It’s All Relative

This is the post where I complain about everything I make it a point not to complain about:

Lineup Construction

First … Michael Conforto batting eighth? WHY??? Because he’s 0-for-3 lifetime against Madison Bumgarner? Oh boo-hoo. Nobody hits Bumgarner. Except Bautista, who was one for two in his career against Mad Bum coming in. Ooooooh! Whoop-de-damn-do. Oh, he got two hits today so my sarcasm is moot? Again, whoop-de-damn-do. It’s not going to make a bit of difference for the future, and it made no bit of difference today as the Mets lost. Do you know who might have made a difference?

The Umpires

Specifically, the home plate umpire. I mean, borderline calls are borderline calls. But come on …

On most planets, that’s a strike and the Mets are in the dugout. On this one, apparently, that’s ball one, which led to balls two, three, and four, and then led to a hit by Madison Bumgarner to drive home a run that should have never scored. Yes, deGrom will probably blame himself for not overcoming that bad call, and pitchers do have to overcome bad calls, errors, lack of hitting, etc. But I’m not going to kill deGrom for not being mentally tough when his whole season and whole career has been a success because he’s been mentally tough. And for crying out loud, a Cy Young candidate can’t get a strike three call at home against Nick F***ing Hundley, whose greatest worth in baseball seems to be baiting Yasiel Puig into a fight?

And for crissakes the home plate umpire’s cousin is a Mets employee, in case you ordered a side of LOL with the knife in your back.

Jacob deGrom is furious with home plate umpire, Tony Randazzo. Thought he had Hundley struck out. Ended up walking him and then allowing an RBI double to Bumgarner.

— Steve Gelbs (@SteveGelbs) August 23, 2018

Do you have a contact number?

— Steve Gelbs (@SteveGelbs) August 23, 2018

The Mets can’t even have relatives on the inside cheat for us correctly. But at least the tweets were a regular riot. It’ll be hysterical when they hand Aaron Nola the Cy Young after that bad call costs deGrom one vote because he’s now .500. I’m sure that rain delay theater podcast will be hilarious. (Hopefully, Bumgarner has a vote.)

deGrom wasn’t especially sharp today with four walks (three of them, at most, deserved). But he loses a game where he gave up two runs, one earned, and none that should have scored as the first run came in on a passed ball by Devin Mesoraco (underscoring the fact that we need a serious upgrade at catcher next season), and the Tony Randazzo thing. Also, the Mets could only scrounge up a run against Bumgarner, which at least was more than what they could get off him the last time he pitched against the Mets. (Kelly Johnson’s hell is that he’ll be stuck in the on-deck circle against Bumgarner forever and ever.) But here’s the good news: The Mets’ run came on a Todd Frazier home run. And then look what was waiting for me when I got home …

Now you’re sure that there are no little pieces on it that children can eat, right? And you washed out all the charcoal from the fire, right?

Today’s Hate List

1. Tony Randazzo
2. Nick Hundley
3. Nikon
4. I can’t even hate Bumgarner …
5. … since he said he’d vote for deGrom for Cy Young.