Need or Want?

After wins like the ones the Mets had on Friday, the prevailing thought is that “we needed that one.” In this case, the prevailing thought is absolutely correct.

I mean, you want them all. Or you want as many of them as you can to head into September series with the Phillies to end the season. (Was actually looking for the last Braves series but the Mets don’t play them past August 23rd … who made this schedule, Vince McMahon?) But this one was needed for multiple reasons, and multiple players.

Kodai Senga needed this one, as he has been his own worst enemy lately with control issues. On eight days rest, he still had those issues. He walked four batters in the first three innings, and command with the four seam fastball was an issue. Of the 53 he threw, 24 of them were balls,, incluing 15 straight that were taken for balls after the first four were strikes. But the good news was that everything he gave up in six innings, the four walks and two hits, were given up with two outs so he was never in any serious trouble. And his last three innings were much better than his first three innings. That’s been an interesting nugget for Senga this season: Coming into the game, Senga’s OPS against was .608 second time through the order as opposed to .724 first time through. So he’s showing an aptitude for adjusting. He did that again tonight, although it was less about adjusting to hitters and more about tighening up his control.

Brandon Nimmo needed this game, after having a bad stretch of about 10 games at the plate (hitting around .100), and of course his baserunning vapor lock in the ninth inning on Thursday. Nimmo certainly achived that by getting on base three times (including a home run for the only run of hte game), and making a diving catch to help Senga. Buck Showalter tried to make it sound like they weren’t concerned about Nimmo after the game, but he didn’t have to because Nimmo was concerned about Nimmo. What you appreciate about Brandon is that he responds to such plays (of which there haven’t been many of in Nimmo’s career) by explaining his thought process and taking responsibility. That’s why Brandon will never be booed at Citi Field … because he never (or rarely) needs to be reminded to get it in gear. He knows. And he did it tonight.

What a catch by Brandon Nimmo! pic.twitter.com/WAgdR7BNTt

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 6, 2023

The bullpen, and to a lesser extent, Tomas Nido also needed this. They needed this because David Robertson and Adam Ottavino scared everyone half to death in the 8th and the 9th. With Gare talking about how the Mets had won 110 straight games where the had the lead after eight innings. If they had blown this lead after all that talk, and with Edwin Diaz in the dugout … oh man, the overreactors would have been out in full force on social media, and I’m not sure we all would have gotten rid of them. Think “chronic dandruff.”

David Robertson came in for the 8th and walked the leadoff hitter, Jurickson Profar. He then got a couple of outs, but then Nido threw a pick off attempt into right field to put Profar on second. Then after walking Elias Diaz, who was pinch run for by Brenton Doyle, Ryan McMahon hit a acreamer towards Pete Alonso. Luckily, the ball found not Alonso’s glove, but Doyle’s shinguard to end the inning and let us all breathe a sigh of relief.

Then came Adam Ottavino for the 9th to close it against the bottom of the order. He’s become the “easy-peasy closer” as opposed to Robertson being the “big meat closer” (I’ll find a better name for that soon), but there was nothing easy peasy about this one. Randal Grichuk singled to right and immediately stole second because Ottavino is slow to the plate, and because Nido dropped the ball. You could feel the tide of Met fans wondering why Nido exists let alone why he gets in the lineup at all, as if Francisco Alvarez should play every day and drop dead before Omar Narvaez’s ankle heals.

After Grichuk was sacrificed to third, Mike Moustakas came up to pinch hit with one out and a steak on third. Fitting that the day that 2015 deuteragonist Matt Harvey announces his retirement is the same day I realize that 2015 villain Moustakas is not only still in the league, but with the Colorado Rockies. With Noah Syndergaard further than 60 feet 6 inches away, Moustakas came up against Ottavino. Moose worked the count to 2-1 before Adam went to work. The changeup that he buried and got Moustakas to swing at was probably the key pitch of that at-bat. It gave Ottavino a little leeway to miss with the fastball inside on the next pitch before he blew Moustakas away with a fastball for the second out.

Then Charlie Blackmon came up and I just about had a heart attack when the ball came off his bat:

And the ballgame is over! pic.twitter.com/Z8R8xFh0eO

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 6, 2023

After I was revived, I told the doctor “we needed that one.”

Today’s Hate List

1. Anthony Senzatela
2. Brenton Doyle
3. Valeri Kamensky
4. Cale Makar
5. Ed McCaffrey