Asdrubal knew it was OUTTA HERE! OUTTA HERE! as soon as he hit it.
Eleven innings played. Twenty-seven home players used. Two-hundred fourteen home pitches thrown. Two-hundred sixty-three minutes consumed. Two arms raised skyward. One-hundred eighty emotional degrees traversed. And, in the final scene, the Three Amigos riding off into the sunrise, having rescued their team’s season yet again.
Their reward as midnight approached was that justice had been done.
Jose Reyes. Asdrubal Cabrera. Yoenis Cespedes. Their night. Their month. Their year. Our Amazin’ good fortune. Thursday they were aided and abetted here and there by a handful of their 24 accomplices, but when you got right down to it, it was they who lassoed a loss and giddy-upped it over and over until it galloped across home plate a glorious win.
The Mets reached base via hit, walk or error seventeen times. Bundled at the top of the order — a veritable penthouse suite crowning an otherwise ordinary off-ramp motel — they accounted for eleven of those appearances. They scored four and drove in seven of the nine Met runs, making almost all the difference in what became a 9-8 victory that obscured the frustration and heartbreak that defined the two previous evenings at Citi Field and made a person overlook everything that seemed to be going irredeemably wrong in those innings that they could not personally repair.
The Mets used 27 players? Who uses 27 players? No basket of deployables is that deep, yet Terry Collins kept dipping in until he became the first manager in the 55-year history of the franchise to deploy one Met for every out required in a normal nine-inning affair. Natch, this wasn’t a normal night, nor could it be confined to nine innings.
The opposing Philadelphia Phillies, another component of the schedule allegedly brought to you by Hostess Cupcakes, took a cue from the recently departed Atlanta Braves and refused to live down to their record or reputation. Their placement toward the rear of the National League East has apparently cultivated their ability to be a severe pain in the ass, demonstrated by their refusal to go quietly into this Met night. At various junctures, by various means, the Phillies took leads of 3-2, 6-4 and 8-6. If that’s what your division’s fourth-place team is capable of, then the club in second place must be something else.
They are. They’re the 2016 New York Mets, a Chumbawamba tribute band that gets knocked down but they get up again, you’re never gonna keep them down (as long as your name isn’t Ender Inciarte). These Mets led 2-0 on honorary amigo Curtis Granderson’s two-run homer in the second; tied it at three when Cespedes smartly singled the other way in the fifth; and took a 4-3 lead in the seventh when Yoenis cracked a double down the left field line. As long as Cespedes avoids hitting the ball merely an inch or two above the center field wall, he’ll be fine.
But Yoenis, contrary to stubborn rumor, can’t always lift the Mets all by himself. A one-run edge into the eighth is usually entrusted to Addison Reed for safe passage into the ninth. Reed’s been throwing a lot lately and has lifted the Mets plenty. On Thursday, however, he threw a pitch that became a three-run homer off the bat of Maikel Franco. It was stunning. Yet it was not decisive.
No, the decisive move of regulation Thursday night came in June when a decision was made to enlist the services of Jose Reyes. It wasn’t met with universal acclaim (really, it was closer to general disdain), but if more than lip service is to be paid to the concept of second chances, action had to pick up where words left off. Jose always could generate some action. He already had in this game, walking as prelude to scoring the go-ahead run on Cespedes’s double in the seventh. The ninth proved he was just getting started.
Brandon Nimmo opened the inning with a pinch-single off Phillie closer Jeanmar Gomez, the second night in a row Brandon entered late and delivered ASAP. Jay Bruce was called on to do something similar. Bruce, with three hits in his previous 39 at-bats, did not resoundingly answer the call in AB No. 40. In the category of surprises, his inability to come through in the clutch or even in the vicinity of the clutch ranked a close second to learning before the game that Steven Matz’s projected Friday night start was, in fact, a fantasy woven by Met magical thinking. We will not see Matz on Friday or probably at all the rest of this season. We didn’t really expect him to pitch, did we? Just as we didn’t really expect Bruce to do anything but strike out against Gomez, we just assumed we’d keep getting by with whoever else we have besides Matz.
