Buck Is Red, Bruises Are Blue, The Mets Won Again, But the Braves Did Too

The Mets threatened to make Tuesday’s victory a rocking chair win, entering the 7th inning with a 4-0 lead on the strength of a two run dinger by Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil’s first home run off a lefty this season, an RBI single by McNeil, and six shutout innings spun by Cookie Carrasco. It was all going swimmingly. But then Carrasco couldn’t get through the 7th without Jake Fraley hitting a ball to f***ing Mars to make it 4-2. Buck Showalter actually tried to get Carlos through even after the home run when he got Jose Barrero on strikes. But base hits to Austin Romine and Jonathan India forced Buck’s hand, and he brought in Mychal Givens with runners on first and second.

Turns out all Givens needed was an important spot. Stop with these mop-up 9-0 leads in the 9th. Give that man a situation that would make a Jenrry Mejia scared of stanozolol. Givens gave Nick Senzel, the go-ahead run, a slider and three fastballs to put him away for one of the two important outs in this game. But first, the bottom of the 7th, when the Reds started off by giving up a single to Tomas Nido, and then hit Mark Canha for Canha’s millionth HBP of the season, and sent Buck into overdrive:

We've enhanced Buck cam pic.twitter.com/4wVmUpnswz

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 10, 2022

I knew I had seen this style of cinematography before. I thought it was an old Mannix episode. Turns out it was Star Trek:

But Buck got his revenge. After Starling Marte struck out and Lindor grounded out to send the runners to second and third, the Reds walked Pete Alonso intentionally to lead to a decision. Should Buck leave Darin Ruf in the game to face righthander Joel Kuhnel, or bring in Daniel “Chen Zhen” Vogelbach to most likely face lefty Ross Detwiler?

Buck chose his own adventure, and as usual guessed right:

Intentionally walking Pete Alonso to face Darin Ruf surely worked out…😉 pic.twitter.com/CArYKvCQIN

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 10, 2022

Trevor May came in for the 8th and got the second important out in the game. Of course, he gave up a single and two walks to bring the tying run to the plate to get that important out (the walk to Fraley was an eight pitch extravaganza to load the bases), but David Bell brought up Alejo Lopez to pinch hit for Jose Barreno for some reason, and May struck him out on three pitches to end the thread, and no further 60’s style montages were necessary to bring this one home. The Mets scored more than five runs again, and Buck guided them home with some deft managing, which is more than I could say for others, which leads me to …

Today’s Hate List

Okay, so unfortunately the Mets didn’t gain a game against the Braves, who won in 11 innings against the Red Sox. To analyze where Alex Cora went wrong, I’m gonig to quote my buddy Jake (follow him at @thereitisjake on Twitter) who, if he could, would have MLB managers and NFL offensive coordinators battle in an Anchorman style rumble, only to have the earth open up and swallow all of them whole for their stupidity:

Does Luis Rojas manage half the teams in baseball?

Braves 2nd and 3rd with nobody out in extras… strike out Swansby… and then instead of walking Riley, who is a .300 hitter and clobbering 2nd half pitchers not on Mets staff, and pitching to Olson, they pitch to Riley and give up a 2-run single, then walk Olson. All because apparently pitching to a lefty is more important than the 50 point difference in averages and better overall numbers

Obtw Riley had already hit a HR and a triple and driven in 3

Most managers are idiots … and that’s being mean to idiots.

I’m picturing Luis in a room in Chelsea picking up a rotary phone to answer calls from other managers looking for advice, and then saying stuff like: “Pitch to him! What are you, chicken or something? Don’t give me numbers! No great battles were won by numbers, nerd. CARPE DIEM MOTHERF**KER!!! CARPE DIEM!!!!! Now go drink some Smart Water and show me what a smart manager does! Who’s next? … What? Castillo’s arm is about to fall off and the bases are loaded? BAH! Leave him in. Teaches him to deal with adversity. He’ll be better for it in three seasons after you trade him for Andrew Benintendi. Next? … Birds and the bees? Who is this? Tell Becky that bees can’t hit lefties and birds have good reverse splits. Rojas out!”