Try to remember that Francisco Alvarez [1] is all of 21.
The kid was the last out of Tuesday night’s game against the Padres, batting with the tying run on second. He was facing Josh Hader [2], whose wildness had gotten him into trouble that inning but arguably served him well against Alvarez. Hader threw two balls to Alvarez, the second one forcing him backwards into the dirt, then got two swinging strikes on fastballs at the top of the zone and above it, with Alvarez clearly overeager on both. The kid laid off the next pitch, which was juuuuust a bit outside — but which set up the fatal seventh pitch. That one followed the opposite trajectory, boring in on Alvarez’s hands. It was a ball, but that wasn’t apparent until after the fact — in the moment, it wasn’t a pitch anyone could take, or that anyone could hit. It tied up Alvarez for strike three and the ballgame [3].
Sigh.
Alvarez has things to learn, and those are the kind of ABs that count as tough teachers. If you want to put that on him, well, I guess that’s your privilege. Things that shouldn’t be put on Alvarez include the Mets’ inability to cash in early opportunities, or Dennis Santana [4] surrendering a home run to Xander Bogaerts [5] that should be conking some unfortunate in Portugal on the noggin right about now. Those missteps and the woulda shoulda coulda of that ninth-inning mutterfest put this one in the category of “games I’d like to never think about again, thanks,” though we’ll put an asterisk on David Peterson [6] for pitching quite well against a deadly Padres lineup, at least until Manny Machado [7] prevailed in a hard-fought battle that tipped a tight game in San Diego’s direction.
There was also the presence of David Weathers [8], who was a Met about 19 minutes ago, or so my brain told me when I recognized him chatting with Steve Gelbs. Nope, Weathers’ Mets tenure somehow ended 19 years ago after two and a half pretty solid seasons for terrible Mets clubs; he was there watching his son Ryan ply the family trade against his old club.
Yes, David Weathers has a kid who’s a big-league pitcher. (BTW, the Padres’ Brent Honeywell is a cousin of momentary Met Mike Marshall [9] — the cerebral pitcher turned kinesiologist, not the annoying first baseman [10] — because of course he is.) We’ll blink our eyes and Francisco Alvarez will have an impossibly grown-up kid of his own, maybe even one billed as a can’t-miss prospect. Maybe even one we’ll watch as he learns that even can’t-miss prospects have to take a few lumps on their way up Mount Ballyhoo.