We have 39 players on the active roster. Jacob deGrom is still one of them, but I assume that’s because we have 42 players on the disabled list. DeGrom, you’ll vaguely recall, was the projected starter on Sunday until the magical thinking made on his behalf dissolved into surgery required to repair an ulnar nerve. The Mets keep publicly stating pitchers who haven’t seen the mound since it was a molehill are suddenly feeling fine and ready to throw 50 or 75 competitive pitches in a pennant race. I applaud their optimism, but I seriously wish they’d keep it to themselves.
Willing bodies and reasonably able arms are in abundance in September. That’s how we come to have Gabriel Ynoa subbing for deGrom one start and Matz the next, how we came to have Seth Lugo attempting to withstand a Phillie barrage on Thursday. Seth was touched up on consecutive pitches to start the fifth, first by Unfrozen Caveman First Baseman Ryan Howard (his 128th or so homer versus the Mets in a career that dates back to The Clan of the Cave Bear), then by Cameron Rupp, who may or may not be the same person as Darin Ruf (I am being told he is not). Lugo only went five, which is fine as long as you have ample replacements.
Not a problem in September, particularly this September, when Collins is hosting an open house every night. After so many injuries and so much turnover, who can tell who belongs where anymore? The Thursday night lineup that was charged with maintaining a playoff position included T.J. Rivera batting cleanup, first baseman Eric Campbell hitting sixth, René Rivera catching, Alejandro De Aza in center and Lugo pitching. At this point, almost none of that looks remotely ridiculous. If you’d seen it in St. Lucie in March, you’d nod and ask if the Phillies are bringing any of their starters from Clearwater.
These guys and all the other guys are a part of this push, and pretty much all the other guys get to play, especially the pitchers. Lugo was succeeded by basically everybody who is described as a reliever. Some brought more relief than others. Reed couldn’t provide any for an uncomfortable change, but that will happen in a long season, just as if you play enough games and enough innings and enough guys, players you’d forgotten were there will get a big hit, as Nimmo did to start the ninth, and maybe players you’d prefer to forget, like Bruce, will eventually get one.
From this mass of humanity, it’s reassuring to have a proven commodity to lean on if you choose to indulge some magical thinking of your own. Reyes, who appeared on this roster from out of the blue and orange, has done a lot of spectacular things in his two terms as a Met, but only once to my recollection had he hit the big homer that we really needed to turn around the potentially bitter conclusion of a game. As it happened, it was a year ending in a 6 and it was against the Phillies: May 23, 2006, the eighth inning, the Mets trailing, 8-6, with a runner on. Then Jose drove a ball deep into the Flushing night off Ryan Franklin to knot the score at eight apiece. The Mets went on to top Philadelphia, 9-8, in extras.
Foreshadowing? Coincidence? Whatever. Jose the Elder reached back to that night of youthful exuberance and did to Gomez at Citi what he did to Franklin at Shea, lining a pitch out of the park and landing the Mets in a 6-6 tie. Wonders may pause for a decade, but they don’t necessarily cease. Meanwhile, this game that appeared lost was suddenly found.
Jeurys Familia, who in an ideal game is the last Met to pitch, became the eighth, in the tenth. He threw a scoreless inning that was matched by Severino Gonzalez, though an old amigo nearly scripted a wonderfully cheesy ending. Lucas Duda, buried deeper in the Met subconscious than Soup Cambpell by this point in the season, emerged as a pinch-hitter with two out. Terry started him on Sunday. He didn’t last the entire game and hadn’t been deployed since. But Thursday was the night of the bottomless basket. The manager reached for the Met slugger of record from 2014 and 2015, and wouldn’t you know it, Lucas almost turned back time. He hit a ball that hugged fair air for probably 329 feet and nine inches. As we learned from Mr. Inciarte on Wednesday, however, those last few inches can make all the difference. Duda’s attempt at a game-ending homer went barely foul.
Lucas had been sidelined by a bad back since May. I hesitate to imagine what his well-meaning work proximity associates might have done to it and him had he circled the bases. Not an issue. Lucas wound up striking out and Jeurys returned to the mound for the eleventh. Uncharacteristically he left before the inning was over, having yielded a go-ahead run on a ringing double, a productive grounder, an intentional walk and a dunker of a single. The Phillies led, 7-6, in a way that made you say “damn!” Then Jerry Blevins hit a guy and (after unconscionable strike-zone squeezing) Jim Henderson walked a guy to make it 8-6.
