On June 18th, 2013, Zack Wheeler and Matt Harvey pitched on the same day … each starting one game of a doubleheader as Wheeler made his major league debut in Atlanta. Almost five years later, on April 24th, 2018 they pitched on the same day in St. Louis … Harvey making his major league bullpen debut in the fifth after taking over for a very ordinary looking Zack Wheeler. This time, there were no beer showers. How the mighty have fallen.
This start will tell a lot about where Wheeler really is. The Cardinals hit mistakes hard. I'm extremely curious.
— Metstradamus (@Metstradamus) April 25, 2018
Moments after I tweeted that, Tommy Pham hit a mistake by Wheeler very hard, and it resulted in a 2-0 Cardinals lead. Wheeler was back to the old Wheeler, plagued by a high pitch count, suspect location, and no command of his off-speed stuff. The Zack Wheeler we saw make his debut in Miami seems to be the exception rather than the rule.
For Matt Harvey, who entered the game at 4-4 thanks to a Yoenis Cespedes three run missile that is still making its way somewhere through Missouri, it was location that plagued him as he immediately gave up the lead after a couple of two out hits. He made it through that, along with the sixth inning as the low bar that is now set for Matt has been reached for one night.
This was the duo that the we have all thought we would rely upon for years to come. But now we probably need to start seeing for what they are instead of what they can be. What they are … are nothing more than one back of the rotation starter and one reliever desperately trying to get back to the status of being a back of the rotation starter. This isn’t the duo that is going to be the key to the Mets present and future anymore.
The duo that will be paramount to the Mets’ current success are the two you see above: Cespedes and Jay Bruce. Cespedes is still slumping after his 1-for-4 raised his average to .195, but his three run home run in the fifth amazingly cements his place as being a force in this lineup. Jay Bruce would then take an extra inning game by the scruff of its neck and rescue it from the tree of despair with a tenth inning monster off of former Met prospect Matt Bowman to give the Mets a 6-5 victory. Bruce had three hits to raise his average off the interstate to .222. This is the duo the Mets need to hope gets warm (quite literally as this weather has not helped anybody get out of a slump) and stay warm.
Today’s Hate List
Mike Matheny challenged that Jay Bruce missed first base after his extra inning home run.
https://twitter.com/MiloTaibi/status/988985643278766085
Mike Matheny is the hate list today. And I hope that Mickey Callaway challenges an easy fly ball in the third inning just to be petty. These dumb challenges (looking at you too, Snitker) need to be met with fines, suspenstions, tarrings and featherings. Matheny can be on the list for those too.
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