Look At Him

Your reward, New York? Your reward for going 26-13 down the stretch and locking down the wild card home game? Ha ha. You get to face the Giants in an even year. And Madison Bumgarner in a winner take all game!

We … won?

Personally, I think what the fans behind the plate need to do is all get Yasiel Puig masks that stare right back and Bumgarner. You talk about a psych out that nobody will see coming, that would be the one. But short of that, the Mets are going to have to put their big boy pants on and smack this Mike Rutherford lookalike into oblivion. Or maybe just drive his pitch count up so the Mets could get to that bullpen. There aren’t a lot of crooked numbers that the Mets have against Bumgarner. The Riveras combined are hitting 4 for 6. Asdrubal Cabrera is hitting 3 for 7. Jose Reyes is 3 for 9. Yoenis Cespedes is 3 for 10. Jay Bruce is hitting .130. Curtis Granderson: triple zeroes. First base? Don’t even ask about Lucas Duda and James Loney. One intriguing option is Kelly Johnson, who has a sample size considered large compared to the others, his hitting .350 against Bumgarner at 7 for 20. But starting a lefty against a lefty would be akin to looking directly into the Ark of the Covenant as far as Terry Collins is concerned. (Not that staring at Madison Bumgarner is a more fruitful option.)

It’s going to take numbers to beat him. We can’t rely on our crowd or any other intangible to defeat this guy. He’s faced it all and came out clean on the other side. He faced a crowd in Pittsburgh that rattled his current teammate Johnny Cueto and shut out the Pirates the following year. He faced the Royals in Game 7 of the World Series and shut them down in a five inning relief appearance on two days rest. Everything else is delicious side dishes and gravy on top. But in those two do-or-die games in 2014, he was oustanding in front of hostile crowds. On Wednesday, he will have another hostile crowd to deal with in a do-or-die game. He’s been there before. And more importantly, he’s coming off a regular season that on the whole might be slightly better than his 2014 season.

Noah Syndergaard is the guy who can keep the Mets close. There’s not a lot of sample size, but outside of Buster Posey and Joe Panik, the rest of the lineup has been historically handled by Syndergaard. But here’s the “oh shit” moment from Wednesday that we can only hope to avoid: I think Hunter Pence is the absolute last hitter on the Giants that I want to face in a big spot. Pence with two outs and runners in scoring position: a .293 average with a slugging percentage of .514. That’s better numbers in that spot than Posey, and Posey’s clutch numbers overall are very, very good. But here’s the small sample size number that I’m going to think about a lot until Wednesday:

Pence vs. Jeurys Familia: Four hits in five at-bats.

Now here’s the good news, because context matters: Only one of those hits came in the last two seasons, and it was during a blowout. The 2014 at-bats came when Jeurys was working the seventh and eighth, and in once instance asked to go more than two innings. Pence drove in a run in a ninth inning against Familia, but that was in 2013 when Jeurys was mopping up in a 8-5 loss. So Pence has never faced Familia in a save situation. But Pence, who Vin Scully said on Sunday “makes coffee nervous”, is one of those players who will contort in any way possible to get a hit off the greatest thrown pitch in the world. If there’s a Pendleton in that lineup, it’s the guy that looks like Woody Harrelson on PCP.

Take heart: Yoenis Cespedes isn’t satisfied with just making the “playoffs”. He only kinda sorta celebrated on Saturday , while pissed off about his own day. I know old schoolers will say that the only thing that should matter to him is team accomplishments. While true, it also speaks to wanting more. I know Wednesday is the playoffs, designated so to market sudden death and sell t-shirts. (I’ll probably buy one, so I’ll save my indignation about that.) But I have a hard time looking at a one game series as “the playoffs”, and it sounds like Cespedes does too. He wants more and so do I. So I’ll go with what I went with last season <a href=”http://metstradamusblog.com/2015-articles/not-tonight-i-have-a-date-with-a-billy-goat.html”>before Game 5 against the Dodgers</a>: Give me Wednesday. Preferably an extra inning walk off. I’ll accept whatever follows. I know it’s easy to say “well, it’s Bumgarner and the Mets were fortunate to get this far.” I’m not saying it. I want Wednesday in my hip pocket. I’m scared to death, because for all of the excitement that I’m picturing in my head, I alternate between that and eating my last Shake Shack of the season in center field during a 12-0 loss because the lines were so short after everybody left. But I want it. I have a bad taste in my mouth from last season that I want out of my mouth once and for all. Wednesday can do it (and I’m not talking about Shake Shack). And I think it can be done.

Don’t be afraid to stare down success.