Had Steven Matz carried his Sunday no-hitter attempt at Citi Field two outs further and into the ninth inning, it would have been fascinating to have seen how Terry Collins would have balanced the not necessarily meshing interests of history (or HI32ORY) and preservation…preservation of Matz’s bone-spurred left elbow. But since Matz gave up his first hit, a single down the first base line to Alexei Ramirez, with one out in the eighth, there was no issue to bandy about with Collins regarding his handling of his lefty.
Bandying commenced in the postgame press briefing nonetheless. The postgame story wasn’t, wow, Matz pitched a wonderful game against the Padres (7.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 SO), but what would have Terry done had Terry had to make a call on a youngster who had thrown well over 100 pitches on a hot day five days after throwing 120.
Here’s my question: why? Other than, yeah, Johan Santana and 134 pitches and Terry periodically beating himself up over Santana’s curtailed career following the First No-Hitter in New York Mets History, why harp on the manager’s hypothetical decision when there was just a splendid pitching performance and, not incidentally, a second consecutive Mets win when such a creature was considered on the verge of extinction?
I guess good news isn’t good enough anymore. Terry, nothing went wrong today — can you get into what could have gone wrong? And is knowing that something could have gone wrong eating away at your insides? Can you contort your face to show what it would have looked like in the ninth inning had Steven gone to a full count on the leadoff batter?
It struck a discordant note to a symphony of a Sunday when Matz was brilliant, Wilmer Flores and Neil Walker were powerful, Jose Reyes was rascally and victory was achieved with a relative lack of the usual angst. Matz went only as far as he did because once Ramirez’s hit was delivered, he had done all he was going to be reasonably asked to do. Complete-game one-hitters when 105 pitches are already in the books with five outs to go are no longer a thing as they might have been in the days when nobody knew how many pitches a pitcher pitched. Terry pulled the kid with a two-run lead, placed the ball and his confidence in Addison Reed’s right hand and that was that.
But Terry, if Matz had gotten Ramirez and the next batter, what then? How much Maalox do you keep in your desk drawer? Can you hang your head to replicate how much the decision would have weighed on you?
The manager, after baring his soul upon request, gave what I considered to be the sound response when he got around to it: he would have let Matz start the ninth and kept an eye on him. Fine. First, though, the angle had to be about how hard all of this was on the skipper, not how tough the pitcher was on the Padres, as if the media (a monolithic description, but it seemed to fit on this day) couldn’t handle exquisite pitching for exquisite pitching’s sake.
I guess my next question is, why do we worry so much about what people think versus what people do? Even here, as I rail at the line of inquiry, I’m indulging that unfortunate instinct. I’m down on the reporters I followed on Twitter and listened to in the briefing for obsessing on Collins’s theoretical reaction to something that didn’t happen. Instead, if I live by my own code, I should still be reveling in how good Matz is looking lately in actuality. What do I care what these people think? We’re long past the age of the filter and gatekeeper. I don’t need headlines to explain yesterday’s game to me, yet the headlines, including…
“Steven Matz’s No-Hit Bid Is Broken Up, to Terry Collins’s Relief”
“Steven Matz’s pitch count a worry as Mets’ starter flirted with no-hitter”
“Matz’s no-hit bid nearly gives Collins another Santana scenario”
…strike me as, at best, ancillary to the point. The point is Matz kept San Diego hitters off balance, the Mets rose above .500 and the flickering light of the Wild Card chase grew a teensy bit brighter. Why not ask Terry what he would have thought had Flores tripped over third base on his home run trot? Would you still encourage your players to hit the ball far, or are they better off drawing walks? Would you prefer stress-free losses to wins that encompass moves whose character you might someday be asked to express public regret about?
There must be something addicting about Collins to those who cover the team. He’s been there practically forever, his heart is visible on his sleeve and he answers questions without euphemisms. Even in a sport where the manager provides a twice-daily point of access, however, it seems Terry is approached as sun, moon and stars combined. I can appreciate his importance to the overall picture. Sunday I didn’t appreciate that a choice he didn’t have to make was treated as the overall picture.
Matz probably deserved that framing.
Greg, you are so on point with this. Matz pitched a great game after the doom sayers were predicting his demise after throwing 120 pitches in his previous start.
But as long as we’re dealing in what ifs, what if the replay officials deemed Jankowski safe at 3rd in the 1st inning? Would the whole tenor of the game have changed?
