I liked it better when ballplayers talked about “turning the page” on bad days. Sometime in the past decade or so, turning the page morphed into flushing, and not the charming village in Queens whose northwestern edge we know so well. “You gotta flush it” became the page-turning mantra of choice. Maybe nobody reads printed material enough to know from turning pages. Maybe Mickey Callaway irreversibly coarsened the culture. However the de rigueur phrase to articulate a wish to send the surrendering of a game-losing grand slam swirling through the municipal waste-disposal system became prevalent, the sentiment is immediately understandable in any vernacular.
“I just flush it” is indeed what Edwin Diaz said he does to get past nights like Wednesday. Had he been holding a periodical, perhaps he might have invoked page-turning. Had any of us been holding anything when he threw his fateful slider to Corbin Carroll (the one that was “floating in the zone” like something you’d definitely want to flush), we likely threw it as hard as we could. It wouldn’t have traveled as far as Carroll’s 396-foot four-run homer, but we probably would have launched our object at an exit velocity greater than his dinger’s 102.5 MPH.
But that was Wednesday. Thursday came along. In The Old Ball Game, Frank Deford reminded readers a hundred years after the fact that in 1905, “days of the week in the United States were designated for the appointed household chores.” Monday, he noted, was Washing Day. We can confidently confer upon at least one Thursday in 2024 the designation of Flushing Day. If not for the sticky residue Wednesday left in the Wild Card standings — and within our collective psyche — the Mets played on Thursday afternoon as if Wednesday night’s debacle had surged out to sea with a million tons of raw sewage.
With the first pitch Thursday, the Diamondbacks were no longer the victors from Wednesday. They were a new day’s opponents. The Mets were no longer defeated. The score was even from the get-go. Scoring got going only when Pete Alonso declared it did, at the say-so of his bat, which swatted his 221st career home run in the second inning. With that one swing, the Mets moved one run ahead of Arizona and the Polar Bear moved one homer ahead of Mike Piazza on the franchise’s all-time list. Another swing, this one from Randal Grichuk with Geraldo Perdomo on first, changed the immediate order of things in the third: Snakes 2 Mets 1.
Lucky for us, we’ve got Francisco Lindor and nobody else does. The pitching duel between David Peterson and Ryne Nelson proved unbudging until Lindor led off the top of the sixth by taking three balls, fouling off many a strike and, on the eleventh delivery he saw, smacking a home run to right, not far from the spot Carroll torpedoed his the night before, but who remembered that anymore? In the present, Lindor tied things up at two. Our season all but ended on Wednesday. On Thursday, we were right back in it.
Peterson lasted seven without giving up anything else. David and Sean Manaea are lately Koosman and Matlack for a new century, two lefties you can count on to complement a Seaver (we have a Severino if not a Seaver; you can’t have everything). Nelson was similarly impenetrable, save for the two solo homers belted by the two Met sluggers. Bullpen zeroes were swapped in the eighth, Jose Butto dealing ours, helped by Luis Torrens nailing Joc Pederson trying to steal second with two out amid a three-one count…and Joc Pederson putting his mind aside long enough to attempt such dubious thievery.
In the ninth versus Justin Martinez, Jesse Winker doubled with one out. Tyrone Taylor ran for him. J.D. Martinez shot a liner to deep right that allowed Taylor to tag and advance to third. Do you like where this is going? Jose Iglesias sure did. Iglesias sent a sizzling grounder up the middle that Lindor might have gotten to, but he plays for us, not them. They had Perdomo. If we’d learned anything in this series to this point, beyond the value of turning and flushing, it was that the best place to hit a ball if you can’t hit it over a fence is in the vicinity surrounding Perdomo. The Diamondbacks’ shortstop’s glove made a sweet clanking sound as Iglesias’s ball trickled into center, scoring Taylor with the go-ahead run.
Great, a 3-2 lead to carry into the ninth for our closer.
I said “great.”
No, really.
Our closer was back from Wednesday and ready to be somebody else on Thursday, or at least throw different pitches. Wednesday’s were sliders that didn’t go where we he or we wanted. Thursday he had fastballs. If it were as easy as changing repertoires, every Met in 2012 would have followed R.A. Dickey’s lead and thrown a high, hard knuckleball. For Diaz in 2024, a mechanical flaw was reportedly repaired between Wednesday and Thursday. Will it remain under warranty? That’s for Friday and beyond. On Thursday, Edwin Diaz didn’t generate flashing red lights, screaming sirens and the robot from Lost in Space warning of DANGER! DANGER! That’s what Wednesday felt like even before Edwin made it to the mound. On Thursday, the erstwhile All-Star struck out his first two batters and popped up the third, saving the win for Butto and the season for the rest of us.
