Imagine being Sam Coonrod.
You go to spring training with a loaded team being talked up as bound for the World Series. You’re being talked up as a prospective member of said team’s bullpen. It’s got to be exciting.
But you don’t get out of March before being felled by a strained lat. The team goes north without you. All you can do is work on your rehab, hoping to heal up. Maybe, you think, you can be ready to go by the time summer’s ending. If so, all is not lost — that’ll be just as the postseason is coming into view.
Coonrod finally arrived Monday night, but these days when people around the Mets talk about the postseason, the logical next question is to ask which year is being discussed. He found a lineup featuring Rafael Ortega and Jonathan Arauz. He came into the game following a two-inning stint by Tyson Miller, who was making his own Mets debut. He handed the ball over to Phil Bickford, who passed the baton to Trevor Gott.
Miller to Coonrod to Bickford to Gott. Ortega and Arauz. Yep, just like we planned it.
And yet here’s the Because Baseball part. Those four relievers covered five innings as a bridge between a shaky Carlos Carrasco and Adam Ottavino, walking a less than ideal four Pirates but allowing a very serviceable lone hit and an as-desired zero runs. Miller got the win in his maiden Met voyage. Arauz clubbed a homer and chipped in some flashy defense at second. Ortega, key to Sunday’s salvage win against the Braves, stole a base.
It was enough to down the Pirates and give the Mets a second straight win, one in which they scored runs in the first six innings, something they hadn’t done in a home game since 1987, when Citi Field was just the vaguest of what-ifs.
It’s a reminder that ballplayers we disdain as waiver-wire chum and Quad-A Plan Es/Fs are still world-class athletes, whose only failing is being among the 1,000 best baseball players on the planet instead of the best 800. And it’s a reminder that even baseball played in garbage time because it has to be can yield little pleasures and little victories.
I bet Sam Coonrod’s happy — as well as Miller and Arauz. Whatever the standings say, they’re allowed to be. And you know what? So are we.
“I bet Sam Coonrod’s happy — as well as Miller and Arauz. Whatever the standings say, they’re allowed to be. And you know what? So are we.”
I beg to disagree.
We are not happy.
We are FINE with a victory. Happiness left on the plane to Houston.
Given the elusiveness of victories this year, I am happy when one arrives. Each game is its own adventure, regardless of the bigger picture. If this is Pollyannish, so be it.
was at the game; literally could not give my tix away.
pleasant enough night at the ballpark. mild, humid, threatened rain held off for the most part. those in attendance seemed to share a smile – yes, we’re diehards/idiots/goofballs.
cookie was odious – 88 pitches in 3 innings – and i guess mets would have been losing badly to any team better than the pirates, who came into the game with the exact same record and rank – 53-65, fourth in their division.
yet as you note, there were several personal milestones: as you note, miller and coonrod; arauz’s first hr as a met; lindor’s 20-20, first since beltran in 2008.
this was only the 2d mets win i’d seen this year at citi field. so yeah i’ll take it.
Yeah, Mets & Pirates had the same record going into the game. The payrolls at the beginning of the season were quite different. By the way, Miller and Coonrad brought the number of new Mets this year to 31, matching last year. I have my own Holy Books and have been scrambling to find cards of the copious number of never was and never will-bes the Mets have been employing of late.
From this year’s crop Brooks Raley was a particular annoyance, though not nearly as bad (in multiple ways) as Fuckin’ Joely.
Well, after a very brief respite, it was back to our regularly scheduled shit-show out at Citi tonight.