After two batters Thursday night, the Cubs led, 2-0, on a Kris Bryant homer. Squawker Lisa and I were at the game, and I told her it might be over. Starter Steven Matz was reportedly considering surgery for a bone spur. Even if the hurting Matz managed to prevent the powerful Cubs from further damage, the Mets had not managed to score more than two runs in four of their last five games. Through five innings, the Mets scored no runs on two hits. Then in the sixth, Yoenis Cespedes came up, and everything changed.
Earlier this season, the Cubs walked Bryce Harper 13 times in a four-game series. With the Mets’ depleted lineup, giving Cespedes the same treatment made sense. Fortunately for the Mets, John Lackey pitched to Cespedes. The crowd roared as the ball left his bat.
Lisa and I were sitting in field level near the left-field foul pole, a few yards into foul territory. I stared at the lower deck to see where the ball would land, but didn’t see the ball, only the apple rising.
It wasn’t until the replay on the big video screen that I realized why I hadn’t seen the ball go into the stands – it landed in the upper deck, well above where I was looking. We later learned that had never happened before at Citi Field (though Cespedes had deposited a few ball there when he won the Home Run Derby at the 2013 All-Star Game.
Cespedes’ mighty blast seemed to wake up the Mets, who rallied to take the lead in the seventh. Brandon Nimmo was in the middle of things with his first major-league RBI and he also scored the go-ahead run. The stands around us were filled with talk of “finding Nimmo,” a pun that dates back to when Nimmo was drafted five years ago. Then some fans started chanting “Ne-mo! Ne-mo!”
But while Nimmo is a great story and seems so excited out there, I wanted to give Cespedes his due, so my headline features two Pixar films – “Up” and “The Incredibles.” After all, that homer did go up into the upper deck and it was pretty incredible. (Lisa, I know you’re rolling your eyes, but at least the Mets don’t have any players named “Ratatouille.” And if you’d like to come up with any Pixar-inspired headlines for the Yankees, they had a movie last fall called “The Good Dinosaur.”)
In the ninth, Jeurys Familia got into a big jam – runners on second and third with none out and Bryant and Anthony Rizzo coming up. The last game we attended, Familia had allowed the Dodgers to tie the game with four runs in the ninth. Since then, we had gotten the chance to interview Familia. The last thing we wanted was for Lisa to be his jinx. (Yes, I was at these games as well, but Lisa’s the Yankee fan, so she gets to be the jinx.) And then Familia got out of the jam and the Mets won. And that was incredible as well.
Let’s also give credit to Matz, who kept the Mets in the game after Bryant’s early homer. I learned later how he glared at Lackey after Lackey threw over his head. After the game, Matz said his elbow felt fine. Let’s hope so.
As great as Thursday night’s win was, the Mets built on it Friday with a 10-2 win, featuring five homers, including another by Cespedes and Nimmo’s first MLB blast. The Cubs may look like a team of destiny this year, but the Mets still have their number. Incredible!
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