The good news? The Braves lost. And the Mets were so bad so early against the Phillies that all involved — players and fans alike — essentially moved on even before the game was over, cramming it into the memory hole and hurrying away.
Emily and I were at Citi Field, sitting in the front of the Promenade, and things looked fantastic for two innings. David Peterson was electric in the top of the first, pouring in strikes, and the Mets banked two runs on a Jose Iglesias homer followed by some weirdness and Philly misfortune. Peterson gave a run back in the top of the second, yes, but allowed only the one run after facing bases loaded and nobody out. That seemed encouraging at the time.
Nah, it was a mirage. Peterson got shellacked and was removed with two outs in the fourth and the Phils up 4-2 in favor of Adam Ottavino, a Carlos Mendoza move that didn’t work: Ottavino gave up an RBI single to Trea Turner, intentionally walked Bryce Harper, surrendered a trio of steals (!!!) and then served up an Alec Bohm three-run homer that made the rest of the game academic. The only out Ottavino got? It was a third strike on a pitch-clock violation. Ottavino was booed lustily as he departed, which struck me as a bit arbitrary: He was awful, yes, but Peterson hadn’t been much better and was allowed to slink off tactfully unnoticed, and later Huascar Brazoban was lousy but barely acknowledged as he trudged away.
Anyway, the Phillies lashed balls all over the place and stole bases and basically left the Mets spinning like tops. Bohm was in the middle of everything, and so was J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos, and I dunno, it’s possible Darren Daulton and Greg Luzinski came in and doubled off a wall while I was getting a beer. Meanwhile the Mets launched one mid-innings uprising against Cristopher Sanchez, which ended with Pete Alonso getting himself out with one of those frantic I ALONE CAN FIX IT at-bats to which he sometimes falls prey. Honestly, it would have been kinder if he and his teammates hadn’t bothered.
The cheers that were heard after it was de facto over? They were for the Marlins — thanks to the digital era, the applause started even before the scoreboard affixed the F to MIA 4 ATL 3 — and for Eddy Alvarez, who pitched a scoreless ninth that included a strikeout of Weston Wilson. When a position player is cheered for being less terrible than his teammates who are actually paid to pitch, that’s a pretty good indication it wasn’t your night.
Not much good in that one. The only positive from the evening is that at worst we’ll be tied with the Braves going into that series on Tuesday.
There’s no questioning who the best team is the Mets have played when the Phillies are swinging like they were last night
Not sure why you’d be surprised that Ottavino got booed while the other two didn’t. Peterson has built up a lot of good will over the past few months. Hopefully this was just a (uh-oh, second) clunker that will be forgotten in 5 days. And Brazoban tends to give up his frequent runs when no one is paying attention any longer, obviously a result of hardly ever pitching in high-leverage situations.
And as for Alonzo, he’s kind of a batting-inverse of Brazoban, he hits his home runs usually when no one is still paying much attention.
Speaking of nobody paying much attention, they finally fill the house and look what happens.
That Pete at-bat was a classic of his 2024 genre. Take a fat pitch, flail at a bad pitch, get burnt by a good pitch — though he sometimes changes the order.
But to describe it as one of those “I ALONE CAN FIX IT” at-bats (ALL CAPS!) is another classic FAFIF rhetorical flourish … and why we are here each morning, win or lose!
In addition to Daulton and Luzinski, I could swear I saw Mike Schmidt lurking around the batting rack.
As for Pete, he’s been pressing all season, and I think it’s starting to dawn on him (we fans realized it a while ago) that these may be his last at-bats at Citi Field (no matter what happens today and tomorrow, the Mets aren’t clinching anything this weekend). In his desire to do something Piazza-like legendary, he’s only making the problem worse.
For a player who brought such joy to this franchise, it’s painful to watch him right now. Unlike Nimmo a few years ago, he’s having his worst season during his walk year, but also, unlike DeGrom, he clearly wants to stay with the Mets. He should have signed an extension a few years ago, and I think the team would have given him a generous but fair offer, but it seems like things are souring at just the wrong moment, and some team like the Rays or the Rockies may offer him the moon and stars, and Boras will tell him to take it. If he pulls it together in the next few weeks, things may change, but it is feeling like the die is cast.
IMO we should offer him something like the deal he turned down last summer. If he can get better someplace else, good luck to him.
Steve Cohen didn’t make all his money overpaying for an asset declining in value. And I want him to make a huge play for Soto.
And they’re going to need to do this without Lindor. So let’s face reality here.
The Braves loss is good news of course, which guarantees at least a tie going to Atlanta. Another piece of good news is the Royals lost. The Braves will be playing the Royals in their season-ending series. It’s better for the Mets if the Royals are fighting for their playoff life, rather than lining up their rotation and resting players for the wildcard round, when they go to Atlanta. Lugo, you need payback for 2022 too.
The bullpen performance last night against a top contender makes me want Senga to shore up the bullpen even more. At least Mendoza saved his better relievers for games 3 and 4 in what likely was a Mets loss regardless after Peterson got hit.
Besides that he got hit hard for the 2nd time in 3 starts, the disturbing part of Peterson’s performance is Mendoza’s post-game comments that the Phillies adjusted from Peterson’s last start. That’s not a good sign for Peterson versus the step up in competition from here on out that a contender did that. We’ll see how well Peterson counter-adjusts to contenders scouting him the rest of the way.
The news on Lindor’s back just keeps getting worse. He got a “facet” injection in his back. First time I’ve heard of that. At this point, I wonder if Lindor will be able to play even in the post-season, and what kind of shape he’ll be in play if he tries. After Wright, the Mets of all teams need to approach a back injury in their 30-year-old captain on a long-term contract with the utmost care and caution.
The Phillies magic number for clinching the division is now 1. The Mets needed to go 3-1 over the Phillies this series to prevent the Phillies celebrating their division title at Citi Field. At this point, splitting the Phillies series 2-2 is a reasonable goal in terms of the race with the Braves. Emotionally, however, I do not want the Phillies to celebrate their division clincher at Citi Field. It’ll take the Mets winning today and tomorrow to prevent that. Let the Phillies clinch the division and party at home against the Cubs.
not to pile any more on pete but when he droped that. pop-up (close to where he deposited on the other night) i got a bad feeling. it was a free out and psychological opening for a phillies team that got out-battled the previous night.
and pete was clearly affected by the mis-play. it seemed to have a negative affect on his teammates (especially peterson), allowed a run to score and killed the good vibe the mets had re-established after last w/e in philly.
to say nothing of my own vibes.
the defense looked like the mets of may.
amd yes pete had even more ‘reason’ to fix it himself on that bases-loaded, 2-out, season-on-the-line at bat.
this game reminded me of the horrible ending to the ’15 WS when wright, murphy (twice!) and duda sealed the mets’ fate with painful defensive failures. and pete now seems to be in the murphy seat. any desire to keep him undone by failure at the very worst time.
in a couple of hours we’ll see what this team does with one of the most embarrassing deheats of the season.
and i’ll know if i’ll be free of any weekend commitments come october, or even next weekend. there’s museum trip the gf has floated…we may just get out there for that :O[
ps: i DFA’ed ottavino too, not that it makes me feel any better
Whatever is going on with Lindor’s back it’s not minor, given where the Mets are at in the standings, combined with his track record of playing everyday. Really sucks. The Mets are a much better team with him out there.
Get well soon Pacquito
I’m also so tired of the classic Mets fan whining and complaining. It’s not just this thread. It’s elsewhere. If you can’t enjoy these games and support the team after how resilient they’ve shown they are, have you considered what that says about your so-called fandom?
So, complaining about people who complain. Got it….