An Opening Night In Midseason Form

Hi. I missed you.

With the absence of Jacob deGrom due to a continued run of the devil taking residence at the airport Marriott waiting to unleash hell on the New York Mets franchise stress reaction in his scapula, new manager Buck Showalter could have made the easy choice and move new Mets backup ace Max Scherzer to start on Opening Night. But showing that he’s not one to make the easy choice, he went with Tylor Megill. It was a gutsy move, but it took Showalter one spring training to figure out what we all knew: Megill has a slow heartbeat and would not be intimidated by the moment.

Well, let’s not pretend that this was a throng of 41,339 people at Nationals Park screaming their heads off lifting their undermanned team to play over their heads to steal an Opening Day victory. Instead, Nationals Park felt more like 25,000 rain soaked people realizing that “holy shit, Scherzer is going to pitch against us tomorrow and we’re paying part of his salary, and man we’re really going to pay for all those deferred contracts that got us a World Series title in 2019, and we don’t even have Kyle Schwarber to beat up on the Mets like last year.” Well, sorry Nationals fans. Schwarber is gone and so are your little moments of euphoria when Baby Shark blares over the loudspeaker because your little mascot Parra is gone too. Thursday had all the all the pagentry of Opening Night combined with the distinct feeling that Elijah Dukes was back in center field and Ron Darling was your announcer instead of ours.

All that aside, Megill was brilliant in five shutout innings, continuing the perceived streak of the Opening Day Oddities. Things like Andrew Brown hitting home runs off of Steven Strasburg which tilts the earth’s axis off a little bit, and in the process turn into neat trivia questions in the future. That’s not to say that Megill is going to fade quietly into the sunset after this. We all saw it last year, and tonight he added a little something called a 99 mph fastball. (For a guy who averaged 94.7 mph according to Fangraphs, that’s an eye opener.) His shining moment, of course, was when he struck out Future Met Juan Soto with runners on first and third and one out with a 97 mph fastball. He followed it up by getting Nelson Cruz to ground out to end the inning.

And before you start complaining that Megill only went five innings and 68 pitches: look, I’m not stretching anyone out too fast after a shortened spring training because club owners wanted to fight for every dollar imaginable so they could not spend it on payroll (looking squarely at you, Cincinnati). Teams have a 28 man roster. The Mets have 14 pitchers. Let ’em pitch.

Robinson Canó beats the shift with a bunt single! pic.twitter.com/WHtdvdXgeC

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 8, 2022

If you had the next revolution starting on a Robinson Cano bunt single to beat the shift, you’re a better person than I. But that’s how the Mets started their first rally of 2022 in the 5th inning as Cano returned from his PED suspension, and it culminated with Patrick Corbin hitting James McCann in the foot in what could only be described as “Conforto’s Elbow: 2 Fast 2 Furious”. (Look at the replay and you’ll realize I’m right. If James McCann had angled his foot like that in an NHL game, Wes McCauley would have called that shit back.) Starling Marte drove in the second run on a fielder’s choice, and the Mets were off to the races. They scored two more in the 6th as Jeff McNeil, who contributed to the 5th inning rally, went back to back with Mark Canha on RBI singles to make it 4-0, and the Nationals were dead in the water. Both Canha and McNeil had two hits on the evening to help fuel the team, as Canha showed us what he can do while McNeil showed us what he used to do.

Juan Soto homering to pull the Nationals within 3 feels like it could be the theme of his 2022 MVP season.

— Anthony Castrovince (@castrovince) April 8, 2022

Soto’s homer off Trevor May in the 6th, which the two will have a great laugh about when they’re Mets teammates in 2025, was the only noise the Nationals made besides hitting James McCann and Pete Alonso up near their heads. Francisco Lindor added an RBI single in the 7th to make the score 5-1, which was the final. Max Scherzer makes his Mets debut in one of the most anticipated Game Twos since we all thought Noah Syndergaard was going to hit Alcides Escobar again … this time just for laughs. Maybe Max will actually hit one of his former teammates in response to Andres Machado and Mason Thompson, and maybe send a message once and for all that he’s not a Washington National anymore even though they’re paying part of his salary this year to pitch against them.

That’s Friday, only on Apple TV.

Today’s Hate List

1. Alcides Escobar
2. Maikel Franco
3. Mason Thompson
4. Andres Machado
5. Gerardo Parra