An Ending Most Grand

Francisco Alvarez hit his first home run since September 12th, and added a second one off a pitcher making his major league debut. His 6 RBI led the Mets to an 11-4 victory against a Phillies team that treated this back end of a doubleheader game like a they were in Clearwater.

FRANCISCO ALVAREZ LAUNCHES HIS 24TH HOME RUN. pic.twitter.com/mJmqty8bBq

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 30, 2023

Michael Plassmeyer made his major league debut and gave up 10 runs on 8 hits and 9 walks in 3 and 2/3’s, which seems hard to do. But Alvarez can’t request a higher level of difficulty on his at-bats. He can only face who the other team puts in front of him.

GRAND SLAM FRANCISCO ALVAREZ!!!!! pic.twitter.com/Sa0SOX1f0w

— SNY (@SNYtv) October 1, 2023

Francisco Lindor also hit a dinger to make it 10-4 after .198 hitting Kyle Schwarber threatened to make it a game with a 3-run-homer.

And Bartolo was there:

Francisco Lindor’s 31st of the year and Bartolo loves it! pic.twitter.com/dzJVVqQwb1

— Amazin' Army (@WE_ARE_MET_FANS) October 1, 2023

Tomorrow is it for the season (unless Manfred drags the Mets back to Citi Field for one more half inning on Monday). It will be Mike Phillips writing about tomorrow’s game, so let me just say to those of you who have stuck around for all of these years, thank you. I’ve been blogging for 18 years now. Some seasons were more fun than others. I thought this one would be the one that would yield the most fun. And don’t get me wrong: I’ve had moments of fun, like Skip Schumaker giving me a reason to care about the last weekend of the baseball season (until the Marlins clinched a playoff spot tonight so now I really don’t care about tomorrow at all.) Otherwise, this sesaon has just been … weird.

I also realize that people have moved away from blogs and on to podcasts, and I’ve certainly had peaks and valleys in terms of engagement and discourse from this blog. Writing about the Mets in the playoffs is fun. Writing about seasons like this, maybe not so fun. Not even the writing part, but knowing that during a season like this, 20-25 people are left to click on these things after everyone else moves off to other things like football or Marvel movies or what have you. That’s cool, but it makes having the readers that stick around special. Even if most of you have gone away, writing about the Mets is still my therapy, even when they drive me crazy.

Know that I appreciate all of you, whether you’ve been here every day, or just once.

See ya in the offseason.

Today’s Hate List

The 1-800-PAIN-LAW commercials. Especially the one where the guy says “I’m a local, and people know who the locals are.” And then everyone passes him by and says “Hey, it’s the 1-800-PAIN-LAW guy!”

So you’re a local who has been in the neighborhood for 40 years, and NOBODY KNOWS YOUR REAL NAME???????

Fraud.