• The Mets lost, 5-2, at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday night [1], completing a weekend in which there was a definitive milestone of futility planted every step along the way. Sunday’s wasn’t as momentous as clinching a losing record (Thursday [2]), being mathematically eliminated from postseason contention (Friday [3]) or assuring the 2023 Mets would drop further from their previous year’s record than any Mets team before them (Saturday [4]), but by losing, the Mets did fall to 14 games under .500 for the first time this season. There are always new depths to plumb with this team.
• The Mets were swept four by the Phillies, who had plenty to play for and played like it. So much for the spoiler role fitting this team like one of Francisco Lindor’s designer gloves.
• Impromptu Sunday Night Baseball — a 6:05 PM start was set Saturday night when the Phillies realized the scheduled one o’clock first pitch did not mesh with the ominous forecast — isn’t such a bad proposition when ESPN isn’t involved. Good advance contingency thinking rather than telling the fans to come to the ballpark and wait and wait for a window.
• The Mets lost on Fox/Channel 9 Thursday night, Apple TV+ Friday night, SNY Saturday evening and PIX11 on Sunday night. Four consecutive losses in the same series on four different frequencies must be some kind of record, unless you listened on the radio, in which case it was a lot of same spit, different day.
• Ronny Mauricio [5] left the One Met Homer Only club, which is a fine club to join, but not so great a club to linger within. Mauricio exited by swatting for his second home run a Cristopher Sanchez pitch that was a little more than a foot off the ground when Ronny connected with it. It came down over the left field wall, 389 feet from home plate, having departed the young man’s lumber at a velocity of 112.9 MPH (which experts say is quite the thwack). A runner was on base at the time, the time being the top of the sixth inning. Up to that point, the Mets trailed, 5-0, indicating Mauricio was responsible for the entirety of his club’s offense.
• Sanchez went untouched by the Mets, except for that home run ball (which would have been a scorekeeping ball had Mauricio declined to swing, because it was barely off the ground). The Phillie starter lasted through seven, striking out ten, allowing only three hits and one walk. Jose Butto [6], on the other hand, took a step back from the progress he’d shown in recent outings. Only four innings for Jose, with four runs and four hits. Fours were not lucky in this case.
• Butto’s presence on the CBP mound had me thinking back to 2022, which is a dangerous exercise for anybody who’s been watching the Mets throughout 2023. Butto, called up to make his big league debut in Philly, started The Mark Canha Game, which became The Mark Canha Game (also The Nate Fisher Game) after Butto dug the Mets a relatively deep hole that cloudy Sunday, leaving the Mets down, 7-4 after four. Four wasn’t altogether unlucky in that case, as the Mets came back to win, 10-9. The 2022 Mets would forge that kind of comeback now and then. Those were the Damn Thing [7] days, my friend…we thought they’d never end. Or at least go on for another year.
• Hello to Long Island’s Own Anthony Kay [8], the 1,218th Met overall and a fellow who can be said to have waited longer than most Mets to become Mets. We drafted him in 2013 (didn’t sign). We drafted him anew in 2016 (he did sign). We traded him in 2019 (for Marcus Stroman, who had one of those eventful Met tenures that a couple of years later doesn’t seem like it actually happened). We grabbed LIOAK back on waivers recently and called him up to fortify the bullpen from the left side, which he did with a scoreless inning-and-a-third Sunday. Who says you can’t go home again for the first time?
• So long to Peyton Battenfield [9], who was called up Friday to replace Jeff Brigham, yet was not afforded the opportunity to tell his friends and family that he was the 1,218th Met Overall. Buck Showalter, apparently, was not lovin’ a Battenfield. Peyton sat for two games and was optioned to Syracuse to make room for Kay. Given that the Triple-A season is over, that’s a pretty cold place to send somebody. And Syracuse gets pretty cold as is.
• Hi from across the field to brand new major leaguer Orion Kerkering, hot Phillies prospect who came into pitch the eighth and made three Mets batters appear totally ineffectual. I mean more than usual for this weekend. I wouldn’t normally get caught up in any opponent’s success at the expense of the Mets, especially not one who could be haunting us in the division for years to come, but a) Kerkering’s dad was caught on camera in absolute tears at the sight of his son’s debut; and b) Orion Kerkering is a USF Bull. Or was until he was drafted by the Phillies in 2022. I, too, was/am a USF Bull, albeit of a much earlier vintage. For one eighth inning on one Sunday night when the Mets were sleeping through their classes, I’ll give a Horns Up to the kid.
• Congratulations to my and Orion Kerkering’s USF Bulls for beating the Rice Owls, 42-29 in Saturday’s college gridiron action. Our USF Bulls haven’t made a habit of winning at football lately. Given that the Mets couldn’t take even one of four games from the Phillies; and that neither the Giants nor Jets could succeed between Thursday night and Sunday afternoon; and that even the formidable ladies of the Liberty were pretty much trounced in their WNBA semifinal playoff game, I need to bask in whatever victory I can find. Orion Kerkering and I are thus stoked about our Bulls boiling Rice.
• Happy Elimination Day, which arrived a couple of hours before Kol Nidre services, to all who observe. Like the Mets’ lack of postseason plans, the Yankees’ absence from October had been a virtually sure thing for months, but why let a festive annual occasion [10], however low-key it may feel this fall, pass without acknowledging its blessed nature? Good luck to every remaining American League Wild Card contender. Each of you is a winner in my eyes.
• Back on our going-nowhere end of town, six games remain, all at home. That’s 54 innings of Mets baseball, give or take, until there are none. I’ll probably need another week to get altogether melancholic about that. Spoilerwise, the Mets can still debone the Marlins a bit. The Phillies should have the NL’s four-seed locked down by next weekend. Honestly, the implications are light. Barring rain that can’t be worked around, the 2023 Mets can win as many as 77 games once over is over, or lose as many as 91. There is no good won-lost record at the end of this rainbow. There will be goodbye, though. Some years, that is for the best.