We’ve all been depressed about what’s going on in the world regarding the COVID-19 outbreak, and baseball has become collateral damage. The 2020 baseball season is set to begin in late July. Until then, you can read this blog in the alternate: the one where global pandemics were a myth and baseball was around no matter what. We’re imagining the 2020 Mets season as if everything was normal. Enjoy these works of fiction.
The bad feelings from Friday night’s walk-off loss carried over a bit into Saturday night’s game, as Steven Matz gave up a two run HR to Manny Machado in the first inning to give San Diego a quick 2-0 lead, which ballooned to 3-0 when Fernando Tatis Jr. drove home Francisco Mejia with a single. But Matz deserves a ton of credit for getting through six innings while only giving up the three runs, especially with a mildly interested crowd yelling at every other move that Matz made.
(You might have heard that Southern California is a little more laid back than the rest of the country.)
The Mets roared back thanks to J.D. Davis, who got the Mets on the board with a sac fly in the 4th, and then tying the game up with a two run bomb in the 7th to knock Cal Quantrill out of the game. Then, Drew Pomeranz was brought in to face Michael Conforto in the 8th with one out and runners on first and third and struck out Conforto. But then a two out walk to Pete Alonso (who was batting behind Conforto tonight as Luis Rojas was feeling special), brought up Davis with the bases loaded.
“Alonso watches a lot of film on his iPad and he told me that Pomeranz likes to go curve ball ahead in the count this season so I guessed curve and I guessed right.”
Davis flipped a single to right field off that curve ball to make it 5-3 while Wilson Ramos followed with an opposite field homer right down the line to make it 8-3. The Padres rallied off Robert Gsellman in the bottom of the eight, closing the gap to 8-4 and forcing Rojas to burn Seth Lugo. But Lugo came in and got Tommy Pham to fly out on one pitch to end the inning. Lugo stayed in to blow through the ninth to give the Mets an 8-4 victory to set up the rubber match between Alonso and Chris Paddack. I’m sure it will be kept in context.
Today’s Hate List
- I’m just going to avoid the hype matchine …
- … that is the pre-game show …
- … and just hope that Alonso gets the better of Paddack …
- … without caring what Paddack has said …
- … in the past three months.
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