A Sweet Day Followed By Nighttime Lollipops

If we’re being honesty with ourselves, the Mets should be 0-for-2 in Beantown.

After Brandon Nimmo and Daniel Vogelbach hit two run dingers to give the Mets a 4-3 lead on Friday night, it started pouring. Like Noah’s Ark rain. So they finished it up today. The Mets traded runs with the Red Sox in the 6th and 7th to make it 5-4. Then in the 8th inning, we got the Mets Special.

No, not THAT Mets Special. I mean the one where they load the bases with nobody out and don’t score. THAT Mets special. They got three straight singles from Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, and Mark Vientos, and somehow didn’t score. Then in the 9th, the Mets got singles form future Mariners Mark Canha and DJ Stewart, who bunted his way on somehow. But once again, they didn’t score even though they wound up with runners on second and third with two outs. Five runners stranded in the 8th and 9th innings with no runs scored.

But the Mets won that game, somehow. Brooks Raley and David Robertson shut the door, and it’s also worth repeating that Daniel Vogelbach hit a home run in this game many hours earlier. It didn’t go so well in the regularly scheduled game. Max Scherzer, who found his slider against the Dodgers, apparently lost it again as he’s done so many times this season. (Can we attach it to his key chain so he can’t possibly lose it?)

Scherzer gave up home runs to Jared Duran, Tristan Casas, Yu Chang, and then Casas again to make it 5-3 and send the game spiraling downward for good in an 8-3 loss. I find it hysterical that according to the play by play that you can find on the MLB App, Scherzer gave up four home runs on four different pitches. Curveball to Duran, cutter to Casas, slider to Chang, then a fastball to Casas. (The Gopherball Quinella.) But at least in the case of the first three, they just looked like lollipops. Floaters. Slow pitch softball pitches. Whatever you want to call them, they were that. Yes, he does give up a lot of home runs, always has. And yes, solo home runs are of minimal damage. But not when you seemingly give one up every inning.

Then Trevor Gott came in and decided he wanted to be a combination of Billy Taylor, Alejandro Pena, Guillermo Mota and Jorge Julio. Again. (I’d throw in Ambiorix Burgos but Gott hasn’t murdered anything except my boyish optimism.) Shrewd move to trade for him, but then he forgot how to play baseball like Darin Ruf did. Gave up three runs to make it 8-3 and, as it turned out, was the difference in the game as the Mets held a furious ninth inning rally which started with a Pete Alonso triple (his renaissance was wasted in the second game), and featured RBI hits by Francisco Alvarez, Mark Vientos (who should play more against righties), and Brett Baty off of the closer, Kenley Jansen. But then Vogelbach came up and, after he had Jansen’s cutter timed, popped one up to the only six inches of foul territory in Fenway Park’s left field to end the madness.

The sad part is that Scherzer and Gott’s batting practice nulified what was the most glorious throw by a catcher in baseball history.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED AT FENWAY?!

The Mets take a 3-2 lead! pic.twitter.com/d8swXO1xRj

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 23, 2023

(Editor’s note, if Trevor Gott has a great inning and the score remains 5-3, then Jansen probably starts the 9th instead of Justin Garza and the Mets probably lose without all the drama, so this loss is on Scherzer and his slider which abandoned him to joined the circus. But Trevor Gott is pissing me off nonetheless. I was ready to rant about David Peterson when he came in to the first game to replace Grant Hartwig and face two lefties … and couldn’t retire either of them. But Peterson turned it around that inning and only gave up one run in the next inning. So I’ll exchange my Peterson rant for my Trevor Gott rant, which is this: He stinks.)

Today’s Hate List

1. Bill Belichick
2. Rodney Harrison
3. Tom Brady
4. Brad Marchand
5. Grant Williams