When Plunders Are Just Blunders with a P

A big deal was made out Ke’Bryan Hayes eating sunflower seeds while a run was being scored right in front of him on Friday night.

Everyone was watching Eduardo Escobar dash home in the 3rd, but did you notice Ke'Bryan Hayes eating sunflower seeds during the play?@Todd_Zeile on Mets Post Game: pic.twitter.com/Ca6v75UPau

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 17, 2022

I don’t bring this up to get on Ke’Bryan. It’s probably something he did without thinking. It’s indicative of a larger issue. It’s not the manager. Poor Derek Shelton is probably going to be the scapegoat of this Pirates era, and “SeedGate” will be the encapsulation of it. But the Pirates have had one good playoff run in 30 years, and no experienced manager, if they would even take the job, could wave his magic wand and get any amount of young talent to play like vets before they get traded for the next saviors, until they get traded for the next saviors, and so on and so on and so on.

The video of SeedGate is proof that this team is disengaged. And why wouldn’t they be? It used to be that every team in the league at least had hope in spring training. But more and more teams are carved into contenders and rebuilders. The Athletics and Reds sold off everybody. The Pirates have done this for years. And the Cubs, who actually play in a large market, have been putting out signals that they are in “tank” mode for a couple of years now. That’s why the records of the good teams are going to be shockingly inflated this year. And that’s also why we, as Mets fans, get heated when they can’t fully take advantage of the weak schedule they have. Because these teams aren’t just bad. They’re disengaged. The Hayes video is proof of that. And it’s why the Cubs series was so baffling.

Thankfully, the Mets are putting that Cubs series behind them one victory over the Pirates at a time. Chris Bassitt sure as hell put that Cubs series behind him, going six strong shutout innings, giving up just three hits and walking two. Eduardo Escobar hit a three run dinger in the second and you knew the Bucs were done (they even said it in a recent broadcast: you get on these bad teams early and they curl up in a ball.) And guess who came back and was effective tonight? Why it was none other than David Peterson! He threw two and a third innings, was extremely effective and worked fast. His only blip was a HR to Rodolfo Castro in the 9th, but overall he showed some good resolve after an outing which led some believe he shouldn’t even pick up a baseball the rest of the season. Thankfully, disciples of the talk radio generation have no influence in personnel decisions.

So your good news is that the Mets rode all of those performances and combined them with some wildness from Eric Stout to a 5-1 victory. Your bad news? The Phillies remain as useless as they’ve ever been and the Braves are still one game back. And tomorrow, it’s Mr. Exit Velo pitching against Bailey Falter. My in depth analysis of that pitching matchup is that the Mets had better win on Sunday.

Today’s Hate List

1. Rodolfo Castro
2. Aaron Nola
3. Austin Nola
4. Some other relative named Nola or Austin or Aaron
5. Auston Matthews