish, so we need to think of an appropriately Aeolian nickname for him. All I've got right now is "Blowhard", which seems unnecessarily mean.)

[Westheim]

The Mets having a sort of blowout going on in the middle innings and David Peterson failing to get the W because he's walked everything with legs and won't go five innings is the most David Peterson thing.

[Amazin69]

The Mets have now scored 39 runs in David Peterson's 5 starts, a comfy 7.8 runs per game. He is 3-0 with only two no-decisions, so he hasn't Petersoned too often…but I suppose it's best to be reminded that he does have that club in his bag.

[Amazin69]

You know it's going to be a significant rain delay when they deploy the hour-long Five Days in Flushing, rather than just various bite-sized Gelbs-hosted highlight packages (Amazing Finishes, etc.)

That said, it's always a good watch.

Always remember:

• while Wilmer was weeping in the field (and Bartolo was getting tattooed), Lucas Duda was becoming only the 2nd player in Mets history to hit 3 HR in a home game.

(Prior to 2015, there had been about a dozen 3-HR games in Mets history, from Kingman in LA to Gary Carter in San Diego to Reyes in Philadelphia, but always on the road. The first to do it had been Kirk Nieuwenhuis earlier that month, having returned from his travels [waived by the Mets, the Angels, and the Rangers before being re-signed], and Lindor has done it since, in 2021 against the Yankees.)

• The 2nd game, aka "The Justin Upton HR Game" or "God Cries for Wilmer Flores", saw the Mets blow a 7-1 lead, being the first time they had lost a game after having a 6-run (or greater) lead at home since August 26, 1970. This was not only the longest time without such a choke by any MLB team at that point, but had been for at least a decade.

(As you may recall, I can tell you about August 26, 1970, because I was a 7-year-old child at that game, fuming about Dad insisting we leave early to "beat the traffic" and leaving me to have to listen to the radio as Hank Aaron hit the game-winning 3-run HR off of Gary Gentry in the 9th, after Koosman, Frisella and Sadecki had turned 7-1 into 7-6 over the previous two innings.

That was career dinger #629 for Bad Henry, his 35th of the year. He then went into a slump [one day too late!] and hit only 3 more the rest of the season.

I just realized that I can't remember what car we had. A Dodge, maybe? I'm pretty sure the Volvo came a few years later. It's all a blur, these days.)

*********************************
As the rain started…

KEITH: It's going to be a short cel [rain cloud], so don't change the channel!
GARY: What are they going to change to, anyway?

Um, Gary, I know you've led a charmed life, but most people do watch things on TV that are not baseball games! Also, while you're correct in noting that there's no "Yankee game" for fans to flip to (as the Yanks are right here in Gushing Flushing), nowadays many viewers have non-NY MLB options, as well.

Just so you know.

[Amazin69]

I understand that Edlose Diaz is pretty much an elder statesman on this team. (Who preceded his 2019 arrival who's still here? Nimmo came up in 2016 and McNeil had a 2018 September cameo and that's it, right?) So it's understandable that his bullpen mates miss him and want to let him know they're with him during his suspension.

But there's a way to do that…and last night's "tribute act" wasn't it. EIGHT unanswered runs…are you kidding me?

(Yes, they're still 16-5 since that game they gave away against the Snakes. But come on.)

And au revoir Drew Smith. Come back next year, okay?

(Actually, Drew was up in 2018. Got into 27 games, research shows. He missed '19 with surgery. so I think of him as not being a permanent part of the team until COVID-ball, but he also preceded Edlose. That's three, then.)

ETA: Just realized that the bullpen blew a chance for the Mets to clinch a winning first half, which would be fairly remarkable, given the 10-25 skid that led to the famous player meeting. Could have been 41-39.

Now it's 40-40, with today's game either being thumbs up or thumbs down on the first half. Drama! (Eh.)

[Amazin69]

5 runs in the 11th, eh? Almost makes me glad I was watching the soccerball, even though Bellingham's last-second rescue of an extremely undeserving England side short-circuited my intensively-planned taunting. (I had Miz-themed gifs lined up!)

After all, even if I had been watching, I wouldn't watch Manfred's mutilated "extra innings", so I wouldn't even have gotten to suffer along with GKR. Best skipped.

I take it the bullpen is now accepting random volunteers, is that it? Good luck with that, then.

