Image credit: Chris Simon
The New York Mets beat the Marlins in South Florida on Tuesday, 9-4, striking back in the latter portion of the game after allowing two early leads to evaporate, and keeping the gap in the NL East at a manageable four games (3.5 GB in the NL Wild Card) with 23 left on the schedule.
But first things first…
Mets team president Sandy Alderson confirmed to the team’s media corps before Tuesday’s game that a slight tear in Jacob deGrom’s ulnar collateral ligament was, in fact, the source of the affliction that’s kept him sidelined since mid-July. The news was disconcerting, to say the least.
The injury was characterized by Alderson as a strain, which is technically accurate to describe a slight tear, though is a very used-car salesman-ish angle considering that we were informed by team personnel on multiple occasions that deGrom’s elbow was structurally sound, his MRIs were clean, and that elbow inflammation was the main culprit behind his absence.
Apparently, that was not the case. Alderson noted that the injury has since “resolved itself”, which presumably was the green light behind deGrom’s resumed throwing progression. But still, what a shocker.
It’s somewhat understandable for the organization to keep things under wraps if the end-game of the injury isn’t surgery — which, in this scenario, seemed to be the case — but at what point was that determination made?
And why force-feed the media and fans a blatantly fabricated story when it involves the face of your franchise and arguably one of the greatest pitchers to ever play the game?
We don’t know how this thing played out or the nature of the discussions that were had leading up to Jake’s secret diagnosis and subsequent cover-up, of course. Something just doesn’t smell right.
To be honest, it sorta feels like a page was torn directly from the Wilpon playbook and put into action. Let’s just hope deGrom comes back stronger than ever, whenever that may be.
Pete Alonso, in all his meaty glory, became the second-fastest player to reach the 100-homer milestone in MLB history on Tuesday (Ryan Howard, 325 games), cracking two monstrous shots, a two-run rocket in the first and a solo blast in the ninth.
Since making his major league debut in 2019 (service time, shmervice time), Alonso’s 101 home runs lead the majors (Eugenio Suarez, 89 HR, second), his .547 slugging percentage ranks fifth, and his 136 wRC+ is good for 11th.
If all goes to plan with respect to the Florida product’s exciting trajectory, the Mets could very well have a longball all-timer developing in Flushing. Naturally, Pete’s just happy to be here.
“I’m just really blessed to have this opportunity and to be able to perform at an extremely high level,” Alonso said after the game. “Just having triple digits in my career in such a short time with two-and-a-half years, roughly, it’s really, really special.”
Yes, indeed it is. Hall of Famer and longtime Mets broadcaster Ralph Kiner held the title of fastest to 100 homers (376 games) for 59 years before Howard smashed his record (Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge have surpassed it since).
This nugget of information was not lost on Alonso, who remarked, “those are some heavyweight hitters on that list”. Accurate. And overwhelmingly exciting.
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