Later, the Braves lost to the Phillies, so we’re three out of the six-seed, a pursuit we are compelled to again take seriously now that Flushing Day has passed and Momentum Day has hopefully arrived.
On Wednesday Edwin Diaz did not throw a fateful slider floating in the zone, and Corbin Carroll did not hit it out for a grand slam. It was all just a bad dream…
You know, Pete may not be perfect, but he needs to stay a Met.
This team lacks in several areas but they aren’t short of grit. Nice bounceback. Diaz wouldn’t be the first pitcher not to get back to 100% until the 2nd year after a major injury. Good moment for him.
Peterson may not be an ace (yet), but he stepped up as a stopper against a contender. Winning low-scoring, 1-run games is part of being a contender.
The Mets passed the play up portion of the road trip. I was confident the Mets would hold their own against the Padres and Diamondbacks because the 2024 Mets have played up, and they did again. The Mets came within 2 blown saves of convincingly beating the wildcard leaders in their homes.
Now they’re at the play down portion of the road trip. I’m as anxious about the White Sox as I was confident about the Padres and Diamondbacks because the 2024 Mets play down too. With their historic losing, the White Sox have a legitimate ace, and he’s scheduled for game 3. The Mets have beaten aces with regularity this season, but it’s there. I expect the Mets to win the series, but I don’t expect them to sweep the White Sox. Lose the series to the White Sox 1-2? Not out of the question for these Mets.
Do the Mets need to sweep? That depends on the Braves and, at the moment, the Cubs. As long as they win, then the Mets need to win. When the Braves lose, the Mets need to win. We’re rooting for the Phillies now, but they’re not going to play favorites when it’s the Mets’ turn to play them.
I’m just looking to get to the Atlanta series within 3 games of the wildcard–assuming no one else drops or rises in the standings, which can happen. It’s not too much to ask the Mets to sweep the Braves because the Braves did it to take the division in 2022. With interest, a sweep knocking the Braves out of the playoffs altogether this time around would pay them back. (In that case, beating the Brewers to keep the wildcard probably would be necessary too.) The Mets are back on track.
By every definition of the word, Peterson is the Mets’ ace right now. End of story.
He just beat the Orioles, Padres, and Diamondbacks like an ace. The Mets used the off day to move his rotation spot in order to face the Diamondbacks like an ace.
I want to see more of the same before I consider Peterson an ace. But is he the Mets ace “right now”? Sure looks like it.
See, this proves that had Diaz started the 9th the day before, we would have won.
Not really, but you know what I mean.
Any time I see the names Seaver, Koosman, and Matlack, my heart’s all a-flutter.
Since a bullpen session before yesterday’s game apparently was all that was needed to realign Diaz’s mechanics, then maybe the problem could have been fixed with an extra half-inning of warm-up on Wednesday.
Because Diaz was so adamant and specific about what he was doing wrong and what he needed to do to fix it after he blew the save on Wednesday, I wonder why they failed to fix the problem between the August 25th Padres game and August 28th game.
season over…season on.
we’re in a day at a time mode.
one way to keep the ride smooth:
win every day.
i’d just as soon we meet the braves tied or better and then sweep esp with 3 more v milwaukee.
as for peterson, he’s been pretty acey. maybe skme of that could rub off onto mcgill.
hey mets.
don’t.
play.
down,
“i’d just as soon meet the braves tied or better and then sweep…”
Of course. But: The idea of the Mets needing to sweep the Braves to get into the tournament is growing on me. The Braves needed to sweep the Mets to win the division in 2022, and they did it. Needing to sweep the Braves and the Mets doing it would be sweet payback. If the Mets needed to sweep the Braves, and then swept the Braves to take the wildcard and knock them out of the playoffs, I could hang my hat on that as a Mets fan, even if the Mets then lost in the wildcard round. But if the Mets needed to sweep the Braves and did it, I’d be shocked if those Mets followed that achievement by losing in the wildcard round.
“…esp with 3 more v milwaukee.”
The season-sending series at the Brewers is interesting because the Mets will likely need to beat the Brewers to keep the wildcard if they take the wildcard in Atlanta. The Brewers may well be playing for a higher playoff seed and a 1st round bye. They also may relish determining their wildcard opponent by knocking out the Mets. Looking ahead, the Mets are going to need to fight all the way to game 162.
…and we circle back to
win-every-game ;0]
a chance now for everyone to shine in the final sprint.
mcgill seemed to get that last night.
suspending disbelieving
season over…season on.
we’re in a day at a time mode.
one way to keep the ride smooth:
win every day.
i’d just as soon we meet the braves tied or better and then sweep esp with 3 more v milwaukee.
as for peterson, he’s been pretty acey. maybe skme of that could rub off onto mcgill.
hey mets.
don’t.
play.
down!