When Gare said that former Met Chris Bassitt’s wife had gone into labor right at the moment that he was getting ready to start against the Mets tonight, you knew that it was going to go one of two ways: Either it was going to be a masterpiece, or Bassitt was going to be knocked out early because his focus was squarely elsewhere.
In the third inning, it looked like it was going to be the latter, which I was rooting for. (Hey, I care about family!) The Mets were down 1-0 after the second pitch of the game … a home run by George Springer off of Justin Verlander. After a Mark Canha single and stolen base, and an error by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (helped along by a great slide by Francisco Alvarez into first), the Mets had first and third with nobody out. Not only did Bassitt get out of that inning without a run scored, he did so in six pitches. A first pitch Brandon Nimmo pop out to Matt Chapman, a four pitch strikeout of Francisco Lindor, and a first pitch Jeff McNeil pop out to Matt Chapman.
I was hoping that would just be a footnote to the game, as Verlander kept the Mets in it at 1-0 through six innings, ending his night on a strikeout of Daulton Varsho with the bases loaded. But it was all about Bassitt, who definitely went the masterpiece route with 7 and 2/3’s of shutout ball that he’ll tell his new child about when they’re old enough to appreciate it. Tim Mayza then came in and finished the inning by striking out Nimmo on a damn pitch clock violation. That’s when you knew “well shit, we’re done.”
Varsho came up in the ninth and said “yeah ya are” with a home run off Jeff Brigham (who I would be careful about pitching on back to back nights) to make it 3-0 Blue Jays, and that was your ballgame. The Mets are no longer undefeated when their starting pitcher goes six innings, and they are no longer undefeated against pitchers who were on the 2022 staff. Life was celebrated. Pitch clock violations were not. Justin Verlander is good again.
We’re on to Saturday.
Today’s Hate List
- Ben Davis, who went to the Larry Andersen School For Analysts Who Wnt To Be Jerks
- Larry Andersen
- Kody Clemens
- Willie Calhoun
- Shane Victorino
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