Nice hole you record-tying 26 Mets have dug for yourself there. It would be a shame if something didn’t happen to it.
After Nimmo whacked a pitch hard up the middle but to no avail, Michael Conforto became Met No. 27 in the box score and, more importantly, a baserunner via base on balls versus Edubray Ramos. Ramos was the Phillies’ ninth pitcher; it’s September for them, too. Reyes followed Conforto by singling safely above the glove of Jimmy Rollins clone Freddy Galvis (he of the frigging ringing double). The Mets had two on with one out and Asdrubal Cabrera prepared to bat.
This was the best possible scenario magical thinking could have conjured. Cabrera has been a hybrid of Bud Harrelson and Howard Johnson all year long, combining indispensable infield glue with uncommon shortstop power. Just the night before, Asdrubal had broken Jose’s single-season shortstop home run record of nineteen. When Reyes hit that many in 2006, it was a revelation (and cause for hundreds of groans to come that Jose was prone to homer-happiness). When Cabrera put his twentieth as a shortstop and twenty-first overall in the books on Wednesday, it was simply another example of what the man does. Of those Three Amigos who are linked at the top of the order and, by all reports, inside the clubhouse, Cabrera appears the most businesslike of the trio. The bottle-blondest, perhaps, but definitely the veteran who doesn’t attract attention for anything but his reliability. Reyes blazes around the bases. Cespedes drops jaws. Cabrera simply gets the job done.
The job at hand in the bottom of the eleventh with two on and one out was monumental. If Asdrubal could avoid grounding into a double play, it would rate as a net-positive. If he could as much as walk, it would be welcome, since it would set up Cespedes as the potential game-winning hitter for a third consecutive night, and you know what they say about third times and charms. If indispensable Asdrubal could manage to stay in one piece amid the myriad possible outcomes given the precarious condition of his continually balky knee, well, that would be keen, too.
Asdrubal transcended all ancillary aspects of the job when he connected authoritatively with the final pitch Ramos threw, the last of 409 delivered by nineteen pitchers in all. As soon as Cabrera swung, he knew it was gone. His bat was flipped, his arms were raised, his trot was jubilant. The camera stayed on him an instant before it cut to the ball Gary Cohen was describing in flight, so we could tell it was going to land easily beyond harm’s way a tick ahead of the rarely uttered double-OUTTA HERE! the home run so richly deserved. Ender Inciarte was in another city and no Phillie could climb, leap or pray high enough to do a darn thing about this one.
It was indeed outta here, outta here. The Mets were 9-8 winners. The Three Amigos were baseball heroes, even if their cinematic image is two-thirds suited to the era of silent films. Cespedes from Cuba speaks primarily with his bat and through an interpreter. Cabrera of Venezuela doesn’t usually find himself in front of a microphone. Reyes the prodigal/wayward Dominican son possesses the voice that’s most familiar to us. We understand his Metropolitan accent fluently. Postgame, when WOR’s Wayne Randazzo asked Jose about the bond he’s forged with these friends he’s made this improbable year, he didn’t withhold his affection one vocal bit. “They’re my brothers,” Jose declared. “One blood. They’re my brothers, I love them, we’re in this together.”
So are we all for the next nine games, hopefully more.
The first time the words “a Chumbawumba tribute band” have ever been strung together in the English language. Another FAFIF breakthrough, Greg.
It’s games like last night that make me curse either my age or the time at which I must get up in the morning to face my lengthy commute (or my policy of no more caffeine after mid-afternoon), because I was awoken from a light slumber in the TV room by Gary’s call on Duda’s near miss, and when he struck out, that’s when I decided that news on the outcome would reach me in the morning. And come on Phillies, these games mean nothing to you. Act that way.
Won’t it be awkward when the big trade deadline acquisition, he of the then NL lead in HR’s and RBI’s, is kept off the postseason roster in favor of Brandon Nimmo?
