Oh, right. Winning streaks don’t continue into eternity [1]. I’d almost forgotten.
If the Mets had to lose for the first time after doing nothing but winning for six games, the way they went down on a chilly, sunny Wednesday at Citi Field was about as acceptable an aberration applicable to the assignment as could be asked for. Not that you’d ask for it, but sooner or later, the perpetually pesky Pesci are gonna bite ya. Better a definitive defeat than one of those Marlin specials that involves the jaws of victory being snatched from, usually via a wild fling to the backstop at the most critical of junctures or some similar lulu of an inflection point.
Nah, this was just the kind of loss you get because now and then you’re gonna lose. It still sucked, but it could have sucked more. How’s that for spoonful of rationalization?
Through eight innings, the matinee did verge on agonizing, as the only two runs on the board, both scored by Miami, came about courtesy of shaky New York defense in the fifth. Brett Baty, a third baseman learning to play second, overthrew Francisco Lindor, allowing the runner Brett thought he might get, Kyle Stowers, to advance an extra ninety feet. From third, Stowers had no problem scoring on the succeeding Matt Mervis single. And the fellow who hit the ball that moved Stowers along in the first place, Jonah Bride, crossed the plate from second base after Brandon Nimmo neither caught nor corralled a two-out Nick Fortes blooper that appeared catchable and corralable.
The interim result stood as an immensely frustrating 2-0 deficit for the longest time, though, honestly, Tylor Megill wasn’t sharp in his four-plus innings (90 pitches), while Max Meyer went largely untouched through six-and-a-third. Lindor disrupted Meyer’s no-hit bid in the sixth, only to be erased on Juan Soto’s subsequent double play grounder. Pete Alonso led off the seventh with a single, but Anthony Bender entered with one out to finish off that semblance of a threat.
The Yeomen from the Bullpen did their thing following Megill. Max Kranick should have gotten out of the fifth unscathed and was splendid in the sixth. Ryne Stanek and Huascar Brazoban took care of the seventh and eighth. I held out hope for Mets Magic as the game stayed close, but Edwin Diaz came on for the ninth mostly to get some work in, and it showed. Soon it was 5-0, and I remembered that no team — not even one that surged into first place for a day — stays unbeatable.
A 5-1 homestand that withstood the Blue Jays altogether, the Marlins mostly, and the elements with sufficient layering was a representative enough sample of what the 2025 Mets can do. They did it without much from their second base on-the-job trainee, not to mention their actual third baseman who seems to have forgotten he ascended to the cusp of stardom last October. Given that neither of the erstwhile Baby Mets is off to a flying start, maybe it’s crossed your mind to option Baty (.111) or Mark Vientos (.119) to the minors. MLB has a more expansive solution: send the entirety of the club to a Triple-A facility for the weekend. Next stop for the Mets is the home of the Sacramento River Cats and their cohabitants for a couple or more years, the No Longer Oakland Athletics.
I’ve watched a few innings of A’s baseball as it’s played under the lights of Sutter Health Park. My main impression was it sure is minor league. À la Hoosiers, however, the distance from home to first is the same as it is in the majors, so it’ll do for three games. The A’s will be there longer, until Las Vegas either builds them a palace or comes to its senses. What this Mets @ A’s matchup will miss by not evoking the vestigial aura of 1973 it will gain in novelty. It’s just one series. If Rob Manfred doesn’t mind this sort of thing, why should we?
Because we’re baseball fans.