The Mets won a game with me recapping, so I guess I can stay!
So can Steven Matz [1], who rebounded rather nicely from a horror show of a beginning [2] to his 2016 season. Matz’s Sunday outing began with disquieting similarities to Matt Harvey [3]‘s start on Saturday: he was cruising along but telegraphing his off-speed stuff, and you had to wonder what would happen the second time through the order.
The answer: not much [4].
The Mets scoring six runs before the Indians had a baserunner certainly helped, and was a luxury not given Harvey. Maybe not having to wait around for a week and a half between pitching assignments did too.
As diehards we’ve heard about Matz forever: he was signed in 2009 and lost two full seasons to Tommy John [5] surgery, not starting in pro ball until 2012. Given all that drama, it’s easy to forget Matz won’t turn 25 until just before Memorial Day, or that his entire major-league body of work before this year consisted of nine starts — three of them in the postseason. We’ve gotten used to flamethrowers reaching Triple-A, grousing briefly about being bored, then coming up and making you say ooh in short order. That happened with Matz too, amazing even Grandpa Bert [6], but the kid’s entitled — as we all should be — to some scuffling and growing pains. Simply put, we’ve gotten a bit spoiled since Harvey arrived to give notice that there were new sheriffs in town.
Michael Conforto [7]‘s a newcomer too, just two seasons removed from patrolling a different New York park with the Brooklyn Cyclones. But every time the Mets treat him gingerly, you wonder why: he’s been a platoon player despite hitting lefties well in the minors, and stuck low in the order despite his obvious skills with the bat. Keith Hernandez [8] has repeatedly called Conforto the best hitter on the team, which I’d agree with: beyond Conforto’s God-given bat speed and power, his sense of the strike zone could have been borrowed from Edgardo Alfonzo [9] or the Shea model of David Wright [10]. Conforto rarely turns in an at-bat where he hasn’t maximized his chance to succeed, leveraging a hitter’s count and forcing the pitcher to risk a mistake. Today’s work: ringing double to right-center on a 3-1 pitch, hard-hit ball down the line an inning later on a 1-0 pitch, 2-1 flyout to deep left. Conforto’s assignment to the third slot in the lineup has been billed as a Cleveland-only thing, but like Keith I wouldn’t be surprised if he stays there for a generation.
Oh, and points for the Cleveland crowd: the Mets’ win was helped considerably by poor Rajai Davis [11] losing two balls in the sun, but when Marlon Byrd [12] was similarly undone, there was Davis streaking in from center field to save the play, to cheers that had only a mild tinge of irony. Baseball specializes in these short stories, these bite-sized passion plays that you appreciate at the time even though you’ll forget them within a couple of days. Up six it was easy to be magnanimous and smile at a player claiming a bit of redemption.
Before we go: Your baseball library could do with some excellent additions. Besides Amazin’ Again [13], by the esteemed Mr. Prince, check out The Arm [14] by Jeff Passan. It’s a terrific overview of elbow injuries, why they happen, how they’re fixed and what — if anything — baseball can do to reduce their frequency. The Arm is a must-read for any fan who knows that sense of dread at the sight of a young starter shaking his arm on the mound, which is to say all of us; it’s carefully researched but also grippingly told. You’ll be riveted by the story of how Tommy John met Frank Jobe and root for Daniel Hudson [15] and Todd Coffey [16] as they struggle physically and mentally to return and recapture what they’d been.