After five days of electric baseball, the Mets once again look like someone pulled the plug out of the wall.
At least — and those are never good words to see up high in a recap — this time they didn’t look flat enough to slip under a door, the way they did in the opener against the Cubs. They just couldn’t do anything with Marcus Stroman [1], a Met I was fond of before he turned prickly and strange, or perhaps was revealed to have been that way all along. Whatever you think of Stroman, he had it all working [2] on Wednesday night. Met after Met pounded balls into the ground to be hoovered up by Cub infielders, with Stroman himself turning a lickety-split double play that reminded you he’d come by his Gold Glove honestly. He put more than a little mustard on a play or two and clearly revelled in taking it to his old team — and that’s fine, baseball needn’t be played like it’s being played by a convention of stoics gathered in a library reading room.
The Mets’ highlights? There was exactly one: Francisco Alvarez [3] socking a line drive through the Wrigley winds into the bleachers and giving the Mets a brief-lived 2-0 lead. Starling Marte [4] showed some signs of life with a determined walk, I suppose, but that feels like awfully faint praise. The bullpen was good after Drew Smith [5]. Other than that? Pete Alonso [6] made a horrid baserunning blunder, while Kodai Senga [7]‘s accomplishment was merely being beaten instead of getting trucked. The game ended with the Mets trudging away sporting creased brows, faraway looks and a .500 record.
What’s to be done? Maybe move on from the back-of-the-milk carton trio of Marte, Daniel Vogelbach [8] and Mark Canha [9], who’ve been plaintively asking HAVE YOU SEEN ME? all season with June coming up fast? Give more ABs to Mark Vientos [10]? See if Ronny Mauricio [11]‘s ready for the next stage? Wait for this weird-ass Dr. Jekyll of a team to turn back into Mr. Hyde? (Or is that the other way around?) Get special dispensation to stop playing at Wrigley, which has inexplicably been a house of horrors for years now? Do nothing and simply hang on for dear life while plummeting down chutes and zipping up ladders in a season that’s been determinedly, almost defiantly unpredictable?
They could win the next one, I guess. (The Cubs are sending out a starter with an ERA north of 8 … but then so are the Mets.) Winning always helps.