The fact that Terry got asked all those questions, and how he answered them (and how the pitch count weighed on him) merely cast renewed doubts on the opinion of so many here, and elsewhere, still defending his decision to send Santana out there for the 9th inning and throw his 134 pitches.
To Terry’s credit he has seemed haunted–perhaps not too strong a word–by that decision for years now. Clearly, unlike many here, he very much connects that decision to the wrecking of Santana’s possible Hall of Fame career. Some here love to respond to questions about other Terry matters by saying “Terry is there and knows better than you do so shut up” but yet they reject Terry’s view on this matter–in this case. Yes, there’s no way to prove it, but to ignore the fact that Santana was pitching very well before,and during, that game and collapsed completely after and forever, are the ones who have to defend rejecting the evidence–and in this case Terry’s own view. Not yesterday, but on other occasions, he has said flatly that he would not do that again.
Hence his “relief” that he didn’t have to make that decision again with Matz. Frankly, given some of his other pitch count decisions, I don’t trust that Terry would have, in the end–once he sent him out there again in the 9th, if he did–lifted him if the no-hitter had remained intact even if he reached, say, 125 pitches. But in that case, Terry, I would guess, would have sensed immediately that it was wrong decision. Consider how quickly he got Matz out when he gave up that one hit–after “only” 105 pitches.
To me, the definition of a Mets fan is someone who is in it for the long haul (in my case, since 1971) and can take a good look at current and future fun and success–and not get caught up in some “milestone” that actually damages that future fun and success. As Santana’s no-hitter certainly did, for the next 2 or 3 years.
Just to make sure all the facts surrounding this are included, as Gary mentioned yesterday, Santana actually pitched a couple of quality games after the no-no, including 6 innings of shutout ball allowing just 3 hits vs BAL and 8 scoreless innings allowing just 3 hits at LAD.
Glad he and you mentioned that. The urban myth aspect of “he threw the no-hitter and then his career ended” has always bugged me.
What? Because he pitched two more good games–before his career ended–that means no damage. That’s an urban legend? Terry clearly doesn’t think so.
Yes, no, maybe. After no-hitter Santana crushed by NYY, then pitched well for a few starts. Sprained ankle an then season fell apart.
Did 134 pitches ruin him for season? No. Did affect shoulder, affect later injury and slow healing? Maybe
Al we know is that after ankle season over, shoulder never the same, and ML career is history. And he was paid a lot of $ for 7 years, and didn’t notch 50 victories
Thank you. The way people tell the story, you’d think after the final pitch, the Mets had to send someone out onto the field to pick up Santana’s arm, which had just fallen off.
Exactly…….total fallacy about when Santana fell apart that season.
“Total fallacy”? Yes he pitched 2 more good games (after getting totally shelled his first two starts after the no-hitter). Then after those 2 good games, his complete line, starting one month after the no-no:
4 IP 7 runs
5 IP 6 runs
3 IP 6 runs
1 1/3 Ip 8 runs
5 IP 6 runs
and end of career
As a great former Met once said, “you can can look it up.”
Santana pitched some good ball after that game, then hurt his leg if memory serves? After that he was never able to find it again. Saying it’s the 134 pitches that did it is an easy narrative, but not fully proveable. Either way, I don’t think most people would change a thing. I know Johan wouldn’t.
I seem to remember that Santana hurt his leg covering first base in a game a few weeks after the no hitter.
Yes. First batter of the fifth inning on July 6.
Through four, Santana had given up 2 runs on 6 hits – not great, but not bad. Then…
And it was all downhill from there…
I really like Matz – a real talent and a good guy from all the reports I’ve read. He picked a great time to pitch the game of his career to this point. Hopefully, we’ll see a lot more of that in the years ahead.
One thing really bugs me though. Is it too much to ask that he could have tipped his cap or come up with even a tiny gesture to the fans who roared their approval of his masterpiece upon his exit from the game?
This used to be commonplace in the game, but as with things like running everything out, acting like you’ve hit a homer before, being able to reliably lay down a bunt, or throwing to the right base, is this just further evidence of “how the game has changed?”
I, for one, certainly hope not.
Wondered about that same thing myself. No gesture to the crowd whatsoever. Not sure why that isn’t standard anymore. Not going to kill him for it but would’ve been nice.
He tipped his cap as he left his first MLB start. Like hitting, it’s a part of his game that might have peaked early.
