That was a bad one.
A bad one as in you shut off the TV and kept fixing it with a thousand-yard stare.
It’s even crueler because once upon a time that was a good one: The Mets came back from a 4-0 deficit, with Harrison Bader striking the big blow, then went ahead when Starling Marte engineered a small-ball run: bunt single, steal, move to third on a Brandon Nimmo grounder to the right side and then score by okey-dokeing rookie catcher Adrian Del Castillo, whose perfunctory tag proved all too easy for Marte to slide around. (The shot of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. sitting in the outfield after seeing a perfect throw go for naught was priceless.)
But that was once upon a time. In the eighth Phil Maton (not Dedniel Nunez, for some reason) walked the leadoff hitter, got a pair of outs and then gave way to Edwin Diaz, who arrived with red flights flashing, as neither the fastball nor the slider looked crisp. He walked Pavin Smith on four pitches, then walked Geraldo Perdomo to load the bases for a resurrected Corbin Carroll. Diaz got a first-pitch strike that probably wasn’t a strike, but you could feel the ax about to fall, as indeed it did: Diaz left a slider in the middle of the plate and Carroll demolished it. It was the same pitch Diaz threw to Jackson Merrill last time we saw him in San Diego, with the same result.
Diaz’s time in New York has certainly been dramatic. His inaugural season was one of the more high-profile debacles in club history, as a lights-out closer turned walking disaster and head case. Somehow he clawed his way out of that vale of despond, and on one of the toughest stages in sports no less, and was embraced as a fan favorite and an icon.
And now, well, he’s turned into Dizzy Dean.
Dean famously suffered a broken toe in an All-Star Game — an innocuous injury, as it didn’t involve Dean’s precious right arm. Except the toe injury caused him to change his mechanics, leading to a cascade of maladies that finished him as a pitcher. Diaz needed a year to recover from a torn patellar tendon suffered in the World Baseball Classic, and while his arm appears sound, clearly something has gone terribly wrong. His slider has lost its bite, going from an unhittable thing that haunts hitters’ dreams to a BP offering that has them licking their chops.
I’m sure the Mets will say stoic and loyal things, sticking by their teammate and believing in him and themselves and all that, but Diaz has become fundamentally untrustworthy. We know it and they know it and worst of all I suspect Diaz knows it.
Meanwhile, the Braves (those annoyingly resilient Braves) are threatening to disappear from view in the wild-card chase, taking the Mets’ playoff hopes with them. But even if the Mets have another hot streak in them, even if they persevere and wind up playing games past No. 162, look me in the eye and tell me you see them getting through October with Diaz closing high-pressure games.
It’s easy to overreact after losing a tough game like that, and it’s even easier to overreact after losing a tough game that ends after midnight, making you question your life choices on top of everything else. But that one felt like the end, didn’t it?
I think I’m not going to watch the standings anymore, and just try and enjoy whatever baseball is left (well, about half of it anyway, at this rate).
That felt like 2019 again.
Mendoza said Nunez was unavailable because Nunez has forearm tightness and inability to recover. That’s what put Nunez on the IL, and he lasted 1 appearance off the IL. I assume Nunez won’t be available again this season, and maybe not next season if surgery is coming next.
The 4-run comeback. Marte manufacturing the go-ahead run with Nimmo getting him over and Alonso getting him in. Brazoban, Young, Garrett, and Maton holding the Diamondbacks in check. The other contenders have pulled ahead of the Mets by consistently winning close games exactly like this one. Mendoza clearly believed his job was done once the 1-run lead was entrusted to his closer. As soon as Maton got through his mandatory 3 batters faced, Diaz came in ASAP. Even if Nunez was available, Mendoza may well have called on Diaz in the same spot. Diaz has done 4-6 out saves when he’s been right. He wasn’t right these last 2 outings.
According to his game log, Diaz was fine before these last 2 outings. Did his pitching go bad all of a sudden? Or has he been getting away with bad pitches for a while? Diaz said he just needs a mechanical tweak, and if his pitching was fine before these last 2 outings, then maybe he can get right quickly, like he says.
“But that one felt like the end, didn’t it?”
It felt like an important late-season exciting win against a contender was ripped away. It was a gut punch in a season that’s had a bunch of them. But no, it didn’t feel like the end because I’m just looking to get to the series in Atlanta within 3 games of the Braves–assuming the Braves are still holding the 3rd wild card at game 157. The Mets are 4 behind now. The Mets did win the 1st game of the series, so they can still win the series today. They should have taken the series last night and be looking to sweep today, to keep up with the Braves’ series sweep, but that chance was choked away.
