Mets’ Needs Met

The Mets needed lengthy starting pitching in their Saturday afternoon makeup of Friday night’s snowout, since it was to be followed by a regularly scheduled Saturday night game, and they pretty much got it. Carlos Carrasco, in his first Coors Field start (and probably the first game he’s pitched on May 21 that was postponed by snow on May 20), went five-and-a-third and held the Rockies to one run. That’ll take some pressure off your bullpen.

The Mets needed dependable relief pitching Saturday afternoon. They need dependable relief pitching every morning, noon and night, but when you find yourself with two games in one day and another game the next day, you’d prefer to not blow out your bullpen before the second game of your series. Adam Ottavino got the Mets through the two-thirds of the sixth that remained after Carrasco left. Drew Smith was back to his solid self with a solid seventh. And classic Six-Out Seth Lugo reappeared from late frames past, pitching the eighth and the ninth, which was big both because you want six outs with minimal fuss and you want your usual closing option, Edwin Diaz, available for the night game. All told, Carrasco, Ottavino, Smith and Lugo teamed to hold the Rockies to fewer than two runs, something no opposition pitching staff had done at Coors Field for 84 consecutive games. It was a National League record. It still is, but it’s now over as an active streak.

The Mets needed more than one run if that’s all they were going to give up to the Rockies. They got it two batters into the game. Brandon Nimmo from nearby Wyoming — Rocky Mountain geography is different from yours and mine — reached on an infield single and Starling Marte deposited the first pitch he saw beyond the reach of the outfield. One swing after time on the bereavement list for Starling, two runs scored. The Mets needed Starling Marte.

The Mets needed Patrick Mazeika to catch at least one of these games not to mention all of those pitchers. Mazeika did that and hit, too. In the second, Dom Smith was on second, Luis Guillorme was on first and Patrick was at bat. The catcher who’d be at Syracuse had James McCann’s hamate bone not required repair stepped up and doubled both runners home. By the time Cookie was back on the mound for the bottom of the second, he was staked to a 4-0 lead.

You can never have too many runs at Coors Field, it is said, yet the Mets had enough. They went on to win, 5-1, and, unlike stray dollops of snow in the sights of the Coors Field grounds crew, didn’t have to worry about being swept on Saturday. The Mets have won at least one game in every doubleheader they’ve played this year and last, nineteen thus far. They also won that unofficial doubleheader at the end of August, the one that commenced by continuing a suspended game that had barely begun in April. So although we as fans tend to approach two games at once with a degree of trepidation, the Mets evince no fear, no matter how few degrees are in the air in Colorado on a given weekend in late May.

We’re fans. We worry about everything. On to worrying about Saturday night.