The Mets entered this four game series with the largest lead out of all the division winners. The Nationals entered the same series with two starting pitchers injured (the good ones), one starting pitcher struggling, an old roster, and Eric Fedde.
In other words, the Mets are Apollo Creed from the first movie, and the Nationals are Rocky Balboa, having received a final shot at glory for their aging carcass. Of course, the main difference is that Apollo did not take Rocky seriously in that first movie, while I’m sure the Mets are taking the Nationals very, very seriously. The Mets have a chance this weekend to demoralize the Nats and bury them in the standings, as they should be. The Mets can’t give this old, struggling team one last bit of life and belief that they could go all 2019 on the world again.
Instead, and because the Mets couldn’t send a run across the plate against Fedde, Kyle Finnegan and Brad Hand, the Nationals scored that first round knockout as Yan Gomes’ single drove home Juan Soto in the ninth to give the Nationals a 1-0 victory. It was a back and forth affair, just like that first fight, as Joey Meatballs threw five and a third scoreless innings, with that third of an inning being the big news as he was allowed to face the top of the Nationals’ order for a third time. A shift aided single and a walk to Juan Soto ended Lucchesi’s night in the sixth, but a double play got the Mets out of it, much like double plays helped Lucchesi in the 3rd and 4th. Joey Meatballs earned the chance to get pitch in the 6th, but once Soto walked they had to make the decision to go to the ‘pen. They played it correctly all around.
Edwin Diaz was brought in for the 9th inning and also fell victim to a walk by Juan Soto. This time it led off the inning, and though it was the outcome that was supposed to happen, it probably should have happened three pitches earlier as the 3-1 pitch was incorrectly called a strike by Kerwin Danley. Unfortunately, Danley went Tim Peel on the Mets and called a 3-2 strike a ball to Soto, putting the winning run on first base while also putting a look on Luis Rojas’ face as if he just drove 30 minutes home from Wendy’s only to find out that they incorrectly put pickles on his Dave’s double.
3 comments:
People will over-focus on Diaz, forgetting these opponents are major league hitters who can occasionally score. The winning hit, I thought, deserved a tip of the cap to the hitter.
Fans need to focus instead on this: Mets failure to score. The saga of "last in majors" scoring is utterly tiresome to me. even if somewhat understandable with the injuries.
I agree 100% with you Tom. First, Diaz should never have even been in the game at that point. He is the closer. Who would close if they had gone two more scoreless innings and the Mets had pushed a run across in the 12th? That was bad bullpen management. Another case where they have to get a guy stretched out to work two or three innings. Now they have a problem with all the double headers coming up. Fortunately (to my dislike) they are only seven inning games.
The offense has utterly failed over the last 21 innings. They gotta start laying down some bunts or something to make something else happen. The two caught stealings didn't help.
Remember 1969, the Mets need to score - a lot mor - by any means necessary. They have the best ERA in baseball…or they’d be in last place. 100 games left…how about 450 runs? Modest goal.
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