Matz was brilliant. Of course we were all wondering about the pitch count issue but as you pointed out, once the hit came it didn’t matter and wasn’t worth asking about because the situation will never be exactly the same (and clearly wasn’t with Santana either).
But here’s a what if…what if Ramirez’ ball wasn’t foul? It was pretty close but we never saw a replay right on the line behind the bag like they often show on balls hit up the 3rd base line. I’m not saying Collins needed to challenge it but it was a 2-0 game at the time so it wouldn’t have been unreasonable (not that I agree with others who believe you shouldn’t challenge whenever you feel a wrong call has been made, regardless of the score).
Here’s hoping Left Coast Jerry decides this is the first time one of my comments was relevant.
Jerry’s a good guy, just as I’m sure you’re a well-meaning body part. Everybody play nice.
This body part really needs to leave Matz and Syndegaard alone too!
Congratulations, the comment was relevant. Your what if brings up an interesting situation. I went back to MLB.tv and looked at both the Mets and Padres broadcast, and on neither feed did the camera pick up Ramirez’ hit until after the ball passed first. I couldn’t tell how close to the line it was.
But it begs the question, did Terry not challenge the call simply so he could remove Matz without being second-guessed? If his pitcher wasn’t throwing a no-hitter, would he under the same circumstances, leading by 2 runs in the 8th inning, have challenged the call? We’ll never know.
By the way, I never said Matz’ Bone Spur never posted anything relevant. I was talking about Wheeler’s Elbow.
“The point is Matz kept San Diego hitters off balance, the Mets rose above .500 and the flicker light of the Wild Card chase grew a teensy bit brighter.”
Excellent point Greg and that is all that really matters.
Wait just a minute – I thought the season died on 8/11?
Have a look at the remaining schedule. We are very much in the thick of it, boys. Cabrera and Cespedes on the way back. Hold fast, keep faith, and cheer loudly, even if its on your couch. The baseball gods can still hear you. All we need is a hot pitcher on the mound for 1 game and we’re playing a playoff series. Now we just have to claw our way up. WE CAN.
LETS GO METS!
Gotta try and go 1-0 tonight and take it from there. If I learned anything from Bobby Valentine, it was tonight’s game is the most important game of the year because it’s the only one we’re playing tonight. The licking of lips over the alleged ARI-SDP cupcake homestand made me nervous. It never works that way. One cliched game at a time and all that.
Even though, yes, the season has ended on multiple occasions and probably will again.
Agreed. Work on a good game plan, keep everyone ready, pitch well, defend well, hit well. Worry about tomorrow tomorrow. Repeat.
Nothing’s over until WE say it’s over.
It would be interesting to see where the cat lost some of its 9 lives this year. Certainly we can’t expend any more.
Lets put some W’s on the board on the west coast swing and hang three in a row on the Cards on the way home, which will be a massive series. Even though its 1 billion degrees in the tri-state area there are elements of October in these upcoming games. Black coffee will be served tonight at 9:30. I saw on Mets.com that the Diamondbacks are the only team that Colon has never beaten. He’s due. And so are we! LGM!
It isn’t just “why do we worry so much about what people think versus what people do,” but also, why do we worry so much about what didn’t happen? How many hypothetical questions do we need? Terry, what are your thoughts about whether you would have made a pitching change earlier if Matz had been attacked on the mound by a pack of wolves, even though he had a no-hitter going? Or if he had started pitching right-handed, would you have gone out to talk to him, or would you have sent Dan Warthen? If he came to you between innings and said that he, Syndergaard and deGrom were going to quit baseball to form a boy band, do you think they’d be invited back to CitiField for a postgame concert?
Now you’ve got me thinking of names for this hypothetical Thor-Matz boy band. THOREvaYours is the early favorite.
Thorevayours is good, but it sounds as though you’re assuming that Thor is the star of the show. Pretty sure my wife would prefer deGrom, being that when she’s talking to our daughter, she refers to him as “your new Daddy.” She’d see the other two as backup singers. Maybe they’d just be called The Pitch Counts.
A friend of mine suggested “98 MPH”. Which isn’t bad, especially if they did a duet with Stevie Wonder called “True to Your Stuff”…
I failed to notice deGrom was joining in. Clearly this will give new meaning to the phrase “hair band”.
NoaMatzRwhat
deMatz street boys?
Haircraft-2-deMatz? The Bagels and Locks?
First hit single: “Baby, Don’t Run on Me.”