Dave, your experience mirrored mine, except the Galvis double sent me to bed. My wife and both were both roused by Gary’s voice on Duda’s near-miss :)
Los tres amigos son la mejor!
I love it when you guys make an obvious observation, but it’s so obvious that I doubt if anyone has ever noticed it before. In this case, the double Outta Here. Perfect.
What was not perfect was TJ Rivera in the cleanup spot. He cleaned up nothing, but definitely cleared up the misconception that he’s a clutch hitter.
And while we’re at it Terry, let’s be done with Soup Campbell and his one hit since May.
Best bat flip ever. And not at all cocky or revengeful like Jose Bautista, just out of pure joy.
Soup came through yet again with a clutch hit tonight. No love for Soup? I love any Met who comes through when called upon. See – like the opposite of Jay Bruce. Hell, even Travis got an extra base hit AND a run batted in – I think that means six more weeks of winter
This was a really well-written post! Thoroughly enjoyed reading it, so much so that I’m assigning it to my 10 year old son as an example of interesting writing. Thanks for this.
Gee, thanks! Good luck to the young man.
You keep putting “My Little Buttercup” in my head.
“a veritable penthouse suite crowning an otherwise ordinary off-ramp motel”… wow. Nailed it. I imagine going to the soda machine in that motel looking for a name brand Harvey or Wheeler only to find knockoff Gsellmans and Lugos. Eh, so far they pretty much taste the same. Can’t complain!
Greg, I don’t believe Cameron Rupp and Darin Ruf are the same person. I believe Rupp and Tyler Flowers are the same person. You’ve never seen them in the same place at the same time, have you?
Also, I wasn’t disappointed when Bruce struck out. I expected him to hit into a double play.
Is there any doubt that Asdrubal is the team’s 2016 MVP?
My softball team won our league championship last night and I get in the car to head home, listen to Reyes hitting one out to keep us afloat, and get to the couch in time to watch Cabrera win it.
My wife came downstairs unimpressed that I was jumping around the living room with my cleats still on.
The Mets have a lot of heart, man. That is EXACTLY the way you pick yourself up off the floor after being robbed of a walk off win.
Best Nimmo since the character in “Bleak House.”
Soup is not on.
Who closes tonight? Edgin? Doug Sisk?
It seems the Matz sacrifice was enough to pay the bill. 9 more.
Reed and Familia are worn out, which means anything can happen at any part of the game now.
I know extrapolating stats over the course of a full season is a futile exercise but… Reyes has played nearly one-third of the season for the Mets and if you multiple his numbers by three even reduce it by a little to account for time off for injuries, he’d be in the Top 10 in steals in the NL but more importantly, he’d be in the Top 5 in runs scored, maybe even Top 3. The Three Amigos notion is more than a mere movie reference– when he gets on base, the fact that he’s a threat to run means Cabrera sees more fastballs and the fact that Cespedes is lingering on deck with Reyes already on base means Cabrera sees more strikes. The success of the three really is linked, beautifully so.
Jose Reyes is the leadoff hitter the Mets have lacked since Jose Reyes.
Had just flown in from Amsterdam, went to bad earl, Mets down 6-4, woke up, turned on TV, saw Reyes blast, went back to sleep. Woke up, turned on TV, Mets down 8-6, saw Conforto walk, Reyes single, Cabrera blast, went back to sleep. Got up this morning and found out it was only a dream and Mets now behind two in Wild Card race. Well, it seemed real enough.
Long time reader, first time commenter–my jaw still hasn’t gone back to normal from smiling so hard last night. In spite of all the injuries, in spite of the bizarrest of bizzaro lineups at times, and 2 remaining SPs from the beginning of the season, they persevere. And just like the Goonies, they NEVER say die. It isn’t always pretty, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.
What a ridiculous roller coaster ride last night–I wanted that walk off so badly for Lil Lukey, but clearly we needed more high drama, right?
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought Cabrera would be such an unbelievable MVP for us. Like you guys, and hopefully all Mets fans–man do I love those 3 amigos. Thanks for such a phenomenal blog for Mets lovers, Greg and Jason–I’m going to be sure to join in much more often. Lifelong Mets fan since 1983.
