Control Without The Cruise

I tend to bury the lede sometimes. The lede tonight should probably be Jacob deGrom going into the 5th inning with a perfect game, which is phenomenal. 62 strikes in 87 pitches is simply unreal, and the fact that he’s doing this after 13 months away from the game with an injury is a platitude that hasn’t been invented yet. But, probably unfairly, we expect this out of Jacob. “deGrom against the Rockies? Hell, that should have been a no-hitter because the Rockies are the Rockies, right?” I’m sure some of you were thinking that. It’s understandable. deGrom has become a victim of his own success.

You could say the same thing about Pete Alonso with the standard of power that he set for himself in his rookie year. The great thing about Pete is that even when he struggles, he still finds a way to make contact and go the other way before he becomes Rob Deer. But it has been apparent to everyone that Pete has been struggling and pressing. So for him to hit a two run HR off the facade of the second deck at Citi Field had to be a weight off everybody’s shoulders, and it was the margin of victory in a 3-1 Mets win over the Rockies. Pete had two hits on the night, and hopefully it will lead to bigger and better things. Jeff McNeil has been so incredible over the past week or so. I would never discout a run like that. But if Pete Alonso becomes the player making this run, the way he can drive in runs and hit for power … if he’s the guy that’s putting up an OPS of over 1.000 for … a week? Ten days? Two weeks? This race could be over no matter what the Braves do. If he can carry this team like Darryl Strawberry used to carry the Mets for three weeks at a time? Look out, baseball. Hopefully tonight was the start of the fun.

The Mets probably scared 85% of their fan base tonight by letting the Rockies hang around. I mean, we’re in the “easy” part of the schedule now, right? I’m sure you didn’t expect Seth Lugo in the 7th inning and Edwin Diaz in the 8th inning to be the difference. But they were. Seth loaded the bases on the 7th on a single off the handle by Randal Grichuk, a walk to Sam Hilliard, and a two out dribbler to Bretty Baty by Garrett Hampson. But dispersed between the not particularly hard hit singles (shut up, Spencer) and the walk were three strikeouts that Lugo stiffened up for and saved his own bacon. Then Buck brought in Edwin Diaz for the 8th, and while they roughed him up a little bit (look, a walk and single given up by Edwin Diaz counts as “rough” … speaking of being a victim of your own success), his stuff was still nasty enough to get through the meat of the Rockies’ order. Then in the 9th Adam Ottavino made sure that bringing in Diaz in the 8th hasn’t bit them in the backside yet by having a drama free inning to take the Mets home.

It wasn’t the rocking chair victory we might have hoped for, but it’s still another half game in the standings gained on the Braves, who I’m sure were looking around for a local sandlot team that they could beat and hope to have it count in the standings because how much worse than the Pirates can they be?

Today’s Hate List

1. Nolan Arenado
2. Jason Jennings
3. Joe Girardi
4. Mitchell Boggs
5. Jim Czajkowski