Saturday night’s game between the Mets and Reds was one of those close affairs you’re not sure whether to call taut or merely indifferent. The Mets harried Andrew Abbott but couldn’t inflict substantial damage on him; the Reds tormented Tylor Megill but couldn’t put him away either. For the second game in a row, matters turned on a two-run blast by a Red — Jonathan India last night, the prodigiously monikered Christian Encarnacion-Strand tonight.
Though this time the margin was tighter, and so if you were feeling masochistic you could look to a misplay featuring a pair of Baby Mets: Francisco Alvarez loves to make snap throws to the bases, and Ronny Mauricio either didn’t get the memo or couldn’t read it quite fast enough. Alvarez’s throw sailed down the third-base line, TJ Friedl scampered home, and in the end the Mets lost by a run.
Lost, but hey, it’s garbage time. Megill was out there working on things, just like David Peterson was the night before, and those lessons may prove fruitful in some better season down the line. Mauricio got some time at third — albeit with some bruises — and his bat still looks live. Alvarez had a fine game at the plate, which shouldn’t be overlooked in the closing weeks of a season that’s taxed him physically and mentally as never before.
And your recapper spent the afternoon and early evening in a house without power, courtesy of the winds of Hurricane Lee blasting by to the east of Maine. Besides bringing down a critical power line somewhere, those winds felled a big pine that settled across the dirt road to the house.
As an ax wielder, I’m a heckuva blogger. Still, this unanticipated mission was eventually accomplished, and though I braced for a couple of nights of eating Pop-Tarts in the dark, the power kicked back on right after 7 pm, just in time for baseball.
Losing a meaningless game to the Reds? Not really so bad.
Glad you made it through the storm ok. As for the game? Meh. Mets did some good things and some not so good things.
Gotta tip my cap to the Reds bullpen. That was impressive. Lot of good OF defense too. I think I like that team when they aren’t playin bus.
Reds have been a lot of fun all year, and I am pulling for ’em. Rooting against Cubs due to Stroman. Against Texas due to deGrom and Scherzer, whether they are hurt or not, they would still get rings. Against Miami, because, to us, they are Torture Incorporated.
So need to go for Philly, Reds, and Ariz/SF. And for Houston and Toronto to overtake Texas.
Gary Cohen has been conspicuously enthusiastic lately about how hard the Mets continue to play and how competitive their at-bats continue to be late in the season.
That’s nice, Gary. They’re still 68-80. That’s still a complete and utter embarrassment, with no guarantee that next year will actually be better.
I’m not sure when or why Gary Cohen turned into Warner Fusselle, but I don’t need to hear it.
Cohen is rapidly descending into a fanboy, especially regarding Lindor.
It’s Gary’s job to make the games sound interesting, but what’s annoying is that Gary and Keith seem to be under the impression that had the Mets kept the team intact, they had a good chance of making a wildcard run. The thing is, even with the team as configured, they were going nowhere with no indication that they could turn things around. Do they think Scherzer and Verlander were suddenly going to turn things around?
I think they had a chance.
Starting pitching was coming around with Q and V, and Senga, and Scherzer was on the verge. With their starting lineup even playing regular….
The Mets have gone 21-26 since the sell-off. The way I speculate the ‘what if’ is to flip the W-L record to 26-21, which isn’t an unreasonable difference. 5 games. The Mets would be 74-75 and 3.5 games out of the 3rd wildcard right now with their remaining 4 series being 2 vs the Marlins and 2 vs the Phillies. 5 of the 6 teams ahead of the Mets would be within 4 games. The 6th team, the Phillies, would be 7 in front of the Mets with 7 to play vs the Mets. I don’t know what the Cubs, Reds, Diamondbacks, and Giants’ schedules are, but if the Mets could take care of the Marlins and Phillies, they’d need just 2 of the 4 other teams to choke over their last 12-13 games.
“And your recapper spent the afternoon and early evening in a house without power, courtesy of the winds of Hurricane Lee blasting by to the east of Maine. Besides bringing down a critical power line somewhere, those winds felled a big pine that settled across the dirt road to the house” sounds like the opening of a Stephen King story, say the The Mist.
As is at 69-80 without a reasonable hope to even finish at .500, spoiling the Diamondbacks or Reds’ wildcard bid is one thing. Spoiling the wildcard for the Marlins and maybe the Phillies is something else, though the Mets of today may not have the emotional association with that idea that their fans do.
Forgot to mention also need SEATTLE to stay ahead of Texas as well.
Thing is, with 20 teams all tied for the final playoff spots, its really just a mess, with nobody ahead of anybody, and so no real catching up to do for anybody.
BTW, there’s some rumor going around that LA and Atlanta have clinched something called FIRST PLACE? Remember when THAT was a thing?
Now all anybody cares about are some average teams fighting for a 3RD WC spot.
Is this really more exciting than it used to be?