That Could Have Gone Better

Let’s enjoy the good part first: Noah Syndergaard was unbelievable.

It was clear from the first inning that he had no-hit stuff, which considering Syndergaard doesn’t believe in walks means perfect-game stuff. Every pitch was working, particularly the change-up, against which Cardinal batters had no chance. You could see weary resignation in their faces every time Syndergaard got two strikes. They knew what was coming and it didn’t matter.

And for all that, Syndergaard got nothing. The Mets lost the game and the series, and I can confidently say that they are the worst .652 team in the history of baseball.

The biggest culprit was the defense. Syndergaard went into the seventh with a 2-0 lead, which seemed like a decent margin for error the way he was pitching, except the Mets then started making errors at the margins. First came a fly ball down the left-field line by Tommy Pham, who was death and taxes in this series. Yoenis Cespedes had to go a long way with the sun as a factor, and wound up sliding into the line. The ball bounced off his glove and away for a double. Pham then came home on a little parachute cued out over second base by Marcell Ozuna to make it a 2-1 game. With two out, Met killer Paul DeJong smacked a ball to Todd Frazier‘s right that eluded him, putting runners at second and third. Syndergaard held the lead, but had to fight through a long AB by Kolten Wong to get there, expending pitches he shouldn’t have had to throw in the first place and pushing his tank closer to E.

In the eighth, Greg Garcia led off and hit a hard grounder to Amed Rosario‘s backhand, which he muffed to start the foreboding music playing, particularly as Yadier Molina ambled up to do terrible things to any available Mets. Syndergaard struck Molina out with an evil change-up, but Matt Carpenter was able to solve the change, singling to right and chasing Syndergaard. Robert Gsellman came in and got the double play he was looking for … but one batter after Pham singled to tie up the game. On a day that saw a lot of impressive Syndergaard pitches, the glove Noah hurled into the dugout wall at 90+ had to be up there.

For all that, the Mets looked like they’d pulled off an unlikely, goofy and uplifting win, which is kind of the story of this very weird season so far. This time, Jose Lobaton of all people walked with the bases loaded in the 10th. In came Jeurys Familia to close, and he got two quick outs, just as he had in collecting Tuesday’s surprisingly stress-free save.

But it was not to be. That Damn Pham collected his 43,499th hit of the series, which I’m pretty sure is a record, and the damage was revealed as far more than cosmetic when Jose Martinez socked a ball into the right-center gap. Unlike the debacle in Atlanta, Mickey Callaway had Juan Lagares in for defense, and Lagares had time to get to the ball. Which is as close to a guarantee as there is in a Mets game … except today. Lagares’s first step was tentative, he slowed down on the warning track, realized he was a couple of steps shy, leapt and the ball fell in. The Cardinals had tied it, and then things ground along for a while and eventually the Mets lost. This was the game I expected Tuesday, when the Mets eked out a skinny run and I braced for impact and everything somehow worked out. This time they got that skinny run and I exhaled, only to do a double-take as the Mets came apart just shy of the finish line.

It was nine hours ago and I still find myself shaking my head and muttering about the Martinez double. That’s a play I’ve seen Lagares make 100 times, and I don’t mean that in the generic “I’m surprised and bummed” way. I mean that in the “if I had the search-engine chops and the time I could put together a video of Juan Lagares catching a ball like that 100 times” way.

Cespedes, Rosario, Frazier, Lagares. None of the balls hit to them were automatic outs. All would have been classified as at least good plays, if made. But they weren’t made, and they should have been. There were other problems, to be sure: the Mets played 13 innings and collected one extra-base hit, which is not a winning strategy. But Syndergaard pitched a phenomenal game, was let down defensively by his teammates and walked away with nothing, and all I can do is shake my head and think what a shame it is.