The Grind

Chris Bassitt nailed the ethic of the 2022 New York Mets so well so early that his comments following the third game of the season became the club’s credo, not to mention the soundtrack for commercials shown roughly every half-inning on SNY: “I don’t care who you are, I’m comin’ after you […] we’re just gonna grind you until you break.” It’s fitting ’cause it’s true. The Mets have come for every opponent regardless of caliber and they’ve gained so much ground from grinding that they’ve been able to construct a castle atop the standings.

Very recently, however, they may have come up against a foe that will not give ground: the schedule. The schedule grinds more relentlessly than the most determined of baristas. The schedule ratchets up the quality of competition without pausing to let a team adjust its sights. The schedule vaults you through time zones and doesn’t necessarily give you an extra night to get a feel for your body clock. The schedule demands you maintain vigilance at all hours.

That last part refers to what the grind does to a fan in late night New York trying to stay awake for prime time games in Los Angeles. Man, it’s a grind just to keep one’s eyes open to watch our first-place club. When the Mets’ offense grinds to a halt against another first-place club and the Mets’ starter finds that offense coming after him, well, it’s a long evening and a reminder that it’s a long season.

On Friday night, between the quick winks I gathered in a recliner until suddenly Gary Apple and Todd Zeile had replaced Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling as my all-hours companions, Chris could not confound enough of the Dodgers enough of the time. He grinded for six innings and struck out eight, but two Los Angeleno lefties, Cody Bellinger and Zach McKinstry, reached Bassitt for fly balls that carried beyond the right field fence, each with a baserunner attached. That’s two two-run homers that amounted to too much to overcome for either side of the Mets’ attack.

While Bassitt tried to tailor his complex assortment of pitches to meet the challenge of southpaw swingers clearly coming for him, lefthanded Tyler Anderson went virtually untouched for six innings, yielding three singles and no runs. Pete Alonso lit up the SoCal sky with a blast off righty Yancy Almonte to start the seventh, but even a presence as massive as Pete connecting as mightily as he can — his homer traveled 433 feet — can’t drive in more than one run if no one is on base to trot ahead of him. No other Met did anything more than slightly inconvenience any other Dodger reliever and a sleepy 6-1 loss resulted.

The reliably crisp Mets have looked flat for two games, especially this game. Francisco Lindor was back in the lineup after he put a finger between a door and a jamb. He threw without incident but didn’t hit to any effect. Wrist-rested Brandon Nimmo has returned to everyday play but his form hasn’t followed (0-for-12, though he did sprint without complaint to first after taking an Anderson pitch off his back). Starling Marte’s 0-for-L.A. thus far. Jeff McNeil has squirreled away but a single in the first two games of this series. We in our comfy chairs are the ones who are supposed to be appear inert, but then again, we’re not the ones taking on the daunting Dodgers across the country.

It’s only two games for everybody in a Mets uniform at the front end of a trip that will extend through next weekend. In the bigger picture, the Mets have won nearly two-thirds of their games with a third of a season complete. That means there are two-thirds of a season to go against all comers. The grind will continue.

When the Mets of the 1990s spent an entire decade trying to make the playoffs, it took a Deep Bench to get them there at last. Revisit the fin de siècle’s masters of versatility in the latest episode of National League Town, which you can listen to here and any time you like, rather than needing to stay up until 10:10 PM for first pitch.