Laughs For, And From, Everyone

I had a premonition that Tommy Hunter would make an appearance on Thursday night.

Now before you call me a genius, I thought it would be in the third inning.

I thought that Cookie Carrasco’s 100 pitches would be thrown in about 1 and 1/3 innings. After he gave up the Cookie Crumble Special: a first inning run, I was resigned to fate. No way I thought he would throw 100 pitches in 6 and 2/3’s and only give up that one first inning run, and neither did you. but Cookie was excellent, giving up five hits and two walks in those 100 pitches, and the offense put up a dime in a 10-1 victory that helped them save face.

The Mets had scored in the top of the first, but that was a typical “load the bases then only hit a sac fly and don’t do any more damage inning. And that’s what made the Carrasco first inning run extra deflating. But then, as Carrasco was going on his run, the Mets went on a two out-nobody on binge in the third with hits from Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso, which led to a Brett Baty RBI single to make it 2-1. Then they got a huge hit from Starling Marte, a two run single to make it 4-1 against Kyle Hendricks, returning from a long injury.

(Daniel Vogelbach ended the inning looking at strike three as social media renewed their calls for him to be traded by the fourth inning.)

Then in the fifth, with Jeff McNeil on second and Pete Alonso on first with one out, the Mets put on a double steal, which must have scared the hell out of Yan Gomes, who tried to throw to third to get the speedy McNeil instead of going for the back runner who is closer to water buffalo type speed (which is still 30 mph, but still.) Gomes’ throw wen to Beliot as McNeil scored to make it 5-1. Even though the Mets lost the last two, they’re still playing aggresive and heads up, so they are still on the upswing, as far as I’m concerned.

The Mets, for the first time in a while in Chicago, were having fun. Alonso hit a two run HR in the 7th to make the game a laugher, which the Mets sorely needed. And the laughs were coming from everywhere. The SNY booth was playing peek-a-boo with Marquee Sports, Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor put the finishing touches on a 10-1 win with three more RBI combined, and Tucker Barnhart had to come in to pitch the 9th for the Cubs through his own laughter.

The only guy that wasn’t laughing was Vogelbach, who was pinch hit for in the 9th with a catcher pitching. That’s how you know things are going bad. (Hell, even Jose Reyes is all over him.) Besides that minor detail, Thursday’s win was much needed, and much encouraging, just with Cookie’s start alone. And yes, Tommy Hunter did pitch, but with a nine run lead, which is always preferred. With the Mets now a game over .500, he fun and the merriment continues as Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander get to build on their most recent successes … at Coors Field against the Rockies. I’m sure nothing crazy will happen.

Today’s Hate List

I love all God’s creatures tonight.

But I will mention that Gary Sanchez was DFA’d today to make room for Tomas Nido, who came back from Dry Eye Syndrome. (By the way, I was told that in the past hour that Dry Eye Syndrome could make your eyes bleed, which sounds absolutely horrible. So I’m done being snarky about DES, before karma causes me to have something that makes my f***ing eyes bleed. I’m sure I’ll deserve that for something else I write soon anyway.)