The Alternate Universe: Mets at Marlins 7-11-2020

We’ve all been depressed about what’s going on in the world regarding the COVID-19 outbreak, and baseball has become collateral damage. The 2020 baseball season is set to begin in late July. Until then, 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’m going to give you a free lesson in blogging. Follow along:

With change of ownership rumors raging on in New York, the Mets were isolated (in more ways than one) at Marlins Park where Jacob deGrom was tasked with making sure the Mets didn’t slide into the All-Star break on their asses. It would be typical Mets to get swept by the Marlins in Miami to take their sundae of a season so far and put ketchup on it.

(Shout out to Rick Peterson.)

Corey Dickerson sent shock waves throughout the throngs of Mets fans at Marlins Park with a two run home run in the first off deGrom. Now this would be the point in the post where I point out that deGrom’s ERA against the Marlins in his career is way too high for a back-to-back Cy Young award winner against a team that hasn’t had Stanton, Yelich and Ozuna for about a decade, it seems. But you already know that because you’re smart and you’re probably paying the extra money for Stathead by now.

Thanks to deGrom being deGrom and thanks to the offense being maddengly frustrating, the score remained 2-0 Miami until the 6th, when Pete Alonso’s two run homer tied the score. Now at this point in the post is where you are expecting me to tell you that Alonso was robbed from a place in the All-Star team. And while I tend not to get all upset about All-Star snubs since Genius LaRussa gave Matt Cain the start in the 2012 game over R.A. Dickey, you’re absolutely right. Alonso should be in the game with his .301 average even though his power is a little down. Freddie Freeman, Anthony Rizzo, and Rhys Hoskeins are all good picks, but certainly Alonso could have replaced one of the last two.

Alonso got another chance in the 9th with two men on against Drew Steckenrider, and old-timey newspaper articles and blog posts would use the All-Star conversation to lead into the false narrative that Alonso turned his anger at not making the ASG onto a Drew Steckenrider fastball and sent it to the moon. But more accurately, Steckenrider threw a slider that hung middle-middle and Alonso made it 5-2 with relative ease. But the weird part … besides the fact that Edwin Diaz got through the ninth 1-2-3, was that it was announced right in the middle of the 9th inning that Alonso would indeed join deGrom and Jeff McNeil at the ASG in Los Angeles as Freeman is dealing with some remnants of last season’s elbow injury and pulled out of the game as a precaution.

So whether you believe that all of these events were connected by karma or merely by sequence, all is good in Mets-land. They bounced back from last night’s loss, Alonso is being recognized by his peers, and the team is as close to being sold as it has ever been.

This is the part of the post where I foolishly ask “what could go wrong”. Now you can start your own blog.

Today’s Hate List

1. Final lesson:
2. Pick five Marlins.
3. You can pick them from a certain season.
4. Or find five Marlins that once hit a home run off Jacob deGrom.
5. Your grades will be based on creativity.