A September To Dismember

Well, the Mets have done it. They got through the hottest part of the desert and found their oasis in the easiest schedule in the league. The Washington Nationals are a Dr. Pepper machine at the end of the Sonoran. Of course, you worried about a letdown after a raucous Dodgers series. But for these Mets, the definition of “letdown” is waiting until the second inning to score instead of their customary first inning tallies. But that it was Eduardo Escobar that provided the keynote with a two run HR off of Josiah Gray had to make even the letdown truthers smile.

But the next few innings were a trip through baseball’s Twilight Zone, narrated by the dulcet tones of Bobcat Goldthwait. The Nats got a run back as Tomas Nido tried to pick a runner off third after a strikeout, but Escobar was nowhere near third base because “why the hell would Nido throw the ball to me?” We were thinking the same thing, Eduardo. Then the Mets got the run back on a sac fly to score Daniel Vogelbach, while Jeff McNeil thought that the only way to make that happen was to pull up before being thrown out at third base to give Chen Zhen enough time to score (from third on a sac fly, I’d like to reiterate.) But then the Nationals chipped away off David Peterson, scoring runs courtesy of hits by people named Alex Call and Ildemaro Vargas. After I thought about how nice it was that the Nationals have their own version of KidCaster, I shuddered at the thought of the Mets getting to the part of the schedule they had always wanted to get, only to let a team with 24 kidcasters and 58 year old Nelson Cruz beat them. Now that would be one Rod Serling would have had fun with.

But once Mychal Givens came in for Peterson in the 6th, the ship was righted and the Mets were on their way. Givens had a much better outing against the Nationals than his Mets debut, getting five outs to hold the fort while the Mets went on a tear in the bottom of the 6th. Pete Alonso found a ball that bled middle and he smacked it far enough for it to be a home run in the Wilpon configuration. After a walk to Chen Zhen, two singles brought him to third (that sounds like an ad for match dot com), and then the Mets decided that they couldn’t have another ad hoc double play to get him home, so they pinch ran for him with Tyler Naquin. But they still got a runner thrown out on a sac fly, this time as Mark Canha tried to take second after the Nats, again, threw to the wrong base. But then a Tomas Nido single made it 6-3 and a triple by Brandon Nimmo made it 7-3, which is where the first day of the easiest part of anybody’s schedule in recorded history ended.

The Braves beat Sandy Alcantara and the Marlins 8-1 to remain three back, which is why the Mets need to continue to make this a September to Dismember. So far so good. Let the carnage continue.

Today’s Hate List

1. Andrew Benintendi
2. Spencer Strider
3. Oswald Peraza
4. Lee Harvey Oswald
5. Cliff Lee