Baseball is unfathomable.
The Mets had a 9-0 lead. They did this along the way:
Marcus Stroman. Athlete. Holy Lord. You won’t see a pitcher make a better play. pic.twitter.com/XaSlcln0iO
— Justin Toscano (@JustinCToscano) September 4, 2021
When Michael Conforto’s home run made it 9-0, I was in a Dallas BBQ waiting to pick up some chili and I thought, “okay this feels safe now.” Probably because in the recesses of my mind I knew the Mets had never blown a nine run lead to lose a game, ever.
The Washington Nationals, who traded away everybody from Max Scherzer to Elijah Dukes last month, scored three runs in the 4th off Marcus Stroman. They scored four runs in the 6th thanks in part to two Mets errors to make it 9-7. Then in the 9th, with Seth Lugo on the mound to close it, he threw an 89 mph changeup to Andrew Stevenson when he really should have been throwing nothing but junk out of the zone, and Stevenson parked it to complete the absolutely improbable comeback to tie the game at 9-9. Blowing a 9-0 lead in a 7 inning game to this team in this circumstance would have been worse than any other awful game they’ve blown since the beginning of 2019. Think back on some of those losses (a 10-4 lead in the 9th against the Nationals in 2019 and a 7-2 lead against the Yankees with two out in the 7th to name a couple), and you’ll know that’s saying a lot.
After the Mets didn’t score in the 8th and the Nationals had Juan Soto due up in the bottom of the 8th, I thought the game was fried. But Trevor May struck out Gerardo Parra with one out with the bases loaded, then got Keibert Ruiz, to fly out to escape the jam. Francisco Lindor then led off the 9th with the ghost runner on second …
Francisco, if there was ever a time …
— Metstradamus (@Metstradamus) September 4, 2021
Lindor hit a rain maker down the line in right to give the Mets an 11-9 lead, and then Heath Hembree shut the door in the 9th for a victory that is more “they win the damn thing” than the original “they win the damn thing.” 9-0 lead blown, still win the game. I don’t know what it says about the Mets, the Nationals, or my central nervous system. But all I know is that the Mets have to play another game in about an hour, and they’ll probably have to do it without Brandon Nimmo, who left with hamstring tightness way back in the bottom of the second. This game was so long that maybe Nimmo’s hamstring healed by now?
Many thanks to Jesus, Buddha, Yahweh, Zeus, Hembree, and Lindor for saving the season … for now. Credit the resiliency. Baseball is unfathomable, sometimes. But the chili was good.
Today’s Game One Hate List
- Andrew Stevenson
- Andrew Stevens
- Lee Stevens
- Cliff Lee
- Heathcliff Slocumb
- Also, Trea Turner.
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