Twenty years and one day before Monday, Darryl Kile no-hit the New York Mets. That lineup contained such luminaries as Ryan Thompson, Jeff McKnight, and Joe Orsulak. The fact that 1993 was the last time the Mets were no-hit is astonishing, especially considering this team had Alex Cora and Jeff Francoeur on their team, which raised those odds significantly.
Gio Gonzalez gave up one lonely hit on Monday, a pinch hit single off the bat of Zach Lutz. (And no, it wasn't an Adrian Johnson aided single … the ball hit the line.) Combine that with the Nationals hitting four home runs off Carlos Torres (including Denard Span's third home run in a month and a half against the Mets … he has one off everyone else this season) and one off Greg Burke, and you have a 9-0 loss. There are a lot of baseball games that aren't what they seem to the naked eye. Sometimes a pitching performance that isn't so hot means something greater, like eating innings for a tired bullpen. Sometimes a lineup can reach base a lot and just not get that big hit. The Mets' loss on Monday was exactly what it looked like: A dog. A dog much like the ones that were at Citi Field on Monday night. (Obligatory "Bark in the Park" joke right there.) Nothing was more than meets the eye with this game. Gio Gonzalez vs. the lineup that the Mets threw out on to the field should really yield these results 99 times out of 100.
Without having watched any post game on Monday (why bother?), I wonder when the Terry Collins "Hey, these guys are playing for jobs next year" speech is coming. It's one of those rites of fall we've become used to around here, as people that get paid lots of money to care have to invent reasons to do so. Maybe Collins is holding that speech until he knows whether he's going to be here next year or not.
Meanwhile, Aaron Harang pitches on Thursday. If that isn't reason enough to care, I don't know what is.
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