We had Steve Trachsel on the new Kiner’s Korner show on Monday. I don’t mention that to plug the website or the weekly zoom called Down on the Korner or the Facebook page, but I’m pluggint the website, the weekly zooms and the Facebook page. (Because in all seriousness, you should check it out.)
But I say it because Trachsel, without knowing it, foretold what happened tonight. Late in the show, he told us about Al Leiter asking him about how to handle pitching at Wrigley Field since Trachsel was a Cub for a few years, and he told Leiter (paraphrasing) “Look, you’re going to throw about 100 pitches no matter what. The only quesiton is how many innings will it take to throw those 100 pitches.”
Well here was the idfference in Wednesday’s 4-2 loss to the Cubs: Kodai Senga threw 106 pitches in five innings, while Marcus Stroman threw 88 pitches in eight innings. That was your ballgame. Senga’s command was lacking … not so much on the fastball but on the off speed pitches, and it caught up to him all game but especially in the third when he gave up three runs to give up the lead he had been handed. He did a good job to get out of most of the jams he put himself in with those 106 pitches, but pulling Houdini acts is not a great long term strategy. Francisco Lindor had told Steve Gelbs that he was looking forward to see how Senga reacts to being in MLB parks for the first time and clearly, fighting 20 mph winds going straight in from the outfield didn’t agree with Senga, who is still getting used to pitching in parks that aren’t domes.
Stroman, meanwhile, was incredible. He gave up a two run HR to Francisco Alvarez in the third to give the Mets the early lead, and it was an impressive homer by Alvarez into the teeth of the wind off a 92 mph slider, so Alvarez had to supply all the power to get that out of the yard, and he did it. But otherwise, Stroman was getting ground ball after ground ball after ground ball … 15 grounders against two flyouts for the game. We all know from when Stroman pitched here that, like most sinkerball/control pitchers, if he’s a little bit off, he can get hit hard. But when he’s on, he cam make a team look like they don’t care. He made the Mets look like they didn’t care tonight. Clearly that’s not the case, but Stroman was masterful as he punctuated his night by getting Alvarez to ground into an inning ending double play as the go-ahead run to end the 8th inning.
The Mets fall back to .500 as they have now lost (/doesn’t feel like doing research) 793 games against the Cubs. Carlos Carrasco finishes off the series tomorrow against in Wrigley, where the Mets are now 18-43 in the regular season since 2003. Let’s see how long it’ll take for Carrasco to throw his 100 pitches. Meanwhile I’ll spend tonight in the fetal position at the mere thought of 100 pitches in two innings.
Today’s Hate List
- Miles Mastrobuoni
- Mike Tauchman
- Matt Mervis
- Mark Leiter Jr.
- Nico Hoerner
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