The Braves have 4 at the Phillies coming up while the Mets are at the White Sox for 3. That’s a realistic chance for the Mets to be back on track, within 3 of the Braves, by the end of the 2 series.
Once Maton got 2 in a row, momentum and common sense said to leave him in, but sometimes Mendy just can’t leave well enough alone, can he.
This game ain’t played by robots, Mendy, and one day you might just learn that (see Senga).
If Maton gets Smith out, Diaz is coming in in the 9th anyway and facing Perdomo and then the top of the order. No runner on 1st, but I doubt that made much difference. Diaz pitched so badly in the 8th from the moment he came in, I believe he would have lost the game whenever he came in to face the same hitters. Carroll walks it off with a 2-run homer instead. Or one of the Diamondbacks following Carroll if Carroll walks to push the tying run into scoring position. Gut punch either way.
“Diaz needed a year to recover from a torn patellar tendon suffered in the World Baseball Classic, and while his arm appears sound, clearly something has gone terribly wrong. His slider has lost its bite, going from an unhittable thing that haunts hitters’ dreams to a BP offering that has them licking their chops.”
Kinetic chain. Diaz didn’t tear his right patellar tendon in the WBC because he caught his spikes going after a dribbler or his feet got tangled with a runner at 1B or home plate. He was just jumping in celebration. It could have happened after a Mets walk-off win or post-season berth clincher. It was an innocuous action that shouldn’t have torn anything. That tells me the tendon was worn to the breaking point, which implies the tendon was an exceptionally high load-bearing part of the kinetic chain of Diaz’s pitching form in 2022. Now that part’s degraded in the kinetic chain, and Diaz hasn’t figured out how to work around it to get back his 2022 form. Maybe there is no way.
yup, i texted a friend after the 8th that the mets were over…we have no closer. turned off the game, there was no coming back from that blow.
the mets had their magic stretch, the break came – and that was pretty much it. senga was brilliant for a day. nunez – a guy who looked like he might *some* day replace diaz – is also one and apparently done.
time to bring up some prospects and enjoy many players while they’re still mets.
boo!
I’m in the blackout area so I was gonna drive up to Chicago and catch one, maybe two of the games this weekend.
Now I’m not.
“Bring up the prospects.” Have you been following Syracuse? Every single prospect pitcher has been not just bad but horrible–including now Sproat with his 8.40 era. Acuna still with .680 OPS, Gilbert hurt for most of year but now at .207, Baty out for year after hitting .260, Mauricio and Jett out all year. Next level down, Parada and Ramirez still weak. Scott may come back in relief in final week if lucky. Something needs to be done about minor league pitching coaching or philospohy.
So I turned the game on in the fifth. D-backs pitcher is hurling a perfect game, Mets down by 4. OK, maybe I’ll go to sleep. Then I said, I’ll just l watch a couple of at bats, then go to sleep. All of a sudden, it’s a tie game. Now what?
I figured there are two possible outcomes. Either the Mets win, in which case I already saw the most exciting part of the game anyway. Or the Mets lose, and I spend the rest of the night kicking myself for putting myself through the agony. In either case, the answer was: go to sleep.
Good call, it turns out.
As for Diaz, I think it’s too early to panic. Edwin has been looking lights out until very recently. He hasn’t had a lot of save situations lately. Yes, the last two blown saves were excruciating, but every closer in history not named Mariano has had a few stretches like that every now and then. Let’s see if the coaches can tweak him a little and make sure he doesn’t give up on himself. Here’s hoping that Sugar regains his sweetness soon.
The Marte-manufactured run that took the lead was exciting.
“Edwin has been looking lights out until very recently. … Let’s see if the coaches can tweak him a little and make sure he doesn’t give up on himself.”
That’s why I wondered if Diaz had been pitching worse for longer than these last 2 outings, yet we didn’t notice because he got away with it and the results were good. If Diaz’s pitching had been fine and just took a sudden bad turn, then a mechanical tweak could be all it takes to get him right quickly, like he says. His pitches were so bad in his last 2 outings, I can believe he just got off form. Bad time for it, and it would have been better to fix his form before he failed a 2nd time, but if all it takes is a quick fix, it’s not too late yet: the Mets are still in the race.
……aaaand, the Sugar is back! (We hope.)
Diaz only threw 1 slider, though. Apparently that pitch is still in the workshop. But it was good to see him control his fastball again. Over the long run, I don’t know that Diaz can do his job relying on his fastball alone, like Rivera did with his cutter, but as long as it works well enough to get the Mets the 3rd wildcard, that’s what matters for now.
