“What does not kill you makes you stronger.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich is going to have to come back to life and show me empirical evidence that this is true. Because I don’t feel any stronger than what I felt at 7:20 PM on Wednesday night. In fact, I feel a little nauseons, a little itchy, and thanks to Trevor May, I might have parasites.
But let’s start with the good stuff: Starling Marte and Francisco Lindor homered on back to back pitches in the first off Jake Odorizzi to make it 2-0. Then in the second, the Mets’ latest savior from the minor leagues made his MLB debut.
BRETT BATY HAS HOMERED IN HIS FIRST MAJOR LEAGUE AT-BAT!!!!! pic.twitter.com/EPwfc0BDzK
— SNY (@SNYtv) August 17, 2022
I’m sure there’s a portion of the fan base that was impatient to the point where they wondered why this took him two pitches. Then there’s the portion of the fanbase already comparing him to Ray Knight and Keith Hernandez. I mean … okay, it was me on both counts. But when you look at Baty’s swing, there’s a lot of Keith in it.
A moment Brett Baty will remember forever pic.twitter.com/zmJMBSnN94
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) August 17, 2022
The Mets stretched the lead to 6-1 on a double by Mark Canha and Marte’s second home run of the night, while Max Scherzer was showing everyone why the Mets went and signed Max Scherzerm even while a rain delay interrupted his night. But in the 7th inning, he lost a little control, so Buck brought in Adam Ottavino with two runners on. Ottavino got Vaughn Grissom to ground into a scintillating inning ending double play, but replay showed that Grissom was safe by a millimeter. So up came Robbie Grossman, who then smacked a three run dinger to make it 6-5. Ottavino would get out of the inning only when James McCann gunned down Ronald Acuna trying to steal second.
Buck then brought in Edwin Diaz for the 8th, and he made quick work of the Braves on 10 pitches. Now the last time Diaz got himself a six out save, I was a little squirrely about it. But for this game, after the Braves cut the Mets lead from 6-1 to 6-5, it would have been a killer had they blown it. So I was all in for Diaz pitching another six out save, and I’m sure everyone else did too. But then in the top of the 9th, the Mets scored three runs on a two runs single by Pete Alonso, and then a dream sequence of events which started with Pete Alonso stealing a base and then Chen Zhen Vogelbach legging out an RBI double as if he swallowed Ichiro before the game to make it 9-5.
So Buck decided not to bring back Diaz for the ninth, figuring that Trevor May is a major league reliever and that major league relievers should be able to not give up five runs in an inning. So if you can save Diaz for tomorrow’s game, which is just as big a game as tonight’s, where the only hurdle to that is counting on Trevor May not to give up five runs in one inning with the 6-7-8 portion of the lineup coming up, you do it. I know in my heart that it was the right move. My heart on the other hand, would come up with the counterpoint that if Trevor May faltered with nobody left in the ‘pen to close out the top of the Braves order, it simply would not survive.
May was proving my heart right by giving up three straight hits to William Contreras, Michael Harris (a single off the wall), and then a two run single by Vaughn Grissom to make it 9-7. It didn’t kill me, but it sure as hell didn’t make me or my heart any stronger. But thankfully, May righted the ship (or at least didn’t crash it into an iceberg) by striking out Robbie Grossman and making it possible for Marte to run down a screaming liner to the gap by Acuna to end the game. Nobody got a save, but Marte saved my reeling heart by running down that fly ball.
Today’s Hate List
- Robbie Grossman
- Chip Caray
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- William Contreras
- Willson Contreras
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