The Alternate Universe: Mets at Cubs 6-18-20

MLB: New York Mets at Chicago Cubs

We’re all depressed about what’s going on in the world regarding the COVID-19 outbreak, and baseball has become collateral damage. We all need to escape, and now you can read this blog in the alternate: the one where global pandemics were a myth and baseball was around no matter what. We’re imagining the 2020 Mets season as if everything was normal. Enjoy these works of fiction.

I once said long ago that if I had to pay specifically to see a ballplayer, it would be Yu Darvish. This season, Darvish has seemed to finally turn into that pitcher on a consistent basis. And in an afternoon game at Wrigley today, he brought back memories of Glavine, Smoltz, and Maddux.

Of course, the memories stirred up does not include the one where Tom Glavine gave up 7 runs in a third of an inning of a must win game. No, instead they were made up exclusively of the three pitchers that went 70-41 lifetime against the Mets. Davish was confounding and astounding, to quote a certain New York basketball legend. It helps when the entire Mets lineup swung at bad pitches and the home plate ump gave Darvish strike calls on both sides of the plate, but hey, that’s what happens when you’re going well. It looks like the world is helping you.

Javy Baez continued his post-contract hot streak with three hits, but it was Jason Kipnis four RBI against Rick Porcello which did the Mets in on the other side of the ball. a two run double in the second and a two run single in the fourth was pretty much all the Cubs needed as they took the rubber game of the series 6-2. The Mets are at 40-34, but after a surprising sweep of the Nationals by San Francisco, they’re only a game behind the Nationals in the division. As usual, we have Wilmer Flores to thank for batting .556 against Washington in that three game series with two home runs including today’s ninth inning bomb off Sean Doolittle.

SNY’s “Three Days in the District” debuts on Monday.

Today’s Hate List

  1. Von Hayes
  2. Juan Samuel
  3. Steve Carlton
  4. Steve Bedrosian
  5. Larry Bowa
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