You never can know…
I can just as easily say that in the WBC, since Diaz did not hurt himself during the game, and had he not been jumping around, he would not have hurt himself at all, and would still be the effective Timmy Trumpet guy we all knew and loved.
You cannot assume it would have happened anyway while taking out the garbage or something after the game.
You can never know…
these celebratory scrums are by adults are stoopid. and edwin wasn’t the first superstar to get hurt in one.
high-fives and man hugs would be better all around.
ultimately i blame edwin’s brother for this latest installment of ‘we can’t have nice things’
i did really like this mets team…until they stopped hitting.
if the mets don’t win a championship by ’26, we’ll be at 40 years and counting!
bring up the prospects.
Sung to the tune of “Monday Monday”
Mendy Mendy
Can’t trust that name
Mendy Mendy
Leaving Maton in
Would have won you that game!
“…that one felt like the end, didn’t it?”
Yep. The spring surge was a lot of fun but it was always a mirage. This is not a playoff team, and if they miraculously landed a spot they’d be dispatched forthwith. Lindor is the only All-Star performer on the roster. I’m hoping desperately this sophomore slump by Alvarez resolves itself, because he could be one too. And Vientos is clearly a keeper. The rest of the team is a melange of mediocrity and outright suck. Playoff teams don’t run out guys like Taylor and Winker. NcNeil, Nimmo and Alonso are complementary players at best, not franchise pillars. The pitching situation is dire – who’s on the farm showing promise?
Oh well, ’86 was fun.
Let’s not think of it as the end, let’s think of it as the beginning of 2025.
…as in better luck next year, words tattooed on the consciousness of every met fan.
it’s gonna have to be a busy off-season.
“it was always a mirage…if they miraculously landed a spot [in the playoffs] they’d be dispatched forthwith”
I don’t agree with this. In between the gut punch losses and frustrating losses to cellar dwellers, the Mets have consistently held their own against contenders. Even most recently, the Mets went 2-2 at the Padres and won the 1st game from the Diamondbacks. The sweep loss to the Mariners has been the exception. The Mets wouldn’t be a favorite of course–just as the 3rd wildcard, league champion 2022 Phillies and 2023 Diamondbacks weren’t favorites–but the Mets season record versus contenders says they have a legitimate shot if they get in. The Mets winning in the playoffs would not be a surprise.
The harder part for the 2024 Mets is landing a spot in the playoffs, not winning if they get there. It may take a baseball miracle to get there, the way things are going, but that’s happened before.
Consider this: The way things are going, winning the 3rd wildcard may well require the Mets to sweep the Braves next month like the Braves swept the Mets in 2022 to take the division. If that ‘miracle’ happens, I think we’ll be optimistic looking forward to the wildcard series at the Brewers, more so if the Mets beat Brewers in the regular season-ending series. And if the Mets need to sweep the Braves to take a wildcard, they’ll probably need to beat the Brewers too to keep it.
All due respect, but I never understand when people dismiss Pete Alonso as a “complementary player at best.” Yes, he’s having an off year by Alonso standards, but he’s still on a pace to hit 34 home runs this year, good for 17th best in Mets history. If he stays a Met next year and isn’t injured, he will shatter Darryl Strawberry’s all time Met home run record. And his play in the field may not be Hernandez-esque, but it has improved dramatically. If he leaves as a free agent, he will come back to haunt us, and many of his present detractors will rake Stearns over the coals for letting him go. Just a prediction.
“Playoff teams don’t run out guys like Taylor and Winker.”
I guess you haven’t looked at the Braves roster and line-ups lately. But I guess the Braves don’t count since any player they take off the scrap heap is likely to provide borderline all-star, clutch production over the stretch run.
Mendoza brought Diaz in with two outs in the 8th to slam the door. Whoops!
Corbin Carroll slammed the door.
…while we’re on mendoza:
lets say he pulls quintana out of rotation after first august shellac’ing, slots in butto, and does same for the dreadful brazoban after he blows a lead his first time out. that’s 4 games we have a chance of getting back in the standings. now leave maton in and let anyone but diaz close it out and maybe last night has a different ending. mets up over ATL by one game.
mendoza’s done an admirable job for the most part but with the NLDH, managers feel the need to do *something* with their pitchers, as they never *have* to make a tough call when the pitcher’s at bat looms and runs are needed.
maton got into and back out of trouble. where’s a pitching coach urging skip not to mess with a good thing, esp when diaz just blew his last game??
i *don’t* trust that brain trust.
…as in better luck next year, words tattooed on the consciousness of every met fan.
it’s gonna have to be a busy off-season.
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