Loose Translation: The Season (Gourmands) Is Over (Fins) For The Mets (Mets)

Anything can happen.

I realize that.

But the Mets have dropped two games out of three to the worst team in the National League. And today’s issue was the same damn issue that has besieged them all season long: Starting pitching that has been bad to horrific.

I know that the Mets came back from 5-1 down to eventually tie the game at 7-7 after Tommy Pham’s fifth inning homer. Great. It never should have come to that. When Mets starting pitching has been bad, for the most part it has been horrific. Senga’s start yesterday was an exception, as it wasn’t great but four runs in 6 and 2/3 was at least liveable. But Carlos Carrasco’s outing today has been the typical bad outing for the Mets this season: Six runs in 3 innings plus. It’s unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. But the Mets really have no choice but hope that Jose Quintana comes back and becomes 1984 Rick Sutcliffe and that Carrasco rights himself, and Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander find a fountain of youth that only goes back about 1-4 years. (I think that fountain spouts a mix of RC Cola and Red Bull.)

I know that the Mets have been vapor locking over the past month, playing rockhead baseball. It’s absolutely a problem. Guys who never make errors make errors. Guys who play sound fundamental baseball all of a sudden get reckless. Today, Brandon Nimmo tried to stretch a two run double into a triple with two outs in the 2nd with the Mets down a run. If that’s a 4-1 game instead of a 5-4 game, I don’t think Nimmo goes anywhere. But I truly believe that this team all of a sudden got stupid not because they’re stupid all of a sudden, but because they’re trying too hard to overcome bad starting pitching. They’re pressing. And if this team was playing in the 70’s when there was less of a Kumbaya atmosphere in MLB clubhouses these days, there would be fistfights between pitchers and position players in that clubhouse. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy there aren’t fights in the clubhouse. We sure as hell don’t need that on top of everything else.)

I also know that people are going to have an issue with Buck pulling David Robertson after throwing eight pitches in the 8th in favor of Adam Ottavino for the 9th. My issue is slightly different: All season long, Robertson has been facing the tough parts of every lineup, regardless of inning. If the tough part of the lineup was up in the 8th, that’s what Robertson got. If it was the 9th, that’s what Robertson got. That strategy has mostly worked. Today, Buck went with Robertson for the 8th to pitch to Andrew Knizner, Tommy Edman, and Brendan Donovan, and Ottavino for the 9th which featured Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. Goldschmidt hit one hard off Ottavino for an out, and then Arenado saw a sinker down the middle and hit it to Montreal. It was contrary to what Buck had done all year, so it didn’t deserve to work.

BUT IT SHOULDN’T HAVE COME TO THAT BECAUSE THE STARTING PITCHER GAVE UP SIX RUNS IN THREE INNINGS!!!!!!! YOU CAN’T WIN WHEN THE STARTERS DO THIS THREE OUT OF EVERY FIVE GAMES!!!!

So all that was left was for me to do was wait for the inevitable double play to end the game.

I really do hate being right.

Father’s Day is spoiled, Pete Alonso’s return to the lineup is spoiled, this whole season … well it was probably spoiled a long time ago. But in the search for rock bottom, the excavation might have finally hit the floor by losing two out of three to the worst team in the National League. Fins Mets Gourmands, indeed.

Today’s Hate List

1. Nolan Arenado
2. Andre Pallatte
3. Brendan Donovan
4. Skip Schumaker
5. Frank Lane