A Kick In The Balls

The Mets were thoroughly outclassed on Sunday night.

Chris Bassitt let PitchCom distract him, he gave up a two run single to Austin Nola which took the crowd out of the game in the second. Much like Game 1, it took the crowd out of the game. He then let Ha Seong Kim steal second on him in the third, and then Trent Grisham (again) drove him home to make it 3-0. Then David Peterson came in the game in the 5th and gave up another run to make it 4-0 Padres, and the way that Joe Musgrove was going (started the game with four perfect innings), everyone pretty much knew at that point it was done.

And that’s probably why Buck Showalter said “f*** it”, and had Joe Musgrove’s ears checked in the 6th:

Imagine trying to explain this to someone who has never watched baseball before. pic.twitter.com/mTt0mQH6Gd

— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) October 10, 2022

I agreed with what everyone on the SNY Post Game Show panel said. Jerry Blevins said that the spiked spin rates on Musgrove’s pitches and his ears looking like stop lights meant he had to do it. I agree with Todd Zeile who said that even if Buck didn’t believe he was cheating, he might have been trying to get in his head. But I also agree with Gare who said that it came off as desperate and embarrassing, and if you had better be right if you pulled that stunt. For Buck’s part, he said that he did what was in the best interests of the Mets, and wasn’t worried about hurting anyone’s feelings. I’ll always be behind that.

It probably just made Joe Musgrove angry, but if Andrew McCutchen is right (and he’s probably right because players know), then the red hot on his ears was making him angry.

Here we go. I guarantee Musgrove has Red Hot on his ears. Pitchers use it as mechanism to stay locked in during games. It burns like crazy and IDK why some guys thinks it helps them but in no way is it “sticky.” Buck is smart tho. Could be trying to just throw him off.

— Andrew McCutchen (@TheCUTCH22) October 10, 2022

At least he didn’t rub it on his testicles and throw a bat shard at Pete Alonso thinking it was the ball.

The Mets fell with the whimperest of whimpers, as Alonso’s single in the 5th was the only hit they would get, as they dropped the game 6-0, and dropped the series to the San Diego Padres, who completely outclassed the Mets this series, and they deserve to move on. Joe Musgrove came up big in a do or die game while guys like Bassitt and Max Scherzer simply did not. It may seem unfair for a team to win 101 games and go home this early. But just like they’ve earned all the credit that they’ve gotten, they’ve also earned their fate.

There will be plenty of time for post mortems … who should stay, who should go, who will stay and who will go, who overperformed, who underperformed, grades, etc. But the only thing I want to say is what I’ve said from the fifth game of the season: This team was different. Anyone who says that this team falls in the same category as the 2021 Mets or the 2010 Mets or any team like that just doesn’t understand. The difference is that I was indifferent last season. I laughed my ass off at the end of 2010 while I was in Las Vegas and the Mets wouldn’t let the last game of the season end before putting in Oliver Perez for the first time in a month.

But after tonight, I feel like there’s a hole in the pit of my stomach. I’ve felt it before. I felt it after the collapses in 2007 and 2008. But I was angry after those seasons, partly because I wasn’t sure in my heart that those teams felt it as much as I did. This team? I think they feel it, and I feel as bad for them as I feel for me. And if you want proof of that, just listen to Max:

Max Scherzer says that the Mets' playoff result is a "kick in the balls": pic.twitter.com/zVIpzC5noq

— SNY (@SNYtv) October 10, 2022

People want to call it a collapse, but “a kick in the balls” is probably the most accurate phrase you could find. I just call it cruel. For a team with so many special moments and comebacks and resilience to have it end this way was cruel. It’s cruel in its finality because there are a lot of free agents, and you know there’s a chance the 2023 Mets aren’t going to be the 2022 Mets with some touch ups around the edges, which sould be fine. But look what happened to the Giants this season. 107 wins last season, barely got to .500 this season with a dead cat bounce. To automatically say that this is going to be “the first of many”, which is said about a lot of good and ascending teams, it’s a dangerous game to assume that next season is going to be an extension of this year. Each year is different. So that’s why this season ending the way it did was cruel, because you never know about next season.

But the good news is that there was improvement not only in the standings, but in culture. Where was the embarrasing incident this season? Where were the rats and the raccoons? Where were the dildos or the family room incidents or minor league coordinators ripping their shirts off challenging minor leaguers to fights? And where are the owners who refuse to invest into the roster and into the room? Those days are gone. Steve Cohen will make sure that Billy Eppler is going to have all options at his disposal to bring back who they need and bring in who they want. So the successes that have happened, and we all know it wasn’t as many successess as we have wanted, will be built upon and not just used to sell tickets and let go stale.

But man, this hurts. Gare compared this a little bit to 1988, and anyone who knows me knows that 1988 is a sore subject for me. They lost Game 7 against Orel Hershiser on my 18th birthday while I had World Series tickets in my hand. The lost tonight three days short of my 52nd birthday … just hours after I scored a ticket to Game 3 against the Dodgers this Friday. 1988 featured “What would have happened if Randy Myers had pitched to Mike Scioscia?” And “What would have happened if Bobby Ojeda had hired a gardner?” 2022 will be “What would have happened if Mitch Keller didn’t break Starling Marte’s finger?” And “What would have happened if they had beaten the Cubs once? Or the Braves once in the last weekend? Or if Nick Fortes could have gotten a hit with the bases loaded against the Braves?” Keith Hernandez still talks about how 1988 bothers him. Max Scherzer compares 2022 to a kick in the balls. Each season is different, but 1988 and 2022 are close cousins.

The special seasons hurt more when the ending is bad. This season was special. This season hurts. Hurts like a kick in the balls.