Toast

I know that there are still a brave few of you out there that depend on me to give you intricate detail on what happened to the Mets during a given game. I was at Citi Field tonight so I should be able to do that for you easily.

But I have to admit to you that I was toasted tonight. I got to the game in time to see Brandon Nimmo’s home run which turned into a double, and the rest of the night was interdispersed with multiple “Bramble Grand Slams” (Bourbon, Lemonade, and Black Raspberry Syrup), which I think we’re going to all need to get through the entire second half of the season, let alone one game. By the time I looked up after my first one, Verlander had walked six guys, including the 7, 8, and 9 hitters to load the bases for a couple of guys named Betts and Freeman. Freeman delivered just as he did against the Mets when he was a Brave, and that followed Betts delivering against the Mets as if he actually played for the Braves. Verlander would finish the night at 104 pitches in five innings, which is basically what we’ve come to expect from Verlander the Met. He is now Daisuke Matsuzaka to Max Scherzer’s Aaron Harang. 2023 has become a more expensive 2013.

By the time I finished my second Bramble Grand Slam, I was barely lucid enough to notice that the Brandon Nimmo home run turned double was the only hit the Mets would get the entire night. They had three other baserunners the entire night. Pete Alonso walked in the first, Starling Marte was hit by a pitch in the fourth (which gave me some Mitch Keller flashbacks), and Brett Baty reached on catcher’s interference which I have no recollection of. But the fact that I was able to give you the entire Mets offense in three lines of text is a Sarah McLachlan commercial.

But thankfully, I had to look all this up because this offense barely registered in my brain after the two large Bramble Grand Slams. It’s okay because they barely registered in general. In short, it was a typical Mets/Dodgers game at Citi Field. The Mets were totally outclassed, and the portion of the crowd that wasn’t full of Dodger fans resorted to dancing to the Friday night DJ, grumbling about Noah Syndergaard getting tossed for missing Chase Utley with a pitch, and about how a screaming foul ball hit their seats after they left to hang out in center field (okay, that was just me.)

Not the best way to kick off the second half (except for the Bramble Grand Slams.)

Today’s Hate List

We’re about 4-5 seasons into the Mets having a rideshare area outside the park, and this is the first season where it’s in a new spot, on Shea Road. It should have fixed the issue of cops chasing away the legitimate rideshare drivers while the ripoff artists remained.

Instead, a huge police van parked by Rideshare 4, sweeping away drivers for loitering, while loitering himself. Meanwhile, I had to walk about a mile up the water across the Grand Central Parkway to find my Lyft, who wasn’t allowed to get anywhere close to the spot because he wasn’t coming straight on from a certain road.

Hopefully they’ll get this right in another five years. (Same way I hope the Mets will get this right in another five years.)