In the top of the first against the playoff-bound Brewers Friday night, the Mets saw 39 pitches from Eric Lauer [1], were at bat for 20 minutes … and somehow scored one run. There’s a microcosm of their season: inefficient, unlucky, infuriating even when they manage to do something positive.
In the bottom of the first against the playoff-bound Brewers Friday night, Tylor Megill [2]‘s sixth pitch was a four-seamer without much steam or movement. Kolten Wong [3] hit it over the fence, erasing the Mets’ lead in a heartbeat and giving you the distinct impression that it was going to be a long night [4]. There’s another microcosm of the season.
Megill’s exceeded his previous workloads by a fair amount, the arm’s come up a little short, and now the confidence looks like it’s eroding too. (See also: Taijuan Walker [5].) Yet he’s still out there for some reason — stubbornness, neglect, the lack of any better plan. He gave up back-to-back homers in the third to Willy Adames [6] and Christian Yelich [7] and was done after four. Meanwhile, the Mets let Lauer find his footing and did nothing else against him, trudging through yet another dreary loss against a team whose class they clearly aren’t in.
(You know what might keep me more invested as garbage time creeps along? A peek at a September call-up or two. But as Greg chronicled earlier [8], MLB — in its ever-infinite wisdom — has now taken away that small pleasure too. I get the problem with playoff contenders having to fight through waves of fire-armed relievers for whom scouting reports are scanty. But why not tell teams they can call up the entire 40-man roster but only dress 28 for each game? Toss bathwater, dry off baby.)
Anyway, this leads to the third microcosm of the season: After Pete Alonso [9] struck out in the sixth, I turned off my TV. I’ll head to Citi Field one more time next week and watch the games when they’re in front of me and life isn’t in the way, but my personal elimination number? It’s been reached.