You’ve Been Polarized

My Citi Field debuts the last two seasons have been eventful. Last season was Matt Harvey’s return to Citi Field. This season was … well you can tell from the header.

But it was also the final game in Queens for noted nemesis Albert Pujols and iconic nemesis Yadier Molina. The Mets were classy enough to donate cash to both of their charitable foundations, which I guess they probably wanted instead of having to bring flat screen televisions on to the flight to Pittsburgh. But good for them, and congratulations on great careers. (Now don’t pull a Tom Brady and unretire.)

The Mets had their typical fast start, scoring twice off Dakota Hudson in the first. But the Cards touched up Chris Bassitt with home runs by Juan Yepez in the second and Paul Goldschmidt in the third. Goldschmidt then doubled in a run in the 5th to make it 3-2, and it was right about then I found out from a reputable source that Max Scherzer had a high grade oblique strain which will put him out 6-8 weeks. (And by “reputable source” I mean “guy on the Arancini Bros. line”, and by “high grade oblique strain” I mean “ah shit you gotta be kidding me.”) It wasn’t shaping up to be the greatest of days, especially since this was my third time on the rice ball line because finding Ragu flavored arancini at Citi Field is apparently like finding J.D. Salinger and Bigfoot cracking open a can of baby formula talking about why Tom Seaver wasn’t held back for Game 7 in ’73.

The Mets rallied in the 5th on a leadoff double by Luis Guillorme, and he would come around to score on a Brandon Nimmo grounder to first as Pujols couldn’t get the ball back to Molina in time. Then after a Mark Canha single, the Cardinals brought in Nick Wittgren who gave up a single to Francisco Lindor, then walked Pete Alonso while almost hitting him in the head. (Can we stop that, please?) Jeff McNeil then gave the Mets a 5-3 lead with a double to center that Harrison Bader almost made a great diving play on, but it squirted free and two runs scored.

The Cardinals crawled back in the 7th. Bassitt gave up a walk and a single to set up Paul Goldschmidt to do more damage with runners on first and third with one out (maybe the Mets should give him the four finger Kyle Schwarber treatment starting next season). Drew Smith then came on to try to somehow get Goldschmidt out. The short story is that Smith got Goldschmidt to fly into a double play to end the inning. The long story is that Jeff McNeil had to make a great leaping catch in left field, and then alertly threw to second base to get the trail runner Brendan Donovan instead of Tommy Edman at home. Edman scored easily while Donovan was tagged out as he popped off the bag. The Cardinals cut the lead to 5-4, but McNeil made a heads up play.

So we get to the ninth and here comes the trumpets. Edwin Diaz came in for the bottom of the order, and hopefully that was it. But he had one of the hardest luck innings he’ll ever have. Harrison Bader reached on an infield single. After Bader stole second, Diaz then got Molina on a groundout which advanced Bader to third, and then struck out Edman for the second out. It was then that Diaz made his one mistake of the inning by walking Donovan to give Goldschmidt another chance to kill us. Diaz got the ground ball he wanted, but Eduardo Escobar booted the tough chance to score Bader (it was ruled an infield single, but it looked like the second time in the past week that Escobar booted a tough chance to either preserve a tie or end a game), and tie the game 5-5. But Diaz, after walking Nolan Arenado, got it together long enough to strike out Yepez and keep the Mets in the game.

After the Mets went down meekly in the 9th, Colin Holderman came in and did as well as he could have done. He gave up a single to Dylan Carlson to send ghost runner Corey Dickerson to third. (The presence of this ghost runner begs the question: When the hell did Corey Dickerson become a Cardinal?) But Holderman got Albert Pujols to ground into a double play in maybe his final New York at-bat, and he got Bader to pop up to end the inning, only having given up the ghost. So it was the Mets turn to rally down 6-5. Many of the Mets’ rallies this season have been carefully crafted by situational hitting, hard contact, and long at-bats. While this is always welcome, sometimes you just need someone to hit a ball to North Carolina to end the damn game.

The Cardinals Call of the Pete Alonso walk off 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/KWeknkNCO1

— Danny (@TatisMVPszn) May 19, 2022

I think the Cardinals announcers were at LaGuardia before Pete crossed the plate.

With this win combined with the Phillies 2-0 loss at home against the Padres, the Mets are now seven games clear of the field in the N.L. East. But the storms are brewing. With Max going to be out until most likely the All Star break, the Mets will have to roll with Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker, David Peterson, and if things get much worse, the ghost of Warren Spahn. The good news is that they’ve all been pitching well (even Spahn’s ghost has a 1.27 WHIP this season). The bad news is that their schedule in June is a bear. Starting on June 2md, they have a west coast trip that puts them in Los Angeles, Anaheim, and San Diego to face the Dodgers, L.A. Angels, and Padres. Then they get three at home against the Brewers at home. The rest of the month features seven against the Marlins, but with four games against the Astros sprinkled in.

If they can get through that and still have some of that seven game lead, then it’s the Rangers, Reds, four more against the Marlins, and then a road trip in Atlanta and Chicago (Cubs) before the All Star break, by which point hopefully Max and maybe even deGrom will return, and we can also hope for a return from Tylor MeGill well before that. This is why the people that constantly remind us on social media that “it’s a long season” actually know what the hell they’re talking about.

Today’s Hate List

1. Nick Wittgren
2. Harrison Bader
3. Nolan Arenado
4. Brendan Donovan
5. Brandon Donovan (as I’m almost sure I called Brendan that in the past three days)