Shames And Gray

Two things killed the Mets tonight.

It’s the bottom of the 5th. Jose Butto had thrown a million pitches (okay, 93) in 4 and 2/3’s and was bailed out by Jimmy Yacabonis to keep the score at 2-0 Nationals. (But really, what are we really expecting from the 9th starting pitcher on the depth chart?) Josiah Gray was crusing, and he was throwing up some good stuff. But Brett Baty hit a one out double which landed on the left field chalk. And after Luis Guillorme popped out, Francisco Alvarez hit a slow roller to short that CJ Abrams almost threw away, but Dom Smith (reminder: he’s on the Nationals now) made a great save to keep a run from scoring. Then Brandon Nimmo walked to load the bases and Gray was starting to lose it.

So up comes Starling Marte. He takes a high strike, and foul tips a ball right down the middle. But then he worked the count to 3-2 as he took a ball high, foul tipped another fastball down teh middle, and spit on a slider to make it 2-2 and then took a low fastball to fill the count. Gray then threw his first cutter of the at-bat. Good pitch, but after three balls, maybe Marte got overanxious on it and struck out to leave the bases loaded.

Then came the top of the 6th. With Victor Robles on first with one out, “Alex Call singles on a ground ball to center fielder Brandon Nimmo. Victor Robles to 3rd.” At least that’s what it read on MLB.com. But it doesn’t by any means tell the whole story. Call hit a grounder right in the area of Luis Guillorme. Now on planet Earth, Guillorme moves to his glove side and it’s a 4-6-3 double play. But I’m not sure what planet Guillorme was on because he moved the other way, and the ball rolled harmfully into center field (to center fielder Brandon Nimmo, Victor Robles to 3rd.) Now Ronnie was trying to bail him out by saying that maybe he reacted to the pitch being thrown and tried to cheat to get a jump one way. However …

"I hate plays like that. I hate not picking up my pitchers."

Luis Guillorme says he didn't see the ground ball be misjudged in the 6th inning: pic.twitter.com/SG548isasj

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 26, 2023

Fly balls getting misjudged happen all the time. But when a groundball gets misjudged or lost, man … that should be a red flag that it’s just not your night. And sure enough, three runs came into score that inning after the misplay and made a 2-0 game a 5-0 game.

Both events in concert (along with this being the first game after a west coast swing which is always a challenge, just like it was for Keith) shoved this game in the chute instead of the books, and made the rest of the game notable only for the presence of Tommy Hunter, eating up innings for the rest of the bullpen and telling stories about Bill Brasky. But at least it took me until the 5 inning to notice the new uniform patches for New York Presbyterian, because they’re now adorned in colors that match the uniform and are smaller than Gary Cohen’s scorecard. So I’ll take that as a win, even if it isn’t in the standings.

Today’s Hate List

1. Luis Garcia
2. Keibert Ruiz
3. Josiah Gray
4. Alex Call
5. Joey Meneses