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.