The Mets — yes, those Mets, the ones you root for even though the reason is no longer faintly discernable — won a baseball game.
A baseball game played against the Atlanta Braves, no less.
They won it slowly and then in a hurry and then slowly again: Kodai Senga fell behind 3-0 in the first when he surrendered a bases-clearing double to Marcell Ozuna, but harnessed his ghost fork after that, which gave the Mets time to ambush Yonny Chirinos in the 5th.
That inning featured what might be the least impressive batting around I can recall: a flurry of soft singles, fielders’ choices, three straight walks and a catcher’s interference call. But it was enough to change the score from 3-1 Braves to 5-3 Mets, and then a sharp single from Rafael Ortega gave the Mets a 7-3 lead. Ortega was the first man to bat in the inning and the 10th, collecting bookend singles and reminding all of us that he was pretty effective in an everyday role for the Cubs not all that long ago, and so perhaps shouldn’t be chucked on the mental pile with the rest of the misfit toys filling out the current lineup.
If you detect a certain weariness and cynicism to that perhaps, well, welcome to the 2023 Mets.
The Braves didn’t play with particular urgency once they fell behind, leaving old friend Collin McHugh out there to absorb some innings, which is the right of a first-place team more interested in testing guys and tuning up their roster with the postseason in sight. But being the Braves they still almost caught the Mets, whittling away at the lead with Sean Murphy and Matt Olson homers. 7-6 Mets looked like a recipe for disaster entering the 9th, but Adam Ottavino had one of his better outings of a confounding year, needing just eight pitches to send the Braves away empty-handed for once — and, I imagine, sending Greg and pal Kevin home happy after the baseball equivalent of a MAN BITES DOG story.
There was nothing remarkable about the Braves losing this one — they were auditioning pitchers for roles, one of them ran out of gas and the other one is still looking to fix what’s broke — beyond the fact that we didn’t think the Braves could lose, at least not to us.
But they did, so you’re allowed a little pep in your step pending the Mets reporting for duty against the Pirates. There’s a lot of season left and not a lot of hope attending it, so gather ye rosebuds while ye may and all that.
And they still managed to almost blow it! I was thinking Greg’s presence may have brought the Mets some luck.
Mets are two over .500 at home and I’m one over .500 when watching them there, so we do what we can at Citi Field.
There’s still some small things to savor. The messing up of last night’s ESPN Story Line was fun.
I’m really not a negative, booing, cuss-at-my-players kind of guy… I fashion myself as more of a benevolent type of fan.
Despite this, I find myself yelling “Vientos Sucks!” at the screen about a half-dozen times a night, which are apportioned about equally between his offense and defense.
I’ll try to dig deep down and find some patience for the remainder of the season and give the kid a chance. Maybe.
Might as well. The Mets have Mauricio, Baty, and Acuna waiting behind Vientos if he fails.
Every Mets win is a bit of hope the core that has disappointed since last September can maybe be competitive next season.
Yup, Vientos sucks, and Baty sucked, and Alvy is hitting .220.
I hope all these guys, and all the other mystery men are successful HERE, but if they need to be used as tradebait in order to get a star whose contract is running out, then so be it.
The issue this year was the Core 4 and Marte. All were disappointing, but not really Pete, who played great until he was hit by Morton and then came back too soon.
The idea of trading Alonso is absolutely crazy, as he is one of the best players in baseball.
Pay him for 10 more years and then trade him after 5. As Danny Partridge said to Shirley after Meredith Baxter gave them $1 million dollars, “Why should we work, we’re filthy rich?”
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