Bad news: 2022 All-Star Jorge Lopez is now with the Scrubs so we can't bring him back (as we did Tonkin, briefly). Best wishes to Jorge, and let's hope the fans at Wrigley are alert enough to duck flying gloves.

[Westheim]

I don't think yesterday's random volunteer will Festa on the roster too long...

I will miss Doctor Smith.

[Westheim]

Hey-hey, the Mets scored a sixer in the top of the 10th, and it even stood up for the W!

Barely.

[Amazin69]

Mets blow 2nd 5-run lead in 4 days, losing to a Washington squad that was on a 1-7 run.

Mets have blown 3 5-run leads, tied for most in MLB
Mets have blown 8 3-run leads, tied for most in MLB

Mets now have a 6.82 bullpen ERA since Edlose got caught being a dirty rotten cheater.

Call me a cynic, but this doesn't seem like championship-level ball. (No matter how many dingers the Queens Qrushers hit.)

[Westheim]

With DJ Stewart batting .183 in the #5 hole, we're one stupid injury away from John Mayberry jr. batting cleanup for the 2015 Mets...

[Westheim]

Thank the baseball gods for Jeff McNeil, the gift that keeps on giving, batting .212 or not, sparing us the shame of getting no-hit by the Gnats with a #9 hole single.

Yes, they lost in under two hours. 1-0 in 1:59 on a pinch-hit dinger by certified dingdong Jesse Winker.

[Amazin69]

Clearly the morning start did NOT agree with the Mets.

"10:30?? I'm not even done throwing up by then!" —Jim Pagliaroni objecting to an early time for batting practice, to accommodate the Pilots' hosting NBC Game of the Week with a 12:00 start, as reported in Ball Four.

Jesse "You Stinker!" Winker now has 6 home runs off of Adey Houser, R.P., which is three times what he has against any other pitcher. Yoicks. I bet Dave Martinez was in the Gnat dugout all "please put Houser in! Pretty please!" as he waited to deploy Winker.

Mets have now lost 4 out of 6, as they seem to be moving from Grimace to just plain grimacing. I'm (not) lovin' it.

[Amazin69]

Now that's the Severed Arm we know and "love".

(Yes, Ty Adcock gave up several of the dingers. But we can dump him with no regrets. Severe No is supposed to be better than this.)

5 losses in 7. The good news is that Edlose is due to come back. The bad news is that we now have confirmation that Timmy's much-trumpeted successes were due to Spider-Tac, and the umps will now be looking for it. Can Edlose keep cool if he has to keep things clean?

[Westheim]

The Pirates hit so many homers off the New York Wets that they ran out of home run fireworks. Which is really all you need to know about the game.

Gary Cohen, when it was all still fun and games: “…and that will make it 86 games this year in which the Mets have not pitched a shutout.”

Gary (while showing the older gentleman in the red velvet suit with flowing blond/graying hair and handlebar moustache): “… the Pirates have been around for 130 years…”
Me: “Him too.”

Gary (about Severino): “He has never given up four [dingers] in a game.”
Me: “Please don’t tease him…”

[Amazin69]

Your 2024 Mets so far

0-5
12-3 (cumulative 12-8)
10-25 (cumulative 22-33)
split four with the Snakes (24-35)
16-4 (cumulative 40-39)
2-5 (cumulative 42-44)

"Uppers and downers, either way blood flows!" —The Who, "5:15"

[Westheim]

If Tumpane keeps calling strikes like that, Buccos' gonna make him walk the plank.

[Westheim]

Fun Fact: Boom-Boom Diaz has a $21.5M deal for '25, then two $18.5M player options for 2026-27. The Mets can only get rid of him for a $1M buyout in 2028.

[Amazin69]

I realize that Peterson was Petersonning again (87 pitches through 4.1 innings) and he'd just given up the dinger…but the bases were empty (unless he then walked a guy; I was watching the soccerball) and it seems you could have probably gotten him through 6, or at least finished the 5th. You're gonna run out of bullpen guys if you keep this up, Carlos. Just saying.

[Westheim]

Cruz homered on a meatball in the fourth, and Peterson struck out Cutch before giving up a clean single to Reynolds with one gone in the bottom 5th, then got the hook immediately.

I mean... defensible move, since the Mets held on and won, but, yeah, it would be nice if the Mets starters wouldn't toss 20 pitches per inning, which has been a team-wide malady this year.

[Westheim]

I don't know, but somehow I get the impression that Keith Hernandez doesn't like furries...