For all you completists in the crowd, it’s our privilege to report a final final score: Mets 1 Marlins 0 in eight rain-shortened innings last Thursday, ensuring the Mets were 75-87 in 2023, rather than whatever it appeared they were when the tarp went on; no resumption was attempted; and nobody from MLB told us for absolute certain what the hell was supposed to happen vis-à-vis the W-L-T columns of the standings. Hopefully, Buck Showalter has a lucrative bonus clause that kicks in as a result of his having managed this extra win whose conclusion was delayed by a mere 132 hours.
Also, let us not overlook that this was an additional loss pinned on the Marlins the morning after they dropped Game One of their Wild Card Series versus the Phillies, and the morning before they were about to be blown out of Game Two in that best-of-three, ending their postseason in two flops of a fish’s tail. Hey, if they wanna swing by Citi Field to take care of that ninth inning now that we have nice weather and they have nothing else to do…nah, they probably don’t. But they’ll always have the memory of taking a lead that no longer exists, not to mention the hits and runs that have been wiped away by a slowly but surely applied rule that, truthfully, is kind of stupid. But so were all alternatives.
So we lost our last game of 2023, on Sunday, but we came away victorious with our final result, on Wednesday. Nothing like going into winter on a quasi-winning streak of one with an asterisk.
Plus a new episode of a new episode of National League Town!
The Mets win the damn thing!
I hope the O/U was 74.5.
This year’s ticket got trashed, not cashed.
I’ve been following this fairly closely because I love it when sh*t happens. I still haven’t seen an explantion from MLB that makes sense. Everything quoted seems to not exactly pertain to how they arrived at a reversal of the rule.
I’m calling it the Homina Homina ruling, in case it happens again and they need to refer to it
I’m not with MLB, but I discussed the applicable MLB rules at https://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2023/10/01/second-to-last-licks/#comment-267421 and https://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2023/09/29/amazin-delays-2023/#comment-267416. The ESPN, AP article left out that the applicable rules address the particular situation of this suspended game, “which has not been completed prior to the last scheduled game between the two teams” (MLB Rule 7.02(b)(4)). MLB had to wait on the Marlins and Diamondbacks to see if Rule 7.02(b)(4)(A) applied or if Rule 7.02(b)(5) applied instead, “if the Office of the Commissioner determines that not playing such game might affect eligibility for the postseason and/or home-field advantage for any Wild Card or Division Series game”.
But that only takes us to the conclusion of games 162. It doesn’t explain MLB’s delay for days after game 162 to call game 159. I’m curious in that regard about what Elias told MLB (“Major League Baseball, after consulting the Elias Sports Bureau…” in the ESPN, AP article) since calling the game as an 8-inning, 1-0 Mets win seemed obvious per the applicable rules as soon as the Marlins and Diamondbacks finished their games 162 tied at 84 wins with the Marlins holding the tiebreaker. If the Marlins had finished with 84 wins and the Diamondbacks with 85 wins, consulting Elias for precedents would have made more sense since in that case, it’s not clear that the Rule 7.02(b)(5) standard “might affect eligibility for the postseason and/or home-field advantage for any Wild Card or Division Series game” includes the two teams’ seeding, which would affect opponent match-ups, and home-field advantage for the then-potential Marlins-Diamondbacks NLCS match-up. Both of those conditions would have been flipped by the W-L determination for game 159.
Was this the longest game in Mets history?
Three times the Mets have had games suspended and picked up more than two months later, including the infamous April 11/August 31 mishegas of 2021…but this was its own special kind of long, particularly as a regular-season capper to the first year of the pitch clock.
So I’m gonna say yes.
How do we count that? The game time at the point the game was delayed? Add the 3-plus hours delay at the point the game was suspended? Dial it back to the game time at the conclusion of the bottom of the 8th inning? Or the game time from first pitch to suspension plus the 130-odd hours until MLB called the game?
26 game dropoff. What was the previous record?
Covered here.
Don’t forget Hartwig and Kay. Wiping out the 9th inning uplifted their season stats from bad to marginally less bad, including plus-1 win for Hartwig and minus-1 blown save and loss for Kay. Wins and losses were an afterthought for relievers even before they were devalued as an individual stat, but blown saves are still held up.
Lindor finished the season at 98 RBI and was set to lead off the bottom of the 9th inning, so it’s unlikely (though not impossible) that MLB not resuming the game cost him 100 RBI. Other than that, there was no individual achievement of note on the table. Maybe a long shot at 120 RBI for Alonso.
Joy!
Billy (“this is not a firesale”) Eppler is gone!
You know what that means, right? Another press conference!
The stated reason for Eppler resigning was to give Stearns a “clean slate”, which is the reason Showalter and front office leaders were fired before Stearns took over. So I wonder why Eppler left after Stearns took office and didn’t leave beforehand with all the other management departees. I assumed Eppler’s role change under Stearns had been worked out. I guess not.
Alternatively, if there was no prior arrangement yet Eppler was given the chance to maybe stay on under Stearns, why weren’t the rest?
Breaking news that explains Eppler’s resignation: https://nypost.com/2023/10/05/billy-epplers-mets-resignation-came-amid-mlb-investigation/. Apparently, unlike for Showalter and other departed team officials, the “clean slate” in Eppler’s case is about an MLB investigation into Eppler’s management of the injured list.
The news implies that there was a defined general manager position for Eppler under Stearns after all. So if Stearns’s management system includes an Eppler-type general manager, who’s available that can match Eppler’s profile to fill the suddenly vacated position? Chaim Bloom, maybe?