Of course, the whole point of bringing in Jay Bruce, or anybody, is to take a playoff team and solidify their position. But with what this team showed tonight, they ain’t no playoff team.
First thing I want to say is that Yankees/Mets series shouldn’t be scheduled on the day of the trading deadline. It’s just too f*cking weird. Every ounce of attention should be on the battle on the field, and in the fourth inning SNY is interviewing Sandy Alderson like it’s a f*cking spring training game. Let’s try not to do this again.
But it did provide a different sort of backdrop, especially when you consider that you had the Mets as buyers, and the Yankees as sellers as they traded away Andrew Miller on Sunday, and Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova on Monday. And yet it was the Mets who looked like the rebuilding team in yet another heartbreaking loss … a 6-5 Subway Series Sundae of Shit. Matt Reynolds blasted a three run HR against CC Sabathia in the sixth inning to give the Mets a 5-3 lead. And the good news for the Mets was that they got to a Yankees bullpen that doesn’t have Miller and Aroldis Chapman anymore. The bad news is that the Mets are still the Mets, and Neil Walker popped out on a bases loaded chance that would have broken the game up. And they couldn’t scratch across a run off the likes of Rocky Bleier, Sam Goody, Tyler Clippard and Adam West. This team knows how to do that.
In the eighth, Terry Collins tried to get cute. Instead of bringing in Addison Reed to start the 8th, Jerry Blevins came in to face the two lefties, Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury. Gardner walked, and then after Ellsbury K’d, Reed came in during the middle of the inning. Addison Reed should never do this. He’s been great all year as the eighth inning guy, he should have been the eighth inning guy. He’s been great against lefties and righties, and should have pitched the 8th. Instead, he gave up a single to Brian McCann and then a bloop single to Didi Gregorius to score two runs after McCann’s pinch runner took second on a wild pitch.
Then with the game in the tenth, all Terry Collins had left was Seth Lugo in the ‘pen. I’m sure he really could have used Blevins in this situation, which he would have had if he had just used Reed in the eighth. But then again if Reed starts the eighth the game is over by now. So Lugo gives up the go ahead run after he was told to go to third base on a sac bunt to try to get the speedy Ellsbury, which was another typical bad decision. This set up the Mets to go against Dellin Betances in the 10th. James Loney doubled, Matt Reynolds sacrificed, and then in what should have been the key at-bat of the game, Alejandro De Aza worked out a HBP against Betances as he laid off all of his off-speed stuff until he got hit. I say it should have been key because after Rene Rivera grounded out to send De Aza to second, Curtis Granderson swung at every piece of slop that Betances threw even though he saw him throw it to De Aza. Every single damn slider. EVERY ONE!!!
And took the fastball down the middle.
What kind of world do we live in that sees De Aza have the good at bat and Granderson look like crap all at once? Jay Bruce may be an improvement. He may not be. But at this rate, the Mets might be just as well off if they had traded for Bruce Hornsby. Both he and Granderson haven’t had a big hit in years, and Bruce has more Range.
(Thank you to my Facebook friends for letting me plagarize that from them.)
Today’s Hate List
- Dellin Betances
- Richard Bleier
- Nick Goody
- Adam Warren
- Didi Gregorius
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