Tuesday’s game, probably more than any game so far this season, shows the gulf between 2022 and 2023.
That’s not even taking into account what happened the rest of the day, which came on the heels of Max Scherzer explaining how he’s working through a scapula injury, which was decreasing the velocity on his fastball, causing opposing hitters to smack home runs off of him, which caused Scherzer to constantly whip his head around to watch baseballs fly over the wall, which gave him neck spasms*, which caused David Peterson to get on a plane to Cincinnati and get his mammaries illuminated by the Cincinnati Reds.
I mean, tough enough for Peterson to get off an airplane and pitch in a major league game hours later, but combine that with the fact that he’s not very good to begin with, and that makes it impossible. But remember last season when the Mets could bring up Nate Fisher or Adonis Medina and they’d save the Mets’ bacon? Yeah, that isn’t happening this year, at least so far. Maybe if this was 2022, Peterson would come off the plane and throw a three hitter. This season? He probably had a combination of jet lag and junk sleep and gave up four runs in 3 and 1/3 on seven hits and two walks.
At 4-1 in the 5th inning and one out, Wil Myers gets on first on an infield single. So Kevin Newman comes up and this happens:
Wil Myers 😂 pic.twitter.com/6MyGQ1cO7e
— Francisco Juárez 🍅⚾ (@iamfrankjuarez) May 10, 2023
Four f*cking umpires … one of them looking right at the play … and nobody saw that Wil Myers interfered with the play. Nobody. And this is why I like to point out when umpires are terrible even when the Mets get the benefit of the call … because umpires need to be better, and you know eventually that the umps are going to screw the Mets on something like this. That was f*cking interference, plain and simple. Buck Showalter had enough after itching to get tossed because of umpire incompetence for about a week now, and he finally let loose.
Buck Showalter has been ejected for the first time as Mets manager.
He was arguing Wil Myers interfered with a live ball hit in play pic.twitter.com/q2rpmYqn6S
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 10, 2023
Who could blame Buck for being overly dramatic? Three runs scored on the back of that. Absolutely atrocious job by that umpiring crew. The Mets win the game without that play.
However, the Mets also win the game if they don’t stink which, right now … sorry to say .. they do. Their starting pitching, as we know, is horrible right now. But the Mets still almost came back, because scoring four runs against a starter with a 7.88 ERA is really the least you could ask of a team, right? At the start, Francisco Alvarez was the only one doing anything off Weaver with two solo home runs. Then in the 7th, Alonso tagged him with a solo HR. Then a walk, an infield single, and another walk loaded the bases for Mark Canha. Last season, Canha doubles home three runs. This season, he grounded into a double play for an RBI. Canha, to his credit, was really hustling on the play, but it almost looked like he was trying to run through a portal to get back to last season. Frankly, I don’t blame him.
The Mets got it to 7-6 in the 8th on a two run dinger by Francisco Lindor, and once again they loaded the bases against Lucas Sims with a walk and a single, and Alexis Diaz who walked Daniel Vogelbach. Which brought up Mark Canha again … except that whoever the hell was managing the club at the time (wink wink) brought up noted lefty pinch hitting specialist … Luis Guillorme. Because when I think “man, who is left on the bench reminds me most of Rusty Staub”, I immediately think of Guillorme who is hitting all of … /checks notes … .235. Guillorme, predictably, struck out, and that would propel Edwin’s brother to a four out save.
Tangent Alert
Is there nobody in this organization who could come up and get a big hit? I’ve never been for rushing prospects, especially after they were brought up too quick for a long, long time. But man, if Luis Guillorme is your ace pinch hitter off the bench while Ronny Mauricio is roaming the streets of Syracuse with an OPS of .955, then maybe it’s time to think about whether that young man can come up here and do something significant before the season goes straight to hell.
But if they decide not to risk Mauricio’s development to save a season that is going to sink anyway if Max Scherzer is spontaneously pulverized into a fine dust, I can understand that too. Except that the Mets might halt his, and Mark Vientos’ developement anyway by picking up Gary Sanchez for some reason, which has some definite “let’s sign Adrian Gonzalez to block Dom Smith after Dom did everything we asked of him” vibes. Obviously, Sanchez isn’t going to catch, because the Mets have plenty (although after Alvarez great performance tonight between his two homers and his good defense, I hope Tomas Nido is renting and not buying at this point.) So why is he here? To be a DH? So does hei skip ahead of the prospects if he hits AAA pitching?
No, seriously. Gary Sanchez? Why?
End Tangent
Complain about the Wil Myers call all you want. And you should, because it was horseshit. But that was far from the only thing that ails the Mets right now. Much of what is happening in these games is of their own doing, and of their own abilities or inabilities. The Mets, and us, hope that this changes soon. Maybe we’re just all hoping, like Canha, that we could run fast enough to bring us back to last year when things were good. I mean, it won’t be me because at this point in my life, Vogelbach could beat me in a race.
*Any relations between home runs and neck spasms are unconfirmed
Today’s Hate List
- Wil Myers
- Malachi Moore
- Stu Scheurwater (I really hope this is pronounced “sewer water”)
- Mark Wegner
- Bruce Dreckman (By the way, that strike three call on Brandon Nimmo in the ninth was six inches outside. Why the hell is everyone’s strike zone the size of Mr. Met’s head?)
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