What Do They Have To Say Now?

I’m not here to say I told you so, necessarily. Because nobody could have expected Jacob deGrom, in his second start back from a 13 month injury hiatus, to pitch 5 and 2/3’s perfect innings with 12 strikeouts against the reigning World Champions and closest division rivals.

(Think about that for a second … he’s been out for 13 months, and he got 17 straight outs against the Braves, and 12 of those outs … twelve … were strikeouts. Little league pitchers do that. Not pitchers who are facing Dansby Swanson, Matt Olson, and Austin Riley in a divisional race. And he did it in 68 pitches!!! (The last eight which brought the final total to 76 went a bit awry, but I think we can forgive him for that even if he probably hasn’t forgiven himself yet.) 

But man, I can’t help but think of all the tweets which basically dismissed deGrom as a guy who didn’t want to pitch. He was nursing his injury until he could opt out of his contract and pull a Reverse Glavine, they said. He’s soft, they said. He should “get lost“, they said. deGrom led the Mets to a 5-2 victory, and a four out of five series win against Atlanta which had Chip Caray pouting like a 12-year-old. So my question to those people is this: what do you have to say now?

(Also think of this: The Mets had 19 K’s for the game. deGrom had 12 to start the game, Edwin Diaz had three to end it, and … and this is how charmed a life the Mets are leading … Joely Rodriguez had four strikeouts in two and a third innings when everybody was wondering why the hell he was pitching so long. Hell, I was wondering that. But doesn’t it feel good to have a manager who actually has the pulse of his team close to his heart so that he can do stuff like this that confuses all of us armchair quarterbacks, but it actually works because we have a manager who knows what the f*** he’s doing?)

This might have been the most satisying regular season series at home since … hell, I’ll say it: 1969 when they crawled ever closer to first place by beating the Cubs. It sounds like an exaggeration, but I bet if you look back, you won’t find many regular season series that made the same type of statment that this one made. Usually by this time, Armando Benitez is yakking up three run doubles to the entire Diamondbacks minor league system or they’re trotting out Brandon Knight to face a Phillies team with a head of steam. Well the Mets didn’t have to trot out Knight, David Williams, or Chan Ho Park. They had deGrom and Max Scherzer ready to lay down the hammer in a manner that we all dreamed of in January when Scherzer joined forces with deGrom to create the new Mega Powers. All the doubts that surrounded deGrom and the rest of the team are certainly a factor as to how satisfying a series this was for Met fans, and for me personally. The best part is that the players in the room are probably shrugging it off and getting ready for Justin Dunn tomorrow (unless they send him to the minors.)

The division race isn’t quite over yet, but after the next two weeks where they have 14 against the Reds and Phillies at home, and then the Braves and Phillies on the road, the Mets could put everybody away. With every one of those 14, just as we experienced over the last five, the naysayers, the doubters, and the ghosts of 2007 and 2008 will slowly fade into the distance … at least the ghosts that Max Scherzer doesn’t murder with his bare hands.

Today’s Hate List

You know, I thought Spencer Strider battled pretty hard out there, and just got beat by a lineup that was relentless against him. It happens. Strider will learn from his experiences on the field.

But first, he needs to learn from his experiences opening his stupid f**king mouth.

Strider on why the Mets are so good at grinding out ABs: "I don’t know. It helps when they’re getting calls and 1-1 counts turn to 2-1 counts instead of 1-2 counts, and stuff like that. When your BABIP is .330, .340 as a team, it’s tough to get quick innings and get quick outs.”

— Justin Toscano (@JustinCToscano) August 8, 2022

My apologies to all the Braves fans saying that the Mets are the luckiest team on earth. I mean, if their players are just as big of conspiracy theorists as they are, then we know who they take their cues from.

Spencer Strider on his outing versus the Mets: "A lot of weird hits. They seem to be having a lot of luck right now offensively. That’s great. It’s August. (We’ll) see what things are like in October.”

— Justin Toscano (@JustinCToscano) August 8, 2022

Dude, you better hope you’re not in Gwinnett in October. Pipe down and go bake some cookies with the rest of the elves.