Tom Brennan and Mack Ade - The Tom and Mack Recap

The Tom and Mack Recap - May 17, 2022

Going into today's doubleheader, one could feel a touch of trepidation.

Coming of their first season's series loss to the Mariners.  Downer.

Marte?  Out on bereavement - sorry for your loss, Starling.

Megill hurt, May hurt, McCann hurt.  

(Does it have something to do with the letter M?)

Nimmo fouls a ball off his leg and leaves game 2.

deGrom? Cautiously optimistic health update, giving us moderate confidence that his arm is not about to fall off, but no concrete assurance as to when the heck he will actually return.

Mack and I remain tied with deGrom in 2022 in innings pitched, and we're proud of it.  Keeping pace with a 2-time Cy Young winner is hard work.  

We do, however, write far more than Jake.  

Question: 

Can the Mets continue to succeed when Jake, Nimmo, Marte, May, Megill, and McCann are all out?  

Time for the Green-Haired Wonder to finally carry this squad a bit.  (OK, his hair is blue, picky, picky.  But he is hitting .229 as a Met after 163 games - gives ya the warm and fuzzies, huh?)

The Mets were starting this series after a Monday rainout with a Tuesday doubleheader - going with their "TW starters" - Trevor Williams and Taijuan Walker - not what many fans would consider to be their strongest fellas. 

But Trevor was outstanding for his 4 shutout innings, eventual winner Jake Reed for boffo for his two innings, and Lugo, Smith, and Diaz strong for an inning each - the only run surrendered being on a Paul Goldschmidt opposite field HR off of Smith, on a 96 MPH heater about 4-6 inches off the plate - tip of hat to Goldie there.

Edwin did surrender a hit and walk - giving fans butterflies - but he knew that for him to escape game one with the same 1.69 ERA as Smith, he had to not allow a run.  He didn't, and fanned his usual 3 batters for his outs, giving him 30 over 16 innings.  Can you imagine in 1969 having a reliever with 30 Ks in 16 innings?  No such animal in 1969. 

Save # 9 for Edwin, hold # 9 for Smith - a couple of "1.69/9" clones.

Hitters chastised by me in writing as recently as just this AM - Dom Smith and Eduardo Escobar - combined to go 4 for 7.  I'm glad I got them going - "Brennan said WHAT??" - it happens all the time LOL.  Glad to help.

Jolting Jeff McNeil added two hits, including a key RBI double, and Jankowski drove in a run, too - that guy deserves his own shirt.

3-1 win.  Sweet.  

My only gripe is I think baseball rules should allow starters to pick up wins after 4 innings, not 5 as is currently the case in our yank-the-starter mentality in baseball today.  Had it been that way, Williams would have gotten a well-deserved win.  Many fans expected him to falter, except he was the one that made Cards hitters falter. 

9 innings, 6 runs allowed, 13 Ks, just one run for our pitchers - hot dog, bro'.

Game 2?

A see saw battle...Taijuan was solid enough if they'd hit for the dude, but the Mets, who were down 3-2 in the 8th, get a double gift in the 8th on a flubbed pop up with Lindor at bat (later walked) and a swinging strike 3 passed ball on Escobar, followed by a clutch opposite field RBI single to tie things at 3.  

But in the 9th, Escobar who had homered and was the beneficiary of the swinging strike 3 Cardinal blunder, made a blunder of his own on a check swing grounder that he triple-clutched on, allowing the speedy O'Neill to beat the throw, driving in the lead run, allowing the Redbirds to take a 4-3 lead.

The Mets came into the bottom of the 9th with a tie for the most 9th inning runs in baseball, and the most 9th inning hits, and picked up a Smith walk, a Guillorme hit.  But Canha fanned, and so did a certain $341 million man whom I will not identify by name (swinging big, missing big) to end it, leaving that tying run in scoring position and falling a run short.  

4-3 loss.  This one felt like a return to 2021.

In the minors: 

A brilliant outing by Miraculous Mike Vasil for St Lucie (just 2 hits, 1 unearned run, 11 Ks; 3-1, 1.85, 0.94 WHIP on the season) and Omar de los Santos stole THREE more bases, upping his remarkable early-season total to 20 in his game # 28 (a Rickey Henderson-like pace of 115 over 162 games), and added 3 RBIs.

Hit-machine Alex Ramirez pumped 2 more hits (47 hits in 31 games, .362).   Kind of made me wish he was batting with 2 outs in the 9th in Queens instead of Lindor.

Ronny Mauricio homered (5) in AA.

While relentless Wyatt Young got on base 2 more times.  The neophyte Young has remarkably been on base 52 times in 30 games this year.

100 MPH reliever Michel Otanez fanned 3 more in 1.1 innings in his emerging, fine season.  In AAA, Nick Plummer hit his 6th in just 80 at bats, with 20 RBIs (.275).  

Lastly, a shout-out to reliever Hunter Parsons in Brooklyn. 14.2 innings, 20 Ks, and an ERA of 0.00 after 2 scoreless tonight.  A 19th rounder in 2019 who is pitching like a first rounder this year.