Grady’s Maladies

I opined yesterday:

“And in this series which will be decided by the team that decides to suck just a little bit less than the other one …”

If ever there was a game which epitomized that statement, it happened on Friday night. The Mets offense sucked as once again they couldn’t support a Jacob deGrom gem and pretty much doomed him to a no-decision as he left for a pinch hitter in the pivotal seventh inning. But it was in that seventh inning where the Phillies out-sucked the Mets, as the Amazins had the bases loaded with two outs in a 1-1 tie with Juan Lagares at the plate. This is the type of situation which you almost never see the huge hit like, say, a bases clearing double. And sure enough, Justin De Fratus got Lagares to pop up to shallow left to end the inning.

One problem for Philadelphia: Grady Sizemore dropped the ball. It was a play which would have been a hell of a lot of fun had it happened in an important game. As it was, it was still quite hilarious. The play gave the Mets a 3-1 lead which they added to as speedster Eric Campbell stole home on the back end of a double steal. The Mets wouldn’t look back as they avoided losing to the Phillies by a score of 4-1 (to say they “won” is too generous) and avoided the cellar for a night. The three runs in the seventh were scored without the aid of a hit … which is a good thing because if they truly needed a hit out of that lineup, they were screwed.

It was also a night that was notable for the debut of second baseman Dilson Herrera. Herrera went 0-for-3 in his debut as he was called up to take the place of an injured Daniel Murphy, but it hardly matters as just the fact that Herrera is up means he really impressed people this season in the minors. It might also mean that if he plays well enough not to embarrass himself in September, it might grease the skids for Murphy to be traded. There is plenty of time to speculate on that if necessary … in fact, I have a feeling that’s all we’ll be talking about this winter. But I’ll fire the first salvo and say that if Murphy is gone, there had better be some semblance of major league talent coming back this way. If not, Sandy Alderson might have some torches and pitchforks coming his way.

My favorite story to come out of this day was Mariners prospect Jesus Montero throwing an ice cream sandwich at somebody in the stands on Thursday. But the kicker of the story is the best part:

Apparently Grady Sizemore dropped the ice cream.