Image credit: Chris Simon
Despite heading into the ninth inning on Saturday needing more runs than they’d scored in three games and just three outs to pull off a miracle win, the Mets’ vital signs stabilized and they actually opened their eyes for a second.
Back-to-back-to-back solo home runs from Michael Conforto, Jonathan Villar, and James McCann brought the Mets within two runs with none out, and things were looking up for the first time in a week.
Until there were men on base, of course. Then right back to snooze-town. Ian Kennedy struck out Pete Alonso and J.D. Davis on seven consecutive four-seamers with the tying runs on base and that was that.
With their 5-3 loss, New York wakes up on Sunday a game-and-a-half back of the Phils in the National League East, a half-game ahead of Atlanta, and six games back of the second wild card in the NL, currently held by San Diego.
Oh, and Zack Wheeler takes the mound for the Phillies today. It’s not what you want, friends.
You have to imagine Wheeler (2.57 ERA, 2.02 walks per nine, and leading the majors in fWAR among starters) is very much looking forward to the opportunity he’s being afforded on Sunday.
Huge Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man vibes except the previous management regime chose the form their destroyer would take. Guess he was more than just a couple of good half-seasons, huh Brodie? Schmuck. Oops. Did I type that out loud?
Onward. Actually, let’s throw it in reverse for a second.
Luis Rojas and his decision-makers chose to go with a matchup-driven lineup against Philadelphia left-hander Ranger Suarez on Saturday, noting the reliever-turned-starter’s backward righty-lefty splits (.789 OPS vs. RHB, .499 OPS vs. LHB).
Dominic Smith is hitting .327/.381/.446 against lefties this season but he was on the bench. Rojas said Jeff McNeil’s been “pulling off” against lefties recently, so he was out, too.
McNeil’s hitting .337/.406/.516 over his last 106 plate appearances. Smith came into the day with a nine-game hit streak intact (.343 average with five strikeouts in 38 PA; busted with his seventh-inning pinch-hit fly out).
Kevin Pillar, in the starting lineup for Smith in left field, has been mired in an awful funk at the plate, hitting just .183/.197/.233 since July 1 (61 PA).
In a game with as much riding on it as Saturday’s soiree did, the Mets arguably needed to have their A-Team out there (cue the theme music).
You have to wonder how much the data actually helped the Mets yesterday. Saturday’s 4-D Chess lineup mustered just two hits through the eighth.
A team has to shake things up sometimes. We get that. But in the biggest game of the year? Beyond the pale, in our humble opinion.
As this freefall continues, even with the prospect of 50-odd games left to right the ship, the Mets are running out of time to regain the steam necessary for such a dramatic turnaround.
“There has to be a sense of urgency,” McCann told reporters after the game. “You can’t keep saying, ‘We’ll get ‘em tomorrow, we’ll get ‘em tomorrow, we’ll get ‘em tomorrow,’ because next thing you know, you’ll look up and it’ll be the middle of September and it’ll be too late.”
“But there’s a difference between a sense of urgency and panic,” he said. “We can’t get caught up in the negativity. We gotta stay within ourselves and don’t listen to the outside noise.”
Couldn’t have said it better ourselves. LFGM.
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