And the follow-up single, “You Stole My Heart When You Stole 3rd Base (for the 2nd Time That Day).”
I want to contribute, but you guys are just too good at this. Hilarious!!
Matz has to be the front man, with the other two doing backup vocals. How about Lefty and the Hairdos?
How about the LocksMatz Monster? They could film videos in Scotland.
This nonsense here is taking up too much of my time and my enjoyment of this baseball team.
For Greg Mitchell…..your first post claimed this:
“Yes, there’s no way to prove it, but to ignore the fact that Santana was pitching very well before, and during, that game and collapsed completely after and forever”
“Completely after”….which means to me, directly after his no hitter. His next 5 starts, right after the no hitter, he was 3-2, with a 3.60 ERA. Not great but not off the cliff either. It was after the LA game (8 innings of 3 hit shut out baseball) on June 30 that he fell part. I’ve posted the stats from Retrosheet, but…..you can look it up as well”.
Date # Opponent GS CG SHO GF SV IP H BFP HR R ER BB IB SO SH SF WP HBP BK 2B 3B GDP ROE W L ERA
6- 8-2012 BOX+PBP AT NY A 1 0 0 0 0 5 7 23 4 6 6 1 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2.96
6-14-2012 BOX+PBP AT TB A 1 0 0 0 0 5 6 24 0 4 4 4 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 1 0 3.23
6-19-2012 BOX+PBP VS BAL A 1 0 0 0 0 6 4 23 0 0 0 2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 3.00
6-25-2012 BOX+PBP AT CHI N 1 0 0 0 0 6 5 26 1 2 2 3 1 6 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 3.00
6-30-2012 BOX+PBP AT LA N 1 0 0 0 0 8 3 28 0 0 0 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2.76
7- 6-2012 BOX+PBP VS CHI N 1 0 0 0 0 4.2 13 26 3 7 7 0 0 6 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 3.24
7-15-2012 BOX+PBP AT ATL N 1 0 0 0 0 5 8 24 1 6 6 2 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 1 3.59
7-20-2012 BOX+PBP VS LA N 1 0 0 0 0 3 7 19 2 6 6 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 3.98
8-11-2012 BOX+PBP VS ATL N 1 0 0 0 0 1.1 8 13 0 8 8 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 4.58
Stats are kind of jumbled together. From Retrosheet:
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2012/Ksantj0030122012.htm
Great game by Matz yesterday! Reminded me of last July here in LA when he shut down Dodgers!
Most excellent!
More joy–got to watch departed Bastardo inflict his magic on another team.
During 2/3 of inning his line was 1 hit, 1 Run, 1 Balk & 1 WP!
Watching Clint Hurdle in Bucs dugout–looked like he was about to plotz!
Vin Scully said something to the effect that when Bastardo has the ball, “he’ll throw it when he’s good and ready..”–later that inning Scully said “Bastardo is VERY DELIBERATE…”
Not only that–but skanks lose too!
A very happy day!
Met fans since Polo Grounds-1963
Let’s Go Mets!
Yes, Greg, you’re right, of course Matz deserved that honor, so let’s give it to him. What an amazing game he pitched, especially in light of his struggles this year. To me, the most thrilling aspect was that it looked as effortless as it had seemed for him in April & May, when he was rolling after getting that first clunker out of the way. He’s tougher than he looks, a kid with a lot of fire in him and so hard on himself. Even in this game, we could see some head shakes. That tells me he will not be settling any time soon, max effort every day from our Stevie, bone spurs or not. And of course, being a lefty, doubly valuable. Keeper.
Saw Frank Viola tweet out to Matz, Scary for the league, the best is yet to come and “Trust your stuff!” I do trust Viola, and on nights like that, I can see his point that he might turn out the best of all our young pitchers.
Oh and Steven always tips his cap, not sure what happened last night, maybe he did it before the camera picked him up, but he’s definitely a throwback from the socks up. Deserves his 32 for sure.
Great piece Greg, and nice look at the media. We still have some excellent reporters out there, and they are invaluable, but boy are there a lot of lazy and incompetent ones. The public is partially to blame. We are too easily distracted by phony controversy, simplistic narratives and catchy headlines. The Cespedes golf story is a classic. No meat too it….no reality, but it just looked bad and so it got all blown out of proportion.