#LGM
One of the truly great Mets victories.
Granderson, Cespedes, Reyes, and Cabrera drove in all nine runs.
Thanks also to The Vegas Quartet: T.J., Ty Kelly, Nimmo, and Conforto – for getting on base and scoring.
Asdrubal’s unrestrained exultation. What a Party!
Speaking of Cameron Rupp and Darin Ruf – a couple years ago, I was confusing Asdrubal Cabrera and Oddubel Herrera. No more. I’m glad we have the one we have.
Great line about Reyes being the leadoff guy we’ve been missing since Reyes. An exercise in might-have-been: if the Wilpons hadn’t invested with a certain con man, and Reyes had never left…
Actually, never mind. I’m just enjoying the return. And Reyes, Cabrera and Cespedes ARE the Three Amigos. Perfect.
Wow……just, wow.
eric1973 you absolutely crack me up. “master baiter” I LOVE it. Believe it or not, I have used that before. I ain’t mad at ya dude
Shame Reed wasn’t able to handle the likes of Herrera and Franco 24 hours after certain people said it was fait accompli he would have disposed of the exponentially more dangerous Freeman.
How about Little Luke in his 3rd AB since coming back from missing essentially the entire season, all rust and no rhythm, coming within an inch or so of having the biggest hit of the season? Dude is special.
Holy shit!!
LGM
i was disgusted that the cespedes go-ahead rbi in the 7th was erased in the top of the 8th, especially by a maikel franco home run. thoughts of 07’ish meltdowns started to get traction and i couldn’t bear them, so i went to bed. work night, long day ahead, etc.
so i missed the end, but that’s okay — i’m the guy who isn’t allowed to watch the game during crucial innings because the mets do better when i’m out of the room. when i heard the news on the radio this morning, i had a big grin and the thought that i had done my small karmic part.
mainly though, it’s fantastic that the team wouldn’t give up, and that they know they have it in them to come back late.
Greg, you’ve done it again. This piece is filled so many fabulous one-liners and “Prince-isms” that I’m really at a loss for words. Truly great, great stuff!
Moving on…
These last couple of nights have almost been too much for a graying, paunchy middle-aged, lifelong Met fan such as myself to handle. I mean, come on already. They certainly picked the best time to win their only game this season when trailing entering the ninth! How about that. And we’ve got nine more games to go!
The lone advantage of being out here in flyover country is the fact that games like these end at a respectable hour. Although, I wouldn’t have minded being asleep for the Ender the other night.
My Faith is restored and my Fear has been allayed. Ummm, at least until 6:10 tonight (Central Time).
LGM!!!!
Hi, Greg. I agree with “Unser” above– you offered us a phenomenal write-up to (what is clearly) a phenomenal moment in Mets history. I’m an English teacher, and happened to have a chance to teach a “Sportswriting” Independent Study with a bright young man last Fall; I just sent him your post as a nice illustration of a perceptive and verve-laden sports piece. Between you and Roger Angell, no autumn ballgame is complete for me until after I get to read the stellar write-up of such dramatic October fare. Keep up the good work, my friend!
Much appreciated, particularly the heady company you invoke. If the Mets are so kind as to give us baseball beyond Game 162, we’ll be here.
We’ll be here even if they don’t. Thank you.
Greg, love your writing so very much. You always strike just the right nuance, find exactly the perfect obscure musical or pop culture or, especially, historic Mets reference. Thank you! You treated us to all of them today.
And why not? It was an extremely deserving, unbelievably exciting win! Even old pros Gary and Howie got caught up in it and double-called it, It’s Outta Here, Outta Here! and He did it, He did it! Truly these Mets are the team that refuses to die, not for bad news or heartwrenching losses or anything. And who said Cabrera couldn’t play shortstop any more? Like Grandy last year, he’s stepped up to unlikely Mets MVP status.
Hope this gives them enough momentum to last a good while. We need a blowout really bad, our lockdown guys are obviously very tired.
God, I love these boys so much! No quit in them ever. Ya Gotta Believe. LGM
Okay, now Thor out of Sunday start due to severe strep throat….
