You probably didn’t need this reminder, but here it is anyway: baseball will make you look dumb.
Like maybe in the afterglow of Thursday night’s thrilling comeback [1] against the Nats (deliciously complete with hirsute heel Jayson Werth [2] shooting his own team in the collective foot) you found yourself thinking that it was really too bad the Mets were hurtling towards the All-Star break. Why, hadn’t they just trounced the Cubs and taken a series from the Marlins and weren’t they obviously now on their way to shocking the Nats? Sure, it was only one game, but with the Mets hitting in bushels and frustrated Nats jefe Mike Rizzo screaming at umps anything seemed possible. Why, if Noah Syndergaard [3]‘s Norse hammer of an arm could just get the forces of good past Stephen Strasburg [4]….
SCREEECH!
Maybe the needle came off the record when Clint Robinson [5] roped a Syndergaard pitch into the stands for a two-run homer. But unwelcome though that development was, it was only 2-0.
Maybe that cringeworthy sound came when Daniel Murphy [6] did his nightly damage to our cause to make it 3-0. Or perhaps you got through that because after Thursday night what’s three runs between division rivals?
Except then you saw Yoenis Cespedes [7] turn into Juan Lagares [8], followed in unhappily short order by the sight of everyone standing around Syndergaard. Fine, Noah repeated about half a dozen times, while Terry Collins [9] peered up at him and conducted an agitated interrogation. Fine, Noah kept saying, though the look on his face had gone from annoyance to grudging acceptance. He was done, and the patter of applause that accompanied his exit sounded tentative and beseeching.
The Mets actually hung around, with Seth Lugo [10] and Jerry Blevins [11] doing heroic bullpen work and Asdrubal Cabrera [12] simultaneously sparing us the indignity of a no-hitter and getting us on the board with a home run. Brandon Nimmo [13] and Rene Rivera [14] ground out long at-bats in the seventh, ensuring Strasburg’s exit, and Wilmer Flores [15] greeted Shawn Kelley [16] with a double in the eighth, followed by a Jose Reyes [17] infield single that Murph surrounded and rolled over but couldn’t convert.
It was first and third with nobody out and Citi Field becoming a cauldron of sound. Except Curtis Granderson [18] got sawed off by Oliver Perez [19] and lifted a little pop to the infield, and behind him in the order was Lagares instead of Cespedes, with Blake Treinen [20] brought into the game.
I can’t fault Reyes for not running with Lagares at the plate. He knew it was critically important to take second, and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that there was a reason he didn’t try it. Perhaps it was the wet track, or bits of rust still on the wheels — having wondered just a couple of days ago if Reyes was really ready for big-league duty, I’m not now going to turn around and accuse him of being derelict in that duty.
Whatever the case, Reyes didn’t run and Lagares slapped a perfect double-play ball that effectively snuffed out the Mets’ hopes [21].
And on to the butcher’s bill of postgame diagnoses. Cespedes was felled by his balky quad, an injury he said would take four to five days to heal. Syndergaard’s malady was harder to diagnose. It wasn’t the elbow, as we’re always going to fear [22] until the day it is, but something the Mets called “arm fatigue.” That sounded worrisomely vague, but after the game Syndergaard basically shrugged: he explained that he’d lost the life on his pitches, something he chalked up to an empty tank at the midpoint of his first full season.
And, of course, all this came after the news that Matt Harvey [23]‘s season is over, a victim of impending surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome that will demand four months’ recovery time. Four months’ recovery time and the removal of a rib, which is something I can’t really get past. We’ve become blase about Tommy John [24] surgery, which is a mistake, but from what I’ve read this is a riskier undertaking, with a much lower success rate.
So if you’re keeping track at home, over twelve hours or so the Mets lost a) last year’s ace; b) their best hitter; c) a chance to see two All-Stars in blue and orange; d) whatever fragile confidence you’d built up in Syndergaard’s health; and oh yeah e) a game in the standings.
With two more yet to play against the Nats.
You know what? We’ve changed our minds. Everybody’s tired, so perhaps the All-Star break could come two days early.
Speaking of breaks, I’m off to England for 10 days. Be nice to Mr. Prince and get some wins, willya?