Smile, Though Your Infield Is Breaking

So, yeah. I’m going to whine about the Mets losing 3/4’s of their infield on the same night because that’s what I do. And yeah, it’s a Mets thing. If I told you that a random MLB team lost 3/4’s of their infield, you’d ask me “well how are the Mets going to get through this?”

Two things. First, the Mets will get through it because all three injuries seemed like minor inconveniences more than anything. Jeff McNeil was a late scratch due to back tightness, Amed Rosario left the game in the third with quad tightness, and Robinson Cano left the game in the fifth due to groin tightness after he was sent home on an infield hit and was thrown out at the plate. So yeah, it’s a Mets thing. But they’ll be fine. They may have to give Gordon Beckham another phone call, but they’ll be fine.

Second, hard to whine about that after seeing what happened to Mike Soroka. I still have nightmares of Vinny Testaverde dropping back to pass and rupturing his achilles which basically ended the Jets hopes for a Super Bowl (in part because Bill Parcells didn’t go to Ray Lucas until Rick Mirer had already set fire to the season, but that’s another blog post for another time). So seeing that was brutal. That’s 12 months easy for Soroka, one of the best young pitchers in the league. So best of luck and all good wishes to Mike. Maybe if Rick Mirer takes over for him too, the Mets might have a chance at the division.

Jacob deGrom was his dominant self for four innings, and gutted himself through the last two as he gave up a solo HR to Travis d’Arnaud (last two home runs that deGrom has given up: d’Arnaud and Wilmer Flores), and kept looking at his fingers as if something was wrong. But he got through six while giving up two runs and striking out ten, getting the big outs when he had to. The good news is that when deGrom was going through his spell, he was staked to a 7-0 lead which probably made him feel like he won the Georgia lottery. It was a jackpot that featured Cano staying hot with two hits and three RBI (dude is hitting .412 for heaven’s sake), and Wilson Ramos getting hot with an RBI single and a two run HR in the fifth to blow it open (dude is hitting .219, so heaven to him is a one bedroom condo.)

By the way, did you know that Jacob deGrom is smiling more? I do because that’s what I heard every ten minutes on SNY. Is this the new “Kirk Nieuwenhuis once played high school football”, or are we searching for a cutesy angle to cram down our throats because there no “Noah Syndergaard to the Yankees” trade rumors to invent? I only hope that it’s being brought up so much because it’s being brought up ironically.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91zPXk8qFFA

As for the bullpen, of course they made it interesting because SNY needs to make up ad dollars, and what better way to do that than to have eyeballs on the game for all nine innings. But after Jeurys Familia loaded the bases in the 7th, he struck out Ozzie Albies for the second out, paving the way for Justin Wilson to come in and get Freddie Freeman to ground out to end the last best threat the Braves would have. Jared Hughes made his Mets debut and shut the Braves down for two innings to seal up the 7-2 victory which stopped the bleeding and sent the Mets off the the District of Columbia to play the Nationals tomorrow if Isaias doesn’t get in the way.

Gordon Beckham, white courtesy phone. Mr. Beckham …

Today’s Hate List

1. Andrei Schevnikov
2. Andrei Schevnikov
3. Andrei Schevnikov
4. Andrei Schevnikov
5. Andrei Schevnikov