Cryin' Phils Are At It Again...
Jose Alvarado and Rhys Hoskins may have woken a sleeping giant
Something’s gotta give. Maybe Friday’s excitement will open those floodgates.
Like clockwork, the Mets’ bats fell flat again in their 2-1 loss to the Phillies on Friday night. Not the ideal way to kick off a three-game divisional set.
Marcus Stroman breezed through five innings of work on just 64 pitches before leaving the game with what was later diagnosed as a tight right hamstring. The 30-year-old right-hander expects to make his next start, but that’s a blow to an already depleted rotation.
Per Mets skipper Luis Rojas, Carlos Carrasco could be re-joining the team within the next few weeks after throwing five innings versus live batters in Port St. Lucie this weekend. Let’s hope one situation doesn’t bleed into the other.
The Mets’ bullpen once again performed terrifically, allowing no hits and no runs over three frames. Its truly been a joy to see this group come together.
Heading into Saturday, the relief corps’ 3.63 ERA ranks ninth in MLB, their 1.5 wins above replacement are third in baseball, and their 11.53 strikeouts per nine and 2.62 FIP are both currently unrivaled.
Jeurys Familia worked around two walks and an error in an uneasy seventh but got the job done nonetheless, keeping the proceedings close and dropping his ERA to a pleasantly unexpected 1.35 on the year.
That’s right around when the fireworks began. To clarify, these were the only fireworks for the Mets offense on Friday.
Down 2-1 in the top of the eighth, Jeff McNeil was hit by a pitch via Philadephia left-hander Jose Alvarado, who, you remember, hit Michael Conforto with a pitch earlier this season, drawing the ire of New York’s bench.
McNeil advanced to second on Pete Alonso’s sacrifice fly and the Mets appeared to be heading toward another half-inning leaving ducks on the pond (another 10 LOB on Friday; pitiful).
Alvarado issued J.D. Davis a two-out free pass to put the force in play at third but his wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position for Dominic Smith, one of the more vociferous voices of displeasure during these two teams’ last dustup.
Smith was attacked with a steady diet of heavy-break sinkers (12-19 inches if vertical drop through the at-bat; woof), eventually striking out swinging at two-seam low in the zone.
Walking back to the dugout, Smith’s attention was drawn back toward the field of play. And off we went.
Alvarado won the battle, finishing the inning with the lead intact. There’s no reason for the taunting show of emotion, even from a competitive fire standpoint. It’s immature. Plain and simple.
Rhys Hoskins’ whining in the ninth after two of Miguel Castro’s pitches came inside on him was just as childish. Again, your team is ahead. You weren’t hit by a pitch. Take your walk to first and zip it up.
After the game, Smith spoke candidly.
This Mets offense has been struggling. And that’s saying it nicely. Playing instigator, as Alvarado did, only has two possible outcomes.
Either the Mets will fold, or they’re gonna wake up. Considering that the entire team is slumping, one would assume that once the bats heat up, the dynamic of this group could change considerably.
If the offense can match the outstanding levels of production that the pitching staff has been contributing, this team is cooking with gas.
That said, the general lifelessness of this group over the first month of the season has been overwhelmingly concerning. Many have already begun calling for hitting coach Chili Davis’ job. Can’t say we disagree here.
Before the organization makes any decisions on that front, letting the adrenaline of last night’s incident run its course through this roster could be prudent.
All it takes is a spark to start a fire. The Phillies may have presented the Mets with that spark on a silver platter on Friday. We shall see.
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Was unable to watch Friday and most of Saturday, can't believe how much I missed - appreciate your strong recaps, Tim!