Mets Come Down from Rocky Mountain High in Nightcap Loss
Bats go silent, Barnes finds trouble in relief
Let’s get this out of the way off the bat.
The Mets going to Jacob Barnes down 3-2 in the fifth after not using any of their middle relievers in the first game of the doubleheader Saturday was a questionable call, at best.
Mets manager Luis Rojas had his full relief corps at his disposal, yet chose to pull Barnes’ number. An odd choice that becomes even more glaring considering the team hadn’t played since Wednesday.
“We still like him in a situation like that,” Rojas said after the game. “We trust [Barnes]. That’s why he came in in that situation.”
Onward…
The Mets didn’t show much life in the second game of the twin bill on Saturday in any case. In fact, there weren’t a whole lot of positives to take away from the 7-2 loss at all.
Rockies’ right-hander German Marquez was terrific, allowing two hits and two runs over seven innings, striking out six, and issuing two bases-on-balls.
There’s no telling if the Mets would have ever cracked that code, even with nine innings to work with, which Marquez (87 pitches) arguably could have flirted with at the pace he was chugging along.
Mets starter Joey Lucchesi had a tough first inning (three runs) but settled in nicely, putting up scoreless frames in the second and third.
The left-hander relied mainly on his churve and sinker, racking up a whopping 10 swings-and-misses on the former and five called strikes on his two-seamer.
In a perfect world, Lucchesi’s arsenal complements itself wonderfully. His sinker and cutter (thrown intermittently) replicate each other’s spin axis and mirror the spin of his churve.
Generally, Lucchesi’s sinker and cutter end up on opposite sides of the plate, and the churve — which the southpaw was able to command impressively on Saturday — swoops in across the plate (cutting in toward righties).
Multi-faceted deception at its finest.
The only caveat being that everything has to be working *just right* for Lucchesi to make that motor run. Limiting the downtime and regaining lost form in short order will allow Lucchesi to continue progressing.
As evidenced by him capturing his footing after an uneven start on Saturday night, the potential to succeed is clearly there.
As for the Mets’ offense, their oomph faded as quick as dusk set in.
Playing a total of two games since their suspended game versus Miami last Sunday has undoubtedly left the Mets’ offense climbing uphill in an attempt to find their collective and respective grooves.
That’ll happen.
Add in the cool Colorado weather (36 degrees, Real Feel, by the late innings of the nightcap, per Gary Cohen on the SNY broadcast) to base ball interruptus and that’s a bonafide hurdle to clear.
It’s all about bouncing back. In the first game on Saturday and even going back to Wednesday at Citi Field versus the Phillies, the Mets were abandoning their early woes at the plate for the level of production this roster was built for.
Despite the scheduling hiccups, the Mets won four in a row this week, got themselves back on track, and now head into Sunday looking to leave Denver on a high note.
LFGM.
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