Great to see the Mets playing some better ball the past few days. Really could have been a sweep without the Logan meltdown. Particularly encouraged by Matz with back to back strong outings, really making a mockery of the people that thought TC had overused him and he needed to be shutdown. I think he’s fine folks. ;)
Bit of a stretch to say Matz is fine. Otherwise no way he would have gone 1-7 recently.
There is such a thing as ‘precaution,’ even if a guy is on the active roster.
That said, the no-hitter would have meant everything to me, and I would have been tempted to leave him in forever. And would have, too. To me, Matz is a true Met, while Santana was a true Twin.
I would have kept Santana in forever, too, as it meant a lot to everyone, no matter that his career fizzled after that after one average month.
Man, how 2 wins in a row can energize a fan base, me included. Imagine what 3 would do!
So two good outings now proves that not only that Matz is fine but also opens the door for all concerned he might be getting overworked to mockery. Seems as likely as all those bad outings proving he wasn’t healthy and was overworked.
Congrats to my fellow bone spur in the rotation and hopefully I’ll have an outing like deGrom and Matz just had to help keep this turnaround going.
I think the point is that if he’s capable of back to back starts like that, throwing in the mid 90s with as sharp a breaking ball as we’ve ever seen from him that physically he’s fine. Maybe some of his struggles were because it’s hard to pitch in the major leagues? Besides, the 1-7 thing is baloney as we all know W/L records are virtually meaningless. He could have easily won a few of those. Jake has been one of the 3-4 best pitchers in the league all year and still has only 8 wins.
The fact that pitch counts and innings limits provide fodder to criticize and second-guess EVERYBODY, and hence, ALWAYS give the media something to chirp about, doesn’t legitimize anything.
Both of these things are very much “science experiments in progress” for the statheads trying to figure out a correlation. But as of this second, they haven’t found anything definitive. Some guys get hurt, and others don’t. Why did Matt Harvey go down and not the MUCH-harder rode Madison Bumgarner? Why did the mechanically excellent and over-babied Stephen Strasburg go down and not Chris Sale, who has brutal mechanics? People have this need to blame EVERYTHING on SOMETHING or SOMEONE, but it’s a gray area, and it would have been yesterday too. Matz was throwing 95 until they took him out of the game…he could have easily thrown 120 pitches. I’m almost glad he gave up the hit because that was another “damned either way” situation for Collins and I’m sure the Body Parts et al were lickin’ their chops. It’s a shame that the excitement of potential no-hittrers has to be weighed down with this nonsense.
As for Johan Santana…he threw 1500 innings in the seven years before he missed an entire year with an arm injury. Is it not possible that the arm injury that ended his career happened BEFORE the no-hitter? Like WAY before? I can’t believe anyone can localize his injury to the extra 30 pitches it took to finish it off (he threw 134 pitches that day).
I like Terry Collins a lot, but here’s a criticism of him: I wish he would have shut up on the no-hitter and stop taking the blame. You had a veteran and former elite player nearing the end of his career pitching a once-in-a-lifetime game for a team in which that was a GIANT monkey on it’s back. He got hurt and nobody will EVER know why. And I’m sure Johan Santana doesn’t blame Terry Collins or regret that game at all.
Great post Rob. And for all geniuses out there who know exactly that the pitch count in the no hitter contributed to Johan’s injury……I ask them what pitch did his injury occur on? 102? 113? 127?
Matz in his first full season is learning a lot..I have no problem with Collins decision to yank him with only a 2 run lead..
The above comment about w/l records is spot on often they dont tell the true tale.
Good idea, Jerry. How about Long Island Steve & the Thunderbolts? (/& the Flamethrowers?)
All concerts would be on a seven-song limit.
Hopefully, this hair-band will have a longer life than the Yankees ‘No-runs DMC.’ Somebody’s selling T-shirts cheap.
Since there’s a couple of hours before gametime, and the Ces/Golf horse has been beaten again:
—- Seeing how little Ces exerted himself on the diamond, due to the injury, he probably exerted himself more on the links. The word ‘precaution’ comes to mind. No need to take a chance.
—- When Sandy mentioned ‘bad optics,’ he was being diplomatic, rather than disagree with TC outwardly and publicly. Sandy can double-talk and obfuscate with the best of ’em. And that’s why he told Ces to cut it out. Truth be told, the truth don’t always need to be told.
