Tom Brennan - The Mets Rocket Struggles to Fly With a Busted Patellar

It is hard to fly high with a busted patellar

Denzel Washington in the movie Flight did one heck of a flying job.  

The plane still crashed, of course, but most lives were saved.  

Crashing in a field was the "last place" he expected to end up.

So far this season, the Mets' aircraft has flown pretty well without Senor Patellar, Edwin Diaz, who sported a near-perfect 1.31 ERA and 32 of 35 saves last year. 

They could have used Sir Edwin the Fireballer and his sidekick Tommy Trumpet yesterday.  Drew Smith is a nice pitcher - but Edwin is Ed “Win”.

Remember, if this team wins just one fewer game every 25 games because Diaz is in the hangar getting his patellar fixed, that is 6 or 7 fewer 2023 wins.  The patellar-damaged flight path degradation can be subtle - but you ultimately end up off course and perhaps in Flushing Bay.

Of course it does not help, either, that our "1.75 ERA in 2022 for his former team” mega star has found himself off course, in an inhospitable galaxy called Teres Major.

We were naturally told in late March that Justin Verlander's injury was minor and that he would continue to throw, with Tylor Megill taking Verlander’s place in the Mets’ rotation.  Despite the rhetoric, we all likely sensed right there that "continue to throw" and "actually throw like a megastar in games that count" would be two decidedly different things for quite a while, and we'd be walking through door number two for a lot longer than we hoped.

Meanwhile, in this galaxy, where it counts, Megill is a nice pitcher who sometimes struggles - like he did yesterday, leading ultimately to a loss in a game that our megastar who is now skedootling (or cavorting, if you prefer) around in another galaxy would almost definitely have won.

Reality sucks, and flying without your main patellar is a sometimes turbulent experience at reduced altitude, and sadly, the Mets play their games in this galaxy, not in Teres Major.  Oh, and missing Sticky Fingers for even one start at this juncture is not great, either.

SO, BACK HERE ON EARTH, IN QUEENS MAJOR, ALL I CAN SAY IS:

HELP!!