Regression To Rock Bottom

Operation Third Place, along with Operation Make The Phillies Feel Like Dirt were stalled on Thursday as the Mets dropped a relative heartbreaker to Philadelphia by a score of 3-2. This game is only noteworthy to complain about things that didn’t matter in the big picture of the game, but in the bigger picture of life:

How many times are we going to have to sit here and lament about Josh Thole and how awful he is? He was 0-for-4 and barely put up a fight at the plate, particularly on the final out against Papelbon. The sixth inning had the potential to be a disaster and it had Thole’s fingerprints all over it. After Kyle Kendrick hit a long ground rule double to center (.132 hitter coming into the day, by the way), Thole’s passed ball moved him to third. It was a wide pitch but jeez, help out your pitcher, would ya please?

Then immediately after that, Jimmy Rollins hits an infield pop-up that should have been caught by anybody other than Jon Niese. And David Wright was in the area in plenty of time. But for some reason he pulled up because Niese wasn’t moving out of the way. Then inexplicably, he tried to make a basket catch and instead gave us a great impression of Antonio Cromartie on a kickoff. It was a bad play all around. Niese should have moved away, David Wright should have called for it louder. But how about Thole, who’s standing at home plate watching the play while Niese, Wright, and Ike Davis are all looking up at the ball, calling somebody’s name and directing traffic? That should have been the pitcher’s job, granted. But Niese was going for the ball. At that point, how about Thole taking charge on that? Now, I say this not knowing who called for what. For all I know Thole could have been yelling David’s name. But it looked like he was just standing there being a spectator, probably thinking about the passed ball.

The only good to come out of that play was Rollins only ending up on first base instead of second because he was daydreaming about Jose Reyes’ contract, then being pulled from the game after getting tossed off second while wandering towards third base while the runner ahead of him was planted there. Good, let those guys be team turmoil. Better them than the Mets, right?

Rollins declined comment: “He already told you what happened. There you go.”

— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) August 30, 2012

Rollins had no comment. Big f’ing shocker.

Then there’s Lucas Duda, who I should really lay off after his surprising game last night. But I’m not encouraged about his at bat against Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth inning. Power hitters who know that fastballs are coming shouldn’t be beat on four of them while swinging through three of them. I’ll tip my hat to Papelbon as you should too. But heaven forbid seven foot 38 inch Duda get a hold of one them.

Then there’s Ike Davis, who had a chance to tie the game in the eighth with runners on first and second against Raul Valdes. Now it’s not a crime to go down against the lefty. But to swing at a first pitch curveball? The whole lineup was guilty of that as they only saw 102 pitches today, including 86 by Kendrick in 7 and 2/3’s of an inning. Contrast that to the last two times the Mets faced Kendrick. One inning in April, and one inning plus in May. Combined, the Mets made him throw 63 pitches in just those two innings and four batters in the third inning. Today, 86. Life was too easy for Kendrick.