The good:
- A night after making solid contact but coming up short [1], Michael Conforto [2] showed why he merits all the excitement, mashing a rising line drive off Charlie Morton [3] that hissed over the fence above the Mo’s Zone. (Not sure it’s still called that; quite sure I don’t care.) That tied the game at 3 and allowed the Mets and Pirates to play on into the night. On and on and on into the night.
- Yoenis Cespedes [4] uncorking an unbelievable throw from the deep outfield to nail a thoroughly startled Sean Rodriguez [5] at third. If you missed it, don’t worry — you’ll be seeing it on highlight reels for a long time.
- The Mets’ bullpen gamely holding the fort while waiting for the offense to reappear, with Carlos Torres [6], Tyler Clippard [7], Jeurys Familia [8], Hansel Robles [9] combining for six scoreless innings, followed by one by Sean Gilmartin [10] (and one that, alas, was not scoreless).
- Jon Niese [11] recovering from an early bout of Nieseness to pitch effectively, as he’s done for months now.
- The Giants continuing to whup the Nationals, who fell to .500 with their loss in San Francisco. Yes, the Mets have missed a chance to put even more space between themselves and the Nats these last two nights. But the Nats have lost something even more precious at this point in the season: time to fix whatever it is that’s ailing them.
The bad:
- Morton being even more effective than Niese, mixing a bowling-ball sinker with a darting curve and sending Met after Met departing home plate disconsolately.
- Gilmartin finally crumbling in the 14th [12], with an anti-assist to the Mets’ defense, plus a side of bad luck. Gilmartin’s been useful this year — certainly worth a Rule 5 pick — but that was unfortunate.
- Niese falling into old bad habits I’d persuaded myself he’d grown out of. Yes, the pitch Bob Davidson [13] called ball four on Andrew McCutchen [14] in the first should have been strike three and the end of the inning. But Niese then flipped in a nothing, call-this-a-ball fastball to Aramis Ramirez [15]. Ramirez, not one to examine the dental work of the equine prize presented to him, walloped Niese’s pitch over the fence. It’s not fair to say it was the difference in the game, but it is fair to say that Niese lost his cool, his focus and a chance to escape the inning unscored on.
The ugly:
- Davidson’s wandering, approximately rectangular strike zone. Niese wasn’t the only one upset with him. Multiple players had reason to be.
- Whatever the hell Daniel Murphy [16] thought he was doing in the 14th. Murph is an alternately entertaining and exasperating avatar of chaos, but not even he can rewrite the law of physics.
PSA from the proprietors:
We pride ourselves on having some of the smartest, best commenters in Met Blogland. But recently the tone of the comments has taken a turn we don’t like.
By all means debate, cite evidence/strong feelings and take issue with each other’s points. But don’t make it personal. We don’t do that here. We’re all Mets fans and can disagree while being friendly.
We’ve asked multiple times in recent weeks; we’re not going to ask again. Comments that cross the line and get personal will be deleted; commenters who can’t stay civil will be excused for a period ranging from a couple of days to eternity.
It’s no fun posting pissy notes like this, so please let this be the last time we have to do so.