TL;DR
It took nearly five hours, but the Mets lost 2-1 to the White Sox in 13 innings. There are two sides to baseball, run prevention and run scoring. When you only do one, sometimes you lose. That’s it. We’re breaking new ground here at Baseball Prospectus – Mets!
The Big Finish
This one wasn’t much for run scoring. In the top of the 13th, a shaky Logan Verrett gave up a leadoff double to White Sox pitcher Matt Albers. Yes, this was the 38th plate appearance of Albie’s career, but it was also his first since 2009. Albers had two hits previously, none for extra bases, and is also a relief pitcher who has no business at the dish. Verrett promptly sent him over to third after a wild pitch, after which Jose Abreu sacrificed him in to break the 1-1 tie. After 10 innings of offensive futility, the Mets couldn’t put anything together against Albers in the bottom half of the inning, and took the loss.
Of course this meant that Albers would finish the game, but not pick up a save. This is far more important than one Mets loss.
Remember When We Used To Hit A Bunch of Homers?
With Miguel Gonzalez on the hill, this was supposed to be one of those games where the Met offense was supposed to recover from its recent doldrums. Gonzalez wasn’t exactly sharp, walking five and striking out four over five innings, but the Mets offense wasn’t able to do much of anything without David Wright and Yoenis Cespedes in the lineup. The Mets started the scoring when Rene Rivera plated new(est) Met James Loney with a single in the second, but that was it. The team couldn’t muster an extra-base hit all game, which means that throughout this entire three-game tilt with Chicago, the only XBHs the Mets had were two Neil Walker dingers and a Wilmer Flores double. That’s a rough 30+ innings.
The team was able to get runners on base, however. The team had 13 walks over the 13 innings, and Neil Walker continued to spit hot fire at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two walks. Of course, there were also five instances of grounding into a double play, the worst of which was Ty Kelly’s second GIDP of the game. That one came in the eighth, with two runners on, and effectively ended any hope of ending this one before the game snuck into extra innings. Kelly went 0-for-5 with a walk, so yeah, he’s not exactly Wally Pipp-ing David Wright here. For the game, the Mets left 14 men on base. Ick.
Enjoy That 24-man Roster!
If I can interject a little here, I think we may be at the point where the Captain needs to take a turn on the DL so this team can pull up another guy to the 25-man, I know that Terry Collins and this front office like to play fat and loose with the bench–there were plenty of times over the past couple years where they resisted the urge to put a player on the DL and instead ran with a short bench. But given how bad the offense and bullpen have looked recently, this is a team that needs all the help it can get from depth roles.
(Of course that probably means just calling Eric Campbell back up, so whatever I guess.)
Don’t Blame Jacob (or the Bullpen)
Jacob deGrom posted a stat line that would’ve looked right at home in his 2015 season game log. The long-haired righty absolutely shoved until losing it a bit in the seventh, when Todd Frazier hit a powerful homer to tie the game up. But his box score line was just about pristine: seven innings, five hits, two walks, one earned run, and 10 strikeouts. That will play in just about any situation. According to Brooks Baseball, his velo was up just a tick from his last start, and well above the blip that was May 15 against the Rockies. That’s a very nice sign going forward.
In addition, the bullpen acquitted itself very nicely overall, which is particularly important given the team’s recent meltdowns. Both Hansel Robles and Jeurys Familia pitched in this one without melting down, though Robles only faced one batter and neither pitcher recorded a strikeout. Baby steps, right? Addison Reed looked very sharp again, pumping fastballs and getting one strikeout while allowing a walk.
A Complete List of Mets Who Did Not Play In Yesterday’s Game
- Noah Syndergaard
- Matt Harvey
- Steven Matz
- Bartolo Colon
- Jerry Blevins
- David Wright
- Ed Kranepool
That’s it. The first four guys are starting pitchers, Wright is injured, and Blevins has been a cipher, facing just one batter since May 28th.
The Future Is Unwritten
The Mets have an off day today, as they prep for a three-game series in Miami against the Marlins starting Friday. After losing the past two series against the Dodgers and the White Sox, a series win against the Fish would be a nice pick-me-up and keep things from devolving into Panic City mode. Jose Fernandez vs. Matt Harvey could be a tough one, but the team should just need a few runs against Tom Koehler and Justin Nicolino.
With a Ty Kelly-Wilmer Flores-James Loney combo at the infield corners, that may be easier said than done.
Photo Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports