Paul Articulates – The Grimmace is dead

On Saturday, July 27th at about 4:30pm, the Grimmace was viciously murdered by a Matt Olsen home run to left center field which pierced the hearts of Mets fans everywhere.  

Yes, Marcell Ozuna had hit a 423 foot shot just before that but it could have been justified as a single mistake by Tylor Megill.  

Olsen’s shot did the damage – it signified that the Braves were back.  The Mets acknowledged that fact by reverting to their former selves and going scoreless for 16 consecutive innings.

Sadly, it was the combination of Tylor Megill and David Peterson, two Mets pitchers that came up in 2021 with great promise as part of the future for a New York Mets staff that had a long legacy of excellence on the mound.  

Those two pitchers always seemed close, but just could not string great games together – a bad inning, a couple of untimely mistakes, an unexpected injury were just some of the things that held them back from achieving their promise.  

And now, after taking the first two games from the reeling Braves and passing them in the wild card standings, the Mets pitchers opened the door and let the Braves back in.  Those Braves did not look like the team that used to have the Mets’ number in past years.  

They did not have a formidable 1-9 lineup, didn’t have an endless supply of quality arms that had come up through their system, and didn’t even have any swagger left as they gave away game one and then dropped their heads as the Mets hitters circled the bases in a game two rout.

On Saturday Ozuna homered; Olsen homered; Rosario homered.  On Sunday Olsen homered again; Arcia homered; Riley homered; Laureano (Thursday’s goat) homered.  Every one of those shots went through the heart of the Grimmace, the Mets fans, and the momentum that the team had built over an incredible 31-13 run since their May nadir.   

The Grimmace left Citi Field in a hearse and the Braves left Citi Field feeling like they had gotten their mojo back.

I hope this is just fiction – a brief glitch in a monumental run.  But it just felt like a different team than we had seen before.  On Sunday the Mets had doubles in four of the first five innings but could not push a run across.  Think of it – a leadoff double (3 of the 4) is like starting extra innings with no outs and a runner on second.  

It is almost a given that the team scores one run and the goal is to score more.  In these four instances they went down with a whimper that was more reminiscent of their failure to execute earlier this year.

But there are more signs of the apocalypse than just the sight of the Braves’ power bats returning and our two young “almost were” pitchers failing to execute.  

Kodai Senga went down after six magnificent innings, destined to spend the rest of the regular season on the injured list.  Edwin Diaz continues to look like he has no idea where the next pitch will go even though he has escaped with a few saves lately.  

Dedniel Nunez headed for the IL along with Senga, Drew Smith, Brooks Raley, Reed Garrett, Christian Scott, and Sean Reid-Foley.  The numbers of injuries are piling up now after the Mets had gone 100 games with relatively few major personnel losses to deal with compared to the rest of MLB.

With a decimated pitching staff and their red-hot bats cooling off, there are only a few things that can keep this team from a losing streak that will plummet them back below their wild card rivals.

1) Jeff McNeil needs to stay on a tear.  Before the all-star game, McNeil was slashing .216/.276/.314 and looking like he had lost the magical ability to heat anything thrown at him.  Suddenly, post-all-star break he has slashed .343/.351/.800 which he will need to do for the remainder of the season to give the Mets some base runners to drive in.

2) Pete Alonso needs to get on a tear.  Pete has always been streaky, but this season he has been down much more than up.  His selection of pitches to swing at has been appalling – a collection of fastballs down the middle are watched while the slider that breaks into the dirt a foot off the plate has been most appetizing to him.  But Pete sometimes goes on a stretch where he is driving the ball hard to all fields and racking up multiple homers in a week.  He (and the Mets) desperately need one of those runs now.  Repeat this paragraph with the name, “Francisco Alvarez” substituted for “Pete Alonso”.

3) Francisco Lindor needs to keep playing like he has been.  Lindor takes his leadership role very seriously and when the team gets down, he takes the weight of the team on his shoulders.  That leads to poor pitch selection himself and his OPS and RBI counts go down with it.  Lindor must just stay within himself regardless of what other hitters are doing and just drive the ball where it is pitched.

4) The Mets need arms to step up.  I don’t know if it is time for Vasil and Hamel, who have recently pitched better in AAA, to make their debut, or if it is some trade deadline acquisitions that bring life to the staff.  Somehow the starters and relievers are going to need to compile an acceptable ERA over the last 57 games because it is not likely that the Mets are going to score over 5 runs per game over that stretch.

If all, or at least most of these things happen we can continue our blissful pursuit of a NL playoff berth.  If not, OMG the Grimmace is dead!