Metstradamus - The Signs Are There If You Look Closely

 

By metstradamus | September 3, 2021 12:11 am

Once again, the Mets did what they had to do, beating the Marlins 4-3, sweeping the series, and continuing for now the recent trend of beating the teams they’re supposed to beat.

I think it’s in Carlos Carrasco’s contract to give up two runs in the first inning every start. (I don’t know who his agent is but that probably wasn’t a smart clause.) He gave up a third run after Aaron Loup walked home a one of Carrasco’s inherited runners in the 6th to tie the game, but since then the bullpen was lights out thanks to Loup, Jeurys Familia, Trevor May and Edwin Diaz, and Dom Smith’s RBI single in the 7th gave the Mets the lead for good. Maybe it also started the turn of luck in the Mets’ favor, as it ticked off Jesus Aguilar’s glove, which turned it from a sure foul ball into a fair ball as Aguilar himself was in fair territory as the ball was screaming foul. These are the breaks that have been absent in the last few weeks.

Sep 2, 2021; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets catcher Patrick Mazeika (76) runs to third base in the seventh inning against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

But more than the runs, this game was about looking for any sort of signs that this team is in the right frame of mind. The players can tell us all they want that they are and to be fair, fans sometimes see bad at-bats and general lack of hitting as “this team has no fire and no heart”, which is silly. Good pitching can make any team look like they don’t care. But if you want to see signs that they care, consider the following:

Top of the 5th: Bryan de la Cruz flies into a double play as Jorge Alfaro was late getting back to first. But he was late getting back to first because Javy Báez deked him into thinking the ball was somewhere else other than getting to Michael Conforto on the fly. It’s that kind of heady play that has been Báez’s hallmark, and the fact that he’s still gives a shit enough to do things like that shouldn’t be dismissed as a minor detail. That’s a huge part of why the Mets got him.

To continue reading click here.