https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csJF-ALBajk
All right look, I know. Tom Seaver can’t win ’em all. But this 2-0 loss exposed some flaws in this team that will hurt them long term. First off, their lefty lineup is atrocious, and now its made worse as Jim Beauchamp pulled up lame in the fourth forcing Ed Kranepool to come in and have to face Claude Osteen. (Beauchamp should be out until about August.) Later, in an attempt to get some righty swings against Osteen, Jerry Grote comes in to pinch hit and play third base, which he’s only played once or twice before, with Jim Fregosi moving to first base. Add that to Wayne Garrett playing second (who made an error to allow the second run to score), you have three guys out of position.
The bottom of the fifth bothered the hell out of me. Duffy Dyer leads off with a double, and then Teddy Martinez walks. So what does Yogi Berra do? He sac bunts Garrett to set up second and third for freakin’ Seaver. The pitcher! I know Garrett ain’t hitting all that well and Seaver has a couple of home runs this year but dammit Yogi can’t give away outs like that!!! Then Seaver comes up and tries a squeeze play (there goes Yogi with the bunts again), and Dyer was nailed at the plate. (P.S. I’m tired of having to watch these games on the visitors feed … can we advance the technology enough to get a decent replay on the play at the plate? Because I’m sure it would have shown us that Dyer was safe!)
And hey, I love Willie Mays. But can he stop trying to hit the ball to outer space when a single will do just fine in that spot? Dude, you’re 41. Let’s be smarter about this and stop thinking that this is 1965. Instead he goes in a two strike hole and gets wasted on a breaking ball to end the threat, and that was all she wrote for the game as Osteen shut the Mets down the rest of the way. Don’t blame Seaver for this. If this team had any depth he’d be 17-0 right now. I know that’s unrealistic but I’m cranky and I haven’t played with my toys all day today. It’s 1972 for crissakes and I’m not even two years old. And yet … I already can’t stand all of Yogi’s bunts and Fregosi’s .247 average. C’mon Jimmy, we traded Nolan Ryan for you!!!
On a completely unrelated note, how about this Buckner kid, eh? Maybe the Mets can trade for him to eventually replace Kranepool. I don’t know, but I foresee a huge Shea Stadium moment for Bill Buckner in the future. I hope it’s not in another uniform like the Dodgers, the Cardinals, or hell even the Red Sox. Oh who am I kidding, the Mets aren’t anywhere near a World Series the way they’re playing right now.
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