Another start for Montero? Ponder that for a moment… And I got hit for suggesting Sandy failed miserably in not trading for another starter in August…
Duda at first tonight for those who asked….
Greg, you got “hit” as you refer to it because of the tenor of your comments. If you were to have said something along the lines of “boy, it would have been nice to have an extra starter”, well sure, who could argue with that. But to take such an extreme position as “Sandy failed miserably” is a stretch and then some. First of all, solid starting pitchers don’t grow on trees. You can’t cover for every eventuality. I would venture to say that nearly every playoff contending team would love to have another reliable starter. Sandy has done yeoman’s work since taking over as GM. IMHO he’s been the best GM we’ve had in 20 years or so….so yeah, you’ll get some attention when you make such a strong statement.
Just for reference sake, you also mercilessly mocked the signing of Reyes, both at the time of picking him up and a couple of weeks into his tenure. I’m not saying that to rub anything in your face, but just to point out that sometimes a little humility is called for when making sweeping judgements.
Also, accuracy would be nice. I mocked Reyes signing on moral grounds. Still a valid point. Have you read the police report?
As for starting pitchers–as I’ve stated 4 times before–there are numerous major league 4th and 5th starters on crap teams available on the cheap as late August rolls on every year. Some of us even advised, in July, that we pick up an actual good starter even if costs us a prospect, instead of, say, an overrated, poor fielding, yet-another-lefty outfielder. How did that work out?
No sir! You may have objected on moral grounds also, but you mocked his talent. That is a totally separate issue. You portrayed him as washed up. And a couple of weeks into his joining us you threw out some stats and referred to him as the worst leadoff hitter in baseball. I said from the beginning that if people had moral objections then I could understand that and wouldn’t argue, but from a baseball perspective it was a brilliant move with loads of upside potential and virtually no cost. You wanted none of that.
Some might look at the fact that we keep taking all these hits and yet remain solidly in contention as evidence that someone must have done a pretty good job of stockpiling talent. I realize that’s too optimistic a viewpoint for some, but it’s pretty hard to argue there’s not at least SOME validity to it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard in the past few weeks from myriad sources in and around baseball that they don’t get how the Mets are pulling this off.
More: Bruce sits again. I think one of the most interesting developments of the week is Terry, after backing need for Bruce to keep playing most games to get him going, changed mind maybe one day later and he has sat 5 out of 6. I am wondering if Bruce said or did something that irked him, beyond media glare. Even to media, as I noted earlier in week, Bruce seemed to be expressing, let’s say, TOO MUCH confidence in the realm of hinting that he should be playing all the time despite results. Maybe Terry wasn’t crazy about that but something changed about 6 days ago for Terry to go from “he needs 2 days off to clear his head” to “maybe he sits for quite awhile.” In any case, an interesting sub-plot.
Cubs up 5-0 and it’s Gilmartin who gets start tomorrow.
I don’t know that it has to be Montero. Last year, some of the most timely starts of September were by Logan Verrett. Granted, he hit a wall this summer, but maybe he can rediscover some of last year’s magic. He does have more ML wins than Montero, tho that ain’t saying much. If not him – gee, I don’t know. Does anyone in the front office still have Johan’s phone number?
Gee, maybe the return of…Dillon Gee.
Lol! That would be epic.
Campbell and Smoker are not major league material.Everyone else is grand!
Bartolo is the our hero. Let’s not over work steely-eyed Reed.
Let’s go Mets!
Luv ya, Matt. Thanks for knowing I was kidding.
As Jason said a month ago, we’re all in this leaky boat together. I sure wish Duda’s shot had gone out. Would have made a great story.
Because winning 9-8 as they did wasn’t story enough.
Thank god after tonight Conforto ought to keep Bruce on the bench…
Mets win, Cards lose, Giants down 3-0 in first….
[…] But Who’s Counting? » […]
I just discovered this blog this morning. Finally I have found something to satisfy my Mets hankering after game day.
I was at this 11 inning game. Best game I have been to since watching Robin Ventura park a 15th inning, bases loaded single over the fence in the bottom of the 15th against the Braves in Game 6 of the 1999 Divisional Series.
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