Actually, he was disagreeing with Collins with his bad optics line. TC firmly stated that he didn’t care about optics. And that’s fair enough I believe. The GM position is more of a PR position than the field manager. Bottom line; 90 year old men play golf every day. I don’t think a world class athlete is too likely to be unable to handle the rigors of such a physically demanding sport. But I get how it doesn’t “look good” to those that make a daily effort to create mountains out of mole hills.
Not sure if you play golf, but I do quite a bit and you utilize your lower body if you’re swinging the club correctly. We have no idea what affected the injury, so why do you keep trying to insist you know?
Sometimes their manager comes on stage two thirds of the way through the encore to pull the plug. Drives fans crazy. The worst part is then he brings out one of the warm up acts!
FANTASTIC!
My last comment on the singing trio of pitchers. When an outfielder who was recently acquired from Cincinnati comes to bat in a close game, the pitchers can sing the misheard ELO lyric, “Don’t bring me down, B-r-r-r-r-uce!”
BRILLIANT!
90-year-old men then don’t go out at night to play baseball while nursing a nagging leg injury —- at least not until their Geritol kicks in.
“Now I’m no doctor,” but it appears from the 5 minutes of golf I’ve ever watched, that it’s more exerting than checkers or chess.
(Sound of mic hitting the ground)
(Applause)
The bullpen has been well rested the last two days. Colon just doesn’t have it tonight unfortunately. Collins needs to get the hook out because this game is still winnable
Oh well. TC tried. But Goeddel didn’t respond.
Collins was very subdued in the post game conference. Not angry or short with the press. It actually seems like a better demeanor…not showing the other team you are flustered. Perhaps he realizes it is out of his control at this point if they don’t start playing better.
As for Cespedes, even when perfectly healthy, he should not play golf more than 3 times a week as it MUST take something off his stamina, even the slightest and does bring with it a risk of injury. Anyone could throw their back out playing golf. He could still get in 250 rounds in the year with my guideline. BTW, his chain smoking probably isn’t so great either…someone will now post that a highly trained athlete can afford to smoke a few packs a day without a loss in performance. Where is Cespedes’ Lung?
Yoenis only chain smokes when playing golf so with Steve D’s new guidelines I’m good to go for the stretch run.
While your at it, better stop him from bowling, window shopping or too many heated croquet matches. He is made of porcelain after all.
I got tendinitis in my wrist from bowling.
You say that in jest, Matt, but given his style of play, I think injuries are actually something of a concern for Cespedes going forward.
He’s not delicate, but he’s no Iron Man, either and really needs to be 100% healthy to play his game. That’s one reason I would be hesitant to give him a long-term contract despite his awesome displays in a Mets uniform.
Left Coast Jerry, sorry I can’t reply directly on a tablet. Re: No runs DMC, I’m just upset that even though the Yankees broke up the band, they’re still playing better than the Mets! Props for the ELO lyric about our Left Fielder, but I have a question: just what *are* they singing instead of “Bruuuuuce”?
According to Wikipedia, lead singer Jeff Lynne made up a word, groos, that he sings on the recording. The article goes on to say that since so many people think he said Bruce, during live performances he sometimes sings Bruce.
Incidentally, “Don’t Bring Me Down” might as well be the theme song for the season.
“You got me runnin’ goin’ out of my mind,
You got me thinkin’ that I’m wastin’ my time.
Don’t bring me down, no no no no no,
I’ll tell you once more before I get off the floor
Don’t bring me down”
I hope our hosts won’t mind that I’m putting a shameless yet appropriate plug here for my band as we recorded and released a cover of ELO’s “Evil Woman” back in January. here is a free link to hear the song: https://soundcloud.com/michael-j-media/evil-woman/s-aYcPu?in=michael-j-media/sets/mike-farley-band-where-we-stand/s-Nr9wF
as for the game last night, I turned it on to see Grandy line into a double play with Reyes running and then Walker strike out. Turned it off, but checked my phone to see Colon gave up 3 runs in the first, and that was enough for me.
Mets season symbolically well-incapsulated: runner gets a huge jump, batter lines into double-play. So it has gone.
6 runs on the night. Can’t fault the bats, even though plenty were left on. Bartolo is a guy who pounds the zone and when their guys are seeing it well you have to hope the ball goes where Mets players are, and that wasn’t the case last night.
Neil is hot.
By now, we expect Colon to have a handful of awful starts each season. Plus, per pre-season plans, at this point of the season, Colon shouldn’t even be starting anymore. He’s doing yeoman’s work.